Hebrews 12:4-11 - Homiletics

Chastisement.

In this passage the writer reminds the Hebrews that although doubtless they had sustained severe trials on account of their devotedness to Christ, none of them had yet been required to seal their faith with their blood ( Hebrews 12:4 ). Other children of God had suffered much more than they ( Hebrews 11:35-38 ), and had remained faithful. For them to apostatize would, therefore, be very heinous sin. Rather they must learn to view their afflictions as the corrections of God's fatherly love. Consider—

I. THE FACT OF CHASTISEMENT .

1. Our afflictions are really such. Sometimes, in forgetfulness of God, the believer may regard his sorrows simply as calamities—untoward events which have no particular spiritual meaning. At other times he may receive them merely as trials of his faith, or as sent to strengthen his Christian graces. But this passage reminds us that we greatly err if we do not find in our troubles the clement of chastisement. It is true that Jesus Christ has borne the essential penalty of his people's sins; but, though he has done so, he has not removed any lesser punishment which we may require in order to the correcting of our faults. God "forgives" us, but he "takes vengeance of our inventions" ( Psalms 99:8 ).

2. Chastisement is inevitable. The Lord "scourgeth every son" ( Hebrews 12:6 ). "All have been made partakers" of it—all the Old Testament saints, and all believers in Christian times. The unchastened man is a bastard.

3. Chastisement is various in kind and in degree. There are, e.g. , disease of body, distress of mind, the loss of property, injury of character, the profligacy of children, the faithlessness of friends, persecution for righteousness' sake.

4. Chastisement is severe. He "scourgeth" ( Hebrews 12:6 ). The Lord's rod draws blood. It checkers the believer's life with wales ( Isaiah 1:5 , Isaiah 1:6 ). The Christian "bears branded on his body the marks of Jesus" ( Galatians 6:16 ).

II. GOD 'S PURPOSE IN CHASTISEMENT . It is a gracious purpose. Divine penalties fall upon the believer as a necessary discipline. The love as well as the righteousness of God prompts to these retributions. Chastisement is sent:

1. To correct our faults. Possibly there are certain sins of ours in regard to which correction is needed, that we may be led to repent of them; and, when affliction overtakes us, we should endeavor to find out what these sins are. Or, perhaps, a life of ease and prosperity may have seduced us into spiritual carelessness, and favored the growth of pride within the soul, In such a case God sends chastisement to convince us of the vanity of the world, and to attract our thoughts towards the things which belong to our peace.

2. To form our spiritual character. Correction is sent as a means of assimilating our moral nature to that of God himself ( Hebrews 12:10 ). Sorrow accepted as Divine chastisement refines and sanctifies the soul. It stirs its tenderest emotions, and touches its richest chords. It draws the heart towards God himself, as its only Rest and Strength and Joy. The most beautiful human faces are not those which show merely the most regular features and the purest complexion; they are those saintly faces which have been beautified by chastisement—"made perfect through sufferings."

3. To promote our eternal well being. The ultimate purpose is that we may "live" ( Hebrews 12:9 ), spiritually and eternally. To become "partakers of God's holiness" is to be educated for spending eternity with God. Each believer must pass through, a curriculum of chastisement before he can graduate to glory.

"'Tis sorrow builds the shining ladder up,

Whose golden rounds are our calamities,

Whereon our firm feet planting, nearer God

The spirit climbs, and hath its eyes unsealed."

(Lowell)

III. OUR DUTY IN RELATION TO CHASTISEMENT . This the apostle gently censures his readers for having overlooked, as it is exhibited in the Old Testament Scriptures. He quotes Proverbs 3:11 , Proverbs 3:12 , and adds a few sentences of beautiful and suggestive commentary. The quotation ( Proverbs 3:5 , Proverbs 3:6 ) exhibits the duty negatively, and the comment ( Proverbs 3:7-11 ) positively.

1. Negatively .

2. Positively .

IV. OUR CONSOLATION UNDER CHASTISEMENT . This passage suggests many comforting thoughts, which should help us submissively to bear it. It is:

1. Appointed by God. ( Proverbs 3:5 ) Afflictions do not come casually. They do not overtake us merely at the pleasure of our enemies, He who chasteneth is "the Lord," the Sovereign of all. Let us, with Job ( Job 1:21 ) and Eli ( 1 Samuel 3:18 ), realize this: to do so will strengthen our hearts.

2. Sent in fatherly love. This thought runs through the passage like a golden thread (verses 5-10). God is "the Father of our spirits;" and he cherishes towards us the heart of a Father. His corrections are a token of his loving-kindness. He loves not to smite; but he smites because he loves. He uses the rod only because necessity requires it. And if a dutiful child submits patiently to the chastisements of his earthly parents, although he has derived only his body from them, how much more submissively should we bear the Divine corrections, seeing they proceed from him from whom alone we have received our spiritual and immortal nature!

3. Dealt with unerring wisdom. (Verse 10) We who are parents often chastise our children wrongly. Sometimes our motives are wrong, as when we punish under the influence of temporary passion or caprice. At other times our measures are wrong, as when we choose an infliction of an unsuitable kind, or make it unduly severe. Parents also are prone to study only the temporal well being of their children, and to chastise them merely with a view to the "few days" of their earthly life. But our heavenly Father makes no mistakes in his chastisements. The pain which he appoints is always wise and right and salutary. He never punishes beyond our deserts, or in excess of what we are able to hear. And he is ever seeking our spiritual and eternal well being.

4. Productive and profitable. (Verses 10, 11) The "profit" is that we may share the holiness of God. The "fruit" consists in "righteousness," i.e. moral and spiritual excellence—the beautiful graces and the holy habits of the Christian life. This blessed fruit is "peaceable," in sweet contrast with the "grievousness" of the affliction considered in itself. It begins to be reaped even here on earth (Romans v, 3-5); and the full harvest of it will be gathered in heaven ( Romans 8:18 ; 2 Corinthians 4:17 , 2 Corinthians 4:18 ).