Can you imagine doing something a certain way for years, only to realize later that it was completely wrong and incorrect? Wouldn’t you have wanted someone to tell you and show you the correct way?
Let’s just suppose for a moment that you spent the first half of your life believing that it was ok to go and steal anything that you wanted, until one day you got caught by the authorities and received a prison sentence. You didn’t know it at the time, but you were doing something illegal. Wouldn’t you have wanted to have been taught the correct way years earlier, so that you could have been spared that punishment?
In our current world, discipline has become somewhat of an unheard of practice. Not too long ago it was a common practice and method of punishment to “cane” a child for misbehavior in a schoolroom. The “cane” would often be made of a lighter wood stick of various tree species, and would be “applied” to a child’s backside. This type of punishment would naturally bring immediate pain and discomfort, but could also leave a welt that would provide additional discomfort for a few days.
In many older books and novels, we sometimes will read about a child being taken “out to the woodshed” to receive a few belt lashes for something wrong that they had done. And while the world that we live in today will often frown upon this kind of discipline, it was a very effective method of “chastisement,” which is the main word in our verse passage here today.
Hebrews 12:5-11 “And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”
Why do we have so many people in our prisons today? Maybe because they didn’t receive any punishment as a child. Maybe they didn’t receive the needed corrections as a child when they should have received them, so years later the government is left with that task. This disciplinary action is done in order to bring a change to an individual’s life.
Correction is a part of life, and it is an important part in the life of a Christian as well. When we sin, we need to be made aware that what we have done is wrong, and that it is not the way of Christ. In fact, the apostle Paul wrote that this is why the Law had been created. It was created to show people their sins, and their need to change.
Romans 7:7-9 “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.
For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.”
It was the Law that brought down punishments onto people in order for them to recognize their faults. And in the New Testament as well, we have the great commandment from Christ to love one another. This should be an obvious conclusion for everyone, but sadly many people ignore this direct command of the Lord. It is these people who need to hear the words of John the Baptist,
Luke 3:8-9 “Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.”
Hell is no myth, as some would like to believe, but it is a very real place. It is a place reserved for those who do not heed the chastening of the Lord, but instead rebel against it. Once again, it is through chastisement that we learn and understand right from wrong. Of course it isn’t pleasant to be punished or corrected, but it is needed to avoid a further, more damnable consequence.
So I write to you: if you sin, hear the commands of the Lord, and listen to it. Jesus loves you, and He wants you to be with Him in Heaven. Receive the instruction of the Lord, apply it completely to your life, and spare yourself from the fires of hell.
In Christ,
Andrew
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 