Jim Townsend is a Bible scholar and a 1964 alumnus of Emmaus Bible College.
Introduction
When I was growing up, I came under the spell of a cowboy comic book character who was also a star in B-Western movies. His name was Lash LaRue. As you might gather from his stage name, Lash LaRue carried a big whip—in fact, an eighteen-foot-long bullwhip. Due to his expertise with his lightning-like whip, Lash could snap a villain’s gun right out of his gun hand as he drew to fire it.
Although I was not allowed to own a bullwhip, I did pretend a good deal that the regular rope I was slinging around was just such a whip. Once, however, I made the mistake of slinging it too closely in my grandmother’s direction, hitting target. That error resulted in the only time that my (widower) father ever spanked me. Now just in case a reader may presume that I must have been inadequately disciplined as a child, I quickly remonstrate that I am from the volunteer state of Tennessee, and my aunt and grandmother duly volunteered for the role as disciplinarians.
This article will zero in upon the concept of a Christian’s chastening. However, some individuals who have suffered either sexual, physical, verbal, or emotional abuse from parent figures recoil at any notion of chastening. The word itself carries a negative nuance for them. Nevertheless, there is a broad strand of Scripture that describes God as a divine disciplinarian (in a healthy sense). Indeed, the very words disciple and discipline are intertwined terms.
Perhaps the classic text in the whole sweep of Scripture is Hebrews 12:4–13. The principal idea running through this section is that although divine discipline may prove painful for the present, it can prove profitable in the long run.
Divine Discipline Is Related to Our Struggles, verse 4
You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. [1]
Possibly at verse 4 the writer of Hebrews moves from the analogy of athletics (in 12:1–4) to the figure of the family (in 12:5–11). However, running a race (12:1–3) and raising a family (12:4–11) both require discipline.
“You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.” In the Greek text of 12:4 both the words resisted and striving are alliterated with an “a,” and each is found only at this point in the New Testament. The Greek words are ἀντικατέστητε, antikatestēte [pronounced ahn-tee-kah-TESS-tay-teh] and ἀνταγωνιζόμενοι, antagōnizomenoi [ahn-tah-goh-nidz-Oh-meh-noy]. Both begin with a form of anti-Christians live on an “anti”-planet. We speak of clothing which is “water-resistant,” yet much of our culture is Christian-resistant or anti-Christian. Nevertheless, former Los Angeles Laker basketball coach Pat Riley noted, “Adversity causes some…to break [and] others to break records.”
Psychologist Scott Peck began one of his best-selling books with the observation that life is a struggle. The apostle Paul, speaking autobiographically and not sounding much like some “victory-life” CRUSADING Christians, declared: “I want you to know how much I am struggling” (Colossians 2:1, NIV). The great evangelical educator Frank Gaebelein told of a school headmaster who was approached by a woman who asked him what curriculum of studies he recommended. The reply was, “Any program of worthwhile studies, so long as all of it is hard and some of it is unpleasant.”
Verse 4’s house address is right next door to verse 3 where we read that Christ endured hostility from sinners. Christ struggled; Christians struggle. Hardships for ourselves or hostility from others is no automatic indicator that we are spiritually subnormal or not “Spirit-filled.” The author told his audience in Hebrews 10:32, “You endured a great struggle with sufferings.” Our struggles are the sandpaper God uses to smooth off our rough edges. To alter the analogy slightly, by means of our problems God is planing away splinters that are defects in our spirituality.
Life throws hardships at all alike—Christian and non-Christian (Matt. 5:45). Charles Dickens authored a book entitled Hard Times, and one can see that very theme reflected in the biographies of literary figures. Alexander Pope wrestled with physical deformity. Robert Louis Stevenson fought lifelong with lung problems. The three Bronte sisters all died before age forty. Dostoevsky spent years in a Siberian prison camp. Elizabeth Barrett Browning was an invalid. The poet Longfellow lost his wife in a fire. W. E. Henley (who penned “Invictus”) had his leg amputated. We may have income tax exemptions, but we will not have absolute exemptions from the taxing struggles of life. Therefore, the author of Hebrews breeds an awareness in us in 12:4 that divine discipline is related to our struggles.
Divine Discipline Reveals Our Sonship, vv. 5-11
None of God’s spiritual sons and divinely-designated daughters are exempt from the school of hard knocks. This is so because:
Old Testament exposition says so (Heb. 12:5–6)
and
Our overall experience says so (Heb. 12:7–11).The New England poet Emily Dickinson liked to say, “Now there’s a word to tip your hat to.” Even so, there are six rare Greek words in Hebrews 12:4–13 worthy of tipping your hat to, for each of them is found only here in the New Testament. In addition to the two alliterated words we’ve already mentioned in verse 4, they are: “forgotten” (v. 5), “despise” (v. 5), “illegitimate” (v. 8) and “paths” (v. 13).
The Old Testament Scripture, vv. 5–6
And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.”
From the quarry of the Old Testament the writer of Hebrews takes his crane to hoist out two verses almost word-for-word from Proverbs 3:11–12. Simon Kistemaker observed that New Testament authors “quote from and allude to [chapter 3] of [Proverbs] more than any other chapter” in Proverbs. [2] By this Hebraic word of wisdom we are advised not to despise or depreciate divine discipline, for it stamps us as sons (or designates us as daughters) in the household. The verb for “despise” (v. 5) is more literally to treat as “little” (the Greek ὀλιγώρει, oligōrei [oh-lih-GO-ray] is from the adjective ὀλίγος, oligos [oh-LIH-gohs], meaning “little”).
Charles Ryrie said, “The couple who first cuddles a baby and then corrects that baby who, for instance, reaches out to touch a hot stove, is expressing two aspects of parental love.” [3] Interestingly, two researchers (Hane Norman and Myron Harris) arrived at the same conclusion as the biblical text of Hebrews 12:6. A three-year study of 160,000 American teenagers connected love with a willingness of parents to discipline children. For example, one fourteen-year-old girl thought her mother expressed a lack of love by not grounding her for discipline purposes as her friends were grounded by their parents.
Our Overall Experience, vv. 7–11
If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Hebrews 12:7 is a rhetorical or self-answering question: “What son is there whom a father does not chasten?” The obvious answer is: none. Novelist Edith Wharton referred to polishing her writing into final form as “spanking it into shape.” The Frank Laubach paraphrase of 12:7 captures the heart of this section: “Your sufferings are God’s discipline.”
The line of logic in 12:8 is encapsulated by the commentator R. C. H. Lenski as:
- Major premise: All legitimate children are chastened;
- Minor premise: you’re not chastened;
- Conclusion: You’re not legitimate children. [4]
The former president to Grace Seminary, Alva McClain, once told a story illustrative of this material in Hebrews 12. He and his boyhood friend had been playing together, and they had trampled McClain’s father’s prize-winning grain crop underfoot. When they were caught, Frank’s father announced, “I’ll tend to Frank’s discipline, and your father will attend to you.” We’ve probably all felt like turning disciplinarian with someone else’s squalling, spoiled brat of a child in a department store or supermarket, but discipline is a family thing, and according to the author of Hebrews, non-discipline is an indicator of illegitimacy (v. 8).
The writer argues in verse 9 by analogy from the lesser to the greater—from human fathers vertically upward to the heavenly Father. Our biological or natural parents were our correctors. Incidentally, some form of the same Greek word for “chastening,” such as “corrected” (v. 9), is found eight times in every verse from Hebrews 12:5–11. A “child” (παῖς, pais) needs παιδεία, paideia [pie-DAY-uh] (or child-correction) by a παιδευτής, paideutēs [pie-doo-TAHSS] (or child-corrector, v. 9). If we receive correction from our natural parent, shouldn’t we expect correction from our supernatural Parent?
The Greek verb in verse 10 may be rendered “they used to discipline us.” This oh-so-human discipline was according to their whims or what seemed best to our parental correctors (before the days of Dr. Spock!). They did the best they could in the brief time they had, but we all had flawed fathers and mothers who made mistakes (and, sadly, in abusive cases some children-now-grown may still not have recovered from tragic treatment).
Verse 10 also provides both the extent and intent of that training. The extent is “for a few days” in the days of our lives, and the intent (in God’s case) is “for our profit.” Travel writer Bill Bryson noted that depending upon which ingredients you mix with sand, you can come out with either impenetrable concrete or beautiful, transparent glass! So also, our reaction determines our “profit” or loss. Depending upon our response to divine discipline, we can get bitter or better.
Verse 11 partially encompasses the theme of this article, namely, that divine discipline may be painful for the present, but it produces profit over the long haul. The Living Bible paraphrases verse 11: “Being punished isn’t enjoyable while it’s happening—it hurts!” Interestingly, Hebrews 11:25 informs us that sin may be temporarily pleasurable for a short time, while Hebrews 12:11 tells us that divine discipline will be temporarily painful for a short time.
The New Testament authors are unanimous at this juncture:
- John (15:2) says believer-branches will be pruned;
- James (1:2) says trials are scheduled;
- Peter (1 Pet. 1:7) says our gold will be tested;
- Paul (2 Cor. 4:17) speaks of our “light affliction.”
Webb Garrison wrote wisely:
Any context in which you can be thoroughly comfortable is likely to prove deadening. A seed wrapped in sterilized cotton and sheltered in a vault may lie there a long time, but it will not sprout. Another seed, tossed where it will be chilled by winter before being warmed and wet by spring rains will be awakened and will yield fruit. [5]Around 500 bc the Greek writer Heroclitus stated, “The mixture which is not shaken [up] decomposes.” The miniature world of these ancient Hebrew readers was coming unglued (see Heb. 10:32–34), yet painful though their portion was in the present, in the long run it proved to be for their profit.
Divine Discipline Is Intended to Rouse Us to Improve Spiritual Stamina, vv. 12-13
Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.
First, divine discipline (or God’s corrective chastening) is related to our struggles (verse 4). Secondly, divine discipline reveals our spiritual sonship (verses 5–11). Thirdly, divine discipline is intended to rouse us to spiritual stamina (verses 12 and 13).
The language of verses 12 and 13 may be a throwback to the athletic analogy of 12:1–3. After all, who more than those running a race (verse 1) need to be concerned about their “knees” and “feet” (vv. 12–13). Billy Sunday once prayed in his fiery evangelistic style: “Lord, save us from off-handed, flabby-cheeked, brittle-boned, weak-kneed, thin-skinned…spineless…, ossified, three-carat Christianity.” [6] It is such a “brittle-boned, weak-kneed” condition that is the concern of the author of Hebrews.
The author’s imagery is quarried from the Greek (or Septuagint) version of the Old Testament in Isaiah 35:3 and Proverbs 4:26. Several of the author’s Greek terms have made their way into modern medical terminology. We derive “orthopedics” and “orthodontist” from the root form of ἀνορθώσατε, (anorthōsate [ahn-ohr-THOH-sah-teh]) and “chiropractor” from χείρ, (cheir, “hands”) in verse 12. Flexed muscles and firm knees are needed by those who run the Christian race. No gimpy-kneed Joe Namaths need apply.
The pro football season in the year 2000 is an illustration on the physical plane of the point made by the author of Hebrews. New Orleans Saints 1000-yard rushing back Ricky Williams had a broken ankle. St. Louis Rams running back Marshall Faulk endured a knee injury. Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Fabre sprained his left knee. And San Diego Chargers quarterbacks topped the list with all three of them out during the season at one time or another (Jim Harbaugh with his right knee; Ryan Leaf with his hamstring, and Moses Moreno with a strained left knee). It was a litany of the lame. Chalk that season up as one for the gimper!
Conclusion
Hebrews 12:1–13, with its perspective of seeing our problems as part of God’s pedagogy, is part of the much larger scenery or framework of the book of Hebrews. The heart of Hebrews prods its problem-pocked readers to “go on” (6:1), not to “draw back” (10:38, KJV). It is a call to a Pilgrim’s Progress, not (as C. S. Lewis’s book title had it) to a Pilgrim’s Regress. It is problems and persecutions which have a propensity to paralyze us in our forward thrust. Therefore, the author—with generous sprinkling of Old Testament wisdom—would stimulate his readers to watch their bumpy “paths” (v. 13) and yet to keep their eyes on their racing Exemplar, Jesus, who finished His course (v. 2).
Back in 1966 I was very much smitten by a young woman with whom I had been co-attender at (then) Emmaus Bible School. It was our second round of dating, but this round was by means of long-distance correspondence because she was in Minnesota and I was a first-year student at Dallas Theological Seminary. Toward December of that year I could pretty well read the handwriting on the wall because her letters kept getting fewer and further between each other. Nevertheless, I had already planned to fly to Minnesota during the Christmas vacation because I felt that the relationship needed to be settled one way or another.
During this most unsettling period Professor Zane Hodges assigned Bible passages for each student to speak on in his General Epistles class. I was assigned James 1:1–12—the heart of which is the theme of trials. When I preached that sermon, little did I realize that I was about to experience the major trial of my young adult life. When I arrived in the Minnesota airport, there was no one there to meet me. (That’s always a bad sign!) Secondly, I quickly discovered that I’d left all my traveler’s checks back in Dallas. Thirdly, when her sister finally dropped me at my girlfriend’s house, she promptly announced that our relationship was all over! Needless to say, I felt somewhat like the original readers of the book of Hebrews—that life’s ceiling was caving in upon me. The problem was compounded by the fact that I was slated to stay for one week at my (now) ex-girlfriend’s house! In a wonderful way God extricated me (through a Christian friend) from that grueling predicament.
In retrospect I can see how God’s sandpaper was at work in my life, smoothing and (eventually) soothing. Later I was to meet my wife (of almost thirty years) whom I now realize is vastly more compatible with me than that girlfriend of long ago. Thank God for the “nevertheless afterward” of Hebrews 12:11.
Nevertheless, after that taxing experience of over thirty years ago, I came to be once again temporarily re-associated with my old seminary professor Zane Hodges by virtue of being asked to be a speaker at the 2001 Grace Evangelical Journal conference in Dallas. No sooner had I agreed to this speaking commitment than I found myself once again walking on the hot coals of trials, for my paid position was terminated as resident Bible specialist for the Christian publishing company I had been with for more than twenty years! (Do you wonder if I have not begun to wonder if Professor Hodges is God’s personalized sandpaper for my life?!?) As I write this article, I can hardly wait for the “nevertheless afterward” of Hebrews 12:11 to arrive on my doorstep.
During that painful period of long ago a song helped me which may help you too. It runs:
When you feel less important than the smallest star
And you dread the coming of the day,
Just remember: you’re not alone,
[For God is] with you. He knows the way.
When your life is a hallway with a hundred doors,
And you can’t decide which way to go.
Just remember: You’re not alone,
[For God is] with you, and He will know.
When your problems grow until they’re like a wall,
And there’s not a ladder you can climb,
Just remember: you’re not alone,
God has the answer; He has the time.
Notes
- Quotations of Scripture are from the New King James Version unless otherwise noted.
- Simon Kistemaker, The Book of Hebrews (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1984), 373.
- Charles C. Ryrie, A Survey of Bible Doctrine (Chicago: Moody Press, 1972), 20.
- R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Epistle of James (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1938), 435.
- Webb Garrison, Creative Imagination in Preaching (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1970), 200.
- Os Guinness, Fit Bodies, Fat Minds (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1994), 61.
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