Chastening But Loving

Chastening But Loving

 

“For the Lord disciplines those he loves,

and he punishes those he accepts as his children" (Hebrews 12:6 NLT).

 

We think of punishment as retribution or vengeance. But God’s idea of punishment is the parental idea of chastening. To chasten means, according to Webster, “to inflict pain upon anyone in order to purify from errors or faults.” God’s chastening, therefore, is for purifying, not vengeance. “Whom he loves he chastens” (Heb. 12:6, para.), not whom He hates, or whom He is angry with. The purpose of our chastisement, therefore, is plainly that we may be made “partakers of his holiness” (v. 10). In other words, it is for character building, which is to us the most important thing in the whole universe. What happens to me is of no account compared to what I am. If I will only pay attention to what God is trying to teach me through chastisement, I will see that no present ease, comfort, or absence of trial is to be weighed for a moment against the building up of character for eternity.

 

Anything that is to do such a wonderful thing for us as to work out a “far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor. 4:17) cannot be counted otherwise than as a blessing. All affliction would be so counted, I am very sure, if we had but eyes to see its outcome. The marble may quiver and shrink from the heavy blows of the mallet, but there can be nothing but joy and rejoicing over the beautiful statue that is wrought thereby.