It is remarkable how easy it becomes to understand a difficult passage if we just look at the precise words found in that verse. Far too often we read a verse and assume we know the meaning of every word, when we do not fully understand how God uses that word elsewhere in the Bible. For example, hear these words from God. “For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son He receives” (Heb. 12:6). We sometimes are troubled when we focus on the “scourging” of the Lord and overlook the actual meaning of the word chastens.
To see this consider this question. When did the Lord chasten you, specifically. Before you answer look at this verse as it is quoted from Pro. 3:12. “For whom the Lord loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights.” This is not the picture of an angry father severely punishing a son, but it is a picture of a father who delights in every son. Our Father delights in us and His correction is evidence, not of His wrath, but of His love.
It is true that the word chasten is sometimes used to indicate anger toward the one being chastened (Luke 23:16, 22), but Pilate’s action toward Jesus is far different from the way God deals with us. Pilate selfishly brought discipline, but our God is not selfish; He is on our side.
Jeremiah says it this way. “O Lord, correct me, but with justice; not in Your anger lest you bring me to nothing: (Jer. 10:24). His correction is from the heart of our just God, not like that of an irrational, angry father.
God does use circumstances which come in our lives to help us grow as His children. Hebrews 12 shows that as he uses these situations at first they may seem painful, but “…afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it” (v. 11).
The most overlooked way that we fail to see how God chastens us in seeing how this same word for chastening is found in the verse that says all Scripture is “…profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16). How is the word chasten translated in this verse? It is not translated as doctrine, as reproof, or as correction. God chastens us by giving instructions. Our father chastens us every time we read His word. As we meditate on His words, He is chastening us. Every Bible class we sit in is the chastening of the Lord. Every sermon we hear is the Lord chastening us. This is how He specifically chastens us!
As we examine ourselves in eating the Lord’s Supper is described as chastening (1 Cor. 11:31- 32), in the same way we look into the mirror of the Lord and are instructed and corrected. Rejoice, God’s correction is evidence that we are sons!
-Dan Jenkins
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