4 You have not yet resisted to the point of blood in your striving against sin; 5 and you have forgotten the exhortation that is addressed to you as sons, "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him, 6 for those whom the Lord loves he disciplines, and he scourges every son whom he receives." (Prov 3:11-12) 7 It is discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons, for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the father of spirits, and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, for the purpose that we may share his holiness. 11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Suffering as Divine Discipline

In Heb 12:4-11, the author explains the suffering of his readers as a result of God's discipline; thus they are to accept their difficult circumstances as from God because these are for their benefit. He begins by saying that the readers have not yet resisted sin to the point of blood, by which he means death. In other words, whatever afflictions they were suffering, no one had yet been martyred; to resist sin to the point of death is to resist the sin of apostasy even in the face of death. (The verb antagônizesthai [to resist] is a military term used to indicate the sin of apostasy is like an opponent that must be engaged in mortal combat [see Herod. 5.109; Thucid. 6.72.3. In 4 Macc 17:14, it is said of Antiochus, IV "The tyrant antêgônixeto; and the world and the life of men looked on.")  The point of this observation is to exhort the readers to persevere, since Jesus (and the martyrs) had suffered more than they had (Heb 12:4). In Heb 12:5-6, the author then attempts to put their suffering in perspective by explaining that it is actually God's discipline imposed upon them, his children; to this end, he quotes from Prov 3:11-12. (The author's version differs from the LXX by having "my son" rather than "son.") When it is understood as divine discipline, the suffering of the readers becomes meaningful and therefore manageable. The idea of suffering being the means by which God disciplines a person, insofar as it serves to make a person righteous or to keep a person from becoming unrighteous, is a common idea in the second-Temple period. God uses suffering as discipline in response to actual or even potential sin. The same verse from Proverbs is either implied or quoted explicitly in other Jewish sources dealing with suffering as discipline (see Suffering as Divine Discipline).

    In Heb 12:7-11, after exhorting his readers to endure discipline, the author continues by interpreting the suffering of his readers as being the manifestation of the love of God (The construction eis paideian is a predicative accusative). In the same way that a loving father disciplines his children, so God disciplines his own spiritual children. (The readers are to "to endure" [hupomenein] disciple just as Jesus "endured" the cross [Heb 12:2] and endured the hostility of sinners [Heb 12:3].) The author argues from minor to major that, if the readers submit to human discipline, how much more should they submit to divine discipline (Heb 12:9). The term "father of the our flesh" (tês sarkos hêmôn pateras) means physical fathers; the genitive phrase "of the flesh" (tês sarkos) is a descriptive genitive. By contrast, God is "the father of spirits" (patêr tôn pneumatôn), by which the author seems to mean that God is the creator of angels. (The phrase "God of spirits and all flesh" [theos tôn pneumatôn kai pasês sarkos] occurs in LXX Num 16:22; 27:16; "spirits" in these two passages from Numbers probably refers to angels. Similarly, in the Similitudes of Enoch [1 Enoch 37-71] God is called "Lord of the Spirits [37:2-4; 38:4; 39:2, 7], and in 2 Macc 3:24 is called "the sovereign of spirits and all authority" [ho tôn pneumatôn kai pasês exousias dunastês]. In each case spirits mean angels. In 1QH-a 18.8 God is called "prince of gods ['elim]," meaning angels.) Yet there is no doubt that the author of Hebrews sees "father of our flesh" and "father of spirits" as contrasting terms, so that implied in his statement is the idea of God as "spiritual" father, not only of angels, but also of believers. The author hopes that, knowing this, his readers will be able to bear up under their sufferings. Their suffering as divine discipline may not be pleasant during the time when they are suffering, but later the benefit will become evident. The author explicates the benefit of submitting to divine discipline in several ways. First, he says that the result of divine discipline is that the one so disciplined will live (zêsomen), by which he means live in the sense used in the sapiential (wisdom) tradition, either live a good quality of life on earth or live eternally. Second, he says that the benefit of divine discipline is the sharing in God's holiness (eis to metalabein tes hagiotêtos autou), by which he means becoming practically holy, as God is. Third, in Heb 12:11, the author speaks of how the readers will receive the "peaceful fruit of righteousness" (karpon eirenikon...dikaiosunes) when they have allowed themselves to be trained through their suffering. The "fruit" is the result of the experience of suffering, and it consists of righteousness (genitive of content). In other words, suffering leads to becoming more righteous in a practical sense, more in conformity with the will of God. He also qualifies the "fruit" with the adjective "peaceful."  Peace has a wide range of meanings, but when used in a Jewish religious context is often synonymous with salvation or God's blessings in general. The "fruit" is peaceful because it is part of God's saving work, consisting of the readers' transformation into the spiritually mature (teleioi) (see Heb 5:11-14). It should be noted that the use of the verb gumnazein ("to train") represents the use of another athletic metaphor; it communicates that the Christian life sometime involves intense and systematic effort.
 

Question for Discussion

In your experience, how does God's discipline benefit the one placed under it?

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