Charles Spurgeon Commentary Hebrews 12:4-7

"Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin: and ye have forgotten the exhortation which reasoneth with you as with sons, My son, regard not lightly the chastening of the Lord, Nor faint when thou art reproved of him; For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, And scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. It is for chastening that ye endure; God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is there whom [his] father chasteneth not?" — Hebrews 12:4-7 (ASV)

You have not yet resisted to blood, striving against sin. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to children: My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked by him; for whom the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father does not chasten? (Hebrews 12:4–7)

Here is a little variation in the subject. First, we had the trials which come from the world; these we are to endure, looking to Christ for grace to enable us to overcome them. Now we have the trials which come from God, and here nature becomes an assistant to grace.

We are reminded that children have to be chastened, and therefore, if we are the children of God, we must expect to be chastened by him. Note in the fifth verse (Hebrews 12:5) the two evils of which we are in danger: either of despising God's chastenings or else of fainting under them—either of thinking too little or too much of them. HAPPY is the Christian who always takes the middle course, and never despises the chastenings of the Lord, nor ever faints under them.

Note, in the sixth verse (Hebrews 12:6), that we are to expect sharp blows from God's chastening hand. That word "encourageth" is a wrong word: Whom the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives (Hebrews 12:6). The scourge was always a most severe form of punishment.

God will not spare his children when they need to be chastened; they will have some blows as hard as he can firmly lay them on—that is to say, as hard as such a loving heart as his will permit him to give. They will have such blows that each one of them will have to cry out, "I am broken in sunder, my heart is smitten and withered like grass." And this is to be the treatment for every son whom God receives; not for some of them, but for all.

He scourges every son whom he receives. (Hebrews 12:6)