Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Hebrews 12:7

"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 12:7 (ASV)

It is not as misery, accident, or the like that Christians should understand suffering but “as discipline.” God uses it to teach important lessons; he “is treating you as sons.” The author’s rhetorical question appeals to the universality of fatherly discipline. It was unthinkable to the writer and his readers that a father would not discipline his children. Perhaps we should notice in passing that while the author clearly sees believers as children of God, he does not specifically call God a father (except in a quotation in 1:5; cf. also “the Father of our spirits,” 12:9).