Devotional 05 August 2025

August 05, 2025 • Steve Torres

Hebrews 12:7-8.jpg

"And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." (Hebrews 12:5-11, ESV )

After encouraging us to endure suffering by looking to Jesus, the writer of Hebrews offers another perspective: God’s discipline is evidence of our adoption. While it’s comforting to remember that Jesus suffered and is with us in our trials (Heb. 12:2–4), it’s also sobering to realize that suffering itself may be the training of a loving Father shaping His children.

We love the idea of being called “sons of God.” But the writer doesn’t let us stop there. He reminds us that sonship includes discipline. Proverbs 3:11–12, which Hebrews quotes, says plainly: “My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.” God’s correction, though painful, is an expression of His affection.

This challenges a modern idea of love as mere affirmation. Biblical love refuses to leave us in sin. Hebrews 12:8 makes it plain: if we are without discipline, then we are not true children. God is not like the world that “lets people be” in their rebellion. As Romans 1 warns, God “gave them up” to their sins, this is not love, but judgment. The absence of correction is abandonment, not grace.

By contrast, God trains us as His beloved children. The Greek word for discipline, paideia, means not just punishment, but instruction, formation, correction. God is not acting as a judge against us, but as a Father who wants us to grow.

Jesus Himself modeled this perfectly. He said in John 5:19 that “the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing.” His life was marked by obedience and submission. If the perfect Son obeyed the Father, can we expect to disobey without consequence?

Jesus also spoke in John 15:2 about how the Father prunes the fruitful branches, not to harm them but so they would bear more fruit. Discipline is not about removing us from grace: it’s how grace grows deeper in us. As Revelation 3:19 says, “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.”

This process is rarely comfortable. Hebrews 12:11 admits, “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” God’s purpose is not pain, it is righteousness.

So then, let us not despise discipline. Let us not grow weary or misread our hardships. Rather, let us receive them as evidence that we are sons: loved, watched over, and refined. As Romans 8:29 reminds us, God’s goal is to conform us into the image of His Son.

As long as it is still called today, let us pay closer attention, endure for discipline, and trust that the One who calls us is faithful. He is not giving up on us, He is growing us.