“Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” Hebrews 12:11.

Chastening is indeed grievous, yet we are to commit ourselves to a merciful God knowing that these things are to prepare us as citizens of heaven just as our earthly fathers were attempting to make us good citizens of earth.

I do not recall ever cursing my father or my mother for spanking me and sending me to my room. I may have talked back a bit, but it only increased my stay in my room! I never stopped loving them, I never became bitter because I realized that they were training me for good.

How much more should we love and respect God the Father who sacrificed His Son Jesus for our sakes. Fix your eyes on Jesus and ignore the monstrous waves around you.

“And Peter answered Him and said, ‘Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.’ So He said, ‘Come.’ And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, ‘Lord, save me!’ And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, ‘O you of little faith, why did you doubt?’” Matthew 14:28-31.

Verse 11 goes on to say this about chastening, “…nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness”.

Righteousness according to the dictionary is, purity of heart and life; conformity of heart and life to the divine law; in many uses it is nearly equivalent to holiness.

The peaceable fruit of righteousness, hard won, too precious to lose. This growth is expressed in a different way below showing God as a loving gardener and Jesus as the vine which nourishes and supports its Christian branches.

I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away [or lifts up]; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” John 15:1-2.

Again, we see God’s careful attention to the life of every believer. His desire is for all of us to be conformed to the image of His Son, producing peaceful, righteous Christians who are partakers of His holiness. But we must all heed the warning below.

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” John 15:5.

Much like abiding in your home, so you abide in Jesus to draw nearer to Him. As you draw nearer to Jesus, the Holy Spirit is enabled to guide you in Jesus’ will.

Notice the last phrase in Hebrews 12:11, “…to those who have been trained by it”, is it possible to go through a difficult trial and learn nothing?

Jesus would often call out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” Matthew 11:15. Surely Jesus healed everyone who came to Him; there were no deaf persons in His audience, so He must have meant something else.

He did mean something else; His listeners had no problem hearing Him, however, were they listening?

Anyone who has endured a long boring speech can tell you that they heard, but not really listened.

Jesus was definitely not boring, but many were there for the healing, or out of curiosity, but not to hear. Many though had ears to hear and gained eternal life.

The same goes for trials, too often Christians go on about how men are persecuting them, God is angry with them, or they say, these things just happen; they are a part of life.

They are not listening; as a result, it is a long time or many trials before they start asking why this is happening.

The book of Lamentations was written to mourn the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Babylonians who also carried the majority of the Jews off to a foreign land.

In that book both Jew and Christian are given words that we must take to heart.

“Let us search out and examine our ways, and turn back to the Lord; let us lift our hearts and hands to God in heaven. We have transgressed and rebelled; You have not pardoned.” Lamentations 3:40-42.

Yet:

“…we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28.

This is a truth we need to grasp onto and remember when we are tempted to blaspheme God for our troubles.

Quite often when you are examining yourself before God you will find that the trial is not due to some unseen sin, but rather the result of the normal Christian witness.

“Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.” 1 Peter 4:12-16.

The cross of Christ is an offense to men and very often they will respond in anger; you can see today how antagonistic men are toward God in this country, so this should be no surprise.

“An unjust man is an abomination to the righteous, and he who is upright in the way is an abomination to the wicked.” Proverbs 29:27.

Some Christians though say that they are being persecuted for Christ, when it is really because they are obnoxious. Beware of this attitude.

Having prayed and perhaps fasted to identify the source of your chastening/trial, you may come up with an answer. As an aside, I have found that I often already have an idea of why I am going through something unpleasant.

The solution is the same in any case, confess your sin and forsake it, and remember this, sometimes the trial will last longer; at this point you must commit yourself to a faithful God and continue to pray for strength and deliverance.

“For has anyone said to God, ‘I have borne chastening; I will offend no more; teach me what I do not see; if I have done iniquity, I will do no more’? Should He repay it according to your terms, just because you disavow it?” Job 34:31-33a.

“Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.” Hebrews 12:12-13.

Sounds a little like something you would hear in an A.A. meeting does it not? If you are an alcoholic, they tell you to stay out of bars, is this not so?

Your hands do evil, and your feet take you there, soon the feeble knees collapse under the weight of sin and those trapped by it cannot rise again. It is important to realize one’s weaknesses and stay away from the rough path of sin.

“Pursue peace with all men, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking diligently lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled…” Hebrews 12:14-15.

It has been stated elsewhere that the word pursue here has the idea of a single-minded pursuit, the same Greek word is also translated persecute, giving the idea of intense effort.

I owe this piece of information to the book “Practice of Godliness” by Jerry Bridges, published by Navpress, a good read.

We are also to intensely pursue holiness, which has great reward as we have seen; still, many Christians lag in their pursuit of holiness and walking in God’s will.

The phrase, “holiness, without which no one will see the Lord”, does not mean you will lose your salvation if your life is not holy enough, but rather that if a person has not accepted Christ as their Savior and receive the imputed holiness given by God, they will not see the Lord.

Those then who are not holy through Christ are unsaved and being under the control of the sin nature may cause trouble among the brethren.

Diligent watch must be kept to ensure that we do not just assume that everyone in our church is a Christian.

The error that we see in the church today has been caused by unsaved persons being given positions of authority, though their piousness was nothing more than show.

“Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Prove yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless indeed you are disqualified.” 2 Corinthians 13:5.

“Lord, I see it now! Not only what I have done is wrong; I am wrong!” Watchman Nee.

Chastening, Part 3 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 10-14-15, updated on 6-23-24 ck.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.