Hebrews 12:7

If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) If ye endure chastening.—The whole weight of ancient evidence is in favour of a change in the first Greek word. Two translations are then possible: (1) “It is for chastening that ye endure:” the troubles that come upon you are for discipline—are not sent in anger, but in fatherly love. (2) “Endure for chastening:” bear the trial, instead of seeking to avoid it by unworthy and dangerous concession; endure it, that it may effect its merciful purpose.

What son is he.—Or, what son is there whom his father chasteneth not?

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

12:1-11 The persevering obedience of faith in Christ, was the race set before the Hebrews, wherein they must either win the crown of glory, or have everlasting misery for their portion; and it is set before us. By the sin that does so easily beset us, understand that sin to which we are most prone, or to which we are most exposed, from habit, age, or circumstances. This is a most important exhortation; for while a man's darling sin, be it what it will, remains unsubdued, it will hinder him from running the Christian race, as it takes from him every motive for running, and gives power to every discouragement. When weary and faint in their minds, let them recollect that the holy Jesus suffered, to save them from eternal misery. By stedfastly looking to Jesus, their thoughts would strengthen holy affections, and keep under their carnal desires. Let us then frequently consider him. What are our little trials to his agonies, or even to our deserts? What are they to the sufferings of many others? There is a proneness in believers to grow weary, and to faint under trials and afflictions; this is from the imperfection of grace and the remains of corruption. Christians should not faint under their trials. Though their enemies and persecutors may be instruments to inflict sufferings, yet they are Divine chastisements; their heavenly Father has his hand in all, and his wise end to answer by all. They must not make light of afflictions, and be without feeling under them, for they are the hand and rod of God, and are his rebukes for sin. They must not despond and sink under trials, nor fret and repine, but bear up with faith and patience. God may let others alone in their sins, but he will correct sin in his own children. In this he acts as becomes a father. Our earthly parents sometimes may chasten us, to gratify their passion, rather than to reform our manners. But the Father of our souls never willingly grieves nor afflicts his children. It is always for our profit. Our whole life here is a state of childhood, and imperfect as to spiritual things; therefore we must submit to the discipline of such a state. When we come to a perfect state, we shall be fully reconciled to all God's chastisement of us now. God's correction is not condemnation; the chastening may be borne with patience, and greatly promote holiness. Let us then learn to consider the afflictions brought on us by the malice of men, as corrections sent by our wise and gracious Father, for our spiritual good.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

If ye endure chastening - That is, if you undergo, or are called to experience correction. It does not mean here, "if you endure it patiently; or if you bear up under it;" but "if you are chastised or corrected by God." The affirmation does not relate to the manner of bearing it, but to the fact that we are disciplined.

God dealeth with you as with sons - He does not cast you off and regard you as if you were in no way related to him.

For what son is he whom the father chasteneth not - That is, he evinces toward his son the care which shows that he sustains the relation of a father. If he deserves correction, he corrects him; and he aims by all proper means to exhibit the appropriate care and character of a father. And as we receive such attention from an earthly parent, we ought to expect to receive similar notice from our Father in heaven.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

7. In Heb 12:7, 8 the need of "chastening" or "discipline" is inculcated; in Heb 12:9, the duty of those to whom it is administered.

If—The oldest manuscripts read, "With a view to chastening (that is, since God's chastisement is with a view to your chastening, that is, disciplinary amelioration) endure patiently"; so Vulgate. Alford translates it as indicative, not so well, "It is for chastisement that ye are enduring."

dealeth with you—"beareth Himself toward you" in the very act of chastening.

what son is he—"What son is there" even in ordinary life? Much more God as to His sons (Isa 48:10; Ac 14:22). The most eminent of God's saints were the most afflicted. God leads them by a way they know not (Isa 42:16). We too much look at each trial by itself, instead of taking it in connection with the whole plan of our salvation, as if a traveller were to complain of the steepness and roughness of one turn in the path, without considering that it led him into green pastures, on the direct road to the city of habitation. The New Testament alone uses the Greek term for education (paideia), to express "discipline" or correction, as of a child by a wise father.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons: his reason he illustrateth from the convertibility of sufferring affliction and chastening from God the Father, and being his child; If ye have a child-like sense of chastening, such afflictions and sufferings from him as the Father ordereth to you, so as quietly and patiently to bear them, and by faith expecting a saving issue from them; God the Father in love chastening you, beareth, carrieth, and offereth himself to you as a father to his son, full of grace and love, Leviticus 26:41 Job 13:15 Psalm 89:30 Micah 7:9.

For what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? No son or child of God can be instanced in, who was capable of chastening, but more or less have felt it; even God’s only and best beloved One, Hebrews 5:8, for our sakes felt it, Isaiah 53:5. The interrogation is a vehement assertion, and so to be resolved.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

If ye endure chastening,.... In faith, with patience, with courage and constancy, with humility and reverence: there are many things which may encourage and animate the saints to endure it in such a manner; as that it is but a chastening, and the chastening of a father; it should be considered from whence it comes, and for what ends; that it comes from the Lord, and is for his glory, and their good; the example of Christ, and of other saints, should excite unto it. The Jews have a saying (q), that

"the doctrine of chastisements is silence;''

that is, they are to be patiently bore, and not murmured at. The Vulgate Latin, and all the Oriental versions, read the words as an exhortation; the former of these renders it, "persevere in discipline"; the Syriac version, "endure correction"; the Arabic version, "be ye patient in chastisement"; and the Ethiopic version, "endure your chastening": but then the word, "for", should be supplied in the next clause, as it is in the Syriac and Ethiopic versions, making that to be a reason, enforcing this,

for God dealeth with you as with sons: chastening is owning of them for his children, and it discovers them to be so, and shows that they continue such; he does not chasten them but when it is necessary; and whenever he does, it is in love and mercy, and for good, and in the best time, seasonably, and in measure:

for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? no one can be named, not the Son of God himself; he had the chastisement of our peace upon him; nor the more eminent among the children of God, as Abraham, David, and others; nor any in any catalogue, or list of them, such as in the preceding chapter; not one in any age or period of time whatever, in any bodies, societies, or communities of them, either under the Old or New Testament.

(q) T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 62. 1.

Geneva Study Bible

If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Hebrews 12:7-8. Application of the word of scripture to the readers.

Εἰ παιδείαν ὑπομένετε] If ye endure chastening. The opposite of this is formed by the εἰ δὲ χωρίς ἐστε παιδείας, Hebrews 12:8. The emphasis falls, therefore, upon παιδείαν; and to explain ὑπομένειν as a “stedfast” or “persevering” enduring (Theodoret, Erasm. Paraphr., Stein, Ebrard, Bloomfield, al.) is inadmissible.

ὡς υἱοῖς ὑμῖν προσφέρεται ὁ θεός] God deals with you as with sons, treats you as sons. By as harsh a construction as possible (comp. ὑμῖν ὡς υἱοῖς, Hebrews 12:5), Ebrard will have ὡς taken as a conjunction, and translates,—espousing the incorrect reading (see the critical obs.) εἰς παιδείαν,—“for your instruction endure manfully, even as (or when, so long as) God offers Himself to you as to sons!”

For the genuine Greek formula προσφέρεσθαί τινι, which does not occur elsewhere in the N. T., see examples in Wetstein.

τίς γὰρ υἱὸς κ.τ.λ.] sc. ἐστίν: for what son is there, i.e. where is there a son, whom the father chastens not? This comprehending together of τίς υἱός (Bleek, de Wette, Tholuck, Alford, Maier, Kurtz, Ewald) is more natural than that one should regard τίς alone as the subject: who is indeed a son, whom, etc. (Delitzsch, Moll, and others); or, with Böhme, as the predicate: of what kind is a son, whom, etc.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Hebrews 12:7. The inference from the passage cited is obvious, εἰς παιδείαν ὑπομένετε, “it is for training ye are enduring (are called to endure), as sons God is dealing with you”. [προσφέρεται is common; as in Xenophon, οὐ γὰρ ὡς φίλοι προσεφέροντο ἡμῖν; and in Josephus, ὡς πολεμίοις προσεφέροντο.] Their sufferings are evidence that God considers them His sons and treats them as such; for what son is there whom his father does not correct? τίς γὰρ υἱὸς … similar in form to Matthew 7:9, τίς ἐστιν ἐξ ὑμῶν ἄνθρωπος;—εἰ δὲ χωρίς.… Whereas did they receive no such treatment, were they free from that discipline of which all (God’s children) have become partakers (as illustrated in chap. 11) then in this case they are bastards and not sons; their freedom from the discipline which God uniformly accords His children would prove that they were not genuine sons.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. If ye endure chastening] The true reading is not ei, “if,” but eis, “unto.” “It is for training that ye endure,” or better, “Endure ye, for training,” i.e. “regard your trials as a part of the moral training designed for you by your Father in Heaven.”

what son is he whom the father chasteneth not] The thought, and its application to our relationship towards God are also found in Deuteronomy 8:5; 2 Samuel 7:14; Proverbs 13:24.

Bengel's Gnomen

Hebrews 12:7. Εἰ, if) The necessity of discipline is asserted here, and in the following verse; but the duty of those who receive discipline at Hebrews 12:9, etc. Therefore in Hebrews 12:7, discipline is rather regarded than patience. In Hebrews 12:7; Hebrews 12:9, discipline at the same time comprehends rebuke; but in Hebrews 12:5, discipline is distinguished from rebuke.—υἱοῖς) not merely τέκνοις. The condition of sons is most glorious.—προσφέρεται) shows Himself in the very act of chastising.—τίς γὰρ, for who) It is taken for granted, that all need chastisement for a fault.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 7, 8. - For chastening ye endure; i.e. It is for chastening that ye endure. The reading εἰς παιδείαν ὑπομένετε, supported by almost the whole weight of manuscripts (including all the uncials that contain the text), of ancient versions, and commentators (Theophylact being the only certain exception), is decidedly to be accepted instead of the εἰ παιδείαν ὑπομένετε (equivalent to "if ye endure chastening") of the Textus Receptus. Moreover, it is required for the sense of the passage in regard to the proper meaning of the verb ὑπομένετε ("endure"), which is to "submit to," or "endure patiently," not simply "to undergo." For to say, "if ye endure chastisement patiently, God dealeth with you as sons," has no meaning; our being treated as sons depends, not on the way we take our chastisement, but on our being chastised at all. The use of the preposition εἰς to express purpose is common in this Epistle (cf. Hebrews 1:14, εἰς διακονίαν: 3:5, εἰς μαρτύριον: 4:16, εἰς βοήθειαν: 6:16, εἰς βεβαίωσιν): and the essential sense of παιδεία is discipline or education. The drift is the same, whether we take ὑπομένετε as an indicative or an imperative. Thus the next clause of the verse follows suitably: God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is there (or, who is a son) whom his father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastening, whereof all (i.e. all God's children, with reference to Hebrews 11.) have been made partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons (ye are not your father's real children whom he cares for as such). Hebrews 12:7

Vincent's Word Studies

If ye endure chastening (εἰς παιδείαν ὑπομένετε)

Rend. "it is for chastening that ye endure." A.V. follows the reading of T. R. εἰ if. Do not faint at affliction. Its purpose is disciplinary. Παιδεία is here the end or result of discipline. In Hebrews 12:5 it is the process.

God dealeth with you as with sons (ὡς υἱοῖς ὑμῖν προσφέρεται ὁ θεὸς)

The verb means to bring to: often to bring an offering to the altar, as Matthew 5:23, Matthew 5:24; Matthew 8:4. In the passive voice with the dative, to be born toward one; hence, to attack, assail, deal with, behave toward. See Thucyd. i. 140; Eurip. Cycl. 176; Hdt. vii. 6. The afflictive dealing of God with you is an evidence that you are sons.

What son is he whom the father, etc. (τίς υἰὸς)

Some interpreters render, "who is a son whom the father?" etc. That is, no one is a son who is without paternal chastening. The A.V. is better. The idea expressed by the other rendering appears in the next verse.