Sometimes God disciplines us to “kick us away” from trouble, as did the conductor for the little girl. But if He fails to get our attention, He may collapse our lives into rubble, forcing us to wake up to the danger. As C. S. Lewis wrote, God “shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”6

Jack Abramoff, a political lobbyist who was at the center of a 2006 political scandal, recognized this truth as well. After his house of cards came tumbling down, he ruefully observed, “God sent me one thousand hints that he didn’t want me to keep doing what I was doing. But I didn’t listen, so he set off a nuclear bomb.”7

God Disciplines to Purify Us

He [chastens us] for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.

—HEBREWS 12:10

Hebrews 12:5–11 is the key passage in the New Testament for understanding God’s correcting love. The key word in these verses is chastening, a translation of the Greek word paideia, which appears nine times in various forms in these seven verses.

Paideia comes from the word pais, which means “child,” and it denotes the training of a child. It is a broad term that can mean anything parents and teachers do to train, correct, cultivate, and educate children. The goal of this discipline is always to help the child grow into a mature adult.

We are born contaminated with an inherently sinful nature—or “the flesh,” depending on your Bible translation (Romans 7:18, 25). One day that contamination will be completely eradicated. But in the meantime, God often uses the tools of suffering and affliction to sanctify us. These trials function like a fire that burns off every impurity impeding our progress toward holiness.

Malcolm Muggeridge, in his book Jesus Rediscovered, wrote, “Suppose you eliminated suffering, what a dreadful place the world would be… The world would be the most ghastly place because everything that corrects the tendency of this unspeakable little creature, man, to feel over-important and ever-pleased with himself would disappear. He’s bad enough now, but he would be absolutely intolerable if he never suffered.”8

To ask God to do less is to ask Him to love us less—to leave us infected with sin that will not only defile our earthly lives, but also destroy us eternally.

The Reality of God’s Discipline

For whom the LORD loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.

—HEBREWS 12:6

Instead of wondering why God disciplines us, we might do better to wonder why He doesn’t. The author of Hebrews makes it clear that discipline is a sign of God’s love, and conversely that the lack of discipline means that God does not count you as His. That should thoroughly stifle our envy of those who live in reckless opposition to God yet never seem to experience trouble or pain.

The Presence of God’s Discipline Proves That We Are His Sons