If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?

—HEBREWS 12:7

“Sons” is the English translation of the Greek word huios, which we find five times in Hebrews 12:5–8. In the New Testament, huios never means “small children”; it always designates an adult son—the kind who is an heir.

Why is this important? The use of huios implies that the discipline verse 7 speaks of isn’t simply for beginner Christians. Even mature believers need chastening. “Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects; therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty” (Job 5:17).

Though children may dislike discipline on the surface, somewhere deep inside they appreciate the sense of security it gives them. The very fact that they are being chastened proves that they are sons who have a loving father who cares about their future. All men are subject to God’s punishment, but only His children receive His discipline.

The Absence of God’s Discipline Proves That We Are Not His Sons

But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.

—HEBREWS 12:8

You might think you would love to go through life without ever enduring an ounce of discipline. But wouldn’t you have second thoughts if you knew it meant you were an illegitimate child?

In New Testament times, there could be no more serious charge than to question one’s legitimacy. Imagine three boys playing in the courtyard of a wealthy man’s estate. They get into some kind of mischief, and their father comes out, his face beet-red, fire in his eyes, and he drags away two of his sons by the ear. The other boy, who is also his son by a female servant, stands and watches, totally ignored. He has misbehaved, too. He even lives on the same estate. But his father doesn’t care what he does because he doesn’t consider him a true son.

How that would have stung! The rejected boy would have learned that a father’s indifference is far worse than the momentary pain of chastening.

The message of Hebrews 12 is that discipline is the mark of the beloved child. It saddens me to know that an ever-increasing number of today’s children are growing up without that mark. The old spiritual “Sometimes I Feel Like a Fatherless Child” describes one out of three of our precious children in America. They live in homes without their biological fathers. Some of these children live in homes with an admirable stepfather who has taken them in, loved them, and claimed them for his own. But the rest simply don’t have a father of any kind at home; millions more have a poor excuse for one. The results are tragic.