The first-century audience for the book of Hebrews knew Proverbs 3:11–12, which is quoted in the verse above. The writer probably included it because he thought hearing it again would encourage them. It was a time of severe hardship for the early church, and they needed to understand that even followers of Jesus Christ have to endure painful discipline.

These early believers may have expected severe discipline to cease once they became Christians. It’s easy for us to adopt a similar outlook. We may think becoming one with Christ should mean that God has accomplished His goal with us, and therefore His discipline should ease up. But as we have just noted, when we become God’s children, those lessons are not likely to ease up, but rather to intensify. How we react is up to us. Here are four possibilities:

We Can Be Indifferent to God’s Discipline

My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD.

—HEBREWS 12:5

The Greek word for “despise” means “to think lightly of,” or “to make light of.” We despise God’s discipline when we grit our teeth and endure it without letting the hard truth of it soak in. After the trying time is over, we breathe a sigh of relief and go on our way without reflecting on why we experienced it. To make us stop and reflect may have been God’s very reason for the exercise. He has something for us to learn that will make us wiser or save us from some worse pain in the future. Or it may be a door-opener, unlocking new possibilities in our lives.

In the Old Testament, Jonah learned the hard way not to despise the chastening of the Lord. When God first sent him to preach salvation to the Ninevites, Jonah was angry. He hated Nineveh because it was the capital of Assyria, the cruel historic enemy of Jonah’s homeland, Israel. So he boarded a ship headed in the opposite direction. When God sent a great fish to swallow him and spit him back in the right direction, Jonah gave in and trudged reluctantly to Nineveh.

The Ninevites heard God’s message, repented, and the city was spared. The angry Jonah stomped off to sit and sulk. God quickly grew a shading plant to shelter him from the sun. But on the next day He sent a worm to kill the plant, exposing Jonah to the blistering heat. That was the last straw: Jonah wanted to die.

Now that Jonah was broken and ready to hear what he needed to learn, God zoomed in on his shamefully inverted priorities. He had wanted the shading plant to live while wanting a city of 120,000 people to perish. He had no love for people whom God loved, but God still loved him.