The Chastening Of Love



He maketh me to lie down in green pastures (Psalms 23:2)
Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth (Hebrews 12:6). So chastening is a mark of God's love, and also a seal of sonship, for he "scourgeth every son that he receiveth." No true father permits a child to grow up undisciplined, having its own way all the while, its life running unchecked into waywardness, wilfulness, and self-indulgence. The true father chastens. Mark, it is not punishment that God inflicts, but chastening. It is not anger or hatred that makes him at times severe, denying the child's requests. It is love that leads him to chasten. If we were not his children he would not trouble to chasten us. It is the fruitful branch the husbandman prunes to make it more fruitful; the unfruitful branch he cuts off and burns. It is the Father's child that he chastens. God chastens us, not to crush us, but for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. To faint, therefore, under chastening is disloyalty to God. We should accept the affliction with reverence, and turn the whole energy of our life into the channels of obedience and service.

Deuteronomy 8:5: Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee. (KJV)
Psalms 118:18: The LORD hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death. (KJV)
Proverbs 3:11-12: My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth. (KJV)
Job 5:17-27: Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole. He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. In famine he shall redeem thee from death: and in war from the power of the sword. Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue: neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh. At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh: neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth. For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field: and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee. And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be in peace; and thou shalt visit thy habitation, and shalt not sin. Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great, and thine offspring as the grass of the earth. Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season. Lo this, we have searched it, so it is; hear it, and know thou it for thy good. (KJV)
Hebrews 12:4-11: Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. (KJV)


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