HE CORRECTETH; EVEN AS A FATHER

On April 2nd we noticed that God ‘pitieth His children’ like a Father. Now, we find that, similarly, He disciplines them. The pitying we observed was to do with forgiveness and removal of sin. Just as God does not carry this out as an over-indulgent father, but rather only on righteous grounds, so His continual ‘chastening’ and ‘correction’ are required to bring out family resemblance in us. The verses before us present four instructive verbs. There are two negatives regarding our attitude to the Father’s discipline, we should not ‘despise’ or ‘be weary’. Then, there are two positives regarding His attitude to us, He ‘loveth’ and ‘delighteth’. Perhaps if we had a greater appreciation of the latter we would more readily put into action the former.

Those who are fathers, or indeed mothers, no doubt have aspirations for their children. Hopefully, they go far beyond the temporal and temporary but are dominated by the spiritual and permanent. As quoted previously, one has so powerfully said, ‘Of all we acquire in this life, nothing can be taken to heaven with us, except our children!’ Now, sadly, we are imperfect and inconsistent parents and we often get it wrong, but we have the perfect ‘Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning’, Jas. 1. 17. Every action He takes with us is because He loves and delights in us. That love has been demon­strated by the giving of His only begotten Son but continues in His chastening and correction, that we might be ‘conformed to the image of his Son’, in whom is ‘all his delight’.

If we could grasp this more fully we would be less likely to question His ways or the circumstances into which He brings us. Not all His disciplinary dealings with us are to correct our fail­ings; many are simply to mould us by circumstances and bring out Christ-likeness in us. The Saviour Himself set the perfect example of the obedient Son. But even of Him it is recorded, ‘Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered’, Heb. 5. 8.

Should not we, His sons by adoption, revel in His love and delight in us, and therefore ‘despise not’, ‘neither be weary’ as He completes His perfect work in us?