Every son whom he receives

Heb 12:5 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:
Heb 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Heb 12:7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
Heb 12:8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.


EVERY son whom he receives will be ….SCOURGED.


The word scourged means- to flog.


G3146
μαστιγόω
mastigoō
mas-tig-o'-o
From G3148; to flog (literally or figuratively): - scourge.


Webster says flog means-


Flog
FLOG, v.t. [L. figo, to strike, that is, to lay on; L. flagrum, flagellum, Eng. flail; Gr.; L. plaga, a stroke, Eng. plague, slay.]

To beat or strike with a rod or whip; to whip; to lash; to chastise with repeated blows; a colloquial word, applied to whipping or beating for punishment.


Chastised, scourged, flogged, whipped, beat, what sort of image do these words invoke for you? Corporal punishment is one, at least for me. Yet we know that the LORD does not physically wield a whip or flog us. The LORD does not appear in front of us and give us a good talking to, complete with wagging finger and furrowed brow. Yet we have these words, scourge, flog, chastise, whip and they have to mean something because the Bible is telling us that EVERY son whom he receives will be scourged! Whom the LORD loves HE chastens. Without chastisement we are bastards, not sons. Those are very telling words and we NEED to comprehend them fully. We need to dig down and get the meaning of those beyond a superficial meaning because my friends… we will not be sons, we will not be counted among those of God's family, if we are not scourged and chastised by the LORD.


Just writing those words makes me envision something painful. Because God is spirit, this scourging and chastising is also to be applied on a spiritual level, right? Even if circumstances arise in our lives that are unpleasant they can be applied to our spiritual state because every circumstance in our lives is connected to our spiritual self if we are spiritual beings in Christ. So this spiritual scourging, this spiritual whipping that we are to receive is necessary- why?



Eph 4:17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
Eph 4:18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
Eph 4:19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
Eph 4:20 But ye have not so learned Christ;
Eph 4:21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:
Eph 4:22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
Eph 4:23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
Eph 4:24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Eph 4:25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.
Eph 4:26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
Eph 4:27 Neither give place to the devil.
Eph 4:28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
Eph 4:29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
Eph 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
Eph 4:31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
Eph 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.



Our spiritual chastising, our spiritual whipping which is for OUR own good is necessary because we are RENEWED in the spirit of our mind, we are NEW men- which after GOD are CREATED in righteousness and true holiness. We are born again and are NO longer merely flesh beings controlled by our natural carnal natures. We become born in the SPIRIT and are SPIRITUAL beings that need to learn SPIRITUAL lessons. We need to grow in our SPIRITS.


Joh 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.


Just as we age in our flesh, we age in our spirit. We grow from being spiritual babes to spiritual children to spiritual adults. Our spiritual life is not stagnant, it grows, it evolves. As adults we don't cease to grow in knowledge because even if we do almost nothing every day the outside stimulus we receive has us growing. A man in solitary confinement can still grow in his thoughts. There is growth as adults and if we are lucky we grow into elderly people who have a true measure of wisdom from years of spiritual growing. As babes and children we need a guardian- this is true even in our spiritual life. We need guidance and we find that guidance in the Word of God. As adults we live our lives based off of the lessons we learn from as children. Adults are products of their childhood. Our spiritual adulthood is the same. We need to be chastised, we need to understand our spiritual failings and the results of them. We need to feel the punishment of disobeying, and we do as we realize our sins bring sorrow. We have spiritual pain, spiritual sorrow, spiritual unease, unrest, we call it being troubled in spirit and when we are troubled in spirit we are troubled for a reason. There are many spiritual lessons we need to learn and some of them over and over again.


Do I have all the answers? Can I be sure I'm 100% right in all this? No, not at all. I do know the Bible tells me that as a spiritual child of God's I will be chastise, I will be scourged spiritually and it won't be pleasurable because chastisement and scourging is anything but pleasant.


So how can a person be spiritually scourged for their own good?
How are we spiritually chastised?


Read this again- this is the word of God to us- the word of God is the most important reading material we'll ever have! I can write a million books and none would mean a thing, but the word of God means everything, it means life.


Eph 4:17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
Eph 4:18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
Eph 4:19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
Eph 4:20 But ye have not so learned Christ;
Eph 4:21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:
Eph 4:22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
Eph 4:23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
Eph 4:24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Eph 4:25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.
Eph 4:26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
Eph 4:27 Neither give place to the devil.
Eph 4:28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
Eph 4:29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
Eph 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
Eph 4:31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
Eph 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.


We are chastised by the Holy Spirit convicting us of our sins. The weight of sin lays heavy upon us and the knowledge of that sin will wear us down until we confess and repent, forsaking that sin, setting that sin aside rather than indulging in it.


Psa 119:28 My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word.


We can't give place to the devil. We can't grieve the holy Spirit of God. We have to let all bitterness and wrath, anger and clamor, all evil speaking with ALL malice be put aside. Honestly we are to have the FRUITS of the Spirit in our lives and when we don't -we need to be chastised. We need to be woken up to the fact that we are not walking in the Spirit, we are not growing up in the Spirit, we are not living in the Spirit as God would have us do- through Him.


1Pe 1:6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
1Pe 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ


The heaviness of many temptations will assail us and this is GOOD! We need that heaviness! We need the guilt! We need to have our conscience whipped as we commit wrongs- punishable wrongs- wrongs that deserve death because they are sinful and sin separates us from God!


May God try our faith with fire! May we be scourged! May we be chastised by God our Heavenly Father!
May we count it all joy, and be ever thankful giving praises to our Father who loves us so much He continuously shows us our failings and reveals the correct path to Him through the mercy and grace of His Only Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, our Savior!


AMEN!