Chastened...Why?

Chastened.

Who likes being chastened?

To be chastened means to - make somebody subdued, to be subjected to discipline, to moderate the intensity of something. Here in the word of God we know the term is being used as being subject to discipline.

So who likes to be disciplined?

To be disciplined is to - practice the methods of teaching and enforcing acceptable patterns of behavior, a controlled orderly state, the ability to behave in a controlled calm way even in a difficult stressful situation, mental self-control used in directing or changing behavior or training for something, education, punishment to teach obedience, a system of rules in a religious order.

Here in the passage we are studying now it is being used as punishment to teach obedience.

Well, who likes to be punished?

Punished- to undergo a penalty for a wrongdoing, receiving a punishment for a crime, to treat someone harshly, causing damage or pain, to be treated unfairly, discriminatorily.

Okay, enough of the breaking down word meanings. Let's read the Biblical passage, the message from the Word of God.

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: 

We are NOT to despise the chastening (discipline, punishment) of the LORD.

THE LORD will chasten us! The LORD will rebuke us! We receive this chastening, this rebuking from our CREATOR, from our HEAVENLY FATHER why? How?

Hold up for a moment of contemplation. All of us started out as babes, grew into toddlers, aged into young children, became older children, entered into the teenage realm and then young adults and onwards (depending on your age whoever might be reading this). The point being we grew up with parental figures in our lives and those parental figures tried to chasten us in order to teach us the proper way of behaving in our society. Even if you have the most awful parents (or parental figures, not particularly your biological parents) in existence you were exposed to some sort of chastening during your upbringing. Home, school, wherever it was you had exposure to learning what behaviors were acceptable and what behaviors weren’t acceptable. One way we learned was by behaving unacceptably and when that occurred we were told it was wrong and if we insisted on continuing that behavior we were punished, chastened in order to enforce the comprehension of what is acceptable and what isn't.

Learning to behave acceptably or knowing there are consequences to unacceptable behavior, and choosing to risk those consequences really are the only choices we have in our lives. Behave or not to behave. You may think there are more choices but there aren't- it's all wrapped up right there. Even if you NEVER get caught misbehaving and suffer any of the possible consequences to your misbehavior, you are risking the possibility of receiving the known consequences to your misbehavior.  Behave or not to behave. We live our lives under this rule of life and we also live our lives under the SPIRITUAL rule of life that is the same- behave or do not behave.

In the spiritual realm of this- our HEAVENLY FATHER will do all He can to teach us the necessary right and wrong behavior and guide us to the right behavior.

Let's read a bit more of the passage-

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. 

Heb 12:9  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? 

Heb 12:10  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. 

Heb 12:11  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. 

Why does our Heavenly Father chasten us- so we might be PARTAKERS OF HIS HOLINESS. He wants us to be HIS! And to be HIS, we need to comprehend right from wrong and choose the right over the wrong. To choose to obey rather than disobey. To comprehend obedience is a gift, true love, true life not a stricture placed on us to hurt us in any way at all.

We all understand the ways parents use to protect children- restricting them in ways they seem to resent. The parents restrict them to protect them out of love. If you have a child who begins to crawl and an open stairway down to a basement, you take precautions to keep the child from hurting themselves. You aren't doing it to be mean, you aren't trying to limit your child from its life- you are protecting the child so the child continues to have a life. God would protect us in this way. If we become willful, as children can, we might succeed in circumventing any protective measure put up to keep us from taking a bad fall down the stairs. The consequence will be us falling and even dying.

God would have us be PARTAKERS of HIS HOLINESS.

The position we were originally created for- to be a part of God's existence in pure peace, in pure love. The joy that waits for those who will partake of God's holiness goes beyond true comprehension in its wonder, try as we might to compare it to something we can only know it now cumbered by sin's degradation.

We are spiritually chastened so we may become PARTAKERS of GOD'S HOLINESS.

More on this tomorrow by the will and the mercy, the love, the grace of our LORD and SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST.