THE HARD DISCIPLINE OF A VERY GOOD FATHER
November 12, 2026
While I was recently reading through the New Testament’s letter to the Hebrews, I was struck by the wide chasm that often exists between my expectations for my life’s path and God’s better wisdom.
The unnamed author wrote to first-century Christian Jews who were suffering persecution because they were bold, outspoken witnesses for Jesus. The point of the letter was to urge them to keep following Jesus even if following Jesus resulted in serious persecution.
Leading up to the theme of God’s better wisdom for me and you, he walks us through what some call Scripture’s “Hall of Fame of Faith.” (Hebrews, chapter 11) There, we read the stories of the faith-filled lives of a few Old Testament heroes. While we find these stories uniformly inspiring, we notice that every one of the heroes’ stories involves some measure of suffering.
The author then turned from the stories of the Old Testament faithful to give an abbreviated story of Jesus. He reminds us that Jesus was, heroically, “THE ORIGINATOR AND PERFECTER OF THE FAITH,” and that He “ENDURED THE CROSS” while “DESPISING THE SHAME” of it all. (Hebrews 12:1-2)
The lesson of the Old Testament heroes and Jesus is that there is a cause-effect relationship between the growth of faith and the training effect brought on by hard circumstances.
Having told the essential story of Jesus (Hebrews 12:1-2), the author went on to address his readers, then and now. He used the term “discipline” to describe the process of training used by earthly fathers and by our heavenly Father.
“Discipline” involves initiating or allowing challenges to come into someone else’s life to spur them on to maturity.
An earthly father’s training of a child will involve increasingly difficult assignments to prepare the child for the requirements of adulthood. When I was actively parenting, I (it was a team effort with Kathy) trained my kids in truth-telling, emotional regulation, and the do’s and don’ts of relational health. I also trained them in Economics 101, cheerfulness in doing chores, and respecting authority. All good stuff.
God’s discipline of His children is similar in that it is designed to spur growth and maturity. The curriculum of God’s discipline includes:
(1) calamities from which He often does not rescue us.
(2) diseases, sicknesses, and ailments He will sometimes allow us to endure.
(3) consequences of our sins and foolishnesses that He allows us to taste.
(4) painful situations and circumstances that He actively orchestrates.
So, there are similarities between the discipline of our dads (and moms) and that of our Father in that they are doing what they are doing for our good.
The difference between the two is in scope and in what is at stake.
As Hebrews’ author reminds us, our earthly fathers disciplined us with a short time frame in mind, as it seemed best to them (12:10).
Our heavenly Father, though, “disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.” His discipline gives us more than a knowledge of how to get along in life. It yields the transcendent power of “the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”
God does all that He does in disciplining us, knowing that as it was for Jesus, so it is for us that some lessons of faith are learned only and best in the crucible of suffering. ([Hebrews 5:8] He learned obedience from the things which He suffered)
The message about discipline from Hebrews 12 is that God is willing and able to use something as severe as persecution redemptively.
That message was not only good news for the first readers of this letter. It’s good news for us, too.
Even if we aren’t being severely persecuted for our faith in Jesus, there is, for all of us, always, some measure of hardship, pain, and suffering. Take heart from what the author of Hebrews had to say to Christians like us who suffer in any of the ways in which it is possible to suffer.
When the author wrote that Jesus “endured the cross, despising the shame,” He continued, assuring us that Jesus endured with eager anticipation of “the joy set before Him.” Jesus knew that having faithfully endured suffering, He would soon be seated at the right hand of His Father in glory.
You can know that your Father will use anything (yes, even THAT seemingly unbearable and unendurable “thing”) to make you fit to “share His holiness.” You can know that your Father will bring out of your suffering “THE PEACEFUL FRUIT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
It is sobering to understand the hard discipline our very good Father is willing to allow us to experience. And we are filled with bright hope when we see the beauty our Father will bring out of the ashes of those sufferings.
Yours…His,
Dave
