Hebrews 12:4–11

⁴For in your struggle against sin you have not yet had to resist to the point of being killed. ^5*Have you forgotten the encouraging words which God speaks to you as his sons and daughters?

“My child, pay attention when the Lord corrects you,

and do not be discouraged when he rebukes you.

^6*Because the Lord corrects everyone he loves,

and punishes everyone he accepts as his child.”

⁷Endure what you suffer as being a father’s punishment; your suffering shows that God is treating you as his children. Was there ever a child who was not punished by his father? ⁸If you are not punished, as all his children are, it means you are not real children, but bastards. ⁹In the case of our human fathers, they punished us and we respected them. How much more, then, should we submit to our spiritual Father and live! ¹⁰Our human fathers punished us for a short time, as it seemed right to them; but God does it for our own good, so that we may share his holiness. ¹¹When we are punished, it seems to us at the time something to make us sad, not glad. Later, however, those who have been disciplined by such punishment reap the peaceful reward of a righteous life.