"For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth." - Hebrews 12:6
When a person is saved through the Gospel (1 Cor. 15:1-4), they become a child of God (Rom. 8:15). The Apostle John wrote in Revelation that He "...hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth" (5:10).
Does any child naturally know how to rule wisely? Of course not. We all make mistakes even after we have accepted Jesus as Savior. We have to understand that our Father loves us and paid the ultimate price on the cross for us. He is not a tyrant that is waiting for us to mess up and then punish us. God is patient (2 Peter 3:9) and rich in mercy (Eph. 2:4).
“But now, O LORD, thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou our Potter; and we all are the work of Thy hand.” - Isaiah 64:8
When a potter creates a piece of art out of clay, he constantly trims and smooths and re-shapes. The Bible compares us to clay. We are clay with freewill. Imagine that you are sculpting clay that is constantly wiggling and fighting the shape that you are giving it. That is what we do to our Father. Sometimes it is through stubbornness and sometimes it is out of ignorance.
Always remember that just as we correct our own children with love because we know what is best for them, God does the same thing for us. He corrects us out of love and for a purpose.
Websters 1828 Dictionary defines chastens "to purify from errors or faults". The Apostle Paul said "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" (Heb. 12:11).
The fruit that we can produce shows that we are His (Matt. 7:16-20, Gal. 5:22-24). We must allow God to prune us!
"As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent." - Revelation 3:19
Keeping in mind that God is disciplining us out of love and for a purpose, we need to see what His correction looks like. Before we look at that, please remember that God will never punish you for your sins! The Bible says in Romans 5:8-9 and in Isaiah 53:6 that the Lord laid all of His wrath upon Jesus at the cross.
Also, keep in mind that chastening and punishing are different. Chastening is correcting a child (Prov. 3:11-12, Heb. 12:6). Punishment is the wrath of God i.e. Hell (Matt. 25:46, Heb. 10:29).
If you've read the Dispensations lesson, you know that God deals differently with different people at different times. Our current dispensation is the Church Age, so we have to keep that in mind when looking at how God chastens believers today.
The first way that the Lord chastens us is through conviction and that conviction will always line up with His Word.
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." - 2 Timothy 3:16
This passage gives us an outline for God's chastening. The Bible first gives us doctrine. After we learn doctrine, we either choose to obey or rebel. When Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, he was filled with sorrow and anger. They were saved, and yet, were living in a manner that was worse than unbelievers.
We learn in 1 Corinthians that there were men having sexual relations with their step-mothers (1 Cor. 5:1), that people were getting drunk at Communion (1 Cor. 11:21), believers were not showing any sort of forgiveness and taking legal cases before unbelievers (1 Cor. 6:6), they were eating food sacrificed to demons and idols (1 Cor. 8:7), and other activities.
After committing sins, through His Word, God will provide reproof or conviction. This can come from the voice of the Holy Spirit (Jh. 16:3 and 8) or from a fellow-Christian rebuking as Paul did to the Corinthian church: "Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner..." (2 Cor. 7:9).
If a believer continues to ignore the reproving/convicting, then the Lord will begin to chasten.
"For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world." - 1 Corinthians 11:30-32
Please read carefully what Paul said. We have the opportunity to stop sinning first and avoid the chastening. However, if a believer continues in sin they will become weak and sickly, and then die. They will not lose their salvation (see lesson here), but they will be called home. We are ambassadors for Christ (2 Cor. 5:20) and an ambassador that fails to do his or her job is fired and sent home.
To be weak and sickly does not just mean physically, but also mentally. When we intentionally hold on to guilt and shame, we create an extreme amount of stress for our bodies. This mental anguish can showcase itself in a variety of ways through physical sickness or mental illness.
Paul is not saying that whenever a person gets a cold or if they get cancer that they are being chastised. You must keep what he is saying in context. God's chastisement starts with a warning vis-a-vis reproof.
I want to end this lesson with a chilling thought. What if you continuously live a life of sin are not being chastised by God?
"But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons." - Hebrews 12:8