Hebrews 12:5-8 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And ye have forgotten, &c. As if he had said, If you faint it will appear you have forgotten, the exhortation Wherein God speaks to you with the utmost tenderness; as unto his own dear children, saying, My son, despise not thou Do not slight or make light of; the chastening of the Lord Do not impute it to chance or to second causes, but see and revere the hand of God in it; account it a great mercy, and improve it; nor faint, and sink, when thou art rebuked of him But endure it patiently and fruitfully, avoiding the extremes of proud insensibility and entire dejection. For All such dispensations spring from love; therefore neither despise them nor faint under them; whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth Or correcteth for their faults, in order to their amendment; and that he may try, exercise, and thereby increase their faith, hope, love, resignation, patience, meekness, and other graces; and that he may purify them by such fires, as gold and silver are purged in the furnace from their dross. And scourgeth With seeming severity; every son whom he receiveth Into his peculiar favour. See note on Proverbs 3:11-12, &c. If ye endure, &c. If God correct you, and cause you to endure chastening, he dealeth with you as wise and affectionate parents deal with their beloved sons; for what son is he whom the father Namely, the person who performs the duty of a father; chasteneth not More or less? There are scarce any children who do not sometimes need correction, and no wise and good parent will always forbear it. But if ye be without chastisement “If ye pass your lives without experiencing sickness of any kind, or worldly losses, or affliction in your families, or death of children, or injuries from your neighbours, or any of the other troubles to which the children of God are exposed, certainly you are treated by your heavenly Father as bastards, and not as sons.” Ye are not owned by God for his children.