Hebrews 12:7 Commentary and Bible Study

How does a child regard discipline from a parent, a father? In the short term it is not welcome because it is designed by the parent to be painful. The child has stepped over a boundary. Before that happened, the loving father tried to deal with his child by persuasion, by showing tokens of love and affection, by giving encouragement and incentives to behave better, to turn away from danger, evil. The child was treated as a rational being who could be appealed to. But at some boundary which the father in his own wisdom has determined, the child is going to be treated differently. The approach is going to become much more negative, and the parent is not afraid to show strong opposition to the child. The parent has power over the child and is now going to use it, though still in a controlled way. The child is no longer being consulted, as it were, because it has refused to respond. The hope is that for a limited time, something more forceful will do the child good. It is not the way the father wishes to relate to the child permanently, indeed he would like to return to a more rational interaction as soon as possible, but that depends on how the child responds to this new treatment, so the father watches very carefully to see the effect. When the child is responding to reasoned persuasion, something more is being achieved than mere compulsion of an unwilling agent; the child’s mind and will are being trained and are cooperating in the process of education. That is preferable, but it is not always the right procedure. It is not good for the child to be allowed to go on ignoring kind persuasion for too long. That would teach the child that the father lacks authority and can be taken advantage of. So something more unpleasant is designed by the father.How does the child regard this? In the long term this should be a source of reassurance to the child. He learns to see past the short-term unpleasantness of the discipline, and to see the father’s strategy, what the father is ultimately aiming it, and it is something that works powerfully for his good. How can the child conclude that the father hates him when he is being faithful to the responsibility of training the child? The father is ready to risk the short-term disapproval of the child because he sees beyond the current period of unpleasantness, and sees the building of the child’s character – something which is of far more value than the child’s immediate happiness. The child will learn to say, ‘My father loves me and is therefore taking his parental responsibilities seriously. I am truly my father’s son and he regards me differently to other children.’