Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?
Parallel translations
- WEB It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with children, for what son is there whom his father doesn’t discipline?
- KJV If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
- NKJV If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?
- NASB It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
- NLT As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Endure hardship as discipline, for God is treating you as his children—what child is not disciplined by a father? Suffering rightly understood is proof of sonship.
Overview
The author applies the principle: the readers should endure their trials precisely because they are God's fatherly discipline. Just as every genuine son is disciplined by his father, so God's correction marks believers as his true children. This reframes endurance not as bare survival but as the experience of being parented by God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Prov 19:18Discipline your son, for in that there is hope; do not be party to his death.
- Deut 8:5So know in your heart that just as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.
- Prov 13:24He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently.
- Prov 29:15A rod of correction imparts wisdom, but a child left to himself disgraces his mother.
- Prov 29:17Discipline your son, and he will give you rest; he will bring delight to your soul.
- Prov 23:13–14Do not withhold discipline from a child; although you strike him with a rod, he will not die.
- 2 Sam 7:14I will be his Father, and he will be My son. When he does wrong, I will discipline him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men.
- Job 34:31–32Suppose someone says to God, ‘I have endured my punishment; I will offend no more.
- 1 Sam 3:13I told him that I would judge his house forever for the iniquity of which he knows, because his sons blasphemed God and he did not restrain them.
- 1 Kgs 2:24–25And now, as surely as the LORD lives—the One who established me, who set me on the throne of my father David, and who founded for me a dynasty as He promised—surely Adonijah shall be put to death today!”
- 1 Sam 2:34And this sign shall come to you concerning your two sons Hophni and Phinehas: They will both die on the same day.
- 1 Sam 2:29Why then do you kick at My sacrifice and offering that I have prescribed for My dwelling place? You have honored your sons more than Me by fattening yourselves with the best of all the offerings of My people Israel.’
- 1 Kgs 1:6(His father had never once reprimanded him by saying, “Why do you act this way?” Adonijah was also very handsome, born next after Absalom.)
- Prov 22:15Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.
- Acts 14:22strengthening the souls of the disciples and encouraging them to continue in the faith. “We must endure many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.
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Hebrews is sustained worship of Christ: better than angels, Moses, and the priests; the great High Priest after Melchizedek who by one sacrifice perfects forever those he saves.
How Hebrews 12:7 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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