If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. (Hebrews 12:07-08, NKJV).
How do you know God cares?
How do you know He cares about you, meaning what is the proof positive that you have actually been adopted into His family?
In the previous passage, the exhortation was to accept the chastening of the Lord, knowing that He scourges every one whom He receives - in essence, shredding the old self so that your new creaturehood can emerge.
Scourging is painful. The picture that comes to mind is Jesus being given 39 lashes before His crucifixion. The whip used was a Roman flagellum or scourge, thick leather straps embedded with sharp stones or pieces of glass.
But in these verses, based on the form of the Greek word used, the emphasis is placed not on physical chastisement, but on the whole training of the human character and human morality through Divine nurturing.
Simply put, if your life is without this, then you are not His. In other words, if you go day to day, blithely uncaring and carefree, with all things working out to your personal satisfaction, comfortable with the world and your place in it, then regardless of what you call yourself, you are not under God's training. You are illegitimate and not sons (or daughters).
The Christian is at odds with the world system. We are "behind enemy lines", and the condition of the battlefield is such that we are targeted by the world, the enemy of our souls, and our own old nature - our flesh. But in addition to those hardships, we are also the focus of God's instructional nurturing that prepares us for immortality in the New Heavens and New Earth.
This chastening takes many forms, but all have the same goal - to conform us into the image of God's Son. To share in His suffering so that we may learn to share in His life.
So then, the test of God's love for you is this: do you love your life on this Fallen planet? Then you will lose it.
It is not as simple an equation as might seem, for even the most vile, self-satisfied sinner sees room for improvement in his or her circumstances. Nothing is perfect for long. But the longing for improvement in the life of a child of God is Christ-centered as opposed to self-centered. It is a longing of an other-worldly character focused on things above, and not on the world.
As is the longing for improvement so is the nature of our suffering. You see, we are King's children under training. This means that, unlike mere humans of the world, our suffering is part of a syllabus, devised by an Infinite Intelligence for a specific purpose: to make us fit for life in the Kingdom of God.
The world, frankly, thinks such ideas are worthy of medical or psychiatric treatment, but we know better. We understand that He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things?
We are being perfected through suffering just as Christ was perfected as our sacrifice. Do not think it strange when you encounter various trials, the Apostle Peter writes, but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. (1 Peter 4:13, NKJV). This is part of the training.
For a Christian, you must suffer before joy. You must lose to gain. You must die to live. It is the only way to be transformed under God's guiding hand from a sinner worthy of eternal damnation, to a son or daughter bestowed with eternal blessing.
And if that is not happening to you, if you do not cry out from your own weakness and failure, if you do not look upon the sin of the world with a broken heart, if you do not long for personal godliness, if you are not convicted by your own sin, then you are not under His instruction… and you are not His.
Now there is a huge difference between conviction and condemnation. The one motivates, the other discourages. The one results in a course correction, the other in paralysis. The one is from your Heavenly Father through His Spirit within you, the other is from the Devil of Hell himself.
And there is a huge difference between you own legalistic attempts to be godly, and having your behavior modified from the inside out by God through His chastening. The first gives you cause for pride and self-satisfaction. The second has you on your face in humility and thanksgiving.
And finally, Christian life on this world is not devoid of joy. On the contrary, underlying all that He brings us through, is a contentment and joy unspeakable - knowledge and certainty of our purpose and our God that makes us more than conquerors, and enables us to do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. (1 John 3:2, NKJV).
