Hebrews 12:3-13 - Fatherly Discipline

³ for you should consider how he endured such opposition from sinners against himself, lest ye be tired out, and quite despond. ⁴ You have not yet resisted unto death, striving against sin. ⁵ have you forgot the exhortation which is address'd to you, as to children? "my son, despise not thou the chastning of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. ⁶ for whom the Lord loveth, he chastises, and scourgeth every son whom he receives."

⁷ if you are to endure chastisement, God treats you as his children: for where's the son whom his father does not chastise? ⁸ but if you were exempted from that discipline which others are subject to, then are you bastards, and not sons. ⁹ when our natural parents corrected us, we gave them reverence: is it not much more reasonable to be in subjection to the father of spirits, in order to have life? ¹⁰ their discipline was temporary, and the effect of humour; whereas God chastises us for our advantage, to make us partakers of his holiness. ¹¹ 'tis true, all correction at first is far from appearing agreeable, yet afterward it produces the agreeable fruits of virtue in those who are exercised thereby.

¹² Wherefore "strengthen your weak hands and your feeble knees. ¹³ clear the way for your feet, lest that which is lame should be quite out of joint, instead of being redress'd."