The Father disciplines the believers that they might partake of His holiness. Referring to the Hebrew believers’ suffering of persecution, Hebrews 12:5-11 considers this persecution as God the Father’s discipline of the believers, who are God’s genuine sons (v. 7). “Whom the Lord loves He disciplines and scourges every son whom He receives” (v. 6), and all the believers as God’s sons have become partakers of the Father’s discipline (v. 8). As sons of God, we should respect the Father as a discipliner and be much in subjection to Him who is the Father of our spirits, so that we may live (v. 9). The Father disciplines us for our profit that we might partake of His holiness (v. 10), which is the characteristic of His holy nature. This is God our Father’s work in dealing with us as His sons. His work of making us holy is related to the Spirit’s transformation work (2 Cor. 3:18), which is carried out through the divine dispensing inwardly and the environmental dealings outwardly.
The Father’s disciplining of the believers involves His dispensing. As He disciplines us, He dispenses His holy nature into our being. Thus, through this dispensing we become partakers of His holiness.
Hebrews 12:11 goes on to tell us that “indeed all discipline for the present does not seem to be a matter of joy but of grief; but afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been exercised by it.” The Father’s discipline is for holiness resulting in righteousness and peace. God’s discipline not only makes us to partake of His holiness but also yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. Peace is the fruit of righteousness (Isa. 32:17). Holiness refers to the inward nature, whereas righteousness refers to the outward behavior, that is, to be right outwardly both with God and man so that in such a situation of righteousness we may enjoy peace as a sweet fruit, a peaceable fruit of righteousness.
If we have not been permeated inwardly with God’s holy nature, we cannot have the proper righteousness in our outward behavior. First, God works His holy nature into us. Then in our outward behavior we shall have the peaceable fruit of righteousness as the issue of inward holiness. In our practical experience, therefore, holiness is first, righteousness is second, and peace is third.
By the divine dispensing the Father guards the believers from stumbling and makes them without blemish. Jude 24 says, “To Him who is able to guard you from stumbling, and to set you before His glory without blemish in exultation.” Here the writer indicates clearly that although he has charged the believers to endeavor in the things mentioned in verses 20 through 23, yet only God our Savior is able to guard them from stumbling and to set them before His glory without blemish in exultation. Glory here is the glory of the great God and our Savior, Christ Jesus, which will be manifested at His appearing (Titus 2:13; 1 Pet. 4:13) and in which He will come (Luke 9:26). The preposition “in” here means in the element of, and “exultation” signifies the exuberance of triumphant joy (Alford).
The Epistle of 1 Peter speaks of the Christian life under the government of God, which is carried out by God’s judgment. In His governmental judgment God judges the believers first. For this reason, 1 Peter 4:17 says, “It is time for the judgment to begin from the house of God; and if first from us, what will be the end of those who disobey the gospel of God?” According to the context, the sufferings the believers undergo in fiery persecution are used by God as a means to judge them that they may be disciplined, purified, and separated from the unbelievers and not have the same destiny as unbelievers. Hence, such disciplinary judgment begins from God’s own household. God’s house, or household, is the church composed of the believers (1 Pet. 2:5; Heb. 3:6; 1 Tim. 3:15; Eph. 2:19). From this house, as His own house, God begins His governmental administration by His disciplinary judgment over His own children, that He may have a strong ground to judge, in His universal kingdom, those who are disobedient to His gospel and rebellious to His government. This is for the establishment of His kingdom.
The judgment in 4:17 is not for condemnation to eternal perdition. It is a judgment for discipline, a dispensational discipline to purify our life. This judgment is a fiery ordeal, a burning furnace (v. 12), to purify us and remove any dross. We can be compared to gold, but we still have a certain amount of dross from which we need to be purified. No teaching or fellowship can accomplish this purification. The disciplinary judgment of the burning furnace is necessary to carry it out. Therefore, God puts the believers into a burning furnace, into fiery ordeals, to burn away the dross. This is regarded by Peter as a judgment in God’s governmental dealing with the believers.
We need to be deeply impressed from 4:17 that judgment begins with the household of God. This is God’s governmental administration carried out by His disciplinary judgment over His own children. Today all of us are under God’s judgment. God is not only gracing us, giving us grace; He is also judging us. This is the reason we have many sufferings. We have sufferings because God is judging us. On the one hand, God is gracing us to live a life that suits His righteousness under His judgment. On the other hand, He judges anything that does not match His government. Therefore, in this age we the believers are under the daily judgment of God. However, even God’s judging the believers is a matter of His dispensing.
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