We have to differentiate two things in the Bible: God's discipline of believers in this age and their salvation in eternity. In the previous message, we saw the first difference. In this message, we are going to see the second. Hebrews records the matter of the discipline of the believers. Now we have to see what are the kinds of people that God disciplines and what is the purpose of this discipline.
Hebrews 12:5-6 says, "And you have completely forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with sons, 'My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when reproved by Him; for whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.'" Here, we see clearly that the motive of discipline is the love of God. Those who receive God's discipline are the sons of God. If someone is not a son of God, God will not discipline him. You can never find in the Bible that God disciplines an unbeliever. God does not waste His time and energy to discipline all the people on this earth. It is the same with us. We do not discipline our neighbors' children. If the neighbors' children do not dress well or do things properly, we do not discipline them. Only when it is a case of our own children do we discipline them. Therefore, the realm of discipline is confined only to Christians, and the motive of discipline is love. It is not because God hates man that He disciplines him. He disciplines man because He loves him. Revelation 3:19 also says that God disciplines because of love.
Hebrews 12:7-8 says, "It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom the father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all sons have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons." Therefore, the extent of discipline is limited to the children only. Verse 9 says, "Furthermore we have had the fathers of our flesh as discipliners and we respected them; shall we not much more be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?" If we accept the discipline of our parents in the flesh, how much more should we accept the discipline from our Father, the Father of spirits.
Verse 10 says, "For they disciplined for a few days as it seemed good to them; but He, for what is profitable that we might partake of His holiness." This tells us the purpose of discipline. It is not because God likes to discipline us that He does it. Neither is it because He wants us to suffer. He disciplines us so that we can partake of His holiness. If a Christian lives in a very loose way on earth, without manifesting God's nature and holiness, God's hand will fall heavily on such a one. God does not like to chastise us. His purpose is to have His holiness manifested in us. He will only stop disciplining us when His holiness is manifested in us. Therefore, we see that discipline does not prove that we are not the Lord's. Rather, it proves that we belong to the Lord. There is no need of discipline for someone who does not belong to the Lord. Only those who belong to the Lord are qualified to be disciplined.