Thoughts on chastening

I wasn't always 'straight' with God about sin. There had been too many times that I asked Him for His will, went against it when He revealed it to me because it really was not what I had hoped, and for a while managed to keep doing my own thing and justify my actions and decisions. (Of course sins are never actually 'justified', but that also serves to illustrate how great our state of delusion becomes when we keep shutting God's ways and words out of our conscience and heart). If we confess our sins, God will always be found faithful and willing to forgive us, and to remove the residue that sin leaves (see 1 John1:9). But this cleansing from unrighteousness does not mean that the consequences of sin are made null and void.
I have also often pleaded that God would spare me the chastening that I deserved and feared. God has at times held back the full harvest that most definitely always occurs as a result of sin, but I have had to face the fact that when we sow to the flesh - unequivocally - we, of the flesh, will reap corruption. There is just no getting around it. (see Galatians 6:7,8). This brings the much dreaded concept of 'chastening' into the picture.

First, we have to be sure that we understand that "God delights in mercy", absolutely.

Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you;
And therefore He will be exalted that He may have mercy on you.
Isaiah 30:18


And this is not to say that He waits for us to fall into sin just so that He can show His mercy. When we sin we grieve the Spirit of the Holy God that dwells within us. God does not enjoy any instance of this process.

For He does not afflict willingly,

Nor grieve the children of men.

Lamentations 3:33

Oh, that you had heeded My commandments!
Then your peace would have been like a river,
And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
Isaiah 48:18


But God understands that if anything can teach us a lesson about the perils to our soul of sin and disobedience, it would be chastening. And if anyone disagrees they must present a more successful alternative and one has never been found, [ i.e. not short of the Lord Himself doing a mighty transforming work in us with one sweep of His hand by His very able Spirit].
Additionally, even chastening is often resisted by us many times before we ever humble ourselves to learn the lesson, or else we straighten up for the immediate period but fall right back to the sin after its sting has worn off. We need only to read the historical accounts of the journey of the Israelites out of Egypt towards the promised land to gain many many examples of this.

Chastening doesn't always have to be some separate event of discipline that the Lord designs after we have sinned for often we find that the consequence of our sin is left for us to endure and face - although He does pour out His Spirit and grace to sustain, refine, and purify us in the midst of it.

Neither is His chastening as whimsical as some of the methods of discipline that many parents use with their children for whether we perceive it or not, God's chastening targets the thing that stains us - much like many laundry detergents claim to do - often going deep beneath the surface to the thing in our heart that nurtures our willingness to sin and our desire for the sin.

[At this point I want to leave a reminder that there will be seasons in which a Christian finds himself/herself experiencing a great trial or ordeal which has nothing to do with chastening for sin. Rather, this cutting process is something the Lord has sent or allowed for the greater purpose of sanctification and His glorification. This is best described as a process of pruning, not chastening. Similarly however, if we are determined to endure we will find His grace is more than sufficient and will bring us out far better and stronger than we went in].

Chastening occurs only because it is needed.

If we knew the depths of sin and truly understood its consequences to our soul, we would embrace chastening.
It is not possible to enjoy chastening of course, but certainly we need to cooperate with the Lord by submitting to Him and resisting the flesh and the devil, by learning His ways, and by obeying His word. Furthermore, our hearts should easily be able to pour out gratitude and praise to God for His faithfulness and mercy, as we praise and worship Him with the understanding of who He is,what He has accomplished for us, and what He yet works to accomplish in us.

Scripture is replete with direct and indirect references as to what God uses chastening to achieve in our character. Below are a few examples that speak clearly without requiring any commentary:

If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?...Shall we not more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.

Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Hebrews 12:7,9-11

Indeed it was for my own peace

That I had great bitterness;

But You have lovingly delivered my soul from the pit of corruption,

For You have cast all my sins behind Your back.

Isaiah 39:17

Before I was afflicted I went astray,

But now I keep Your word.

Psalm 119:67

It is good for me that I have been afflicted,

That I may learn Your statutes.

Psalm 119:71

For You, O God, have tested us;

You have refined us as silver is refined.

You brought us into the net;

You laid affliction on our backs.

You have caused men to ride over our heads;

We went through fire and water;

But You brought us out to rich fulfillment.

Psalm 66:10-12

Chastening is a painful process that brings us face to face with the character of the God we serve. God's work is always completed. He does all things well and leaves nothing undone - even if what exists seems attractive and acceptable to us, His standard is set by Himself. He is holy.

"We are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world". [1 Corinthians 11:32].
"He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love....that in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and on earth - in Him...in whom we are also being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit" [excerpts from Eph.1 and 2].

The persons who have this understanding want to be refined by God, and chastened if needed. They pray that indeed God will crucify their flesh with its lusts, and they long to live, walk, and move in the power of the Holy Spirit. They fear any wane in the process of refinement more than the pain of it, and choose to submit themselves under God's hand, holding to His promises and confident of His mercies.


I know O Lord that Your judgements are right,

And that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.

Psalm 119:75

For the Lord will not cast off forever.

Though He causes grief,

Yet He will show compassion 
According to the multitude of His mercies.

For He does not afflict willingly,

Nor grieve the children of men.

Lamentations 3:31-33

A holy God will have nothing less than a holy people. Not an in-between, not a mostly-good, not a near-perfect, people, but one holy as He is holy. It is His intention that our "whole spirit, soul, and body is preserved blameless at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ." [1 Thess 5:23]. Our submission to the work of chastening may make the difference in our personal life as to whether or not we will be so found by Him at His appearing.

"As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent."

Revelation 3:19

N.B. All emphasis on scripture added by author