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11 The discipline of the Lord, my son, do not spurn;(A)
    do not disdain his reproof;
12 [a]For whom the Lord loves he reproves,
    as a father, the son he favors.(B)

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Footnotes

  1. 3:12 One might be tempted to judge the quality of one’s relationship to God by one’s prosperity. It is an inadequate criterion, for God as a teacher might go counter to student expectations. The discipline of God can involve suffering.

32 but since we are judged by [the] Lord, we are being disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.(A)

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You have also forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as sons:

“My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord(A)
    or lose heart when reproved by him;
for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines;
    he scourges every son he acknowledges.”

Endure your trials as “discipline”; God treats you as sons. For what “son” is there whom his father does not discipline?(B) If you are without discipline, in which all have shared, you are not sons but bastards. Besides this, we have had our earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not [then] submit all the more to the Father of spirits and live?(C) 10 They disciplined us for a short time as seemed right to them, but he does so for our benefit, in order that we may share his holiness. 11 At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it.(D)

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