I have a rule when I am in the grocery store with my kids: do not touch the fruit! These colorful displays of lovely looking food seem to scream, “Touch me! Handle me! Throw me!” If my kids forget, their consequence is NO COOKIE when we get to the bakery. Tough love, right? One day we saw another child handling the fuzzy kiwis, squeezing them in his palms. My kids told me to do something about it. But of course, I wasn’t going to discipline that boy. He wasn’t mine. You only discipline those who belong to you.


In the same way, God’s discipline is good news for us: it means we belong to Him. He disciplines us because we are His. He is the author of our faith, but also the finisher of it, and He knows the kind of discipline that will get us to where He wants us to be. “God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness” (v.10). This ongoing process of sanctification and discipline isn’t always fun. It is tough love. But it is indeed love, and it’s from a Father who loves us and calls us His own.