4. You are struggling against sin, but your struggles have not yet caused you to be killed.
5. You have forgotten his encouraging words for his sons:“My son, don’t think the Lord’s discipline of you is worth nothing.And don’t stop trying when the Lord corrects you.
6. The Lord corrects those he loves.And he punishes everyone he accepts as his child.” Proverbs 3:11-12
7. So accept your sufferings as if they were a father’s punishment. God does these things to you as a father punishing his sons. All sons are punished by their fathers.
8. If you are never punished (and every son must be punished), you are not true children and not really sons.
9. We have all had fathers here on earth who punished us. And we respected our fathers. So it is even more important that we accept punishment from the Father of our spirits. If we do this, we will have life.
10. Our fathers on earth punished us for a short time. They punished us the way they thought was best. But God punishes us to help us, so that we can become holy as he is.
11. We do not enjoy punishment. Being punished is painful at the time. But later, after we have learned from being punished, we have peace, because we start living in the right way.
12. You have become weak. So make yourselves strong again.
13. Keep on the right path so the weak will not stumble but rather be strengthened.