Hebrews 12:8Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Then he points also to the common custom: "But if," he says, "you remain without chastening, of which all are partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons." Do you see, as I said above, that it is impossible for a son to remain unchastened? In families, fathers do not care about illegitimate children, even if they learn nothing and never become known. But they care about legitimate sons, so that they may not be careless. So it is here. Therefore, if being unchastened is proper to illegitimate children, one must rejoice in chastening as a sign of true kinship.

If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom a father does not chasten? If you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

By the example of those about whom they thought that they had been abandoned by God, he shows them that they were the objects of God’s care.

If you were strangers to afflictions, it would appear that you were illegitimate children and not sons. For what father cares for the upbringing and chastity of illegitimate sons?

Since you are subjected to oppression, your life thereby appears chaste and temperate. So also all the righteous mentioned above are plainly righteous, and they were called sons of God.

It is clear that this does not contradict the fact that God deals with you as with sons and cares for you, lest, being undisciplined, you fall away, and lest for this He deprive you of the inheritance.

But if you remain without His chastening, of which all became partakers and through which they became pleasing to Him, then by your deeds you are illegitimate children and not sons.

"If you endure chastening," that is, if you bravely endure the chastisements imposed on you, "God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons." Fathers, says the Apostle, are accustomed to chasten legitimate children. When they see their teachers beating them, they do not grieve, because they see the fruit of chastening. But they neglect children born outside lawful marriage and do not deem them worthy of equal care. Therefore, if you also avoid chastening, you belong to the number of illegitimate children.

It has been said that every son is chastened. If this is so, then everyone who is not chastened is not a son. In families, parents pay no attention to illegitimate children, even if they learn nothing and are not distinguished by good conduct. But they care greatly for their own.

Therefore one must rejoice in chastening, because it is a sign of legitimate sonship when a man is scourged and chastened, not as an evildoer, but as a son. He is restrained and guarded, while what is bad in him and around him is corrected, and he is taught what is best.

All the sons of God, the righteous, were partakers of chastening. None of them reached perfection without affliction.

A father does not chasten other people's children, even when he sees that they are unreformed. So too the Heavenly Father leaves without chastening those people who are not His own and not of His household, as not being His: "But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons" (Heb 12:8).

"But if you are without chastening," says the Apostle, "of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons." Here one must note the word "all": all the righteous passed their earthly life in afflictions. Not one of them reached heaven by walking the broad path of earthly prosperity.

All the more, we must not grow faint under the action of the various calamities of our life. God sends these calamities to us as a loving Father, for our strengthening in the good. The Apostle speaks with amazement that the readers have not yet endured the extreme calamity, and yet have already managed to forget the encouraging words of Holy Scripture (Prov 3:11-12). From the words of Scripture, the readers should have drawn the conclusion that those who are not chastened by God are not acknowledged by Him as sons.