Hebrews 12:1–7

Explore the Bible 
Assistant Professor of Christian Ministries, University of Mobile

The Discipline Of Suffering

Hebrews 12:1–7

Hebrews 12 was written to strengthen our faith so we can follow the faithful witnesses mentioned in Hebrews 11 by considering Jesus’ example. We gain strength to face trials by considering Jesus’ endurance of hardship as well as the divine purpose of discipline.

The Christian life is hard and for many of you, this is where you are right now. These verses are in the Bible to help you.

Enduring (1–3)

In verse 1 Christians find encouragement in being surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. These witnesses in Hebrews 11 risked it all on God and His promises. Some of them, through faith, saw God do incredibly powerful things. Others died without receiving any earthly validation for their faith. They had prayed the same prayers but God did not rescue them from their trial (Heb. 11:32–40). These witnesses are witnesses by the fact their past lives bear witness to monumental, persevering faith that, like Abel’s faith, “still speaks, even though he is dead” (Heb. 11:4).

Such encouragement should lead us to lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely to us. We should throw off everything that hinders our spiritual development. A hindrance is something, otherwise good, that weighs us down spiritually. It could be a friendship, an event, a place, a habit, a pleasure, an entertainment. But if this otherwise good thing drags you down you must lay it aside. A sin is any failure to conform to the moral law of God in act, attitude or nature. If we are to finish well in faith, we must strip our souls naked of everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles us.

God’s desire is for us to run the race set before us with endurance. We each have a specific course mapped out for us and the course for each runner is unique. This race is not a sprint; it’s a marathon. With the empowerment of the Holy Spirit we can run with endurance and finish well (2 Tim. 4:7–8).

In verses 2–3 we see that we must keep our eyes focused on Jesus. His steadfast obedience provided a perfect example of commitment for struggling believers. Jesus is the founder of our faith. He initiates our faith and enables us to believe (Eph. 2:8–9). Jesus also is the perfecter of our faith. He takes struggling believers, develops our faith and enables us to persevere in the faith.

Jesus endured the suffering of the cross by focusing on the victorious joy and the future reward that would be His when He returned to the Father. Many of the readers could identify with the hostility shown to Jesus, though on a lesser scale. As Jesus endured by trusting in the promise of God, so we should keep on keeping on as we anticipate the Father’s promise of future blessing.

Disciplined (4–7)

Verse 4 puts the struggles of the readers of Hebrews in perspective. Although they had experienced intense hardship, they had not yet faced resistance to the point of shedding their blood. Their main test was fighting their own sinful nature.

By quoting Proverbs 3:11–12 in verses 5–6, the writer urges us not to belittle God’s discipline and not to lose heart in the face of God’s rebuke. We should not see trials as cause for discouragement but as a sign of God’s determined love. We need to reflect on the long-term benefits of our trials and recognize that discipline represents God’s method of developing our maturity.

Verse 7 teaches discipline is God’s loving method for shaping our character. Discipline was a common term for childrearing through instruction, training and correction. However, the book of Hebrews focuses on the call for perseverance in the painful tests of life. These tests are to our benefit, prove our sonship and require a response of perseverance. We, therefore, should not be disheartened when we face hardship.