God chastens His loved ones!

I (once) believed that God chastened|corrected only his Sons. But in searching the scripture, God revealed that this was not the case because he said As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. – Revelation 3:19 but he loves the world! (John 3:16).

Diving into the word of God to understand this view more clearly, we see this truth:

If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? [8] But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. [9] Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?

Hebrews 12:7-9

Since God chastens the world that he loves, as confirmed in the statement above “all are partakers“, with the rod of Correction (Jesus | the word of God), then sons is the title of those who respond to God’s chastening vs those who receive it.

God “chastens” using the Rod, Jesus is that Rod.

And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse

Isaiah 11:1

The rod drives foolishness out of us:

Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.

Proverbs 22:15

Part of what that foolishness equates to:

• Lacking knowledge of God (Psalm 53:1)
• That lack of knowledge leads us to have/build false images (Idols) in our hearts about who God is (Rom 1:21-23)
• That lack of knowledge causes us to perish (die) (Hos 4:6)
• When we see things solely from a perspective of flesh (Psalm 94:8-9, 1 Sam 16:7, John 6:63). Said another way, when a person is blind to the spirit (Jer 5:21)

So Jesus |The Rod, reverses all the things we embraced when we walked as fools (points above):

1. Knowledge of God, i.e. through him, we can know (intimately) God (2 Cor 4:6)
2. Knowledge of God destroys the idols of the heart, our mind is now led captive by truth (Zec 13:2, 2 Cor 10:5)
3. When we get to know God, we will not perish, we won’t be destroyed (John 17:3)
4. He opens our eyes to see Spiritual: If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. – John 14:7