In this all-out match against sin, others have suffered far worse than you, to say nothing of what Jesus went through—all that bloodshed! So don’t feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children?

My dear child, don’t shrug off God’s discipline,
    but don’t be crushed by it either.
It’s the child he loves that he disciplines;
    the child he embraces, he also corrects. (The Message).

I have a warm and vivid memory of sitting on my mother’s knee, feeling her loving embrace, just after being sternly disciplined for some misdemeanour. I can’t remember what wrong I had done, but I know I was in big trouble. The memory, however, is the feeling of warm assurance that I was deeply and tenderly loved, even though I was a ‘sinner’. The parental discipline I had experienced was not about expressing hatred, but was meant to be corrective and educational. The overwhelming memory was of feeling loved.

In the ‘New International Version’, the quote from Prov.3:11,12 is described as ”this word of encouragement” (5). The writer points out that in all their suffering, his readers have not yet had to die for their faith (unlike some of the ‘heroes’ mentioned in Hebrews 11). What they are going through is not a sign that God doesn’t love them. To the contrary, it is an indicator that they truly are His children.