"Whom The Lord Loveth He Chasteneth"
Context: The writer, arguing firmly the revelation of God through Christ, shows that the new faith of Christianity goes beyond the faith of the Old Testament. Declaring the ineffectiveness of the old ritualistic practices, he warns the people of the day of judgment, but encourages them for their faithfulness. He defines "faith" ("Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen") and illustrates it by citing from the Scriptures the sufferings experienced by men of God. Exhorting the people to persevere through Christ in the many struggles before them, he notes the suffering of Christ and says that God causes His children to suffer for reasons of discipline and love:
For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
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