012:007 The sufferings that you are enduring are for your discipline.
God is dealing with you as sons; for what son is there whom
his father does not discipline?
012:008 And if you are left without discipline, of which every true
son has had a share, that shows that you are bastards,
and not true sons.
012:009 Besides this, our earthly fathers used to discipline us and we
treated them with respect, and shall we not be still more
submissive to the Father of our spirits, and live?
012:010 It is true that they disciplined us for a few years according
as they thought fit; but He does it for our certain good,
in order that we may become sharers in His own holy character.
012:011 Now, at the time, discipline seems to be a matter not for joy,
but for grief; yet it afterwards yields to those who have passed
through its training a result full of peace—namely, righteousness.
012:012 Therefore strengthen the drooping hands and paralysed knees,
012:013 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put entirely out of joint
012:014 but may rather be restored. Persistently strive for peace with all men, and for that growth in holiness apart from which no one will see the Lord.
012:015 Be carefully on your guard lest there be any one who falls back from the grace of God; lest any root bearing bitter fruit spring up and cause trouble among you, and through it the whole brotherhood be defiled;
012:016 lest there be a fornicator, or an ungodly person like Esau, who, in return for a single meal, parted with the birthright which belonged to him.