Treated As Children of God

“If a parent leaves a child without training, without discipline, without checking and correction, we begin to wonder … if they have a problem themselves….If we are genuinely God’s children … then we should expect that God will treat us as a wise parent does, bringing us up with appropriate discipline [Proverbs 3:11–12]. … It may come as a shock to many Christians to discover that there lies ahead of them a life in which God, precisely because he is treating us as sons and daughters, will refuse to spoil us or ignore us, will refuse to let us get away forever with rebellion or folly, with sin or stupidity. He has his ways of alerting his children to the fact that they should either pause and think again, or turn round and go in the opposite direction, or get down on their knees and repent” (Tom Wright, Hebrews for Everyone [London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004], 151–54).