“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent” (Revelation 3:19).
The word “chasten” originates from a concept focused on purification, training, and guidance, particularly with a positive goal. One Jewish scholar, Chaim Bentorah, explained: “I traced this word yasar (chastise) to its Semitic origins and found it came out of the Akkadian language. The Akkadians were great builders and this word was used in the building trade to indicate the laying of a sure and firm foundation. This is what [chastening] is all about, it is about building a firm foundation. God must step into our lives from time to time to yasar us, to correct us, change our direction so that He can build a firm and sure foundation” (“God’s Correcting Ways”).
Here’s a breakdown of its origins and meanings:
- Root Meaning: “To make pure”
- The word “chasten” comes from a root that means “punish to improve,” or literally, “to make pure”.
- It also signifies “cut free from fault,” “empty,” or “to cut away from”.
- Related words sharing this root include “chaste,” “chastity,” “quash,” and “catharsis”.
- Symbolically, an ancient “castle” (from the same root) had a “cut-away clearing” or moat, which an approaching person would cross on foot, symbolizing the cleansing necessary to approach God.
- Hebrew and Greek Equivalents:
- In addition to yasar, the Hebrew word mucar (or musar) and the Greek word paideia (or paideuó) correspond to “chastening” and “chastisement”.
- One meaning of paideia is “training”. It is frequently translated as “instruction”.
- Paideuó (παιδεύω), the Greek word often translated as “chasten” in Hebrews 12:5-7, is derived from pais (παῖς), meaning “child.” This implies that “to chasten someone is basically to parent them: to guide them as you would a growing child who needs structure and training to help them achieve their full potential”.
- Other meanings associated with these Hebrew and Greek terms include “correct, instruct, reform, teach, reprove,” and “discipline”.
God is not trying to make us bitter, but to make us better.
Divine Purposes of Chastening
Elder D. Todd Christofferson taught that this “divine chastening has at least three purposes: (1) to persuade us to repent, (2) to refine and sanctify us, and (3) at times to redirect our course in life to what God knows is a better path” (“As Many as I Love, I Rebuke and Chasten,” Liahona, May 2011, 98).
How does God chasten?
God chastens His children out of love and with a positive, constructive purpose to help them reform, repent, purify their lives, and grow towards holiness. It is a principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ that the Lord chastens whom He loves and receives, acting as a parent guides a growing child. God’s affection is shown by chastening.
Here are ways God chastens His children:
Through His Word and Instruction: God primarily chastens through His inspired written Word, providing doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. When individuals become unmanageable or disobedient, failing to learn lessons from positive instruction, God uses other methods, including chastisement.
Divine Discontent and Godly Guilt/Sorrow: God can use feelings of “godly sorrow” and “divine discontent” to make individuals keenly aware of where they are not aligned with His will or their potential. This discomfort creates an urgency to act and change.
- Difficult Circumstances and Afflictions:
- Hardships and Calamities: God sometimes uses external means like famine, pestilence, death, and terror to bring people to humility, teach them, and persuade them to change their ways, especially when they become complacent in prosperity and forget Him. Such afflictions help purify even the very best.
- Financial Loss and Material Changes: God may bring about financial loss or changes in material position to teach lessons that might not be learned otherwise, showing that loyalties and treasures should be in heaven rather than clinging to worldly things.
- Illness and Physical Afflictions: Sickness or physical challenges can be used as a means of discipline, bringing people back into God’s will and providing time to reflect and “reason with the Lord”. The Apostle Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” is an example of God allowing a physical affliction to prevent spiritual pride.
- Natural Disasters/Tragedies: God can use natural disasters or tragedies, such as a sudden storm for Jonah, to chasten and prompt submission to His will.
- Through Other People:
- Church Leaders and Parents: Chastening can come from priesthood leaders or parents, who are encouraged to reprove with clarity and without delay when inspired, always following up with compassion and love.
- Friends/Mentors: Correction can come from trusted friends or mentors who speak the truth in love, even if it is uncomfortable or painful.
- Mean-spirited Criticism: Even criticism from those who have no love for us can be sifted for potential benefit. Joseph Smith said, “when I have heard of a story about me, I sit down and think about it and pray about it, and I ask myself the question, ‘Did I say something or was there something about my manner to give some basis for that story to start?’ . . . if I think about it long enough I realize I have done something to give that basis. And there wells up in me a forgiveness of the person who has told that story, and a resolve that I will never do that thing again” (Truman Madsen, “Joseph Smith Lecture 6: Joseph Smith as Teacher, Speaker, and Counselor”).
God gives time to repent before intensifying chastisement. When we respond with humility and repentance, God is ready to forgive, heal, and restore.
In summary, “chasten” refers to a process of discipline, instruction, and training aimed at purification, correction, and growth, often stemming from a loving intent, much like a parent guiding a child.
Here is President Hugh B. Brown’s famous example of chastening, “The Currant Bush”. It captures the essence of divine tutoring.
You sometimes wonder whether the Lord really knows what He ought to do with you. You sometimes wonder if you know better than He does about what you ought to do and ought to become. I am wondering if I may tell you a story. It has to do with an incident in my life when God showed me that He knew best.
I was living up in Canada. I had purchased a farm. It was run-down. I went out one morning and saw a currant bush. It had grown up over six feet (two meters) high. It was going all to wood. There were no blossoms and no currants. I was raised on a fruit farm in Salt Lake before we went to Canada, and I knew what ought to happen to that currant bush. So I got some pruning shears and clipped it back until there was nothing left but stumps. It was just coming daylight, and I thought I saw on top of each of these little stumps what appeared to be a tear, and I thought the currant bush was crying. I was kind of simpleminded (and I haven’t entirely gotten over it), and I looked at it and smiled and said, “What are you crying about?” You know, I thought I heard that currant bush say this:
“How could you do this to me? I was making such wonderful growth. I was almost as big as the shade tree and the fruit tree that are inside the fence, and now you have cut me down. Every plant in the garden will look down on me because I didn’t make what I should have made. How could you do this to me? I thought you were the gardener here.”
That’s what I thought I heard the currant bush say, and I thought it so much that I answered. I said, “Look, little currant bush, I am the gardener here, and I know what I want you to be. I didn’t intend you to be a fruit tree or a shade tree. I want you to be a currant bush, and someday, little currant bush, when you are laden with fruit, you are going to say, ‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for loving me enough to cut me down. Thank you, Mr. Gardener.’
Years passed, and I found myself in England. I was in command of a cavalry unit in the Canadian army. I held the rank of field officer in the British Canadian army. I was proud of my position. And there was an opportunity for me to become a general. I had taken all the examinations. I had the seniority. The one man between me and the office of general in the British army became a casualty, and I received a telegram from London. It said: “Be in my office tomorrow morning at 10:00,” signed by General Turner.
I went up to London. I walked smartly into the office of the general, and I saluted him smartly, and he gave me the same kind of a salute a senior officer usually gives—a sort of “Get out of the way, worm!” He said, “Sit down, Brown.” Then he said, “I’m sorry I cannot make the appointment. You are entitled to it. You have passed all the examinations. You have the seniority. You’ve been a good officer, but I can’t make the appointment. You are to return to Canada and become a training officer and a transport officer.” That for which I had been hoping and praying for 10 years suddenly slipped out of my fingers.
Then he went into the other room to answer the telephone, and on his desk, I saw my personal history sheet. Right across the bottom of it was written, “THIS MAN IS A MORMON.” We were not very well liked in those days. When I saw that, I knew why I had not been appointed. He came back and said, “That’s all, Brown.” I saluted him again, but not quite as smartly, and went out.
I got on the train and started back to my town, 120 miles (190 kilometers) away, with a broken heart, with bitterness in my soul. And every click of the wheels on the rails seemed to say, “You are a failure.” When I got to my tent, I was so bitter that I threw my cap on the cot. I clenched my fists, and I shook them at heaven. I said, “How could you do this to me, God? I have done everything I could do to measure up. There is nothing that I could have done—that I should have done—that I haven’t done. How could you do this to me?” I was as bitter as gall.
And then I heard a voice, and I recognized the tone of this voice. It was my own voice, and the voice said, “I am the gardener here. I know what I want you to do.” The bitterness went out of my soul, and I fell on my knees by the cot to ask forgiveness for my ungratefulness and my bitterness. (January 1973 New Era).
