NOTES for Pro 13:24

It is interesting when the idea appeared that children must not be punished at all. It is the fruit of the Enlightenment era, when secular humanism arose and made its slogan the ancient phrase: "Man is the measure of all things." When man becomes the standard, one has to suppose that he is ideal from the start and that only improper upbringing spoils him. The biblical view is completely the opposite. Human nature is distorted by the fall, and therefore every person is a sinner "from his mother's womb." And although upbringing cannot correct human nature, it can help a child learn to distinguish bad from good. For this, he must be encouraged for what is good and punished for what is bad. Parents who do not help their children acquire moral guideposts in fact show their indifference to how their children's later life will turn out, and that is anything but love.

But there is another, entirely unexpected, even prophetic meaning in this verse: the perfect Father, perfectly loving His Son, who committed no sin, nevertheless does not spare Him from punishment for other people's sins. "For whom the Lord loves, He disciplines, and He delights in him as a father in his son" (Prov. 3:12).