Commentary of Charles Spurgeon, Adam Clarke & Matthew Henry
Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? 
For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness.
Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous:
nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness
unto them which are exercised thereby.
Vs.9-11
We have had fathers of our flesh - The
fathers of our flesh, i.e. our natural parents, were correctors; and we
reverenced them, notwithstanding their corrections .... but shall we not rather be in subjection to the Father of
spirits; Those afflictions which may be truly persecution as far as
men are concerned in them are fatherly rebukes and chastisements as far as God
is concerned in them.
---Men persecute them because they
are religious; ---God chastises them because they are not more so: ---men persecute
them because they will not give up their profession; ---God chastises them because
they have not lived up to their profession.
For - a few days - The chastisement of our
earthly parents lasted only a short time; that of our heavenly Father
will also be but a short time, if we submit: and as our parents ceased
to correct when we learned obedience; so will our heavenly Father when
the end for which he sent the chastisement is accomplished.
---God delights
not in the rod; judgment is his strange work.
No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous - Neither
correction, wholesome restraint, domestic regulations, nor gymnastic
discipline, are pleasant to them that are thus exercised; but it is by
these means that obedient children, scholars, and great men are made.
---He who does not
bear the yoke of Christ is good for nothing to others, and never gains
rest to his own soul.
The peaceable fruit of righteousness - i.e. The joyous, prosperous fruits; those fruits by which we gain much, and through which we are made happy.
Exercised thereby - To the trained.
---There is still an allusion to the Grecian games; and
in the word before us to those gymnastic exercises by which the
candidates for the prizes were trained to the different kinds of
exercises in which they were to contend when the games were publicly
opened.
Oh, blessed result from a little smart and bitter.
