First, we have Hebrews 12:4-11 which . . . I consider . . . means that we who are children of God get His correction while we are still here on this earth.
"For if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons." (Hebrews 12:8)
And according to this scripture, God's correction produces "the peaceable fruit of righteousness" and we become "partakers of His holiness". So, this "chastening" is not merely punishment, but correction which produces God's own result . . . in our nature.
And 1 John 4:17 says,
"Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4:17)
It says "Love has been perfected among us" . . . not "will be" or "might be" or "could be, if only we would . . . ".
So, our Heavenly Father succeeds now, no procrastination to another life. We have the correction of His love's perfection. But yes in our own egos we have failed, and a number of people have built their beliefs on how they have been failing, in their own trying and struggling. But our Heavenly Father succeeds, in His correction of us.
It seems there are Bible-claiming people who will say, oh, I'm not perfect and I never will be, in this life, but God loves me unconditionally so He will not keep me out of Heaven; but now I am vile and sinful and can't help it. But God doesn't see me, He sees Jesus. And so they keep on failing against their nasty stuff, giving in to negative and nasty reacting and lusts, and not in prayer seeking our Father's correction. But Hebrews 12:9-10, to me, clearly means we need to submit to our Father and actively seek Him for His correction. And, because He loves us > Hebrews 12:4-6 < He does not just leave us in our egotistical mess, but He corrects us into His love's "peaceable fruit of righteousness" and His own holiness which is in His love in us > Romans 5:5.
But if we excuse our failure, our nature of ego and self-seeking pleasure keeps us weak so we can keep on giving in to pain and hurts and unforgiveness and boredom and loneliness and fear and worry and hurry and stress, and dominating and dictatorial drives for pleasure and excitement, and revenge and nasty and uncompassionate anger and arguing and complaining. And as much as we stay in and obey this negative and nasty stuff, we miss out on how we could be enjoying God while pleasing Him in His love's "gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious" to Him > 1 Peter 3:4; and we can miss out on how His love would make us more and more all-loving like Him (Matthew 5:46) . . . in such personal sharing with Him (1 Corinthians 6:17).
So, God does not just punish us, but transforms us to meet His standard, better than our trying and crying can do.
we have St. Paul talking in 1rst Corinthians 3:14-15 about how if you do unworthy works but have Christ as your foundation, you will still be saved, but "only as one escaping flames"
Yes, Paul says there are ones whose works will burn, but they will be saved "as through fire." (in 1 Corinthians 3:14-15)
And Hebrews 12:29 says >
"For our God is a consuming fire." (Hebrews 12:29)
And God is God . . . now . . . "a consuming fire" (in Hebrews 12:29), now. He in us can correct us in the fire of His love which transforms us into the image of Jesus . . . burning away old self nature, and Jesus is being formed in us as our new inner Person, now > Galatians 4:19.
This is not punishment, by the way, but effective correction. But Hebrews 12:4-11 is clear how God's correction is "painful" . . . "grievous". But I understand that any pain of His correction is a side-effect, not the objective. Our selfish nature of our own egos makes a big stink and gets pained, about being corrected . . . while it is on its way out of us. We can not feel pain, except as much as we still have our selfishness-infected nature. But God transforms us into the image of Jesus, and so we ourselves become fiery so we can burn Satan and his nasty nonsense away from us > making him flee from us, by burning him from us >
"Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you." (James 4:7)
So . . . how might this work? We can fool ourselves into doing ego stuff and calling this ministry or marriage. But God sees through us, and He resists us in our pride (in James 4:6, and in 1 Peter 5:5) so we fail and can get messy inside in our reacting to not being able to do what we have been trying to do. Then I can see . . . ah-hah! I am getting negative and nasty, but in God's love I would be enjoying Him, in spite of things not going my way. So, I am wrong, somehow. I need to stop, right now, and wait while God corrects me and restores me into His peace so I am sensitively sharing with Him in His love, then seek for however He pleases to personally guide me in His peace; and do not assume He will have me doing what I was doing when I fell into nasty and negative reacting.
Because while I am obeying God, His peace is safeguarding me, in my mind and heart. This includes how if we pray the way the Bible means >
"the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." (in Philippians 4:5-6)
So, this is now . . . no procrastinating until after we die, no worshiping excuses. Because God is able, in us, now.
"for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure." (Philippians 2:13)
