“Furthermore, wee haue had fathers of our flesh, which corrected vs, and we gaue them reuerence: shall we not much rather bee in subiection vnto the Father of Spirits, and liue?”
1611 King James Version (KJV)
12:9 And we reverenced them - We neither despised nor fainted under their correction. Shall we not much rather - Submit with reverence and meekness To the Father of spirits - That we may live with him for ever. Perhaps these expressions, fathers of our flesh, and Father of spirits, intimate that our earthly fathers are only the parents of our bodies, our souls not being originally derived from them, but all created by the immediate power of God; perhaps, at the beginning of the world.
Heb 12:9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected [us]. Every judicious father corrects his children in some way. Shall we not then submit cheerfully to the heavenly Father's correction? Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits. Our earthly parents are the parents of our bodies; God is the creator of all spirits, and the author of our spiritual life. When we are born of the Spirit our new life is due to God, and we are begotten as his children.