12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak
knees. 13 “Make level paths for your feet,”[b] so that the lame may not be
disabled, but rather healed.
Warning and Encouragement
14 Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and
to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one
falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause
trouble and defile many. 16 See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless
like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.
17 Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was
rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change
what he had done.
Dig Deeper
I love listening to great pep-talk speeches from great
athletic coaches. There are few things
in life more inspiring than watching a coach rally a team around him,
especially one that has taken a bit of a beating. They might have stumbled into the locker room
at halftime after having been knocked around a bit, but the great coach can
gird up his team. He will address their
wounds and prepare them for the next round of battle in a way that inspires
them to give greater effort and believe that they do have a chance at victory
if they will only stand strong and believe in the coach and themselves. One of my all-time favorite speeches of that
type actually comes not from the world of sports but from the classic movie
“Independence Day.” After having been
nearly annihilated in the first two days of being attacked by malevolent alien
forces, a rag-tag group of humans is pieced together to make a last stab effort
at a counter attack. In that speech the
President of what is left of the United States urges them to “not give up
without a fight,” and to not “go gently into that good night.” This will be a glorious new independence day
for the whole world, he tells them, if they will just strengthen themselves and
fight. Of course, they are all inspired
and they go on to win the day.
There are several places throughout the Bible where God
gives his people great pep talks as well, and this passage from Hebrews 12 is
one of them. Some of the great pep talks
allude to other great moments in history or quote from other important moments
(as the above pep talk did), and this one in Hebrews is no different. The recipients of the letter have gone
through tough times. They have been
persecuted, they have seen many falter in their faith, and some were on the
verge of giving up. But that’s the last
thing they should do. Victory is in
sight. The Lord will prevail, and his
people with him. If they only will hold
strong. In encouraging them, the author
hails back to the days of Isaiah when he wrote to a people who were discouraged
because of their tough situation and called them to hope and believe in the
coming justice and provision of God. In
hearkening back to Isaiah 35, the promise is similar. God will provide if they just continue to hold
on and be faithful:
Strengthen the weak hands, steady the shaking
knees! Say to the cowardly: “Be strong;
do not fear! Here is your God; vengeance
is coming. God’s retribution is coming;
He will save you.” . . . A road will be there and a way; it will be called the
Holy Way. The unclean will not travel on
it, but it will be for the one who walks the path. Even the fool will not go astray. — Isaiah 35:3-8
Yes, they have been through tough times, says the author
of Hebrews, and yes, it is the Lord disciplining and training them to make them
stronger, and treating them lovingly as his sons, but they need to hold
steady. They might feel weak and not up
to the task of remaining faithful but if they would but follow the Lord’s level
paths of holiness, it will result in healing rather than harm. Our Father is not a distant God who has no
idea of the struggles that we go through on a regular basis. He intimately knows what we are experiencing,
but he also knows what his people need and so he gives us each a cross to
bear. We want to make sure that we don’t
cut that cross down a bit to make it more manageable, only to come to a canyon
that needs crossing later and find out that the cross was just the right length
to put across the chasm and walk to the other side, only now it is too
short. God uses the struggles to bring
healing and strength and to prepare us, not to disable us.
The call to be holy and avoid worldliness that dominates
verses 14 to 17 then is of vital importance.
Worldliness and lack of perseverance are cancers that can seep in and
destroy a family of believers before they even know what ails them. Peace and holiness are not just nice perks or
extra options to be tacked onto a Christina community that is going really well
and looking to be extra mature. They are
essential elements that will help guard against complacency, worldliness, and
laziness. A body of believers, after
all, is either growing spiritually or it is dying. It is either progressing and advancing in
holiness or it is rotting.
Thus, our author gives the believers to whom he is
writing five spiritual dynamics that should be a regular part of their
spiritual life as the people of God. The
first is that they must make every effort to live in peace with everyone. This would apply to both within and without
the body. Jesus called his people to be
peacemakers (Matt. 5:9) and to constantly seek to love even the most difficult
people (Matt. 5:43-47). Christians are
to make every effort to live in peace and biblical love with one another (Col.
3:14 ), making sure that we keep that as a top priority over the things that
usually take precedence like our own preferences, feelings, and emotions. But we are also to love our enemies and be at
peace with them, at least as much as it depends on us (Rom. 12:18). The Christian is to love all and be at peace,
but we can only control our actions and cannot force others to love us
back. It still remains true, however,
that the only way that a Christian has to destroy their enemy is to love them
until they are their friend. A community
that truly embraces peace will be well on its way to remaining strong.
But it cannot just be about peace for that could get
one-sided and sentimental in a hurry. We
must also strive for the second dynamic of a Christian community which is to be
a holy community where sin is taken seriously and we so love the body of Christ
that we are not about to tolerate sin within our midst. When mixed appropriately with peace-making
and love, this becomes a powerful combination that keeps God’s people strong
and pure.
The third dynamic is to see to it that no one falls
short of the grace of God. It is the
role of the community to see to it that each member grows into complete
maturity in Christ and is not taken down by sin (Col. 1:28-29). The author has warned of this problem of
falling short of what God has in store for us (Heb. 4:1; 6:4-6; 10:26-31). God’s grace that is given to us in the life
of Christ is a free gift that we can never earn but it is also demanding. In order to accept it we must set everything
else aside. Failure to do so will result
in our falling short and missing out on the life that God desires for his
people.
The fourth dynamic is an allusion to Deuteronomy 29:18
. While we are positively seeking peace
and holiness and ensuring that none fall short of God’s grace, we need to be on
extra guard against bitter roots that could pop up and poison the body of
Christ. Living together as the family of
God definitely has its challenges which can put great stress on our unity. When those tests come, and they will, we must
remember that we are seeking peace and holiness. We must remember that we can easily get
irritated with one another and that Satan will constantly seek to destroy our
unity. When little shoots of dissension
come up we must go after them immediately.
If not, “a little sleep, a little slumber,” a little looking the other
way, and the field will be overgrown with weeds faster than we can imagine
(Prov. 24:30-34).
The final dynamic is to see to it that worldliness, such
as immorality and godlessness are not accepted within God’s family. Esau is a perfect picture of that
worldliness. He sold his inheritance in
God’s promised family for momentary pleasure.
He traded an eternal birthright for a fleeting bowl of soup. Rejecting the inheritance that we have as
members of God’s family can have dire consequences as Esau found out. Esau sold out when things got a little
difficult and discovered that there was no repentance that would reverse what
he had done. This is a stern warning for
those growing weary in their faith.
Those that sell out their portion of the inheritance in God’s family
will find nothing but sadness and rejection if they think that they can reject
the family of the Messiah and somehow still be accepted back by the Father one
day. This is essentially the same
warning the author issued in chapter 6.
There simply is no other way, no other repentance, no other acceptance
into the family of God other than entering in through the life of Christ. Rejecting that path or growing weary and
giving up in it is a a supremely dangerous way to go.
In a Christian world today where we are so often told
that we need do nothing accept raise our hands up, tilt our heads back and let
God’s blessings flow into our lives, Hebrews says something very
different. Remaining faithful will
require some work on our part. It
requires seeking after peace and holiness.
It demands that we remain in God’s grace. And it expects us to be on the guard against
bitter roots and worldliness. These are
the things that will help us to stand firm and stay on the level path.
Devotional Thought
Do you see all five elements of spiritual growth
mentioned in this passage in your own Christian community? Do you see all five elements in your own
spiritual life? In which areas do you
need to grow or work extra hard to maintain?
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