Let us hold fast the confession of the hope unwavering, (for he [is] faithful who has promised;)
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
and let us consider one another for provoking to love and good works;
This verse closes a long argument. Christ has opened the way into God's presence, and now the writer turns our eyes sideways — to each other — with a task that sounds odd at first: to stir others up, or as older translations put it, to provoke.
The order matters. The believer settles everything with Christ first. Only then does attention move to fellow Christians.
Now he urges, "Let us consider one another to stir up love and good works." All this time the eye has been on Christ… Notice it comes at the close, not at the beginning. You cannot get your salvation from your fellow Christians, or your assurance. You cannot get your freedom to worship from them, or your perseverance to the end. Keep your eye fixed on Christ alone for all these things. Once you have all that in your soul, settled there by the Spirit of God, you can turn your eye to your fellow believers.
The same order protects "good works" from being misunderstood as a way of earning anything.
Provoking to love and good works is done by showing such character cheerfully in our own lives, and encouraging others in such things. But let us notice that good works are not considered until after the great work of the Lord Jesus is seen to be the only resting place of the soul, the only real foundation of blessing. After that, good works have their true, real value, as a proper result of the knowledge of eternal salvation.
Once God has met every personal need, self-attention becomes pointless.
The grace of God has so richly met all our personal need… an opened heaven — a torn curtain — a crowned and seated Saviour — a great High Priest — a perfectly cleansed conscience — boldness to enter — a hearty welcome. We have all these marvellous blessings in full possession. So what have we got to do? Consider ourselves? No indeed; that would be unnecessary and sinfully selfish. We could not possibly do as well for ourselves as God has done for us… What remains? Simply to "consider one another"… to be on the lookout for opportunities of doing good; to seek in a thousand little ways to make hearts glad.
Considering can easily turn into inspection.
Sadly, too often we provoke one another to hard and bitter thoughts, by fault-finding and unkind, perhaps even unfair, criticism. It is so easy to find fault with fellow believers. But spirituality and the love of Christ in our hearts will see their graces and good points. Then we will think of them as loved by the Father and given by Him to Christ, as accepted and beautiful in His sight. And let us remember there are some unlovely things in ourselves.
The way to do it is to pour in what you want to see come out.
You may be able to see very little of Christ in me, but you are told to provoke me to greater devotion. How can you do this? You must lavish your love on me. How would you fix a pump if it were dry? Pour a few buckets of water into it. Soon the sparkling water will flow out in refreshing, continuous streams. Now this is how you are to deal with the sleepy, half-dead brother or sister. Let such a person see in you what you long to find in him. Then by your love you will provoke him to renewed energy in the divine way.
The phrase is one another. Some writers see the task as shared by all believers, since all alike are priests.
The expression is remarkable — "consider one another." Only One, the Lord Himself, stands in the authoritative place of Priest to the saints; therefore we are to consider one another… We can only do this as we stand in grace ourselves, and recognise others as standing in the same grace and the same nearness to God… There is no room for rivalry now — all are priests. But there is plenty of room for love. The love that has brought us where we stand is the measure of our love for each other.
This is not a duty bolted on from outside. It grows out of attention to Christ Himself.
The more carefully we consider Him, the more we shall be fitted and inclined to consider all who belong to Him, whoever and wherever they may be. Show us a man full of Christ, and we will show you a man full of love, and care, and interest for every member of the body of Christ. It must be so.
You cannot stir up people you hardly know.
Exhortations often fall flat because we do not know each other. How seldom are we near enough to each other in our inner lives to encourage or urge one another on! Yet as children of God and members of Christ, we are in a relationship to one another that is nearer and more lasting than any other can be.
- Christ first. Salvation, assurance, worship and perseverance come from Him alone. Settle that, then turn your eye to fellow believers.
- Then self drops out. God has left nothing undone for us. Considering ourselves is pointless; considering one another is what remains.
- Consider, don't inspect. The same close look that finds faults can see graces instead. Fault-finding provokes bitterness; love provokes love.
- Provoke by supplying. Let the sleepy believer see in you what you long to find in him — pour water into the dry pump.
- Stay near. Encouragement falls flat without real knowledge of each other, so stay close.
not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the custom [is] with some; but encouraging [one another], and by so much the more as ye see the day drawing near.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
For where we sin wilfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains any sacrifice for sins,
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and heat of fire about to devour the adversaries.
This verse warns the person who has known the Christian message and then walks away from it on purpose. Two questions decide how we read it. What is the deliberate sin of the previous verse? And who are the "adversaries" the fire consumes?
The word "for" ties this verse to what comes just before — a call not to give up meeting together. One writer traces the line from that small neglect to the disaster described here.
It is a serious thing to read "not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some," so close to apostasy. But so it is. The habit is not only unworthy of Christians but dangerous... Little as the beginning seems to some, it is the beginning of a great and possibly fatal evil.
The sin here is not a believer's slip but a complete break. One writer draws the line by naming what the person does next.
The deliberate sin is turning away from the Christian faith. The Apostle is not speaking of a backslider who may go back into the world, like Demas, of whom we read in another letter. Such a person can be recovered. The apostate does more than give up Christianity. After professing it, he takes up some human religion. In effect he says, "I have tried Christianity, but I find Judaism, or Buddhism, or some other religion, better."
Another writer sets the law of Moses beside grace, and finds one exception.
For Israel under the law, deliberate sin had no remedy. The law allowed none. Under grace there is a perfect resource for all sins — "the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin." Only one deliberate sin is now without resource: turning away from Christianity. That is, giving up Christ and His sacrifice.
Nothing is left because there is no second offering to fall back on.
If they left Christianity, what other divine provision was there that could help them before the throne of God?... "There no longer remains a sacrifice for sins." That solemn statement shuts the door against everything besides the sacrifice of Christ... The language is decisive, so no one should mistake what lies ahead. No sacrifice remains. So a sacrifice was needed. Why speak of none remaining, if men could get to heaven without one?
The verse does not say the fire consumes weak Christians. It names a class, and one writer insists on the difference.
The sacrifices were still going on at Jerusalem, but there was no reality any more in anything there. They are not failing saints but adversaries. As such, they must expect a worse judgment than under the law of Moses — worse in proportion to the greatness of what they despised.
Earlier in the letter, Christ appears "a second time... to save those who are eagerly waiting for him." Here that same forward look holds something else.
No sacrifice then remains. At the close of the ninth chapter we saw the believer waiting for the Saviour from heaven. In place of that there is nothing but "a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries." The future is one of terror. Nothing can soften the dreadful doom awaiting those who have lined up on the side of the adversaries of God.
It might seem strange that such severity belongs to an age of good news. One writer answers that the good news is what makes it severe.
We do live in a day when the good news of God's grace is preached. But it is just that fact which increases the severity of the judgment... Grace makes known to us things of infinite greatness. To despise them is a sin of infinite greatness — far graver than despising the law of Moses with its holy demands.
The person frightened by this verse is usually the one it does not describe.
Their state is wholly in contrast with the apostate boldness described in this chapter as well as in Hebrews 6. There is nothing really in common. The apostate is as self-satisfied as he is scornful toward Christ. He hates the truth all the more because he once professed it. The tried and shaken believer condemns himself without sparing, and wants faithfulness to Christ above all things. The great remedy, valued by few, is confidence in His grace — a fuller sense of His work in judging sinful flesh, not forgiveness of sins only. He is also the believer's advocate when he fails.
- One sacrifice — Christ's offering is the only one God appointed; give it up and there is no other to fall back on.
- One sin — the deliberate sin here is giving up Christ altogether. A believer's failure has a remedy; this has none.
- One side — the verse counts those who quit not as failing saints but as adversaries, and the fire falls on them.
- One prospect — instead of waiting for the returning Saviour, they have only a fearful expectation of judgment.
- One caution — a backslider can be recovered, and the believer who condemns himself is not the person this verse pictures.