But call to mind the earlier days in which, having been enlightened, ye endured much conflict of sufferings;
The letter has just delivered a severe warning. Then the tone changes. The writer points his readers back to the earliest days of their faith. Why should memory answer the danger of drifting? And what were they to remember?
The change of direction shows who the writer thought he was addressing. He aimed solemn words at some. But he thought well of the group as a whole.
In verse 32 we again see that, though these warnings were given for the sake of some, the writer had every confidence that most of the people he wrote to were true believers. He remembered the earlier days when they suffered much persecution for their faith, and he called on them to remember those days too. He appealed to them not to throw away their confidence at this late point in their history.
"After you were enlightened" points to a moment you can date. One writer made that phrase a question for his hearers, then a challenge about today.
But most people know the moment when the light first came to them. If there is one moment of moral energy in the history of a soul, it is the day that soul was made alive. Why do you and I not carry the strength of that moment with us? Is the Jesus we have now a different Jesus? I know there was a day when all was over between God and me. Now the day has come when all is over between the world and me. That is practical Christianity.
The same writer allows for a quieter case: Timothy, taught by a godly mother, may have come gently into God's flock.
The order in the verse matters. It leaves no quiet gap between the light and the attack.
There is always the danger of drawing back from the path of faith because of the shame and suffering it brings. These believers had begun well. The truth had enlightened them, and at once they found themselves in conflict for the truth.
The "hard struggle with sufferings" was not abstract. For Jewish believers, confessing Christ broke the closest ties they had.
"Call to mind the former days," the time of their first love, when they were first enlightened. These truths of God first flashed into their souls and brought peace and joy and comfort. Then they endured a hard struggle with sufferings. Their own relatives, perhaps members of their own family, handed them over to the council. When they confessed Christ, they found that their own parents had turned their backs on them! Those who had once held them in regard now looked at them with suspicion. They were branded as blasphemers "against Moses" "and this holy place and the law," because they declared for Jesus and the resurrection.
Suffering already endured is hard evidence. Someone who has paid that price cannot shrug it off as nothing.
This appeal would have real effect on those souls who were genuine. They could not easily overturn the reality of what they had suffered for the Lord's sake in their first stand for Him, and for identifying themselves with the believers who were suffering. Only a hard, untrue heart could renounce all this.
The appeal was not meant to make them proud of their record. And the danger they faced now had changed shape.
What better way could there be to keep those who truly loved the Lord from dishonouring Him, than to remind them of what they had already endured for His sake, by His grace? This would not feed pride. It would stir them up to endure still more for Him, who had endured so much for them... Perhaps what tempted them most at this time was not so much outward persecution, the enduring of a hard struggle with sufferings. The greater pull was something more subtle and deadly: a sleepiness of soul that makes turning away from the Lord possible.
Another writer describes the same danger: not defeat in battle, but slackening while still on duty.
Slackening off is always a danger for soldiers on active service, and Christians here below always are on service... Still, the great safeguard is against throwing away their confidence, their boldness of soul, which is the inner root of outward suffering and of service.
- Light. "After you were enlightened" marks a moment most believers can name: the day God's light first reached them.
- Conflict. That light led straight into a fight. Families turned away. Relatives handed believers over to the council. Confessing Christ earned them the name of blasphemer.
- Endurance. They came through it. The writer treats that record as proof he is writing to real believers, not just warning those who might fall away.
- Memory. Recalling the cost already paid is not praise for past achievement. It stirs a believer to endure more for the One who endured so much for him.
- Danger. The threat now is not open attack. It is the slow slackening of a soldier still on duty. So the one thing to guard is confidence of soul.
on the one hand, when ye were made a spectacle both in reproaches and afflictions; and on the other, when ye became partakers with those who were passing through them.
Hebrews 10:33 looks back to a time when these believers paid publicly for their faith — some held up to open scorn, others standing beside those who were. Why does the writer count both kinds of suffering as worth remembering?
The first half of the verse pictures a public spectacle. Samuel Ridout finds the same scene in Stephen:
They were made a public spectacle, held up to the scorn and mockery of others. It was like Stephen. They brought him before the council. His face was lit up with the light of heaven itself, yet they insulted him, threw him out of the city and stoned him. So these Hebrew Christians had tasted similar sufferings in some degree.
The second half names those who were not the target themselves, but stood with the ones who were. Another writer points to the Lord's own company, then weighs the two positions:
Christ Himself did not stand alone; He was the friend of tax collectors and sinners. There may be a harder trial than standing alone for the truth. In some cases, joining yourself to others calls for a higher quality. The first position needs courage; the second needs grace. You may not fear blows: do you fear being laughed at?
The verse names both groups. Ridout notes what God makes of even the smaller share:
They were either persecuted like this themselves, or they were companions of those who suffered. See how the Spirit of God dwells on any faithfulness there had been to the name of the Lord Jesus, however small! It counted even when it showed itself only by standing with those who were the direct targets of persecution.
The verse comes right after a severe warning. F. B. Hole explains why that warning is not the whole picture of these readers:
In verse 32 we see again that the writer gave these warnings for the sake of some. Even so, he was fully confident that most of his readers were true believers. He remembered the earlier days when they suffered much persecution for their faith, and he called on them to remember as well. He urged them not to throw away their confidence so late in their history.
That memory also works as a test:
This appeal would have real effect on those who were genuine. They could not easily throw away what they had truly suffered for the Lord's sake when they first stood for Him, and when they identified themselves with the believers who were suffering. Only a hard, untrue heart could disown all this.
The memory meets a danger that is still live. Hamilton Smith names it:
The Apostle also warns us not to be discouraged by suffering, reproach and affliction. There is always the danger of shrinking back from the path of faith because it brings reproach and suffering. These believers had begun well. The truth had opened their eyes, and at once they found themselves in conflict for the truth. But they held out in that conflict, and they joined themselves with all their heart to those who were suffering for Christ's Name.
One writer traces the believer's reproach back to the Lord Himself:
The one cleansed by the blood will find that he is called to share the Lord's reproach and shame, as he seeks to walk a path that follows His Word… No one has ever tasted reproach and shame as deeply as He has. But you and I, dear fellow-believer, have the privilege of carrying some measure of His reproach. May He grant us to count it greater riches than this poor world can offer!
The same call returns later in the letter. Ridout shows what it asks of believers who are free:
He now urges them to remember those in prison. They are not to feel mere pity, but to share in spirit with those in affliction, even though they themselves may be free. What a lovely identification of faith with the suffering people of God! "If one member suffers, all suffer together" — "Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep."
- Exposed. The first half of the verse means public scorn and mockery — what Stephen met before his accusers and outside the city.
- Beside. The second half covers those who stood next to the sufferers. Standing alone takes courage. Standing beside takes grace.
- Counted. God notes even the faithfulness that only stands beside the persecuted. No share is too small.
- Tested. What a person once suffered for Christ proves the faith was real. Only a hard heart could disown it.
- Continued. Believers who are free still share the same path: remember the prisoners as if sharing their pain, and carry Christ's reproach as riches.
For ye both sympathised with prisoners and accepted with joy the plunder of your goods, knowing that ye have for yourselves a better substance, and an abiding one.
Believers here had their homes and goods seized because of their faith. They did not just endure the loss — they welcomed it, and the verse says what they knew that made such joy possible.
Older English versions read "compassion of me in my bonds." That narrows the sympathy to the writer's own imprisonment. A closer look at the wording widens it, and changes the ending too.
Instead of "me in my bonds," read "prisoners"; for "in yourselves," substitute "for yourselves"; and omit the words "in heaven."… It was a time of persecution. The saints courageously, in faithfulness to Christ, showed their sympathy with those imprisoned for Christ's sake and identified themselves with them. This exposed them to the hostility of their opponents, and so they lost their earthly possessions.
Standing with prisoners in public is one trial. Losing property is another, and the two do not weigh the same on everyone.
The Hebrew believers had begun well. The letter urges them here to keep on enduring the fierce conflict with the enemy… To some of feeble faith such sympathy is no small trial; to others, the plunder of their property. These saints had shone in both respects.
Their sympathy was not private feeling. It linked them in the open with prisoners, and that link is what cost them their goods.
It was no small matter to have linked themselves with prisoners who suffered for Christ. It left them exposed to the ungodly persecutor. He thought he had every right to plunder their possessions, since everyone held them in contempt. But faith could rise above grieving over passing loss: they had what was their own, a better and enduring substance.
The verse does not say they took the loss calmly. It says they took it with joy.
An opposing mob smashed up some of their homes. It would have been a great thing if they had faced that loss with resignation and meekness — but in fact they faced it with joyfulness. This underlined a glorious fact in their minds. Their real portion lay outside earth and in heaven, far beyond the reach of all their opponents.
Behind the joy stood a Person.
Their faith was so active, and Christ was so real to their hearts as their treasure, that they joyfully accepted the plundering of their property… They willingly suffered the loss of all things for the sake of Christ. It is a blessed record, and a powerful testimony to what Christ is for His people in the fires of persecution.
"Better" is a comparison. What it is compared with is what the law promised Israel: prosperity in family and possessions for obedience.
In the later verses of that chapter we learn that we therefore possess "substance" of an eternal kind. It is "better" than anything promised to Israel under the law. If they had obeyed, they would have prospered and increased in their families and all earthly possessions. The Hebrew Christian had substance lying outside earthly things.
That possession was invisible. The verse says they knew they had it. The next chapter says how.
And what made the heavenly portion that was theirs so real to them? The answer is in the first verse of Hebrews 11. In Darby's New Translation it reads, "Now faith is the substantiating of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." Faith substantiated the better and enduring substance to the early Hebrew Christian.
The writer holds this glowing record up to people whose love had cooled. He recalls their best days to wake them.
This repeating of such searching warnings within one letter plainly shows that the believers he addressed had lost some of their former love… They needed waking from this dream. Leading them to look again at the rich blessings of their heavenly inheritance would restore them to themselves… They had lost the things people naturally prize, without a murmur — indeed, with joy. They were firmly persuaded that the love of Christ had won for them in heaven a better and more enduring substance.
Joy under loss came from knowing the better thing. No one reaches that joy by deciding to look down on possessions.
We must know the better thing by experience, and hold dear the hope of "good things to come." Only then can we gain full victory over present things and our own worldly desires… If we are really waiting for the appearing of the glory, we will stand apart from everything that will be judged in that day.
- Cost. They stood with imprisoned believers in public, and their persecutors took their goods.
- Character. Two trials — public shame and lost property — weigh on people in different ways. These saints stood in both.
- Cause. The joy came from knowledge, not nerve. Faith made real to them a possession better than anything the law promised Israel.
- Continuance. The possession is "abiding" — the one thing a persecutor cannot confiscate.
- Challenge. The passage speaks to people whose first love had cooled. Only real experience of the better thing frees anyone from the present one.