Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of [the] heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus,
The word "Therefore" looks back over everything the letter has said so far. Now the writer gives his readers a name, a calling, and a command.
The opening address — "holy brothers," or "holy brethren" in older wording — is not a standard to reach. It describes what these readers already are. One writer marks the difference between what we ought to be and what we already are:
He calls them "holy brethren." This is truly a title of great moral dignity. He does not say we ought to be holy. No; he says we are. It is a question of the title or standing of every child of God on the face of the earth. No doubt, since sovereign grace has given us this holy standing, we ought to be holy in our walk. Our moral condition ought always to match our title.
The letter itself backs this up. It shows these readers were not far advanced, and later urges them to pursue holiness:
When it says "holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling," this does not mean they were far advanced in practical holiness. It means they were a people set apart for God as sharing in the heavenly calling. Hebrews 5:11-14 shows they were not very far advanced. Soon after, the letter urges them to "strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord" (Heb. 12:14), which implies the same thing. The holy brethren are to pursue holiness.
These readers came from a nation whose position and hope were earthly. Their new privilege works on a different principle:
The chosen nation shared an earthly position and hope. So we can see the force of describing the believers in Christ from among them as those who "share in a heavenly calling." Such indeed they were. They entered the new privilege not by a tie of birth but by the call of God. That call came from Christ in heaven, and it led to heavenly glory. It also meant earthly rejection, suffering and shame, as the letter shows from first to last.
The word "heavenly" is doing double duty here — pointing both backwards to where the call came from and forwards to where it ends:
This calling is "heavenly," because it comes from heaven and leads to heaven… The Jews had an earthly calling, a calling to an earthly inheritance; but the Christian calling, as these Hebrew believers are reminded, is of a heavenly character — one connected with heavenly blessings, a heavenly inheritance and heavenly hopes.
The two titles in the verse point in opposite directions. Each has its own effect on the believer:
The Apostle brings God to men. The High Priest brings man to God. The Apostle brings out the calling of God at its height. The High Priest seeks to maintain the believer at the height of his calling.
Israel had both offices too, but in two different men:
Israel had their apostle in the person of Moses, and their high priest in the person of Aaron. The Hebrews could say they had an Apostle and a High Priest too. But in their case the two offices were united in one person, the Son of the Living God.
The verse says "our confession," not "our faith." That wording explains the warnings running through the letter:
It is worth noticing "our confession." It leaves room for people who turn out to be only professing Christians. It does not even say "our faith," though faith might soon become a lifeless creed. The solemn warnings bear this out — warnings not to neglect, to hold fast, and the like, which fill our letter.
The one command in the verse asks for more than a passing look:
He reminds them of their relationship and their sanctification. He reminds them of the inheritance ahead of them. Then he simply puts Jesus before them: "consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession." It is just the person of Jesus, as you find often through this letter. Consider Him. And that word "consider" does not mean take a glance. It means dwell on Him, be taken up fully with Him — in His person, in His character and in His work.
It is also the answer to a practical question: how does anyone live up to such a name?
Since grace has made us holy brethren, how shall we live like holy brethren now?… There is only one way to live like this. It is by considering the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus. He must be the subject of our thoughts.
- Given, not gained. "Holy brothers" states a standing already true of every believer, not a level of behaviour reached. The letter later tells the same readers to pursue holiness.
- Called, not born. The privilege comes not through family line but by God's call — a call from Christ in heaven, leading to heavenly glory.
- Sent and serving. As Apostle He brings God out to us. As High Priest He brings us in to God. Israel split these two offices between Moses and Aaron; in Jesus they are one.
- Confessed, not merely felt. The verse says "confession," not "faith." That leaves room for people who only profess — so the letter keeps urging its readers to hold fast.
- Considered, not glanced at. The one command is to dwell on Jesus. That is how holy brothers live up to the name grace has given them.
who is faithful to him that has constituted him, as Moses also in all his house.
Hebrews has compared the Son with angels. Now it turns to Moses, the man every Jewish reader honoured most, and calls both him and Jesus faithful — which raises the question the rest of the chapter answers: what makes the Son greater?
Verse 1 named Jesus as Apostle and High Priest. His faithfulness belongs to Him in both roles.
"Who is faithful to Him that appointed Him, as also Moses was faithful in all His house." This faithfulness to God is true of Him both as Apostle and High Priest. But the writer compares Him here first to Moses, and later to Aaron (ch. 5:4). The house here is no doubt the tabernacle. It pictured God's relationship with the people, and in it Moses was careful to follow the pattern God gave him.
The ESV reads "who was faithful." Commentators point to a present sense in the word.
The words that follow say "Who was faithful," or "who is faithful" as it really is. We are not looking back at the past faithfulness of Christ, when He lived His perfect life as a man here. We are looking at the One "who is faithful to Him that appointed Him, as also Moses was faithful in all His house."
The words about Moses come from a moment of conflict. His own brother and sister challenged his position.
Verses 2 to 6 give us a glimpse of His greatness as contrasted with Moses. When, as recorded in Numbers 12, Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses, they said, "Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us also?" That is, they questioned his office as the prophet, or apostle, of that day. Then the Lord gave this remarkable testimony about him: "My servant Moses … is faithful in all My house." In this Moses was a picture of Christ. And Christ is faithful to Him that appointed Him in the highest degree of all.
His faithfulness showed in the way He worked day by day.
The Lord was faithful to Him that appointed Him. We see it in His ministry during His life. Look at that one day in Capernaum, which Mark describes for us (1:21-37). See His reply to Peter: "Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out." And He went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons (verses 38, 39). This shows His twofold line of service: caring for the soul and for the body.
Verse 2 gives Moses real honour. The verses that follow show the difference in two directions: who they are, and where they stand.
The Apostle and High Priest of our confession (Jesus) was faithful to Him that appointed Him, as also Moses was in all His house; that is, in the house of God in the wilderness. Both alike were faithful. But Christ is more glorious in His person than Moses was, for He built the house; and since He "built all things," He is God. Moses was faithful in all His house "as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after." Christ is faithful as a Son over His house. So the glory of Christ outshines that of Moses, both in His person and in His position.
The contrast leaves the reader with one question.
Moses was a servant, faithful in all his house; Christ is a Son over His house. Who would give up the Son for the servant?
The same word, faithful, is held out to us, with a plain test attached.
Moses was only a servant in the House of God; Christ is Son over His House. Yet Moses was faithful. This is very important. Could we be called "faithful" in the House of God today? The measure is the Word of God. Do we hold to the Word of God today? If we do, we are faithful; if we do not, we are not. It is that simple. We are the House of God, and we look to the Lord Jesus to learn how to behave in it.
- Appointed. God appointed Christ as Apostle and High Priest. He is faithful to the One who appointed Him in both roles.
- Present. English versions read "was faithful," but the sense is "is faithful" — His faithfulness is a present fact, not a closed chapter.
- Compared. The words come from Numbers 12. There God defended Moses against his own brother and sister: "My servant Moses … is faithful in all My house."
- Contrasted. Both were faithful. But Moses was a servant in the house, while Christ built it and is Son over it. Who would trade the Son for the servant?
- Copied. The same word is offered to us: faithfulness in God's house today is measured by whether we hold to the Word of God.
For *he* has been counted worthy of greater glory than Moses, by how much he that has built it has more honour than the house.
The letter went to Jewish believers who honoured Moses above every other name in their history. Here the writer sets that name beside Jesus and measures the two. The comparison turns on a simple picture: a house, and the one who built it.
The writer does not attack Moses. He sets him at his full height and then points to Someone higher. One commentator shows what that does for readers still drawn back to the old way of worship:
If the apostle can show that the One the Christian is to look to is infinitely greater than Moses, he has at once loosened the hold of Judaism on Hebrew Christians. That hold was the pull of the earth, of its fleshly worship and its ritual. He loosens that hold by replacing what they already had with better and greater things. He does not do it by speaking of some failures of Moses. He says nothing of the thing that shut Moses out of the land of Canaan. He says nothing of his killing the Egyptian, hiding the body in the sand, and fleeing when he found the matter was known. Instead he sets this great lawgiver and leader before these Christians, this faithful servant of God in every connection. Then he says: the One you have to be occupied with is infinitely greater than this most faithful man.
Moses did set up the tabernacle. But he worked to God's directions, and setting up is not the same as building:
First, all must admit that he who builds a house has more honour than the house. Moses was not a builder, though he did set up the tabernacle at Sinai according to God's directions. But the Son, the Apostle for the Hebrews, was a builder, and in that none could equal Him. He built all things, as chapter 1 plainly says of Him. Far, far superior therefore to Moses is the Son. Moses was a creature. He is God.
Verse 2 put the two men side by side as faithful. Verse 3 does something else:
But if verse 2 is comparison, verse 3 is contrast. Moses had been faithful in God's house. But Christ is the Builder of the house. He is worthy of greater honour than the house itself, and so of greater honour than any servant in it. … The force of the passage is simply this: a house is proof that someone must have built it. Creation testifies also that it has a Builder greater than itself.
How far does that comparison reach? One commentator answers by naming who the Builder is:
The reason for this has no limit… Jesus, whatever office He may fill, is God. He sheds glory on the position He takes.
The house Moses served in was the tabernacle, the tent of worship in the desert. One writer reads that tent as a picture of something far larger — and then of something much nearer:
Moses identified himself with the house, faithful in it in all things. But Christ is more excellent, just as the one who builds the house is more excellent than the house. … In fact the house — the tabernacle in the wilderness — was a figure of the universe. … In a certain sense this universe is the house of God. He stoops to live in it. Christ created it all. But there is a house which is more truly His own. We are His house, taking it for granted that we persevere to the end.
To say Christ was counted worthy of more glory is not to say Moses had none:
There is something very beautiful in the way God speaks about Moses in connection with Jesus. Of Jesus it is written: "For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses." Did Moses have glory? Indeed he had. Moral glory often covered Moses.
Set beside the Son, that real glory disappears from view:
When brought beside the Son of God, the glory of the man is completely eclipsed. … So the greatness of Moses vanishes before the infinite glory of the person of the Son of God.
- In the house. Moses' honour was real. But his place was inside a house someone else built.
- Over the house. Christ is the Builder. The builder always outranks the building.
- God of the house. The Builder of all things is God, so the measure of His superiority over Moses has no limit.
- Beyond the house. The desert tent pictured something far bigger: the universe God lives in, all of it made by Christ.
- We are the house. The argument ends at the reader's door. Believers are His own house, held there by persevering to the end.
For every house is built by some one; but he who has built all things [is] God.
Here the writer breaks off his comparison of Moses and Christ to note a plain fact: houses do not build themselves. That line settles who Christ is, and it opens the question of the "house": Moses' tent, the universe, or the readers.
The verse takes an everyday observation to its limit. You see a house and know someone built it. Apply that to everything there is, and you reach God.
The force of the passage is simply that a house is proof that someone must have built it. Creation testifies also that it has a Builder greater than itself. "The builder of all things is God." Note that this again proves the Deity of the Lord Jesus, whom verse 3 declares the Builder. The point here is not that all creation is in view. It is that if He built all things, He certainly built what the tabernacle in the wilderness pictures — "the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth."
One writer presses the question to make the answer unavoidable: who built the habitation that reaches to the furthest edges of space and contains the smallest and the greatest objects?
He began by speaking of Moses, a faithful man in God's house, and he moves on to tell us of One who is far greater — not merely greater than the servant in the house, but the Builder of the house, and greater than it.
Verse 3 names Christ as the Builder. Verse 4 says the Builder of everything is God. Together they say who Jesus is, not just what He does.
And in this case the reason has no limit. "For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God." The reference clearly points back to the argument and the proofs of Hebrews 1. Jesus, whatever office He may fill, is God. He sheds glory on the position He takes. Yet the way He administers each office surely brings glory to Him who appointed Him.
Why bring the universe into a discussion about Moses? Because the tent Moses built was a small model of something far bigger.
But He who builds all things is God. And this is what Christ did. In fact the house — that is, the tabernacle in the wilderness — was a figure of the universe. Christ passed through the heavens, as the high priest passed into the sanctuary. In a certain sense this universe is the house of God. He deigns to inhabit it. Christ created it all. But there is a house which is more properly His own. We are His house, assuming that we persevere to the end.
"House" means the place where God dwells. This passage names three of them.
God's first dwelling-place on earth, which He took possession of by the glory that filled it when the cloud first covered it (Ex. 40:35), was the tabernacle in the wilderness. In that house Moses was a servant. Besides that, the universe is also God's house, for in it He dwells. It is a house, as we learn, built by the Son, who is therefore God: "for the builder of all things is God." Then there is another house now — the Church or Assembly of God on earth.
That last house is the point for the readers. Moses was in God's house, but he did not form part of it. Believers now are God's house.
Moses worked from instructions God gave him. The contrast is not between a lesser builder and a greater one. It is between a man following God's directions and the One who built the universe the tent pointed to.
Moses, under the direction of God, built the tabernacle in the wilderness. Jesus, the true Apostle, is the Builder of the whole universe, of which the tabernacle was a testimony. God dwells in the heaven of heavens. It is also true that He dwells among His people, who today form His House.
One writer applies this to our own projects for God.
If it is a question of building God a house, God must be the builder (Eph. 2:20-22; Heb. 3:3-6); otherwise what ruin results from man's building!
- Builder — A house proves a builder. All things prove God — an everyday fact turned into proof.
- Builder is Christ — Verse 3 calls Christ the Builder. Verse 4 calls the Builder God. So the verse states the deity of Jesus.
- The house is the universe — Moses' tent was a small figure of the vast dwelling God inhabits, and Christ made it all.
- The house is us — The same word narrows down to the people of God: Moses served in the house, believers are the house.
- So let God build — Since the Builder of everything is God, anything we construct for Him on our own plans ends in ruin.
And Moses indeed [was] faithful in all his house, as a ministering servant, for a testimony of the things to be spoken after;
Moses receives the highest praise Scripture gives a servant: faithful in all of God's house. The same verse also marks his limit, and raises two questions — what house was it, and what were the things still to be spoken?
God said it first in Numbers 12. The tabernacle then showed what it meant in practice.
The house in which Moses was faithful was not his own house or family, but was the House of God, as we can see from Numbers 12... "If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known to him in a vision... Not so my servant Moses: he is faithful in all my house." ... Moses was the one who, guided by the Holy Spirit, regulated all the details of the tabernacle, and he did not forget a single one of them. This is a very important and searching principle. At the end of Exodus God tells Moses to do everything exactly as He commanded. There is no room for human invention in the things of God.
The word for servant here carries honour. Even so, the next verse sets Christ's Sonship against it.
According to Mr. W. E. Vine the word for servant here (therapon) "is a term of dignity and freedom." Yet the very next verse contrasts the Sonship of Christ with this. "But Christ as a Son over His own house; whose house are we…"
That last line follows an older translation. Commentators differ: some read "His house" as God's house throughout. Either way, the gap between Moses and Christ is not one of degree.
Moses never rose above a servant, and no creature ever does — not Gabriel in heaven, nor even Michael the archangel. Jesus is the Son, the eternal Word, the Only-Begotten. He is — not merely was, but is — in the bosom of the Father from everlasting to everlasting. So in His case it was not just a testimony of things to be spoken later. His glory was and is His own, personal and intrinsic.
Moses' faithfulness pointed forward. What he built and what he said bore witness to a message God had not yet spoken.
Moses was faithful as a servant, and a witness. His ministry pointed to something still to come... He made the tabernacle and set up the priesthood of Levi with its rituals. In the way he served, he was a prophetic witness of good things to come. But what he testified to, both through symbolic ceremony and in prophetic words, could not be declared openly. He was a preacher of law, but a prophet of grace. The things his ministry witnessed to "were to be spoken after."
One writer takes it further: the whole order Moses served stood in the same servant's place.
The first order of things is here called a house. It was a servant to serve a coming Christ — Moses and the house are one and the same. All the activities of that order were worth nothing if they did not bear testimony to a coming Christ: therefore it was a servant.
Moses failed later, and the failure was public. What the Spirit records here, centuries afterwards, takes no account of it.
This was a great public failure, and it kept Moses out of Canaan. But is it not wonderful that centuries later the Spirit's testimony about the man is "faithful in all His house"? Such is the reckoning of grace.
The tabernacle was only a picture of what was coming. What then does God expect from those who live in the reality?
The tabernacle was a picture of what God would reveal later (and has now revealed). So the servant Moses bore testimony to the truth of God even in what was only a picture of the church. And if so, does our God expect any less faithfulness to His Word in the church itself? How careful every servant of the Lord should be to follow the whole Word of our God faithfully!
- The house — Moses was faithful in God's house, not his own. The phrase comes from God's own words in Numbers 12, and it meant building the tabernacle just as God commanded, with no detail forgotten.
- The servant — the word carries dignity and freedom, yet it still marks a place inside the house. Moses never rose above a servant, and no creature does.
- The Son — Christ's glory is His own, personal and intrinsic, not a testimony borrowed from what was still to come. A son is over the house; a servant works inside it.
- The testimony — Moses' whole ministry pointed forward to what could not yet be said openly. He was a preacher of law, but a prophet of grace.
- The reckoning — Moses' public failure kept him out of Canaan, yet the Spirit still calls him faithful in all God's house. That is the reckoning of grace, and the same care for God's Word now falls to us.
but Christ, as Son over his house, whose house are *we*, if indeed we hold fast the boldness and the boast of hope firm to the end.
Hebrews 3 sets Moses and Christ side by side. Moses served inside God's house; Christ is Son over it. The verse then turns to the readers: they are that house — if they hold fast.
Older translations read "his own house." Writers point out that the house is God's, and that the comparison with Moses settles it.
This verse is better rendered: "But Christ as a Son over His house." Read as the older Authorized Version has it, it would mean Christ's own house. But it is God's house. The comparison drawn makes this clear... Christ is more glorious in His person than Moses was. He built the house, and, having "built all things," He is God. Moses too was faithful in all His house, but only as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later. Christ is a Son over His house. The glory of Christ outshines that of Moses in His person and in His position. As Son, He is supreme over the house of God.
Kelly presses the contrast further — past Moses, to the angels themselves.
Moses never rose above a servant. No creature ever does — not the angel Gabriel in heaven, nor Michael the archangel. Jesus is the Son, the eternal Word, the Only-Begotten. He is — not merely was, but is — at the Father's side, from everlasting to everlasting. In His case it was not merely a testimony of what would be spoken later. His glory was and is His own, belonging to His person.
So the house is people. The same letter later points to the One over them.
Earlier in the letter we read of Him as both Priest and Son, and then it adds, "we are his house." We are God's house, God's priestly family. Over us is this Great Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have full access to God.
Nothing in that place is ours by right.
The worshippers need a great Priest — one who is over the house, even over them. This must not be forgotten. We are not priests in our own right, nor do we have the freedom of the house in our own right — everything hangs on the great Priest.
Some read the verse as a caution against being too sure. Kelly argues the opposite: the verse assumes the confidence is already there.
Is it not a strange conclusion to draw from verse 6 — that the Christian is in danger from confidence in his soul, and from the boast that the glory before us inspires?... It is plain and sure that the Holy Spirit here takes two things for granted. First, that the Christian has the confidence to which Christ and His redemption entitle every simple-hearted believer. Second, that the glory of God we hope for is a happy and settled boast... The real danger against which the Hebrew confessors are warned is giving up that confidence and boast. They are urged to hold it fast.
Darby explains what made the warning necessary.
The believers the inspired writer was addressing were this house, if at least they held fast their confession of His name to the end. The danger for these Hebrew converts was losing their confidence. Nothing stood before their eyes as the fulfilment of the promises.
Both writers take the "if" as a test of profession, not a threat to the believer. Each puts the accent in a different place.
With profession there is always the possibility of unreality, and so the "ifs" come in... This is not a warning against being too confident in Christ, or in the eternal security that belongs to the believer. As has been truly said, "There is no 'if' either as to Christ's work or as to the glad tidings of God's grace. All there is, is unconditional grace to faith." The warning assumes that those addressed have this assurance. It warns them against giving it up. The true believer will hold fast — or rather, God will hold him fast to the end through the priestly grace of Christ, in spite of many a failure. That is certain... The wilderness that tests the true believer exposes the unreality of those who merely profess.
There are "ifs" in Scripture, but not where our salvation is concerned. Our salvation is perfect, and we have it... The "ifs" bring out my constant dependence on the Lord, who never takes His eyes off the righteous.
- Son, not servant. Moses was faithful inside the house. Christ built it and rules it as Son, greater in person and in position.
- God's house. The house belongs to God. The better reading is "over His house," not "his own house."
- We are it. The house is people now — God's priestly family, with the Great Priest over them, and nothing in that place ours by right.
- Hold fast. The confidence and the boast of hope are already ours. The danger is letting them go under pressure.
- Tested, not threatened. There is no "if" over Christ's work. Holding on shows what was real, and keeps us leaning on the Lord, who holds us fast.