What does "Do not throw away your confidence" mean in Hebrews 10:35?

"Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense; for ye have need of endurance in order that, having done the will of God, ye may receive the promise."

The apostle thus exhorts them not to throw away, not to cast off their confidence, because there is great recompense of reward laid up for them in heaven. They had a confidence; the grounds of it we have been dwelling upon. It is the same word which is translated "boldness" in the earlier part of this chapter: "Having, therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus." They were not to cast away this boldness; they were to hold fast the rejoicing of their hope and their confidence steadfast unto the end. They had received no reward at present, save, of course, that blessed witness of the Spirit in the soul, which is its own reward; but the recompense remained. The rest was there, where God Himself was resting in His own eternal day. In a little while all the pressure of the way would be over, all the persecution for the name of Christ would be a thing of the past. How sweet in glory to be able to look back upon a course run in which Jesus had not been denied, confidence maintained, and now throughout eternity to enjoy the fulness of that blessing, the foretaste of which sweetened all their sorrows in this life! He reminds them that they have need of patience, as we all have; or as the word really is, of "endurance." And it is tribulation that "worketh patience, and patience experience." Experience and patience do not come from an unexercised life; and they needed that endurance which abode under every stress; that after they had done the will of God, after they had bowed to that will as expressed in the Gospel, had confessed and suffered for Christ, they would still cleave to Him, and thus obtain the promise which was laid up for them in heaven. All this is very simple. It needs not so much exposition as it does application, and I am sure it has a voice for our souls which will be most sanctifying if we bow to the truth which is here pressed home upon us.

"Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise." If confidence in the living God is cast away, then its character is proven to be extremely deficient, for God Himself has not changed. Persecution tests it, no doubt, and the apostle would strengthen souls to stand by true, living faith. Patient endurance would gain its recompense, for the will of God in reference to any believer is that he should prove through hard experience that his trust is actually in the living God.

Their former conversation had been worthy of the gospel. In all they did and suffered then, the moving spring was hopeful confidence in Jesus. They were to keep that fast (verse 35). For Jesus had not changed. If, on comparing their first love and its effects with the diminished zeal which since had made the heart of the apostle sad, they felt disposed to call their own sincerity in question, they were wrong. What they did formerly was rightly done. And God was not unrighteous to forget their work. They must not cast away their confidence; because the trust which they had once reposed in Jesus He was faithful to preserve. They did not doubt His love when at the first they boldly took His name. They knew then that the heavenly inheritance was no delusion. Still less should they relinquish now that blessed hope. Their confidence, held firmly fast, would bring them soon great recompense of reward.

"But call to remembrance the earlier days in which, when enlightened, ye endured much conflict of sufferings, partly being made a spectacle by both reproaches and afflictions, and partly also having become partakers with those thus conversant. For ye both sympathised with those in bonds, and accepted with joy the plundering of your goods, knowing that ye have for yourselves a better substance and abiding. Cast not away therefore your confidence, since it (or, the which) hath great recompense. For of endurance ye have need, that, having done the will of God, ye may receive the promise. For yet a very little while he that cometh will be come and will not delay. But my righteous one shall live by faith; and if he shrink back, my soul hath no pleasure in him. But we have no shrinking back unto perdition, but faith unto soul-winning" (verses 32-39).

Relaxation is ever a danger for soldiers when on service, as Christians always are here below; and those who had been Jews were exposed to it as much at least as Gentile brethren, which we may see for these last in 1 Cor. 4 and 15. The Hebrew believers had begun well; they are here urged to continue enduring the fierce conflict of the enemy. All the old English versions save that of Rheims (1552) narrow their sympathy according to the Text. Rec. to the bonds of him who now wrote. but the better reading seems to be "the prisoners" i.e. those of the Lord in general. To some of feeble faith this is no small trial; to others the plunder of their property. These saints had shone in both respects. "In heaven" appears to be a copyist's addition, as is "in" (ἐν) just before. Still the great guard is against casting away their confidence or boldness of soul, the root within of outward suffering as of service. Patient endurance is needed as ever, of which the love of Christ is the spring, glory with Him the hope alone, the road, where the will of God is for us to do as it was done by Him perfectly. The recompense assured is inseparable from His advent; which here as elsewhere is kept immediately before the Christian.

Thus, if it was natural for Jewish saints when dispirited to look back at their old association of visible splendour, the danger of abandoning all God had now wrought in Christ and given to faith is solemnly applied; and they are called not to cast away their confidence and its great recompense. True, they needed endurance. But let them remember that the end of everlasting joy is at hand; for He that cometh (and it is yet a very little while) will come and will not delay. What blessed grounds to persevere in faith! They had long walked in Christ's path: a few trials more might be theirs. All above is glorious, and He is coming quickly. Is the saving of the soul even a small thing? And what of joy and blessedness and glory does not follow?

In verse 32, we again see that, though for the sake of some these warnings were uttered, yet the writer had every confidence that the mass of those to whom he wrote were true believers. He remembered, and he called on them to remember, the earlier days when they suffered much persecution for their faith, and he appealed to them not to cast away their confidence at this late hour in their history. An abundant recompense was coming for any loss they had suffered here.

"Cast not away therefore your confidence," for it thus shows that it has "great recompense of reward." Faith is a principle that apprehends two different things of God. It views Him as a justifier of the ungodly, as in Romans 4; but here it apprehends God as "a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." The moment you apprehend God by a faith that does not work, you enter on a faith that does work. And while we rightly cherish a faith that saves our souls, let us not be indifferent to a faith that serves our Saviour. How boldly we sometimes assert our title, but do we value our inheritance? It is a poor wretched thing to boast in our title, and yet show that the heart is but little moved by the hope of the inheritance. Just so, if I boast of a justifying faith, it is a poor thing to be indifferent to the faith that we have here in chapter 11 — "Now faith is the confidence of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."

How then say some who assume to teach that it is presumption to have any such "assurance"? For the assurance here insisted on as proper, incumbent, and necessary from first to last is grounded on the glorified Lord Jesus, our propitiation and our high priest, on the divine dignity of His person and the accepted efficacy of His work for us, leading, as He undertook, many sons to glory. One can hardly therefore find doctrine more opposed to the gospel than a preliminary denial of that assurance which every Christian is solemnly exhorted, not merely to have but to hold fast, yea firm to the end. If assurance be founded on anything in ourselves, the sooner the better to abandon what was really self-righteous and unbecoming and spurious. The confidence which dispenses with continued dependence on God is worthless and a delusion of the enemy. But if we rest on Him by faith, we are bound to have and cherish by faith what is only His due. And it may be that the Hellenistic sense of "confidence," while certain from the usage of Polybius (4:54, 10; 5:16, 4; 6:55, 2; Diod. Sic., etc.), as cited in modern commentaries, flows from its primitive meaning of subsistence, substance, and the like. Compare Heb. 4:3; Heb. 11:1. It points strongly to an objective base in the Christ, instead of a mere sentiment in the soul which might easily change and fade away. But the Spirit, where there is life, keeps believers true to the Lord.

Encouragement. — Already has he expressed his confidence in the faithfulness of the Hebrews to whom he addressed himself (6:9, 10), though earnestly exhorting them, as he has done, not to give up the conflict. And now he would encourage them to persevere, and not to cast away their confidence (or, boldness), which has great recompense of reward (35). Tried they had been, and in the past had "endured a great fight of afflictions; partly," he adds, "whilst ye were made a gazing-stock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used. For ye had compassion on them that were in bonds [not, on me in my bonds], and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing that ye yourselves have a better and an enduring substance [or, possession]." He spoke of their early days of faithfulness under persecution. Spoiled of their goods, a gazing-stock to the crowd, identifying themselves with others in sufferings, and having compassion on those that were in bonds — all this showed their faith and boldness in confessing themselves disciples of the crucified One. Now who was there so competent thus to speak of their early faith and constancy as the former persecutor of the Church, who had entered many a house, and hailing those therein without distinction of sex had cast them into prison? Neither Clement, nor Apollos, to whom this Epistle has by some been ascribed, could so well have written of the former faithfulness and sufferings of the Hebrews as Paul. No one, not even Barnabas, was so fitted for this task as he whose memory could recall many a scene in connection with the persecution at Jerusalem, and who likewise must have had fixed indelibly in his mind the bearing and the unflinching constancy of confessors and martyrs for Christ. And certainly their conduct was not forgotten on high. God was not an unconcerned spectator of all that had taken place. In a coming day how fully will that be manifested!

Nevertheless he hopes better things, for fruit, the sign of life, was there. He reminds them how much they had suffered for the truth, and that they had even received joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing that they had a better and an abiding portion in heaven. They were not to cast away this confidence, the reward of which would be great. For in truth they needed patience, in order that, after having done the will of God, they might receive the effect of the promise. And He who is to come will come soon.