Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hebrews 6:9
But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.
9 12. Words of encouragement and hope
9. beloved ] The warm expression is introduced to shew that his stern teaching is only inspired by love.
we are persuaded ] Lit., “We have been (and are) convinced of.” Comp. Rom 15:14.
better things ] Lit., “the better things.” I am convinced that the better alternative holds true of you; that your condition is, and your fate will be, better than what I have described.
that accompany salvation ] Rather, “akin to salvation,” the antithesis to “near a curse.” What leads to salvation is obedience (Heb 5:9).
though we thus speak ] in spite of the severe words of warning which I have just used. Comp. Heb 10:39.
thus ] As in Heb 6:4-8.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
But, beloved, we are persuaded better things – We confidently hope for better things respecting you. We trust that you are true Christians; that you will produce the proper fruits of holiness; that you will be saved. Things that accompany salvation. Things that pertain to salvation. The Greek phrase here means, near to salvation, or things that are conjoined with salvation. So Coverdale renders it, and that salvation is nigher. The form of expression seems to refer to what was said in Heb 6:8. The land overrun with briars was nigh to cursing; the things which Paul saw in them were nigh to salvation. From this verse it is evident:
(1)That the apostle regarded them as sincere Christians; and,
(2)That he believed they would not fall away.
Though he had stated what must be the inevitable consequence if Christians should apostatize, yet he says that in their case he had a firm conviction that it would not occur. There is no inconsistency in this. We may be certain that if a man should take arsenic it would kill him; and yet we may have the fullest conviction that he will not do it. Is not this verse a clear proof that Paul felt that it was certain that true Christians would never fall away and be lost? If he supposed that they might, how could he be persuaded that it would not happen to them? Why not to them as well as to others? Hence, learn that while we assure people that if they should fall away they would certainly perish we may nevertheless address them with the full persuasion that they will be saved.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Heb 6:9
We are persuaded better things of you
Pastoral solicitude
I.
THE BETTER THINGS.
1. Better things than to be moral dwarfs.
2. Better things than treating the Son disrespectfully.
3. Better things than to be withering for the flames.
II. THE SAVING THINGS.
1. Inward change.
2. Love to God and the brethren.
3. Prayer.
4. Perseverance in spite of obstacles. (A. Griffiths.)
Judging in charity
Those of us who have read classic history may remember an incident in the history of the Macedonian emperor. A painter was commanded to sketch the monarch. In one of his great battles, he had been struck with the sword upon the forehead, and a very large scar had been left on the right temple. The painter, who was a master-hand in his art, sketched him leaning on his elbow, with his finger covering the scar on his forehead: and so the likeness of the king was taken, but without the scar. Let us put the finger of charity upon the scar of the Christian as we h,ok at him, whatever it may be–the finger of a tender and forebearing charity, and see, in spite of it and under it, the image of Christ notwithstanding. (J. Cumming, D. D.)
A good persuasion
I. IT IS THE DUTY OF THE DISPENSERS OF THE GOSPEL TO SATISFY THEIR HEARERS IN AND OF THEIR LOVE IN JESUS CHRIST TO THEIR SOULS AND PERSONS.
II. IT IS OUR DUTY TO COME UNTO THE BEST SATISFACTION WE MAY, IN THE SPIRITUAL CONDITION OF THEM WITH WHOM WE ARE TO HAVE SPIRITUAL COMMUNION.
III. WE MAY AS OCCASIONS REQUIRE, PUBLICLY TESTIFY THAT GOOD PERSUASION WHICH WE HAVE CONCERNING THE SPIRITUAL CONDITION OF OTHERS, AND THAT UNTO OURSELVES.
IV. THE REST PERSUASION WE CAN ARRIVE UNTO CONCERNING THE SPIRITUAL CONDITION OF ANY LEAVES YET ROOM, YEA, MAKES WAY FOR THE GOSPEL TREATENINGS, WARNINGS, EXHORTATIONS, AND ENCOURAGEMENTS.
V. AMONG PROFESSORS OF THE GOSPEL, SOME ARE PARTAKERS OF BETTER THINGS THAN OTHERS.
1. Spiritual gifts are of one kind. For although there are several sorts of them, yet they have all the same general nature, they are all grits and no more. The difference therefore that is amongst them being not to be taken from their own especial nature, but their use and tendency unto the common end of them all, I take it only to be gradual.
2. There are spiritual things which differ in their whole kind ,n,I nature from other things, and are better than they as to their essence and being. Such is all saving grace, with all the fruits of it. All that eat outwardly in ordinances of the bread -f life do not feed on the hidden manna. All that have their names enrolled in the Churchs book, may not yet have them written in the Lambs book. There are yet better things than gift,, profession, participation of ordinances, and whatever is of the like nature. And the use hereof in one word is to warn all sorts of persons, that they rest not its, that they take not up with an interest in, or participation of, the privileges of the Church, with a common profession, which may give them a name to live; seeing they may be dead or in a perishing condition in the meantime.
VI. THERE ARE, ACCORDING TO THE TENOR OF THE COVENANT OF GRACE, SUCH THINGS BESTOWED ON SOME PERSONS, AS SALVATION DOTH INFALLIBLY ACCOMPANY AND ENSUE UPON–BETTER THINGS, AND SUCH AS HAVE SALVATION ACCOMPANYING OF THEY.
VII. IT IS THE DUTY OF ALL PROFESSORS STRICTLY TO EXAMINE THEMSELVES, CONCERNING THEIR PARTICIPATION OF THOSE BETTER THINGS WHICH ACCOMPANY SALVATION. Their condition is deplorable who under an outward profession do satisfy themselves with those common gifts, graces, and duties which are separable from salvation. (John Owen, D. D.)
Encouragement in the midst of warnings
Though the Church be persuaded of thee that thou art a wise man, witty, learned, that is to small purpose. So live, that both the preachers and all good people may be persuaded you have that in you, for the which they may judge you to be heirs of salvation. Here be prevents an objection that might be made. What, Paul, hast thou been so bitter towards us? Hast thou called us babes and novices in religion? Hast thou set before our eyes such a terrible example of backsliders, as if we were birds of the same feather, and now art thou well persuaded of us? Thou dost but flatter us, we can hardly think so. Oh yes, says St. Paul, assure yourselves, we have a good opinion of you; though we thus speak, these are but trumpets to waken you out of sin, the wounds of a lover to cure you withal; they be but spurs of fatherly admonitions to prick you forwards unto all goodness. We made mention of these men, not as it you were such, but to warn you that you be not such. Though the preacher be sometimes round and vehement, yet the people must not imagine that he is hardly conceited of them. A father loves his child when he chides him, a physician his patient, though he give him bitter pills; and we love you, though we be hot against the corruptions that reign among you. (W. Jones, D. D.)
Things that accompany salvation
Things that accompany salvation
Picture to yourselves the march of some ancient monarch through his territory. We read stories of eastern monarchs in the olden time, that seem more like romance than reality; when they marched with thousands of flying banners, and with all kinds of riches borne with them. Now you are to take that as the basis of my figure, and suppose salvation to be the sacred treasure which is being carried through the world, with guards before and guards behind, to accompany it on its journey.
I. First, then, IN THE MARCHES OF TROOPS AND ARMIES THERE ARE SOME THAT ARE OUTRIDERS, AND GO FAR AHEAD OF THE OTHER TROOPS. So in the march of salvation there is a certain body of great and mighty things that accompany salvation, which have far preceded it to clear the way. I will tell you the names of these stupendous Titans who have gone before. The first is Election; the second is Predestination; the third is Redemption; and the Covenant is the captain of them all. Now, this advance-guard is so far ahead that you and I cannot see them. These are true doctrines, but very mysterious; they are beyond our sight; and if we wish to see salvation, we must not stop until we see the vanguard, because they are so far off that only the eye of faith can reach them. Then Election is thine. Dost thou believe? Then Predestination is as surely thine as thou art alive. Dost thou trust alone in Jesus? Then fear not; Redemption was meant for thee.
II. But mark, we are about to review THE ARMY THAT IMMEDIATELY PRECEDES SALVATION; and, first, in the forefront of these, there marches one whose name we must pronounce with sacred awe. It is God the Holy Spirit. Before anything can be done in our salvation, there must come that Third Person of the Sacred Trinity. Without Him, faith, repentance, humility, love, are things quite impossible. And now, close in the rear of the adorable Spirit follow the Thundering Legion. No sooner does God the Holy Ghost come into the soul, than He brings with Him what I have called the Thundering Legion; and those of you that hay, been saved will not be at a loss to understand what I mean. Some of the men in this Thundering Legion bear with them swords; with these swords they are to slay the sinner. For, be ore he can be made whole, he must b, spiritually killed; the sword must pierce him, and must slay all his selfishness before he can be brought to the Lord Jesus. Then another body of them carry with them axes, with which they cut down the thick trees of our pride and abase the goodly cedars of our righteousness. There are with them those that fill up the wells with stones, and break up all the cisterns of our carnal sufficiency, until we are driven to despair, having all our hopes despoiled. My friend, has this Thundering Legion ever come to your house? Have they ever taken up their quarters in your heart? For, rest assured, these are some of the things that accompany salvation. More or less of terrors every man must feel Before he is converted. Oh, Thundering Legion, ye are gone; we hear their trumpets and the dying echoes still apped us. What see we in the rear of them? Close in the rear there follows a broken heart. Are you sorrowful at this very hour? Be of good cheer, salvation is not far behind When there is once a broken heart, there is mercy very near. God is looking on thee with love, and will have mercy upon thee. But who are those that follow in the rear? Another troop; but these are far different from the rest. The Silken Legion follow. No weapons of war in their hands; no thunders do they utter; but they speak kind words of pity, and their hands are full of benedictions. Shall I tell you who this Silken Legion are? There is a troop of them who take the poor wounded heart, and wash it first in blood; they sprinkle on it the sacred blood of the Atonement; and it is amazing how the poor broken heart, though faint and sick, revives at the first drop of the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. And oh, what a washing it is? The heart that was once black as the coals of hell, seems white as the snow of Lebanon. When it has once been bathed in the bath of the Saviours blood and water, oh, how pure it becomes Then follow those who pour oil and wine into the wounds of this poor broken heart, so that where it smarted before, the wounds begin to sing. The sacred oil and wine of the precious promise is poured into every wound. The whole heart sings for gladness; for God hath rest, red its strength and bound up all its wounds, according to His promise: He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. And then, since the work is not quite done, there come those who carry the Kings wardrobe; and with the things out of this rich storehouse thy array the soul from head to foot; they clothe it with everything that for lustre and for glory could adorn it, and make it bright as the spirits before the throne. And then the Kings jewellers come in and complete the whole; they array the soul with ornaments, and bedeck it with precious stones. And now we have not yet come to a full conviction of salvation. The silken legion are gone. What cometh next? Now come those that are the actual attendants upon salvation or rather, that march in the rank immediately before it. There are four of these, called Repentance, Humility, Prayer, and a tender Conscience. Has Humility ever come to you? Has she ever abased your pride, and taught you to lie in the dust before God? Has Repentance ever watered the floor of your hearts with tears? Have you ever been led to weep in secret for year sins, and to bewail your iniquities? Has Prayer ever entered)our spirit? Remember, a prayerless soul is a Christless soul. And, lastly, are you tender of Conscience, for unless your conscience is made tender, salvation has not met you, for these are the immediate attendants upon it.
III. And now comes SALVATION IS ALL ITS FULNESS. And now comes the precious casket set with gems and jewels. It is of God-like workmanship; no hammer was ever lifted on it; it was smitten out and fashioned upon the anvil of Eternal Might, and cast in the mould of Everlasting Wisdom; but no human hand hath ever defiled it. And who are those that are close around it? There are three sweet sisters that always have the custody of the treasure–you know them; their names are common in Scripture Faith, Hope, and Love, the three Divine sisters; these have salvation in their bowels and do carry it about with them in their loins. Faith, who layeth hold on Christ, and trusteth all in Him; that ventureth everything upon His blood and sacrifice, and hath no other trust. Hope, that with beaming eye looks up to Jesus Christ in glory, and expects Him soon to come: looks downward, and when she sees grim death in her way, expects that she shall pass through with victory. And then sweet Love, the sweetest of the three; she, whose words are music and whose eyes are stars; Love also looks to Christ and is enamoured of Him; loves Him in all His offices, adores His presence, reverences His words; and is prepared to bind her body to the stake and die for Him, who bound His body to the cross to die for her.
IV. Now! MUST BRING UP THE BEAR GUARD. It is impossible that with such a vanguard, grace should be unattended from behind. Now see those that follow salvation. The first is Gratitude–always singing, Bless the Lord O my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy name. And then Gratitude lays hold upon its sons hand; the name of that son is Obedience. In company with this fair grace is one called Consecration–a pure white spirit that hath no earthliness; from its head to its foot it is all Gods, and all gold. Linked to this bright one, is one with a face serene and solemn, called Knowledge. Then shall ye know when ye follow on to know the Lord. Those that are saved understand mysteries, they know the love of Christ; they know Him, whom to know is life eternal. Now, have you these four? They are rather, the successors of salvation than the heralds of it. Oh yes, the believer can say, I trust I have Gratitude, Obedience, Consecration, and Knowledge. I will not weary you, but there are three shining ones that follow after these four, and I must not forget them, for they are the flower of them all. There is Zeal with eyes of fire, and heart of flame, a tongue that burneth, a hand that never wearies, and limbs that never tire; Zeal, that flies round the world with wings swifter than the lightnings flash, and finds even then her wings too tardy for her wish. This Zeal always dwells near one that is called Communion. This, sure, is the goodliest of all the train; an angel spiritualised, an angel purified and made yet more angelic, is Communion. Communion calls in secret on-its God; its God in secret sees. It is conformed to the image of Jesus; walks according to His footsteps. And as a necessary consequence, on the other side of Communion–which with one hand lays hold of Zeal, is Joy–joy in the Spirit. Joy, like the nightingale, sings in the dark, and can praise God in the tempest and shout His high praises in the storm. This is indeed a fitting cherub to be in the rear of salvation. Just in the rear is Perseverance, final, certain and sure. Then there follows complete Sanctification, whereby the soul is purged from every sin, and made as white and pure as God Himself. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Things that accompany salvation
This is the only place in this letter where the readers are addressed as beloved. The especial tenderness of the appellation follows very beautifully and significantly upon one of the sternest and solemnest warnings which Scripture contains as to the impossibility of those who were first enlightened, if they shall fall away, being renewed again to repentance, and as to the rejection, and cursing, and destruction of the barren and profitless ground. It is as if the writer had felt that after these dark and terrible thoughts he must soften his voice still more, and make haste not only to show how affection had dictated the warning, but also how joyful confidence in his brethren was present throughout it. The writer assumes, as understood and inspired by all to whom he is speaking, that what he calls salvation never comes into any mans hand or heart alone. This great gift never draws near singly. That precious stone is always set in a cluster of little stones around it. This angel of God never enters unattended by the virgins, her companions following her. There is ever a courtly dance of graces and fair figures that pass into the heart, and sweep in unison through the life which has received salvation. And what are these inseparable accompaniments; these continual companions of this central gift? The context distinctly bears the answer. They are all the things which the writer includes in the herbs brought forth meet for the husbandman. All the things which he includes under another figure, in your work and labour of love. That is to say, a fruitful Christian life of joyful obedience, of manifest issues, of a supreme love to God, which flashes out into all kinds of gentleness and amiabilities towards others, and has other regions, often nobler, in which it manifests itself. These are the companions, the things which accompany salvation. All that lustrous beauty and radiant completeness of human character is treated here as being a secondary and a consequent thing. The queen is salvation; they that follow her are all these great and beautiful things. Which is just to say, if a man wants to be good let him begin by taking for his own Gods great gift of forgiveness and acceptance in Jesus Christ. What would you think of a master who said he bad found out a new way of architecture, and he was about to begin building a house at the chimneys? It would be about as wise as the man that seeks, by painful effort, which effort I would be the last to say a word to despise, to make his life full of these beauties of conduct and character without having laid the foundation with Christ, who is the only foundation. If you take and plant some aromatic shrubs, hitherto unknown, upon some bare and sandy down, a whole fleet of bees and butterflies will come, drawn to the blossoms, that never were seen there before. And so if, and only if, we have in our hearts by faith in Jesus Christ, that tree of immortal life and manifold fragrances, round it will buzz and hover, and from it will draw honey and sustenance, all manner of fair and flying things, else and otherwise strangers to our spirits. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The true order in salvation
In those days (Cornwall, 1851), when I was building my new church, and talking about the tower and spire we were going to erect, an elderly Christian lady who was sitting in her wheel-chair, calmly listening to our conversation, said, Will you begin to build your spire from the top? It was a strange question, but she evidently meant something, and looked for an answer. I gave it, saying, No, madam, not from the top, but from the foundation. She replied, That is right–that is right, and went on with her knitting. This question was not asked in jest or in ignorance; it was like a riddle. What did she mean? In a few years this lady passed away, but her enigmatic words remained. No doubt she thought to herself that I was beginning at the wrong end, while I went on talking of the choir, organ, happy worship, and all the things we were going to attempt in the new church; that I was aiming at sanctification, without justification; intending to teach people to be holy before they were saved and pardoned. This is exactly what I was doing. I had planted the boards of my tabernacle of worship, not in silver sockets (the silver of which had been paid for redemption), but in the sand of the wilderness. In other words, I way teaching people to worship God, who is a Spirit, not for love of Him who gave His Son to die for them, but in the fervour and enthusiasm of human nature. (W. Haslam ,M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 9. But, beloved] Here he softens what he had before said; having given them the most solemn warning against apostasy, he now encourages them to persevere, commends the good that is in them, and excites them to watchfulness and activity.
Better things of you] Than that you shall resemble that unfruitful ground that can be improved by no tillage, and is thrown into waste, and is fit only for the beasts of the forests to roam in.
Things that accompany salvation] . Things that are suitable to a state of salvation; you give proofs still that you have not, whatever others have done, departed from the living God. Several of your brethren have already apostatized, and the whole nation is in a state of rebellion against God; and, in consequence of their final rejection of Christ and his Gospel, are about to be finally rejected by God. They must meet with destruction; they have the things that are suitable to, and indicative of, a state of reprobation; the wrath of God will come upon them to the uttermost; but, while they meet with destruction, you shall meet with salvation. It is worthy of remark, that no genuine Christian perished in the destruction of Jerusalem; they all, previously to the siege by Titus, escaped to Pella, in Coelosyria; and it is as remarkable that not one Jew escaped! all either fell by the sword, perished by famine, or were led into captivity! According to their own imprecation, His blood be upon us and our children, God visited and avenged the innocent blood of Christ upon them and upon their posterity; and they continue to be monuments of his displeasure to the present day.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
For preventing of the application of this discourse unto themselves, the apostle subjoins his judgment concerning these Hebrews in this verse, and his reason for it in the next.
But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you; although we have spoken of the attainments, states, and ends of apostates, we reflect not on you by it; but, or notwithstanding, we are persuaded; which word imports not a simple conjecture, for he had the gift of discerning of spirits, and the Holy Ghost, who indites it, did very well know them, so as he was confident of their good state and condition in Christianity, and the Spirit testified so of them by the Epistles of the other apostles directed to them; they were well assured of this, and certain, not only because they were such whom he dearly loved, as if it were only a good or charitable opinion in him, but because of their relation to him as true Christians, and members of the one body of Christ; and so they were very dear to him, whatever they might fear, because of what he wrote before of apostates, for they had better things in them than enlightenings, &c. which he said were in apostates before, Heb 6:4,5, even the saving work of the Spirit on their souls, not by giving them light only, or raising their affections, but by giving them a new eye of understanding, as well as new light, and with it a renewed heart; Christ having by the exceeding greatness of his power made them new creatures, as well as professing Christians; their minds, wills, and affections being all changed, and made truly spiritual by the Spirit of Christ; and which they manifest by the exercise of real graces, and that their light, state, and end is better, more excellent, and of another kind, than that of apostates, evinced Heb 6:10.
And things that accompany salvation; such things as have salvation in them, even the spiritual mind, which hath eternal life in the root of it, Rom 8:6,10,11,16,17. That Divine nature, which the apostle saith was in the same persons, 1Pe 1:1-5; 2Pe 1:1-4; which shows the state of their spirits to be a state of grace, which had salvation in it, secured by promises to it, so as they are inseparable, and their union not to be dissolved.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. belovedappositely hereintroduced; LOVE to youprompts me in the strong warnings I have just given, not that Ientertain unfavorable thoughts of you; nay, I anticipate betterthings of you; Greek “the things which arebetter”; that ye are not thorn-bearing, or nigh untocursing, and doomed unto burning, but heirs of salvationin accordance with God’s faithfulness (Heb6:10).
we are persuadedongood grounds; the result of proof. Compare Ro15:14, “I myself am persuaded of you, my brethren, that yeare full of goodness.” A confirmation of the Paulineauthorship of this Epistle.
things that accompanyGreek,“things that hold by,” that is, are close unto “salvation.”Things that are linked unto salvation (compare Heb6:19). In opposition to “nigh unto cursing.”
thoughGreek,“if even we thus speak.” “For it is better to make youafraid with words, that ye may not suffer in fact.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you,…. The apostle addresses the believing Hebrews, as “beloved”; being beloved by the Lord, not as the descendants of Abraham, but as the elect of God, and so as loved with an everlasting love; and which might be known to themselves, by its being shed abroad in their hearts, and by their being called by grace, and by their love to him, and to his people: and from hence they might conclude they should not fall away, as the apostates before spoken of; since, in consequence of being beloved by God, they were chosen in Christ unto salvation; Christ was given to die for them; they had the Spirit sent down into their hearts; they were justified, pardoned, and adopted; nor could they be separated from the love of God: and the apostle also so calls them, because they were beloved by him, not merely as being his countrymen, but as saints: and this he says to testify his affection to them; to show that what he said was not from hatred of them, or prejudice to them; and that his exhortations, cautions, and reproofs, might be better taken; and particularly that they might credit what he here says, that he was “persuaded better things” of them, than what he had said of others in Heb 6:4 even such as are expressed in Heb 6:10 he was persuaded they had the true grace of God; whereas the above mentioned persons had only gifts, when in the height of their profession; and the least degree of grace is better than the greatest gifts men can be possessed of: grace makes a man a good man, not gifts; a man may have great gifts and not be a good man; grace is useful to a man’s self, gifts are chiefly useful to others; grace makes men fruitful, when gifts leave them barren in the knowledge of Christ; grace is lasting, when gifts fail, and cease and vanish away; grace will abide the fire of persecution, when gifts will not; grace is saving, gifts are not:
and things that accompany salvation; which enter into salvation; are ingredients in it, and parts of it, and with which salvation is connected; such as faith, love, c. or which mutually touch or follow one another in the chain of salvation as to be predestinated, justified, called, adopted, sanctified, and, at last, glorified:
though we thus speak; concerning others, as in the preceding verses: the hard things spoken by him of some, were consistent with such persuasions in general; for there might be some among them to whom the aforesaid characters belonged; and saying such things might be a means to make others watchful and careful.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Cautions against Apostasy; The Divine Promise and Oath. | A. D. 62. |
9 But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. 10 For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have showed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. 11 And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: 12 That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. 13 For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, 14 Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. 15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. 16 For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. 17 Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: 18 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: 19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; 20 Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made a high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
The apostle, having applied himself to the fears of the Hebrews, in order to excite their diligence and prevent their apostasy, now proceeds to apply himself to their hopes, and candidly declares the good hope he had concerning them, that they would persevere; and proposes to them the great encouragements they had in the way of their duty.
I. He freely and openly declares the good hope he had concerning them, that they would endure to the end: But beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, v. 9. Observe, 1. There are things that accompany salvation, things that are never separated from salvation, things that show the person to be in a state of salvation, and will issue in eternal salvation. 2. The things that accompany salvation are better things than ever any hypocrite or apostate enjoyed. They are better in their nature and in their issue. 3. It is our duty to hope well of those in whom nothing appears to the contrary. 4. Ministers must sometimes speak by way of caution to those of whose salvation they have good hopes. And those who have in themselves good hopes, as to their eternal salvation, should yet consider seriously how fatal a disappointment it would be if they should fall short. Thus they are to work out their salvation with fear and trembling.
II. He proposes arguments and encouragements to them to go on in the way of their duty. 1. That God had wrought a principle of holy love and charity in them, which had discovered itself in suitable works that would not be forgotten of God: God is not unrighteous to forget your labour of love, v. 10. Good works and labour proceeding from love to God are commendable; and what is done to any in the name of God shall not go unrewarded. What is done to the saints, as such, God takes as done to himself. 2. Those who expect a gracious reward for the labour of love must continue in it as long as they have ability and opportunity: You have ministered to the saints, and you do minister; and we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence. 3. Those who persevere in a diligent discharge of their duty shall attain to the full assurance of hope in the end. Observe, (1.) Full assurance is a higher degree of hope, is full assurance of hope; they differ not in nature, but only in degree. (2.) Full assurance is attainable by great diligence and perseverance to the end.
III. He proceeds to set before them caution and counsel how to attain this full assurance of hope to the end. 1. That they should not be slothful. Slothfulness will clothe a man with rags: they must not love their ease, nor lose their opportunities. 2. That they would follow the good examples of those who had gone before, v. 12. Here learn, (1.) There are some who from assurance have gone to inherit the promises. They believed them before, now they inherit them; they have got safely to heaven. (2.) The way by which they came to the inheritance was that of faith and patience. These graces were implanted in their souls, and drawn forth into act and exercise in their lives. If we ever expect to inherit as they do, we must follow them in the way of faith and patience; and those who do thus follow them in the way shall overtake them at the end, and be partakers of the same blessedness.
IV. The apostle closes the chapter with a clear and full account of the assured truth of the promises of God, v. 13, to the end. They are all confirmed by the oath of God, and they are all founded in the eternal counsel of God, and therefore may be depended upon.
1. They are all confirmed by the oath of God. He has not only given his people his word, and his hand and seal, but his oath. And here, you will observe, he specifies the oath of God to Abraham, which, being sworn to him as the father of the faithful, remains in full force and virtue to all true believers: When God made a promise unto Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself. Observe, (1.) What was the promise: Surely, blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. The blessing of God is the blessedness of his people; and those whom he has blessed indeed he will go on to bless, and will multiply blessings, till he has brought them to perfect blessedness. (2.) What was the oath by which this promise was ratified: He swore by himself. He staked down his own being and his own blessedness upon it; no greater security can be given or desired. (3.) How was that oath accomplished. Abraham, in due time, obtained the promise. It was made good to him after he had patiently endured. [1.] There is always an interval, and sometimes a long one, between the promise and the performance. [2.] That interval is a trying time to believers, whether they have patience to endure to the end. [3.] Those who patiently endure shall assuredly obtain the blessedness promised, as sure as Abraham did. [4.] The end and design of an oath is to make the promise sure, and to encourage those to whom it is made to wait with patience till the time for performance comes, v. 16. An oath with men is for confirmation, and is an end of all strife. This is the nature and design of an oath, in which men swear by the greater, not by creatures, but by the Lord himself; and it is to put an end to all dispute about the matter, both to disputes within our own breasts (doubts and distrusts), and disputes with others, especially with the promiser. Now, if God would condescend to take an oath to his people, he will surely remember the nature and design of it.
2. The promises of God are all founded in his eternal counsel; and this counsel of his is an immutable counsel. (1.) The promise of blessedness which God has made to believers is not a rash and hasty thing, but the result of God’s eternal purpose. (2.) This purpose of God was agreed upon in counsel, and settled there between the eternal Father, Son, and Spirit. (3.) These counsels of God can never be altered; they are immutable. God never needs to change his counsels; for nothing new can arise to him who sees the end from the beginning.
3. The promises of God, which are founded upon these immutable counsels of God, and confirmed by the oath of God, may safely be depended upon; for here we have two immutable things, the counsel and the oath of God, in which it is impossible for God to lie, contrary to his nature as well as to his will. Here observe,
(1.) Who they are to whom God has given such full security of happiness. [1.] They are the heirs of the promise: such as have a title to the promises by inheritance, by virtue of their new birth, and union with Christ. We are all by nature children of wrath. The curse is the inheritance we are born to: it is by a new and heavenly birth that any are born heirs to the promise. [2.] They are such as have fled for refuge to the hope set before them. Under the law there were cities of refuge provided for those who were pursued by the avenger of blood. Here is a much better refuge prepared by the gospel, a refuge for all sinners who shall have the heart to flee to it; yea, though they have been the chief of sinners.
(2.) What God’s design towards them is, in giving them such securities–that they might have strong consolation. Observe, [1.] God is concerned for the consolation of believers, as well as for their sanctification; he would have his children walk in the fear of the Lord, and in the comforts of the Holy Ghost. [2.] The consolations of God are strong enough to support his people under their strongest trials. The comforts of this world are too weak to bear up the soul under temptation, persecution, and death; but the consolations of the Lord are neither few nor small.
(3.) What use the people of God should make of their hope and comfort, that most refreshing and comfortable hope of eternal blessedness that God has given them. This is, and must be, unto them, for an anchor to the soul, sure and stedfast, c., <i>v. 19. Here, [1.] We are in this world as a ship at sea, liable to be tossed up and down, and in danger of being cast away. Our souls are the vessels. The comforts, expectations, graces, and happiness of our souls are the precious cargo with which these vessels are loaded. Heaven is the harbour to which we sail. The temptations, persecutions, and afflictions that we encounter, are the winds and waves that threaten our shipwreck. [2.] We have need of an anchor to keep us sure and steady, or we are in continual danger. [3.] Gospel hope is our anchor; as in our day of battle it is our helmet, so in our stormy passage through this world it is our anchor. [4.] It is sure and stedfast, or else it could not keep us so. First, It is sure in its own nature; for it is the special work of God in the soul. It is a good hope through grace; it is not a flattering hope made out of the spider’s web, but it is a true work of God, it is a strong and substantial thing. Secondly, It is stedfast as to its object; it is an anchor that has taken good hold, it enters that which is within the veil; it is an anchor that is cast upon the rock, the Rock of ages. It does not seek to fasten in the sands, but enters within the veil, and fixes there upon Christ; he is the object, he is the anchor-hold of the believer’s hope. As an unseen glory within the veil is what the believer is hoping for, so an unseen Jesus within the veil is the foundation of his hope; the free grace of God, the merits and mediation of Christ, and the powerful influences of his Spirit, are the grounds of his hope, and so it is a stedfast hope. Jesus Christ is the object and ground of the believer’s hope, and so it is a stedfast hope. Jesus Christ is the object and ground of the believer’s hope in several respects. 1. As he has entered within the veil, to intercede with God, in virtue of that sacrifice which he offered up without the veil: hope fastens upon his sacrifice and intercession. 2. As he is the forerunner of his people, gone within the veil, to prepare a place for them, and to assure them that they shall follow him; he is the earnest and first fruits of believers, both in his resurrection and in his ascension. 3. And he abides there, a high priest after the order of Melchisedec, a priest for ever, whose priesthood shall never cease, never fail, till he has accomplished its whole work and design, which is the full and final happiness of all who have believed on Christ. Now this should engage us to clear up our interest in Christ, that we may fix our hopes in him as our forerunner, that has entered thither for us, for our sakes, for our safety, to watch over our highest interest and concerns. Let us then love heaven the more on his account, and long to be there with him, where we shall be for ever safe, and for ever satisfied.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
But we are persuaded ( ). Perfect passive indicative of , literary plural. Note Paul’s use of in 2Ti 1:12.
Better things ( ). “The better things” than those pictures in 6:4-8.
That accompany salvation ( ). “Things holding on to salvation” (Mr 1:38), a common Greek phrase , present middle participle of .
Though we thus speak ( ). Concessive condition of the first class. Explanatory, not apologetic, of his plain talk.
Not unrighteous to forget ( ). Second aorist middle infinitive of with genitive case (, work, , love). But even God cannot remember what they did not do.
In that ye ministered and still do minister ( ). First aorist active and present active participle of the one verb , the sole difference being the tense (single act aorist, repeated acts present).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
But the writer refuses to believe that his readers will incur such a fate. Beloved [] . Only here in the epistle. It often suggests an argument. See 1Co 10:14; 1Co 14:58; 2Co 7:1.
We are persuaded [] . We are firmly convinced. The verb indicates a past hesitation overcome.
Better things [ ] . The article gives a collective force, the better state of things, the going on unto perfection (ver. 1). For kreissona better, see on ch. Heb 1:4.
That accompany salvation [ ] . Ecesqai with a genitive is a common Greek idiom meaning to hold one’s self to a person or thing; hence to be closely joined to it. So in a local sense, Mr 1:38; in a temporal sense, Luk 13:33, next. He is persuaded that they will give heed to all things which attend the work of salvation and will enjoy all that attaches to a saved condition.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “But beloved we are persuaded,” (pepeismetha de agapetoi) “But beloved (ones) we have been persuaded,” Heb 10:39; Mat 7:17. Paul’s persuasion was that these Hebrew church brethren to whom he wrote would bear fruit resembling the new nature they received in salvation as described, 1Pe 1:4-11.
2) “Better things of you,” (peri hupon ta kreissonta) “The better (kind of) things concerning you all,” than your failing away from your profession, than your living or going on in an unfruitful, unproductive way, Mat 5:13-16.
3) “And things that accompany salvation,” (kai echoma soterias) “Even a kind of things accompanying salvation,” even works and fruits of the spirit in your lives daily, Gal 5:22-25; 1Th 1:3-10.
4) “Though we thus speak,” (ei kai houtos laloumen) “If indeed we thus speak,” or “though we speak like this; Because those in Christ are new creatures, created unto good works, Eph 2:10; 2Co 5:17.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
9. But we are persuaded, etc. As the preceding sentences were like thunderbolts, by which readers might have been struck dead, it was needful to mitigate this severity. He therefore says now, that he did not speak in this strain, as though he entertained such an opinion of them. And doubtless whosoever wishes to do good by teaching, ought so to treat his disciples as ever to add encouragement to them rather than to diminish it, for there is nothing that can alienate us more from attending to the truth than to see that we are deemed to be past hope. The Apostle then testifies that he thus warned the Jews, because he had a good hope of them, and was anxious to lead them to salvation. We hence conclude, that not only the reprobate ought to be reproved severely and with sharp earnestness, but also the elect themselves, even those whom we deem to be the children of God.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
Heb. 6:9-10.The writer now turns from warning to conciliation and encouragement. He urges steadfastness, diligence, and growth. Better things.Than any such tendency to apostatise. Accompany salvation.Full salvation is meant, which includes growth and sanctifying. Farrar renders, that are akin to salvation: near to, conjoined with, salvation. As apostates are , nigh unto a curse, so those who persevere in maintaining the true religion are , their salvation is at hand. Labour of love.Christian service is ever the best Christian defence.
Heb. 6:11. Same diligence.Continuing efforts until you have reached the very fulness of the stature of Christ. Full assurance of hope.Indicating confirmed Christian stability, beyond all fear of falling away.
Heb. 6:12. Slothful.Remiss in discharge of Christian duties, or in using all means of Christian culture. Always peril of Christian indifference. The word , tardy, is applied either to body or mind, to external actions or internal conceptions.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Heb. 6:9-12
Blended Hopes and Fears.The writer of this epistle evidently occupied a ministerial position in relation to the Churches he addressed. There is the union of recognised authority with personal interest and anxiety in his advice and reproofs. It may be at any time ministerial duty to say stern, severe, searching things, but they should never be said in a hard or harsh tone. Personal interest and affection should at once qualify the severity, and make it all the more severe. The spirit of Christian reproof is given in this sentence: As my beloved sons, I warn you. The strong things this writer found it necessary to say concerning wilful apostasy might offend some, and might give many a wrong impression of the writer and of Christianity. He must make it plain that he was dealing with a possible case, and not assuming that they were in such a condition. It was necessary to point out what might be, in order to gain an influence over the evil things which might work out into such hopeless relations. To see where a road leads is often enough to convince us that it cannot be the right road. Every minister of Christ shares the experience of this writer concerning those entrusted to his charge.
I. He has hope in some.The hope is based on recognised signs of Christian life. Hope is essential to the Christian ministry. There should be persistency in looking at the brighter side of things, quickness to discern every sign and possibility of good, and skill to nourish it into expression and strength. In many really good people, good has a way of hiding and almost disguising itself; and ministers need the wisdom of hopefulness in dealing with such persons. It may be that some in every Christian Church cause grave anxiety; it is almost always true that the many inspire confidence, win affection, and become to the minister his joy and crown of rejoicing in the day of God. He must never shrink from the duty of dealing with the careless, the inconsistent, and the wilful, but he can never do his work worthily unless he persistently hopes for the best. And the signs of healthy Christian life, which man may observe and God is sure not to forget, are summed up in this: your work, and the love which ye shewed toward His name, in that ye ministered unto the saints, and do minister.
1. Your work; activity and energy are satisfactory indications of vigorous and healthy life.
2. Love for Christs name, seen in doing the service which He did, and wants done. Christs name is a synonym for service to others, ministry to others. There is something of Christliness in all self-denying ministry; the full true Christliness when the ministry is distinctly rendered for Christ, and as Christs. Defection from the Christian spirit shows itself at once in failing ministry to others. Where soul-health flags there is no love of service.
II. He has fears for some.And the fears find expression in anxious prayers on their behalf. Three things are objects of desire and prayer:
1. Where there is trembling and sign of weakness, the minister has his fears, and prays that these may be replaced by steadfastness, the firm tread, and upright pose of the man who feels the strength of good health.
2. Where there is flagging, through failing interest in Divine things, the minister has his fears, and prays that a new spirit of persistency may be given, and the aims of the Christian life become the inspiration of new and holier endeavour.
3. Where there is sluggishness, the dulness of stealthy spiritual disease, which saps the vital energy, and makes life a weariness, and lays the soul open to the attacks of spiritual disease, there the minister has his grave fears, and prays for grace to enable him to arouse and revive, by presenting in an inspiring way the example of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. What the minister wants for all his people is, that they should have two gracesfaith and patience; that each should be in full vigour of health; that the two should harmoniously and helpfully blend together; and so blending, protect from all attacks of temptation, open or insidious,faith ever looking toward higher things, and patience ever enduring while those higher things are being attained.
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
Heb. 6:9. The Hopefulness of the Christian Teacher.We are persuaded better things of you. A well-known and greatly honoured Christian preacher, in advising a younger minister, once said, I would not care to preach, if the Christian religion were not a religion of hope. Whatever subject that good man dealt with, he persisted in seeing the hopeful side of it, though he bore the burden of a frail body, and was placed in circumstances of great strain and difficulty. In hopefulness concerning those to whom he ministers, the preacher gains his power. He has reason to nourish a spirit of hopefulness:
(1) in view of the truths with which he has to deal;
(2) in view of the presence of the Spirit with him, in doing the service of Christ;
(3) in view of the inspiring power of hope on the human heart;
(4) in view of the fact that just what the pressure of weekly life does for men is, take the hope out of them;
(5) and in view of the fact, that Christianity holds out its best things as things to come. But the hopefulness of the Christian teacher is only sometimes a happy disposition. The nature of the ministers work tends to nourish depression. Hopefulness is usually a gracious disposition won out of fierce conflict, won for the sake of gaining efficiency in the service of men, and of rightly representing Him who saves us by kindling hope.
Heb. 6:10. Gods Observations and Remembrances.God is not unrighteous to forget your work. When the Divine inspections are dealt with, the observation of our frailties, short-comings, and sins is usually commended to our attention. The Divine observation is made a ground for nourishing a holy fear. But we have lost much in fixing too close an attention on this side of the Divine observation. It ought to be made the means of nourishing a holy restfulness, and a holy joy. The inspection takes notice of everything that is good and hopeful in us. The inspection always considers the good things in their relation to the capacities and possibilities of the individual who does them, and so calls things very good which the individual mourns over as sadly below his own standard. And it is of the essence of Gods righteousness that He never forgets what He observes. His dealings with us are based on what He remembers, as well as what He sees.
Heb. 6:11. Hope elevated into Full Assurance.Full assurance of hope unto the end. R.V. fulness of hope even to the end. Can human hope ever rise to full assurance, to absolute confidence? Not in a strict sense. The element of human frailty, that necessarily involves uncertainty, must always be in it. It can never cease to be hope, because trust, which is the ground of hope, can never be removed from the creature, who is, and for ever must be, a dependent being. If hope then is to grow and enlarge, what can it grow into? The R.V. may help us. It can grow into fulness, into maturity, into completeness, into its ideal, into itself at its best possible. The man who has nourished the grace of hope into its maturity has whatever is meant by full assurance. And matured hope can do a most full and gracious work in the Christian lifeespecially in steadying it. Therefore the anchor is the symbol of hope, because it keeps the vessel steady when tides sway, currents draw, and winds drive. When the hold of Christian hopeits hold of the present realities of our Christian standing, and its hold of the exceeding great and precious promises, and its hold of God as the infinite satisfaction for our futureis firm and full and strong, then we can move calmly among the ever-changing, often trying, scenes of our mortal life. With the good hope of the heavenly Canaan, we can deal wisely with the wearying experiences of our forty long wilderness years. It is not, however, very frequently or very forcibly presented in Christian teachings, that Christian hope may and ought to grow into something, and that we are responsible for its nourishment and growth into something. It may be well therefore
1. To show what a passionate, but unintelligent, and sentimental thingoften utterly unworthy thinghope is in the young Christian. Its value is not unfairly represented by the expectations of Pliable in the Pilgrims Progress.
2. To show what a thing of mixed value hope is in the middle-aged Christian; often by no means cleared of its sordid and sentimental elements, and indeed often crushed down into silence, by the fierce strain, the wearying care, and the overwhelming disappointments of life. To the middle-aged Christian there is seldom any vision from Delectable Mountains, and Heaven seems far to go.
3. To show how in days of Christian maturity hope comes out clear, gains its fulness, and anchors the soul in quietness, security, and peace.
Heb. 6:12. The Peril of Slothfulness.Be not slothful, R.V. sluggish. Slow-blooded; showing no enterprise or energy. Let us then be up and doing. In the religious life there is supreme peril in resting content with anything that has been attained. The laissez-faire principle must be stoutly resisted, if any attempt is made to apply it in the Christian life. Therefore the apostle Paul so vigorously describes his own resolve, Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on, if so be that I may apprehend that for which also I was apprehended by Christ Jesus. And the living Lord sends His messages to His seven Churches, making His promises only to him that overcometh, which must mean that he has kept up the fight even to the end.
I. Under what circumstances is a spirit of slothfulness likely to creep over the professing Christian?
1. It is a frequent attendant on certain natural dispositions. The man who is slow-moving, sluggish, listless, in business affairs, is sure to carry his natural disposition into his religion. His life-work is correcting natural disposition.
2. It is associated with conditions of bodily health. There is lowered vitality where there is not active disease; and subtle diseases usually show themselves in languor, and flagging interest in things; and our bodily states affect the spirit in which our religious duties are done.
3. Slothfulness and indifference are often the rebounds from times of strained religious excitement and emotion. It should always be borne in mind that unusual religious emotion cannot be maintained, and the rebound from it is always serious.
4. Slothfulness in religious life may come with unusual business demands. A man may be compelled to give up his Christian work for a time, and then he has no interest in taking it again.
5. Slothfulness is sometimes a result of Christian jealousy. Others seem to be doing the work better than we are, and then we say, Let them do it, and put ourselves out of the ranks of the workers.
II. What perils lie in the path of those who give way to slothfulness?
1. This periltheir own souls cease to grow, because they have no exercise.
2. This periltemptation and religious disease secure their opportunity.
3. This perilthe final judgment of their Divine Master, who will surely be severe in dealing with those who came not to the help of the Lord against the mighty.
Slothfulness.Slothfula word which has quite passed out of common use. It may, however, be only the more suggestive to us for that reason. Sometimes our familiar employment of a word plucks out all vigour and force from its meanings. It is a strong old Saxon word, very little changed. The Saxon form is slewdth, from slaw, slow; and the idea of the word is tardiness, disinclination to action or labour; sluggishness, as represented by the level river in contrast with the fresh-flowing, hurrying, eddying mountain stream. It may even be dull, as the same word is translated in Heb. 5:11 : Ye are dull, or slothful of hearing; take heed lest ye become dull altogether. This slothfulness was the characteristic sin of the civilised and effeminate times of the book of Proverbs. It is the great sin, in respect of religious things, of all highly civilised and luxurious ages and nations, and the great peril of all persons who are not placed under the stern necessity of working with hand or brain for their daily bread. But a more precise idea can be given to this term as it is used in this epistle. Slothfulness is action which has in it no energy; nothing of that essential characteristic of manlinessenergy. The precise danger against which we are warned in the text is that of dropping down from the earnestness of our first love, to live a Christian life without energy. Such words as energy we know apply directly to success in business life, but it seems strange to apply such a term to Christian life and work. We dwell so often on the submissive, patient, and trustful sides of Christian duty, that we may profitably consider other sides which are, perhaps, too much neglected in religious teachings. If a religious life is to be worth anything at all, it must be a life in earnest. The epistle to the Hebrews we cannot affirm with certainty was written by Paul, but it is certainly Pauline in tone and doctrine; it belongs most closely to Pauls order of thought. It is more rhetorically constructed than any of Pauls known epistles. There is a balancing of sentences, a sense of artistic effect, a choice of language, and a wealth of elaborated illustration which we do not find in Pauls intenser writings; and there is a breaking up of the argument for the sake of introducing hortatory passages, which belongs to the public speaker rather than the logical writer. Paul has, indeed, passages of splendid eloquence; but they are specimens of the natural eloquence to which an impassioned soul rises, rather than the eloquence which attends speaking gifts and elaborate education. Such an eloquent contrast as that given in the twelfth chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews between the Mounts Sinai and Sion you feel is the result of study and care. The occasion of writing this epistle is evidently the observation, or the tidings, of flagging and relaxed energy marking the Christian life and work of the disciples, and putting them in peril of final apostasy from the Christian faith. They were caught in the downward current, and, though they discerned it not, Christian teachers knew that the rapids and the fatal falls were near. The cause of such slothfulness was partly the state and tone of society in that age, partly the enervating influence of a divided effort. The disciples could not rise wholly up out of Judaism, but painfully tried to blend Jewish observances with Christian spirituality. The corrective proposed is a worthier estimate of Christ and of Christianity, in contrast with the great Jewish officials and Judaism. Each stage in the contrast is relieved by passages of direct and intense personal application and persuasion. Our chapter is one of these digressions, partly persuasive, partly introductory to a difficult branch of the subject, viz. the deeper meaning of the Old Testament figure of Melchizedek. The writer urges that there ought to be kept up an exceeding interest in Christian growthgrowth in intelligence, growth in activity, growth into the very fulness of the Christian manhood. Christians ought to respond to the various influences culturing growth, even as the earth ought to respond to the refreshing rains. What must become of earth that lies barren, or only brings forth thorns and briars, merely receiving all those quickening rains, and never worthily responding? Surely, it is nigh unto cursing; its end is to be burned. But counsels couched in this reproachful tone tend only to depress; so he speaks brightly and hopefully, as indeed he well may, of the Church as a whole; there was a general desire for growth, and signs of the spirit of energy. But he was afraid of individuals, and of their hindering, repressive influence. He has a word of earnest persuasion for them. We desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end. Show the same diligence. Be not slothful. Share all together in the Church energy, activity, and growth. Worthily follow the examples of those heroic men who, by daily faith that kept alive daily energy, and by daily patience that kept the energy from flagging, have obtained the promises. Remember Abraham, the father of the trustfully patient, and be quite sure that for you also the inspiring promises are pledged in the immutability of Gods counsel.
I. The sin of slothfulness in the Christian life.The word does not mean mere slowness of movement. That may be a characteristic of the natural disposition; it may belong to the firm, strong, but slow pulse, and may be quite compatible with a true energy. It is opposed to diligence, so we may say that it is the taking up of a Christian profession weakly, manifesting in the Christian life no earnestness, easily permitting the claims it makes on us to be relaxed or denied for the sake of our self-indulgences. We know the sin and its ruinous consequences well enough in business life. We have often been wearied out with the kid-gloved young man, who counts business a bore, dawdles about, puts no soul into anything, drags through his days work, and tries the patience of everybody that has to do with him. Can it possibly be that he represents the way in which, by our Christian slothfulness, we are wearying God and all good men? It must be a sin to live a listless, easyful Christian life: a sin like that of the soldier who hides among the stuff, or feigns a sickness, when the trumpet-blast is summoning all heroic souls to the front. It must be sin in view of those all-absorbing claims of King Jesus under which we come. He demands body, soul, and spirit, life, time, powers, all. No man can be truly His without being wholly His. It must be sin in view of the consecration vow which we have made, yielding ourselves up as living sacrifices, like the whole burnt-offering, given over, body, and fat, and skin, and blood, and life, for a whole consuming on the Lords altar. It must be sin in view of that great work in the world which has yet to be done ere Christ shall see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied. It must be the sin of the most shameful ingratitude when we remember how He bought us with His precious blood, giving Himself unto the death for us. Think, I beseech you, what manner of persons we ought to be who profess to live with the love of Christ constraining us. And yet what a frequent sin it is! Mark is slothful, shrinks from fatiguing, dangerous journeys in the cause of Christ; as Matthew Henry so quaintly puts it, He wanted to go home and see his mother. Demas fails, even in the hour of the apostles need: he could not put any energy into his Christian life, through the love of this present world. Even Timothy must be reproved for yielding to his retiring, studious disposition, and shrinking back from the active features of ministerial duty. And with withering severities the angel of the Churches pleads with the Laodiceans, Thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert cold or hot. The stability, the usefulness, the joy, and the ultimate triumph of the Christian life absolutely depend on our taking it up with energy. It is miserable to think of Christian people that, some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship, they shall all escape safe to land. What noble soul will care to drift into the harbour of God like that? Let us be in earnest, and win an abundant entrance. As we pass round over the bar, let every flag be flying, every man be at his post; a battered hull, but sound; rent but mended canvas filling with the heavenward breeze, and round the crowded harbour the thousand white-robed shouting our glad welcome, and saying,
Come in, come in; eternal glory thou shalt win.
That is the way to go to heaven and God from an earnest Christian life. A little hut, built of half-burnt logs and boards, was raised amid the smouldering fire-ruins of Chicago, the first sign of the restoration of that desolated city, and on the front was placed this inscription:
WILLIAM D. KERFOOT;
All gone except wife, children, and energy.
With energy all could be retrieved. With energy a noble Christian life can be lived. Work for Christ is worth doing with both hands earnestly. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. Do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men. Curse ye, Meroz, saith the Lord; for they came not unto the help of the Lord against the mighty. Beware of this subtle, seductive, ruinous Christian sin of slothfulness!
II. The temptations to the sin of Christian slothfulness in modern life.Certainly there is no temptation to slothfulness in modern business life. Intensity, haste, keenness, over-grasping, are the modern business sins. But this business life of ours in many ways brings temptation to a weak Christian living. Observe how it tends to exhaust energy, expending all the gathered stores of physical and mental strength, and leaving none to be given to Christian uses. What sort of men are you when the days work is done? It can be put in a few words: fit only for the social dinner-table and the easy-chair. All else but actual business hours must be devoted to recruiting strength for the coming business hours. Christ and His claims are simply crowded out. Sounding almost unheard in every office and warehouse and shop are words of Christs with which He fain would still the fevers, and calm the hurrying waves, of modern life. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Then, too, it brings wealth, and the enervating influence of luxury. Precisely the sin of old Sodom, old Jerusalem, and old Tyre, against which a prophets voice is ever needed. Pride, fulness of bread, and idleness were in them and their daughters, telling fatally upon the national energy. We know how our very food affects us, and we only care to rest. Once at home we can find plentiful excuse for shrinking from Christian worship or work. Other things besides business are seriously telling on the energy of religious life. I do but suggest them to your thought, that you may ponder over them seriously. To what an alarming extent personal Christian effort is excused by an arrangement for money payment; as if cold cash could ever do in the world for Christ what living souls can! The extravagant pursuit of mere pleasure, and interest in the excitingly sensational, and weakly sentimental, in literature. Intelligent Christian evenings are out of fashion, and our houses are flooded with tale-books, until we can get our children to read nothing that is solid and instructive. And then in other departments of life we have the open enthronement of intellect as the deity for modern worship. Men have not yet dared to call her Minerva or Athene, and claim for her a temple and an altar; but the goddess of wisdom is fast pushing Jehovah, the God of righteousness and love, out of His claim to mens thoughts. Now can you seriously weigh the influence of all these things on Christian energy, on religious life? Can you see how these things account for the religious easyfulness that is all around usan easyfulness that makes all Christian work drag heavily? Can you, by the help of these things, explain the pleasant way in which you are being borne along to heaven, as if in some delightful gondola, on a still and flowing streamyour boat fitted up with exquisite taste, pleasant companions around you, delightful music to soothe you into a dreamy half-sleep, rowers to dip their oars in the sparkling waters and relieve you of all the toil, and a strange delusion possessing you that in this way you may sail on, and never know a windy, stormy ocean, and never feel one tossing wave until the boat rounds in to the heavenly landing-stage? Awake, O sleeper! Arise from the death of such delusions! Let Christ give you light; let Christ inspire you to higher things with His constraining love. Christian life is conflict; Christian life is pilgrimage; Christian life is toil. No rowers can ever row for you while you recline on soft pillows of ease. The Christian boat is no fancy-painted gondola. It is a stout fishermans boat; and there is nothing for thee but thine own hand to the oars, and a life of hard pulling against the down-rushing stream. Christian work demands your help. A heaven that could be any real joy to you is to be won. Your crown is to be gained through a present victory over self and circumstance and sin! Be not slothful. Too surely all nerveless living induces disease. Slothfulness is a plague-spot; soon it spreads into unbelief, grows into indifference, eats inward until it become apostasy, and at last, reaching the vitals, it becomes spiritual and eternal death. Well indeed may the Son of man say, I would thou wert cold or hot.
Who would share Abrahams blessing
Must Abrahams path pursue;
A stranger and a pilgrim,
Like him, must journey through.
The foes must be encountered,
The dangers must be passed;
Only a faithful soldier
Receives the crown at last.
III. The dishonour which Christian slothfulness puts upon those saints and heroes who have gone before us, and who seek to live again in us.Them who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises. We are not sure that hero-worship, or the inspiration of heroic examples, is as mighty in our day as in some past times. Pride in ones own age was perhaps never carried to such an extreme as it is now. Men can speak lightly and even disdainfully of the grandest men that have ever lived, and we think ourselves quite competent to criticise the greatest productions of human genius. We often notice a failing reverence for God; there runs along with it a failing reverence for good and great men, and these are surely bad signs of the times. This age deals more with things than with persons, and it is as an antidote to this tendency that we persist in setting forth the person of the Son of God: not first His doctrine, not first His work, but first Himself. True greatness in every age is a response to the influence of sublime human examples. The real interest of the Scripture books centres about persons, who reproduce and exhibit in their human lives the purposes of the Father of all. The lives of the saints are always in some form a chief part of the spiritual food of every generation. Their experiences are assimilated by us, and enter into our own lives. The pious propagate their piety, the brave man propagates his courage, there is a spiritual descent and inheritance more sure than that of the race (Ll. Davies, Gosp. Mod. Life, p. 173). The power of heroic examples has perhaps never been so forcibly illustrated as in the case of the great French Revolution. Men were, indeed, terribly mistaken in their modes of action, and borne beyond all sobriety in the enthusiasm of a great national hope; but the leaders were for the most part grand men, men of heroic soul, and it is instructive to observe that their heroism was fed by reading Plutarchs Lives of the Great Romans. Luther cultured his brave, courageous spirit by constant fellowship with the great Israelite prophets, reading them till their ardour burned in his own breast. But there is also an unsurpassed humbling in the influence of heroic and saintly examples. They will cure us, as nothing else will, of our self-confidence and self-sufficiency. That which is true of the ministers is true of the people. If we find conceit growing, and we are beginning to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, we take down the Life of John Howe, who pressed near to the fountains of Gods truth till he felt that he drank right from the fresh spring. Or of Edward Payson, or R. M. McCheyne, men who lived in the secret place of the Most High. Or of Norman McLeod, broad as the world in heavenly, Divine charity, but gentle, humble, simple, playful as a child, and knowing on earth no joy but servingserving God and his fellow-men. It is one of the characteristics of our religion that it presents to us, and keeps ever before us, a galaxy of heroes, of noble men and women, like a great sky full of various stars, circling about that wondrous light, that central pole-star, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible and the Christian ages do not give us so much a record of achievements as a record of men. And no man can know the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, by any critical estimate of His works; He must be apprehended in His person; He must make the impression of a living man. Think of that roll of heroes given by the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews with an eloquence that makes it come to us like the swell of some grand organ-note, pealing forth, until it fills the whole place with its thrilling tones. What is the thing which we especially observe in that great cloud of witnesses? They lived their lives in the world with energy. Their religion was their glory. They were godly men in earnest. Watch them as they pass in panoramic order before youAbel, and Enoch, and Noah, and Abraham, and Jacob, and Joseph, and Moses, and Gideon, and Barak, and Samson, and Jephthah, and Samuel, and David, and Elijah, and Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and Daniel. Nay, this is but the beginning of the splendid muster-roll of the godly; add the glorious company of the apostles, and the noble army of martyrs, and the foremost men of the Christian agesAugustine, and Bernard, and Luther, and Calvin, and Latimer, and Cranmer, and Loyola, and Knox, and Baxter, and a host of others. Come down into our own passing years, and add the names of such as have come within our own spheres of thoughtWilberforce, and Martyn, and Lincoln, and Hedley Vicars, and Havelock, and Arnold, and Robertson, and Chalmers, and Guthrie, and many more. Add, still again, those whom we have known and loved, with intensity because with reverence, in personal relationship and friendship. Think of those holy souls and meekly who the cross of suffering bore. Think of the noble souls who stood well in the front of Gods great warearnest souls whose life-joy was the service they rendered to the Master whom they loved. What a splendid crowd of witnesses! Oh the glorious vision of the saints of God! Sainted fathers, sainted mothers, sainted pastors, sainted heroes. They have inherited the promises, and now they rest. But how? Through faith, which is but another name for energyenergy seen on another side; and through patience, which enabled them, amid all their toils and discouragements and failures, to keep up their energy. They live again in us. What dishonour do we put upon such men, then, if our Christian living is faithless and weak, self-indulgent and restless and fretful! How we disgrace our fathers and our grandfathers, our sainted mothers and grandmothers, and all the Christian dead, if we sink down so low as to make our lives a mere response to the questions: What shall we eat? What shall we drink? And wherewithal shall we be clothed? Brethren, surely this ought not so to be! They live again in us. They were the Church of Christ for their time, and we are for ours. Would to God that in earnest, energetic Christian lives we could be worthy of them! Nay, would to God that we might be worthy of Him whom they and we alike should imitate, who hath called us by His grace unto His kingdom and glory. I know of no promises to cheer the self-indulgent. I know of no high words of hope to speak to those who are at ease in Zion. But there are words of thrilling inspiration for those who will fight and toil. Do you say, No cross? Then the King will surely say, No crown. If you will but take up that cross brightly, cheerfully, lift it on your shoulder, go forth to life with it a brave, earnest man, full of energy for Christ, then He shall speak a Well done, good and faithful servant, and crown you with the crown of full, and everlasting, and passionless renown. Be earnest. Be earnest for Christ. Be earnest for holiness. Be earnest for souls. To him that overcometh ease, and sloth, and disposition, and pleasure, and the age, and circumstances, winning them all for Christto him, saith the Master, will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God and I will write upon him My new name. Would it surprise you to find that name just meant this: the Unslothfula man earnest unto death?
The Lives of the Saints.All saints are the great cloud of witnesses by whom we find ourselves compassed about when we move backwards in thought through the ages of Church history. To remember those who have gone before us, who have trodden to the end the path we are treading, who have fought in the honourable conflict in which we also are fighters, seems a kind of spiritual obligation; but it is also one of the best exercises for spiritual training. The crown of all that the Bible has to reveal to us is the life of the Son of God in our flesh. In every age of the Church attention has been paid to the lives of good men. There has been no difference in this respect between Roman Catholics and Protestants. All sects and schools have had their lives of the saints. In the New Testament the saints are all the members of the Church, and their sanctity or holiness was regarded as depending not on their personal character, but on their calling. The ecclesiastical use of the word is not precisely the same as this. The saints we are to follow were men of faith and of patience. By faith they overcame the world; by patience they stood fast under the trials of their conflict. Whatever their opinions may have been, whatever their imperfections and lapses even may have been, men of eminent faith and of eminent patience are witnesses of the best things to us, and worthy leaders in the onward march of humanity. Such men have been the living heart of the Church, the salt of the earth. They have not always been honoured and promoted in their lifetime. The true saints have encountered difficulties which were mountains requiring all their faith to remove; they have undergone tribulations, such as neglect, persecution, contempt, which proved their Divine gift of patience to the uttermost. It is a good thing that we should try to obtain a closer acquaintance with the good Christians who have been in some way nearer to ourselveswith those, for example, of our own race and country, whose circumstances and trials and achievements we may be better able to understand. There is a continuous national life which is enriched by every faithful life that is thrown into it, and the contribution is more valuable when such a life is made the subject of an interesting record. Instances: W. Wilberforce, Ab. Lincoln, Hedley Vicars, Arnold of Rugby, Robertson of Brighton. These are lives that have become public property, by being led in conspicuous stations. But there have been lives of faith and patience known to us individually which never drew the eyes of the public upon them. There is always the world to be overcome; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Every example of persevering loyalty to the will of God, and of confidence in the ultimate dominion of that will, is an addition to the blessed company of the saints. In every life there are frequent calls for exercising patience. There has been no high Christian virtue, no eminent nobility of life, without patience. Where patience of the true quality has been shown, a patience sustained by hope, a sweet and kindly patience, there we ought to recognise the true saintship. The innumerable company of the saints is not a distant body of another nature than ours; it includes those who, whether they be still with us or have gone before us, have displayed the like faith and patience. These beckon to us to follow them in hope. When we commune with ourselves most sincerely, which kind of life seems really the noblest and most to be preferred, that of men who strove and suffered in faith and patience, whether they were happy in this world or not, or that of those who have selfishly steered their course so as always to get the most pleasure, and to avoid the most pain?J. Llewellyn Davies, M.A.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
D.
Encouragement. Heb. 6:9-20.
1.
The apostles hope for them. Heb. 6:9-12.
Text
Heb. 6:9-12
Heb. 6:9 But, beloved we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak: Heb. 6:10 for God is not unrighteous to forget your work and the love which ye showed toward His name, in that ye ministered unto the saints, and still do minister. Heb. 6:11 And we desire that each one of you may show the same diligence unto the fulness of hope even to the end: Heb. 6:12 that ye be not sluggish, but imitators of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
Paraphrase
Heb. 6:9 But, beloved, we are persuaded better fruits than those of apostasy will be produced by you, even such a firm adherence to the Gospel as is connected with salvation, though we thus speak to put you on your guard.
Heb. 6:10 For God, who hath promised to assist His sincere servants in time of temptation, is not unrighteous to forget, either His Own promise of the laborious and dangerous work by which ye showed your love to Him, when ye assisted and comforted the persecuted disciples of Christ in Judea, and do still assist them.
Heb. 6:11 Yet I earnestly desire every one of you to show the same diligence as formerly in assisting and comforting your brethren, in order that my hope concerning your perseverance in the faith of the Gospel may continue to the end of your lives.
Heb. 6:12 This I desire, that ye may not be sluggards, but imitators of the believing Gentiles in their good works, who through faith in Christ, and patience under persecution, are, as Abrahams spiritual seed, now inheriting the promises in the gospel church.
Comment
But beloved we are persuaded better things of you
This is a word of encouragement to a people for whom Paul had affection. The better things would be the herbs, rather than the thorns and thistles.
The word persuaded indicates hopefulness on the part of the author.
a.
Vincent: It is a past hesitation overcome.
b.
Westcott: The form implies that the writer had felt misgivings and had overcome them.
The word beloved is one frequently applied to saints. See Rom. 1:7; Rom. 11:28; 1Jn. 3:2; 1Jn. 4:1; 3Jn. 1:1-2; 3Jn. 1:5; 3Jn. 1:11.
and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak
What are the things that accompanied the saved as seen in the Word of God?
a.
Pentecostal brethren: fairer things. Act. 2:42.
b.
Stephen: forgiveness. Act. 7:58-60. No retaliation.
c.
Ethiopian eunuch: Rejoicing. Act. 8:39.
d.
Paul: Straightway proclaimed Jesus. Act. 9:36-39.
e.
Dorcas: Benevolent spirit. Act. 9:36-37.
f.
Bereans: Examining hearts. Act. 17:11.
Though he has warned against backsliding and apostasy, he is hopeful that Christian fruit will be produced by them.
for God is not unrighteous to forget your work
Gods character is at stake in relationship to memory.
a.
A person who forgets leaves himself open for accusations.
b.
He may be accused of intentional forgetting or carelessness if he forgets.
An honest person is obligated to remember to keep his promise.
a.
These people had worked, and God is under obligation to honor faithful work.
b.
We see the brethren, (Heb. 5:12) had been neglectful of Bible study but they were to be commended for their work.
and the love which ye showed toward His name in that ye ministered unto the saints and still do minister
We serve God by serving our fellow man.
a.
Ministering to saints is showing love to God.
b.
Jesus emphasized this, Mat. 25:40.
c.
John approaches the subject, 1Jn. 4:20.
These people seem to have been strong on the social gospel.
a.
It seems strange that neglected Bible reading would accompany this virtue.
b.
A national love, nurtured by persecution, may account for it in some measure.
c.
The Jew has always looked out for the Jew.
And we desire that each one may show the same diligence
Desire for each individual to be faithful is expressed.
a.
God is interested in each individual. Mat. 10:30 : Hairs of your head are numbered, Heb. 4:13 : There is no creature that is not manifest in His sight.
b.
As individuals, we must stand before God, and not rest on the virtue of a group.
The Hebrews were benevolent in spirit, but each one was to be praised for this.
unto the fulness of hope
It may also be translated, to the full assurance of hope. Fulness of hope refers to future glory intensified. Hope is an emotion, longing, fervent expectation.
even to the end;
Stedfastness is an exhortation oft repeated. Rev. 2:10 : Be thou faithful unto death. Mat. 10:22 and Col. 1:22-23. The end refers to their pilgrimage on earth.
that ye be not sluggish,
Some Christians lack fervor, and show sluggishness when fervency is needed.
a.
Jas. 5:16 : Fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
b.
Rom. 12:11 : Fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.
A sluggard condition is awful in the sight of God.
a.
It is conceited. Pro. 26:16 : The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit.
b.
It is sleepy, Pro. 6:9 : How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard?
c.
It stands condemned. Rev. 3:16 : so because thou art lukewarm.
but imitators (from Greek mimic, translated followed)
This is a characteristic of people, for most people imitate.
Observe passages on imitator. 1Co. 11:1 : Be ye imitators of me even as I also am of Christ. 1Co. 4:16 : I beseech you therefore, be ye imitators of me. 1Th. 1:6 : And ye become imitators of us, and of the Lord. Heb. 2:14 : For ye brethren become imitators of the churches. We are also to imitate God, as mentioned in Eph. 5:1 : Be ye therefore imitators of God as beloved children.
who through faith and patience inherit the promises
Stedfastness is a characteristic of a strong faith. The backslider will not inherit the blessing, and should not be imitated. This passage does not sound as though salvation is a gift without works.
Study Questions
1022.
Is the apostle hopeful for the Hebrews? (Heb. 6:9)
1023.
Does the text suggest any affection?
1024.
What would the expression better things refer to, thorns or herbs?
1025.
What things accompany salvation?
1026.
Name the conversions in Acts and point out things that could be considered fruit or better things.
1027.
Are the better things a return to repentance, or general good works? Is the conjunction and significant in Heb. 6:9?
1028.
How is Gods character involved in Heb. 6:10?
1029.
What charges may be brought against a forgetter?
1030.
Is God duty-bound to honor good works? Always? Cf. Matt.
1031.
What is the work of the Hebrews which is deserving of honor?
1032.
How is service to our fellow man an evidence of love for God?
1033.
Is this always true?
1034.
Is service to our fellow man service to God?
1035.
What did Jesus say? Mat. 25:40.
1036.
What did Jesus say? 1Jn. 4:20.
1037.
What does Heb. 5:12 give as a clue to their trouble?
1038.
How may we account for the fact that they were strong on the social gospel?
1039.
What is Pauls desire for individuals in Heb. 6:11?
1040.
Is he saying that, as a group, they could be commended for works, but, individually, they could not?
1041.
What is meant by fulness of hope?
1042.
How long is it to be maintained?
1043.
Does this verse teach that there is no hope for people who lack diligence?
1044.
Describe a sluggish spiritual condition.
1045.
Compare Jas. 5:16 and Rom. 12:11 with regard to sluggishness.
1046.
Could sluggishness and the lukewarmness of Rev. 3:16 be the same?
1047.
What is meant by the exhortation to be imitators?
1048.
Whose examples are we to follow?
1049.
Could this be an allusion to the persons of Chapter Eleven?
1050.
Why is he not urging us to imitate God as in Eph. 5:1?
1051.
How do we know that he is not doing this?
1052.
What two companionate virtues are linked with the receiving of promise?
1053.
Is it possible to see the faith alone doctrine in this verse?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(9) Better things.Literally, the better things; that is, the alternative spoken of in Heb. 6:7. He has not written in despair, but for warning only; believing that to them belongs, not the state which is nigh unto a curse, but that which borders on salvation (Heb. 5:9).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9. But Passing to commendation and encouragement. At this point commences a gradual return, and, we might say, cheering ascent to Melchizedek, (Heb 6:20,) from whom we abruptly parted at Heb 5:10. You is here emphatic. Though there is a class of apostates, (as Heb 6:4-8,) you are not embraced within it.
Better things Rather, the better of the two things contrasted in Heb 6:7-8; namely, the perseverers and the apostates.
Thus speak In terms of almost contempt, in Heb 5:1 to Heb 6:2, and in terrible warnings, in Heb 6:3-8. This rebuke and this warning are not the result of malign feeling, but of solicitude for those I love, and earnest hope that they will persevere to the end. But this is no assurance that others are not apostates, nor an infallible assurance that Paul’s readers will not become so.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.’
However, the writer assure his readers that in spite of the way he has spoken he expects better things of them than to produce thorns and thistles because they are barren land. He is persuaded of those better things, things which go along with and accompany salvation. He looks for fruit and faithfulness, and the blessing of God on them. And he does so because he believes that he has seen genuine fruit in their lives.
‘Beloved.’ He is not just speaking cold doctrine. His heart it reaching out to them.
‘Accompany salvation.’ The word “accompany” signifies “conjoined with”, or inseparable from, that which has a sure connection with “salvation”. The things that accompany salvation are a true faith in Christ, a commitment to His service, and a life of love lived out in the Holy Spirit.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
God’s Sure Promises in Christ Jesus ( Heb 6:9-20 ) – Heb 6:1-3 exhorts the readers to press on into maturity, which necessitates an understanding of Jesus’ present-day ministry as our Great High Priest. If God permits, they will be able to go on into a deeper knowledge of the truth. After explaining to them the faithfulness of God promises to those who go on into maturity (Heb 6:9-20), the author will give them a lengthy teaching on the office and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ (Heb 7:1 to Heb 10:18), after which he repeats his warning given in Heb 6:4-8 by saying, “For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins” (Heb 10:26). Thus, he gives them this “knowledge” for a deeper walk with the Lord, which he exhorts them follow in Heb 10:19 to Heb 13:17.
Heb 6:9 But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.
Heb 6:9
Heb 6:9 Comments Paul makes a similar statement later in Heb 10:39 that declares his confidence in their willingness to persevere in the faith.
Heb 10:39, “But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.”
Heb 6:10 For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
Heb 6:10
When we study the definition of love found in 1Co 13:4-7, we see that all of these are “labors of love.” It takes effort to make them happen. The greater the toil, the more the love.
1Co 13:4-7, “Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.”
Note this same phrase found in the Paul’s epistle to the church at Thessalonica.
1Th 1:3, “Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;”
Mike Murdock said the Lord spoke to him these words, “Anything you do in an attempt to obey Me will not go unrewarded.” [229]
[229] Mike Murdock, interviewed by Rod Parsley, Breakthrough (Columbus, Ohio: Rod Parsley Ministries), on Trinity Broadcasting Network (Santa Ana, California), television program, 23 May 2010.
Illustration (1) – In the mid-1980’s I was attending a Kenneth Hagin crusade in my home town of Panama City, Florida. While taking a seat, I spotted a man that I had met in college. Since I did not attend church regularly as a college student, the Lord had used him to minister to me and bring me to church. Once I rededicated my life to Jesus after graduating, I deeply appreciated the sacrifices that he had made on my behalf. I quickly got out of my seat and went over to greet him. After introducing myself, to my dismay, he did not remember me. I made my way back to my seat a little disappointed. When I sat down, the Lord quickened this verse to me to let me know that although man forgets, He will never forget. I may be heaven before this man is brought to remembrance of the kind deeds that he did to me in the name of the Lord. For God has written a book of remembrance for just such an occasion.
Illustration (2) – In November 2002, the Chairman and directors of Lighthouse Television came to Kampala, Uganda on their annual visit to see the work that was being done by their Christian television station. I had worked long hours in preparing for and hosting them on this trip. Pastor Bob Nichols, the chairman, leaned over to me one night at a restaurant and said that he hoped that they were not putting me through too much work, since it was obvious I was putting in long hours. I opened my mouth that replied that my work was a labour of love and that it was fine. I was not thinking about this phrase as it came out of my mouth. This incident helped me to understand what Paul was referring to in this phase.
Heb 6:11 And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:
Heb 6:11
Heb 3:6, “But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.”
Heb 3:14, “For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;”
Heb 6:12 That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
Heb 6:12
Illustration – For example, we promise our children that we will do something, and a child will automatically believe us. During the day or so of waiting for the promise to come, the child expresses impatience by continually asking when the promise will come. This is because a child may have faith in his parent’s promise, but he lacks patience. Cecil Stewart says, “Patience, like faith, is a mighty weapon against the devil while we are waiting for the manifestation of our answers to prayer.” [230] The author of Hebrews will then use the example of Abraham as a man who inherited God’s promises through faith and patience, which will show us the certainty of His promises (Heb 6:13-15). He will later give us many examples in Heb 11:1-40 using the men and woman from Old Testament to explain true faith and patience.
[230] Cecil Stewart, Life Giving Leadership, African edition (Whiteabbey, Northern Ireland: Christian Communications Network, 2009), 12.
Scripture Reference – Note:
Luk 21:19, “In your patience possess ye your souls.”
Heb 6:13 For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,
Heb 6:13
[231] David L. Allen, “Class Lecture,” Doctor of Ministry Seminar, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 4 August 2011.
Heb 6:14 Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.
Heb 6:13-14
Gen 22:16-18, “And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.”
Comments – In the Hebrew text, this blessing is an emphatic Hebrew construction. That is, it is a way to emphasize the promise of a blessing, by repeating, “In blessing I will bless.”
Hebrew Heb 6:13-14 reveals the tremendous love God has for His people by His intense desire to bless His children. As parents, we also intensely desire our children to be blessed if we genuinely love them.
Heb 6:15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
Heb 6:15
Gen 25:7, “And these are the days of the years of Abraham’s life which he lived, an hundred threescore and fifteen years.”
Mat 22:32, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”
Heb 6:16 For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
Heb 6:16
Heb 6:17 Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:
Heb 6:18 Heb 6:18
Psa 33:11, “The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.”
Mal 3:6, “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”
Rom 11:29, “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.”
Tit 1:2, “In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;”
Heb 6:18 “in which it was impossible for God to lie” Scripture References – Note:
Num 23:19, “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?”
1Sa 15:29, “And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent.”
Heb 6:18 “we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us” – Comments “who have fled for refuge” The reference to a place of refuge for believers to flee echoes the cities of refuge in the Old Testament Scriptures (Num 35:9-34). An Israelite who committed a killed a man by accident could flee to such a city and receive a fair trial. He was to live in this city until the death of the high priest, at which time he was free to safely return to his home. Of course, our Great High Priest never dies, so we have found our eternal city of refuge in Christ.
“to lay hold upon” – The idea of “laying hold of” (Heb 6:18) and “holding fast” (Heb 4:14) stands in contrast to “letting them slip” (Heb 2:1).
Heb 4:14, “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.”
Heb 2:1, “Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.”
“the hope set before us” – The hope that is set before us refers back to Heb 6:11, which assures us we can be certain of obtaining eternal life by holding our confession of faith in Christ Jesus.
Heb 6:11, “And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:”
Heb 6:19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;
Heb 6:19
Heb 4:16, “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
Heb 6:19 Comments Secular society often defines hope as wishful thinking. However, the New Testament concept of hope ( ) is based upon the Messianic hope of Jesus’ Second Coming. This is a hope characterized by certain expectation of future events. It serves as an anchor to which one chooses to fasten his faith in God.
Heb 6:20 Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
Heb 6:20
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Third Doctrinal Discourse: The Superior Priesthood of Jesus Christ The author then leads the Hebrews into a revelation of the priestly office of the Lord Jesus Christ (Heb 6:9 to Heb 10:18), which reveals the need for indoctrination in order to persevere in the faith. He begins his doctrinal discourse by reminding them of their sure hope and promise by God of receiving eternal life (Heb 6:9-20).
Outline Here is a proposed outline:
1. God’s Sure Promises in Christ Jesus Heb 6:9-20
2. Jesus Offers Better Covenant Thru Superior Order Heb 7:1 to Heb 10:18
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Progress in sanctification:
v. 9. But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.
v. 10. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which ye have showed toward His name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister
v. 11. And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end;
v. 12. that ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Here the inspired author expressly states that he does not mean to imply that any of his readers are in the condition of self-hardening. He merely wishes to make his warning against denial of the faith very impressive, urging at the same time all progress in sanctification: But we are convinced concerning you, beloved, of things that are better and conducive to salvation, even if we speak thus. The very fact that he addresses his readers as “beloved” shows that he does not apply the picture which he has just drawn to them in their present condition. The inspired author is fully persuaded and convinced of the fact that a lot altogether unlike the one just described by him and immeasurably better will be theirs, one associated with, and tending toward, their soul’s salvation, allied with the everlasting bliss of heaven.
The reason why any misgivings which the author may have had have entirely disappeared, he now states: For God is not unjust to forget your work and the love which you have shown to His name, in that you have ministered to the saints and are ministering. The writer cannot look into the hearts of his readers and thus state his convictions, but he can infer the presence of faith in the hearts from the existence of truly good works. They had not grieved the Holy Spirit of God to the extent of driving Him from their hearts; there was still abundant evidence of the new spiritual life as begun by faith. Good works were undeniably in evidence, good works of love whereby they served the saints, their brethren in the faith. This condition, as a matter of fact, was known to God. And of injustice there is nothing in God, it is not even to be thought of. He is faithful, He is just, He does not overlook or forget that the entire life of the Jewish Christians who are here addressed is one long chain of evidence proving the existence of faith in their hearts, of love for the proper hallowing of His name.
It is not enough, however, that this much may be said in praise of the readers, but they must make progress as well: But we expect every one of you to show the same zeal toward the fulfillment of the hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitators of those who, through faith and patience, are now inheritors of the promise. The sacred writer still had some misgivings with regard to the patient perseverance of his readers, for he emphasizes that he desires and earnestly expects every individual in their midst to bestir himself. Instead of the lukewarmness and half-heartedness which had been shown by them on the whole, he wanted everyone to exhibit an earnest diligence and zeal, in order that they might have the full certainty of their Christian hope, a perfectness which left nothing to be desired. They must have the full certainty of conviction that the consummation of their redemption in Christ would come to pass. If they should lack this certainty for any length of time, the danger was that they would become sluggish, sleepy in their Christian life and thus also in their faith, that they would be wanting in the energy and cheerful confidence which God expects from His Christians. Instead of yielding to such an influence, therefore, they should take such people as an example, become imitators of such as had by faith and endurance to the end obtained the promised inheritance. The success of those whose perseverance they had witnessed was to be a constant spur to their faith. It means, of course, a daily renewal of faith, a patient waiting for the final revelation of the glory of the Lord. What the believers of old have attained to, what the Christians since the coming of Christ in the flesh have enjoyed as the fruit and reward of their faith, that we also may and should expect with firm confidence; for the promises of God are sure, as the writer shows in the next paragraph.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Heb 6:9. But, beloved, &c. This is exactly like St. Paul’s way of closing and softening any thing that he had said which sounded terrible and dreadful. See for examples, 2Th 2:13. Eph 4:20. Rom 8:9.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Heb 6:9 . Softening of the foregoing warning representation by attestation of the confidence, that this description will not be applicable to the readers.
] But we are convinced in regard to you . Comp. Rom 15:14 .
] stronger than .
] has the emphasis. It is therefore already placed here, not first after .
The appellation only here in the epistle. Schlichting: Apposite eos sic vocat, ne putarent, eum aliquo ipsorum odio laborare, sed ut scirent, eum amore Christiano erga ipsos flagrare, qui amor facit, ut semper meliora ominemur iis, quos amamus, et, si quid severius dicimus, animo corrigendi non nocendi cupido dicamus.
] of that which is better . This may refer to the subjective side, but it may also refer to the objective side of the foregoing comparison. In the first case the sense is: that your condition is a better one, than that you should be compared to a land bringing forth thorns and thistles; in the latter case: that your fate will be a better one than curse and perdition. On account of the plural we shall do best to combine both factors together, as, indeed, the last is but the consequence of the first. When, however, Hofmann thinks that does not at all point to the foregoing comparison, but stands by itself without any reference, in that it denotes only the good in opposition to the bad, this is not only opposed to the context, but also grammatically false, since the comparative is never placed for the positive. See Winer, Gramm. , 7 Aufl. p. 227 f.
] and of that which stands in contact with salvation, i.e. that you will attain to salvation. , with the genitive, denotes that which is closely joined to an object, that which is either outwardly (logically or temporally) or inwardly bound up with it. Instances in Bleek, II. 2, p. 220 ff.
] Chrysostom: , .
] sc . as was done Heb 6:4-8 .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
IV
But the readers are still in a condition which, by the grace of God, renders possible the attainment of the goal, for which they are earnestly to strive
Heb 6:9-12
9But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, 10though we thus speak. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of [om. labor of]3 love, which ye have [om. have] shewed toward his name, in that ye have [om. have] ministered to the saints, and do minister [are ministering]. 11And [But] we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to [in respect to] the full assurance of hope unto the end: 12That ye be [become=prove yourselves] not slothful, but followers [imitators] of them, who through faith and patience [long-suffering] inherit the promises.
[Heb 6:9. ., the things which are better, and are connected with salvation. The article not repeated. , if also, or even=although.
Heb 6:11. , But (better than and here as adversative) we desire. , the same zeal, , with reference to, in respect to, Eng. ver. inadequately simply to, and mars the sense by putting a comma after diligence.
Heb 6:12. , that ye may not became, or prove yourselves, imitators., long-sufferingK.].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Heb 6:9. But we are persuaded better things, etc.The epithet (beloved), so frequent with Paul, is found in our epistle only in this place, where the author, by the verb , emphatically expresses his conviction that the terrible results which he has depicted will not be realized in the case of his readers. is referred by some to a better destiny, by others to a better condition. The former, then, regard chiefly as a periphrasis for itself; while the latter refer this expression to that which tends to salvation. More exactly denotes that which stands connected with an object (whether outwardly or inwardly, locally or temporally), and belongs to it. The words are thus to be taken in a comprehensive sense, and stand parallel to the .
Heb 6:10. For God is not unrighteous, etc.This verse contains the ground on which the author bases his persuasion. That ground is not properly the judicial and retributive justice of God, nor the anticipation of the reward which God, according to the Romish doctrine de merito condigno, might bestow on such good works as man is enabled to perform by the aid of Divine grace. It is rather that consistency and uniformity in Gods dealings, inseparable from His fidelity (1Jn 1:9), which would render it seemingly impossible for Him to withdraw His gracious assistance from those who in their life, walk, and conduct display the truth and power of their faith, and the genuineness and depth of their conversion. denotes the moral conduct as a whole (1Th 1:3, Gal 6:4), in distinction from , which denotes its manifold attestations (comp. Rom 2:6 with Heb 2:15). Chrysostom regards as indicating purpose = for the glorifying of His name, so that it might also be taken = , for the sake of the name of God. The majority, however, with Theophyl., take it as the object of = love toward His name. The Aor. Inf. expresses neither past time (Seb. Schmidt) nor future (Bisp.); but the mere action of the verb, without reference to the relation of time [thus not to have forgotten, nor to be going to forget, but simply to forget]. (Khn., II. 445, 2).
To the saints.Kstlin (Tb. Theol. Jahrb., 1854, Heft. 3, p. 373) maintains, after Credner, that the expression indicates that the Hebrews, to whom our epistle is directed, must be regarded as a non-Palestinian church which had rendered succor to the Christians of Palestine. But the words , which the apostle deemed it necessary to add, Rom 15:26, to , refutes his hypothesis, based on the opinion that the Christians of Palestine, and particularly those of Jerusalem, were regarded as (saints par excellence), and passages like Rom 16:2, 1Co 6:1-2, in connection with the salutations in the epistles of Paul, show the groundlessness of the assumption that none other than the original Church could have been designated simply as . Moreover, Del. calls attention to the fact that this manifestation of love may very well have taken place within the limits of the readers own country, Heb 10:34; Heb 13:24; Act 4:32; Act 11:29.
Heb 6:11. The same zeal.The author does not mean to say that all the members of the Church have a like loving zeal, nor that they must still not fail to evince the same loving zeal which they have hitherto manifested (Chrys., Grot., etc.), but rather that the like zeal which they have manifested in respect to love they must in future evince in regard to the of Christian hope (so the majority since Beng.). The want of a full assurance of faith or of an assured conviction of the truth of the specifically Christian hope, is precisely the reason of the doubtful and unstable condition of the readers, who stand in peril of a defection from Christianity.
Heb 6:12. That ye do not prove sluggish, etc.Here the author is speaking of growth in Christian hope, in a believing and assured hope; at Heb 5:11, on the contrary, he speaks of a like growth in the understanding of Christian truth. There is thus no contradiction in his using here , may (not) become, and there , have become; and we need not, with Heinrichs, instead of conjecture according to Heb 12:8 . [I doubt much if the authors consistency requires precisely such a defence, substantially that of Ln., viz., that in the former case the author speaks of sluggishness of Christian hearing, here of Christian practice. It is scarcely possible that the hearers had fallen so low in spiritual understanding and brought themselves to the verge of apostasy without having become already liable to the charge of sluggishness in Christian practice. But in addressing a Christian body the author is not necessarily confined to a stereotyped style of expression. He may at one time charge them with actual backsliding, and at another, in a strain of tender exhortation, guard them against the danger of it, especially as what was true of some might not be true of all, and even of some only in a degree.K.]. The inheriting the promises ( ) is designated as a consequence of faith () and long-suffering (). It can thus not refer to receiving the words of promise (Bl.), but to the obtaining of its substance. The Pres. Part who are inheriting, implies a continuous and abiding act, so that the reference can scarcely be exclusively to the Patriarchs (Bl., De W., Thol., Bisp., etc.). It is not until the following verse that the sentiment, here stated in general terms, is illustrated for the readers by the concrete example of Abraham.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
The personal conviction that the members of the Church have their desires still fixed on things which lie within the sphere of salvation, and have in them their supreme interest, does not release the teacher from the duty of emphatically warning against unfaithfulness and apostasy; from laying open truthfully its causes and consequences, and so depicting the magnitude and imminence of the danger as to penetrate and affect the conscience. But, on the other hand, also, even in the case of those who hold a questionable position in the Church, he is not to forget that God himself has pleasure in remembering that which deserves recognition, and will call it forth and render it productive of blessing. Such means of influence are least of all to be overlooked in the case of those who are in conditions of assault and peril; and the manifestation of personal sympathy along with an affectionate recognition of the attestations and works of Christian feeling and conduct which they have displayed are entirely in place after they have been previously rebuked from the Word of God, and been convinced of their wrong.
2. There is found not unfrequently a zealous and enduring manifestation of love not merely in general toward those who are in need, but in particular toward their oppressed and afflicted companions in faith, shown by those Christians who are partly insecure and weak in their recognition of Christian truth; partly wavering and feeble in the assurance of their Christian hope; partly neglectful and indolent in their striving specifically after a full assurance of faith. We are in this matter to insist that the one be done without the neglect of the other; and we are carefully to avail ourselves of the encouragement which lies in the fact that living service toward the members of the Church of Jesus Christ is regarded by God as a testifying of their love toward His own nature, Mat 25:31 ff.
3. From the holy nature of God there follows such a system of divine action as to insure that no attestation of love to Him shall remain unrewarded, but rather shall bring a blessing in return in our spiritual advancement. Under this state of the case, we may regard such a blessing also under the point of view of righteousness and of reward, as in fact the Scripture speaks even of a recompensing of the good. But we are not warranted in demanding this recompense on the basis of our claim to a reward for services rendered, nor in basing on it any alleged title to salvation; for every performance on the part of man of that which is acceptable to God, and which He has commanded, is only rendering the service which is due (Luk 17:10). Bernh. Weiss, in his stirring Treatise on Christs Doctrine of Reward (Deutsche Zeitsch. fr christl. Wiss. und christl. Leben, 1853, Nr. 4042), very significantly styles the relation of reward between God and man an economical one, a matter of economy or arrangement, instituted by God for the realizing of His plan of salvation.
4. The moral condition of the world and the state of the Christian Church may greatly contribute to the apparent impossibility of reaching the goal of perfection and of attaining the promised inheritance, or may at least render their attainment so difficult that many Christians become sluggish and grow cold in that zeal and fervor of faith which has approved itself in their previous walk, and which is still evinced in other spheres of action. In this case the example of those who by faith and enduring patience have reached the goal may prove greatly stimulating.
5. But it belongs essentially to the influence of examples that they be not merely held up to view, contemplated, and admired, but that they be imitated; and in this lies the difficulty and consequent rareness of genuine disciples life. For faith has to do with the invisible, heavenly, and future, which it is to apprehend and hold fast as the most absolutely certain and reliable of all things; and long-suffering patience, without falling into despondency and despair, must await with cheerfulness and with equable, abiding courage, the yet lingering salvation.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Love must not cease to warn, to serve, and to hope.We are not the first on the way to perfection; let us look well to it that we do not remain behind among the last.Where there are still points of character that link us to salvation, God has long since had them in mind, and would fain make use of them.Love seeks no reward; yet it finds it.Services rendered to our companions in the faith are a work of faith with which God is well pleased, and a labor of love which God will reward.The love that labors and sacrifices for the good of our neighbor is also a service rendered to God, but this only in connection with love to the name of God and with the faith of the saints.How the striving after the anticipated inheritance of the promise is hindered in the world, but in the Church of God is at once demanded and promoted.
Starke: We must hope good of every one, and not easily despair of the salvation of any; for God is wont to go forth even about the eleventh hour.Rebuke thy neighbor, if there is great need, at the right time and in the right place, with compassion, without too severe words, and without the spirit of detraction. Perchance thou gainest him.A believing Christian may be indeed certain of his own felicity, but still not without a holy solicitude for his perseverance and steadfastness in what is good.God rewards the good works which He demands of us from grace.It is not merely in heaven that the saints are to be sought and found: they are to prove themselves saints on earth.Our strengthening and support come indeed from the Lord; but we must industriously employ the means which strengthen and keep us unto eternal life.Nothing so much favors backsliding as negligence and sloth.Faith and Christian patience belong together; the former produces the latter, and the latter is a genuine test of faith.Blessed is he who fails not of the eternal inheritance: he may have much, little, or nothing of temporal things: to have God is to have all.
Rieger: Though we may have good hope in regard to the majority, we should still give zealous attention to individuals, Act 20:31.One may frequently be more ready to suffer for a good cause, and to perish with it, than to persevere in the hope of a victorious issue. Hence exhortation to equal diligence in hope is very needful; for unless hope were renewed the sparks of love would be entirely extinguished.To mark the footsteps of those that have preceded us is on the race-course of faith a great advantage.Faith first apprehends and seizes the promise; patience and long-suffering await it to the end.
Heubner: The picture of the wretchedness and ruin of apostates tends strongly to arouse the faithful and to guard them against security and remissness.The thought of Divine aid should spur on and arouse us also to diligence, zeal, and perseverance.So far from faith tending to check activity, it rather preserves us against sloth and gives us power for action.
Footnotes:
[3]Heb 6:10.The words before , noted by Beza, Mill, Bengel, and others, as spurious, have, since Griesbach, been properly cancelled as a gloss from 1Th 1:3.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
DISCOURSE: 2292
THE THINGS THAT ACCOMPANY SALVATION
Heb 6:9-11. But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end.
WHOMSOEVER we address, it is needful that we use at times the language of warning and admonition. For in a mixed assembly all are not alike upright: there will always be found some tares amongst the wheat: and even the most upright may derive benefit from counsels faithfully administered. Hence, in addressing the believing Hebrews, St. Paul warned them against the danger of apostasy; declaring, that, if they did not make a just improvement of the privileges they enjoyed, they would bring upon themselves an aggravated condemnation. But did he therefore conceive of them as hypocrites? No; he had a good opinion of their state: he was persuaded better things concerning them, notwithstanding he thus addressed them: yet, whilst he acknowledged with gratitude their active piety, he urged them to abound in it more and more.
Under a similar persuasion in respect to many of you, and with similar desires in reference to all, we proceed to point out,
1.
What are those things which accompany salvation
Many things there are which are common both to the hypocrite and the true believer: but some things there are which belong to the true believer exclusively, and which will assuredly issue in his everlasting happiness. Wherever there is genuine love to the saints for Christs sake, there is salvation.
But to speak more particularly
It must be a love to the saints as saints
[There may be a strong attachment both to individuals and collective bodies, without any thing beyond the workings of nature. A great variety of considerations may give rise to the emotions of love, and the heart be as far from God as ever. Of course the bare existence of this feeling towards our fellow-creatures can be no just ground for concluding ourselves to be in a state of grace. Even love to the saints may exist on grounds which do not prove it to be of divine origin. We may love them because they are amiable in themselves, or kind to us, or an ornament of the party to which they belong. But when we love them purely because they are beloved of the Lord, and belong to him; when we love them as members of our own body; as partakers of the same divine nature with ourselves; and as heirs of the same glory; then we possess a grace which no hypocrite ever did possess; and which is inseparably connected with the salvation of the soul.]
But this love must be operative and laborious
[Our love must not be in word and in tongue, but in deed and in truth: it must be such as works and labours in ministering to the welfare of the objects beloved. Love of any kind is regarded as a mere pretence, if it exert not itself in such a way as to evince its reality by a corresponding practice: and much more will our pretensions to so high a principle as Christian love be deemed nugatory, if we labour not to display its efficacy by a suitable conversation. The temporal and spiritual comfort of the saints must be promoted by us to the uttermost. We are not to be indifferent to the welfare of any: but, whilst we do good unto all men, we must do it especially unto the household of faith. Nor must we do it merely occasionally, when more urgent circumstances arise to remind us of our duty: we must make it, as it were, our business to promote to the uttermost the edification of the body of Christ in general, and of all its members in particular. Nor must we shrink back from any labour that may be conducive to this end; or any sacrifice that may be requisite to the attainment of it. And it is only when our love is thus operative, that it approves itself to be a sure evidence of grace, and a certain pledge of glory.]
There is yet one more ingredient in this love, namely, that it must be exercised towards the saints for Christs sake
[It must be shewed towards the name of our God as reconciled to us in Christ Jesus. It is this which gives to love its chief excellence. Though the saints are ostensible objects towards whom it is exercised, yet it must in reality terminate on God in them. It is to him that every thing must be done: but as he personally is out of our reach, we are to do it to them as his representatives. He is to be the one great object in whom all our affections centre: and not being able to pour out our ointment upon his head, we must, in testimony of the desires of our souls, pour it out, as we are able, upon all his members.]
This principle so operating, most assuredly accompanies salvation
[It is declared by our blessed Lord to be that whereby we may know to a certainty our own conversion [Note: 1Jn 3:14.], and may be distinguished for his people by all who behold us [Note: Joh 13:35.]. Moreover, if we live in the exercise of this principle, we are assured by God himself, that we shall never fall, but that an abundant entrance shall be ministered unto us into the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ [Note: 2Pe 1:10-11.]. And so infallibly is the final salvation of the soul connected with it, that every exercise of it shall be remembered, not so much as a cup of cold water given to a disciple in the name of a disciple, ever falling short of its reward. Indeed, God would consider himself as unrighteous, if he were to forget to recompense these things in the eternal world. Not that any works of ours can claim any recompence on the ground of merit: but, on the ground of Gods promises, we may be assured that salvation shall be given to us, if we live under the influence of this love: and we may expect it from him as a merciful, a faithful, and a righteous Judge [Note: 2Ti 4:8.].]
Such being the things that accompany salvation, we proceed to shew,
II.
Our duty in relation to them
It is the duty of all to abound in them
[It is supposed in the text that the believing Hebrews had both possessed and exercised this love: indeed, it was from a persuasion of this that St. Paul was so well satisfied of their being in a state of acceptance with God. And we too must live under the habitual influence of this gracious principle, taking every occasion to manifest it towards the saints in acts of kindness both to their bodies and their souls. We must walk in love, as Christ has loved us.]
It is yet further our duty to persevere in these labours even to the end
[We are never to be weary of well doing: never to think that we have done enough; or rather, never to think we have done any thing, as long as any thing remains to be done. We are not to be deterred by difficulties, nor to draw back on account of disappointments. In extending our labours of love to all the saints, we shall sometimes find that we mistake the characters of those whom we have endeavoured to serve: but we must not on this account neglect or intermit our duty. We may take the more care to discriminate between the different characters of men; but must on no account refuse to give the children their meat, because some portions of our bounty have been unwittingly wasted upon dogs. If any have abused our kindness, the loss is their own: but if we neglect to shew kindness, the loss is ours. We must never lay down the habit, but with our lives.]
In so acting we benefit ourselves no less than others
[The exercise of love is, as has been observed, an evidence of grace, and as such, a foundation of hope. And the more the acts of love are formed into a habit, the livelier our hope becomes, till at last it grows into a full assurance of hope. We must again say, that it is not on our actions as meritorious, that our hopes are founded, but only as evidences of a true faith, and as evincing a state which God has promised to reward. But, having these evidences, we may as assuredly hope for glory, as if we saw the holy angels ready to bear our souls to the realms of bliss. God is love: and, if we resemble him in this world, we may well have boldness in reference to the day of judgment [Note: 1Jn 4:16-17.]. We know by it infallibly that we are of the truth; and therefore may on safe grounds assure our hearts before him [Note: 1Jn 3:19.].]
Let me now, in applying this subject to ourselves, tell you,
1.
What is my persuasion respecting you
[Of many I am persuaded, that they have these things that accompany salvation. Many manifest it in the whole of their life and conversation; and many more would manifest it, if they had the same opportunities as are offered to others. There can be no doubt but that the principle of love is deeply implanted in the hearts of many, who from various circumstances are unable to display it as they could wish. And we are assured, that God, who searcheth the heart, will bear witness to them in the last day, as well as to those who were able to carry into effect their good desires.
But, in reference to many, we have no such persuasion. Many do not even possess those things which hypocrites and apostates may have; and much less the things which accompany salvation. How many of you are there who have never been enlightened, never tasted of the heavenly gift, never been made partakers of the Holy Ghost, never tasted of the good word of God, or the powers of the world to come [Note: ver. 4, 5.]. Alas! beloved, what hope can ye enjoy? Your confidence is altogether delusive, and will deceive you to your eternal ruin. But, where these specious appearances have been found, there is in too many instances an entire lack of that gracious principle of which the text speaks. The love that has been exercised has been essentially defective in all its most distinguishing points: it has not been to the saints as saints, but on account of some accidental circumstance that has attended them: it has not been laborious and persevering, but has displayed itself only in easier services, and on more partial or particular occasions: and, above all, it has not originated altogether in love to God; or been exercised simply for the glory of his name. What then must be my persuasion respecting you? Must it not rather be, that, so far from possessing the things that accompany salvation, you have as yet no part or lot in this matter; but are yet in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity. Beloved brethren, think of your danger ere it be too late; and beg of God that you may rest in nothing short of true conversion, and of that hope which shall never make you ashamed.]
2.
What is my desire for you
[Truly this accords with that of the Apostle Paul. On behalf of every one of you, I would desire, that you should shew all diligence in the exercise of this grace; and that you should continue in the exercise of it even to the end: like him also I would desire it with all earnestness [Note: .].
I desire it, first, on your own account: for truly the exercise of love is a heaven upon earth. Love is of God; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him. Look at the Christians that are full of doubts and fears; and you will almost invariably find, that they are comparatively selfish, indolent, unprofitable servants, and greatly defective both in love to man and in zeal for God. On the other hand, look at the laborious and self-denying Christians, and you will find almost invariably that they are happy in their own souls, and happy in their prospects of the eternal world. For your own sakes therefore I would say, Live in the constant exercise of love, and spare no pains to honour God and to benefit his Church and people.
Next, I would desire it for the Churchs sake. How happy must that Church be, where such is the employment of all its members! What peace, and love, and harmony will prevail among them! What mutual edification will be found in all their social intercourse! and with what joy will they go up together to the house of God! Nor will the odour of their graces refresh themselves only; it will be fragrant also in the nostrils of many who have never experienced any such emotions in their own souls, and will cause them to say, We will go with you; for we perceive that God is with you of a truth.
But, above all, I would desire it for the Lords sake, that he may be glorified; for in comparison of this all other motives are weak and of no account [Note: 2Co 9:11-14.]. If it be true that herein is the Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit, it must be most eminently true, when that fruit is such as is described in our text. Has the Lord Jesus Christ said, that what we do unto the least of his Disciples, we do it unto him; what delight must he not feel in a Church where all the members are vying with each other in the exercises of love? When the spices of his garden thus flow out, our Beloved will surely come into it, and eat his pleasant fruits [Note: Son 4:16.].
To all then of every description I say, Walk in love: and, if ye have already begun this heavenly course, labour to abound more and more [Note: If this be a Charity Sermon, the particular object of the Charity may here be stated; and if it be not to benefit saints, yet if it be to make saints, it will be no less pleasing in the sight of God.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
9 But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.
Ver. 9. But, beloved, we are persuaded ] He would not be mistaken. Zuinglius, when he had inveighed against vice, would usually close up his discourse with Probe vir, haec nihil ad te. All this is nothing to thee, thou honest man. (Scult. Annul.) We can hardly beat the dogs out of doors but the children will cry.
Things that accompany salvation ] Gr. , i.e. , that have salvation, that comprehend it, are contiguous to it, and touch upon it. Grace and glory differ not but in degree.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
9 20 .] Encouragement to perseverance : and first ( Heb 6:9-12 ), from God’s faithfulness : see summary at ch. Heb 5:11 . . . , , , . . , , , , . Chrys.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
9 .] But we are persuaded (stronger than , which would express only a subjective confidence, whereas gives the result of actual conviction by proof. Notice the almost verbal correspondence of ref. Rom.) concerning you, beloved (“Apposite eos sic vocat (see reff.) ne putarent eum aliquo ipsorum odio laborare, sed ut scirent eum amore Christiano erga ipsos flagrare: quiamor facit ut semper meliora ominemur iis quos amamus, et si quid severius dicimus, animo corrigendi, non nocendi cupido, dicamus.” Schlichting), the things which are better (the better course as regards your moral state: or, the better fate, as regards your ultimate end. So Chrys., drawing the same distinction, ( , added by Thl.) ( , , , added by Thl.) The latter is most probably the reference, seeing that what follows rests on God’s ultimate faithfulness and justice in the day of retribution. The former is of course involved in it, as conditioning it.
The art. is used, because it is not merely ‘better things,’ of some sort, that he is persuaded, but, of two opposite courses, that one which is the more excellent), and (things) akin to salvation (the formula , ‘to be next to,’ ‘bordering on,’ has occasioned the participle to be used in the sense of akin to, partaking of the nature of . This use is frequent in Herodotus, e. g. v. 49, : i. 120, : cf. also ii. 77; iii. 25, 66; viii. 142. So that Augustine’s, Erasmus’s, and Beza’s rendering, “saluti adhrentia,” is better than vulg., “viciniora saluti,” or D-lat., “proximiora saluti.” There may certainly be a reminiscence, in the expression, of above, as Schlichting, “saluti non maledictioni vicina:” but it seems hardly probable, for as Bleek remarks, had this been meant, the Writer would, considering his love for , have used some more cognate expression. On , in the highest sense, eternal salvation , see note, ch. Heb 1:14 ), if even we do thus speak ( differs from , in that the force of the extends over the whole of the addition or climax expressed by the , ‘ if even :’ whereas in , the hypothesis itself is included in the climax, ‘ even if .’ See Hartung, Partikellehre i. 139 f. The present enlarges the speaking, so that it refers not merely to what has just been said, but to a habit of thus speaking: , . Chrys.).
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Heb 6:9 . . “But of you, beloved, we are persuaded things that are better and associated with salvation, though we thus speak.” “Alarm at the awful suggestion of his own picture (Heb 6:4-8 ) causes a rush of affection into his heart” (Davidson). He hastens to assure them that he does not consider them apostates, although he has described the apostate condition and doom. “This is very like St. Paul’s way of closing and softening anything he had said that sounded terrible and dreadful” (Pierce). Cf. 2Th 2:13 ; Eph 4:20 ; Gal 5:10 . “The form [ ] implies that the writer had felt misgivings and overcome them” (Westcott). is emphasised, and the unique (in this Epistle) is introduced to reassure them and as the natural expression of his own reaction in their favour. “things better” than those he has been describing (neither limiting the reference to the condition, although necessarily it is mainly in view, nor to the doom, although the indicates that it also is in view); and things indeed that so far from being are closely allied to salvation. [ Cf. Hamlet’s “no relish of salvation in it.”] = next, from . I hold myself to, adhere. So locally Mar 1:38 , : temporally, Act 21:26 , , here, as in Herodotus, Plato, and Lucian, “pertaining to,” so Herod., i. 120, . and generally retain in N.T. their distinctive meanings.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Hebrews
THE QUEEN AND THE VIRGINS THAT FOLLOW HER
Heb 6:9 .
THE writer has been describing, in very stern and solemn words, the fate of apostates, and illustrating it by the awful metaphor of’ the earth which’beareth thorns and briars,’ and which is, therefore, ‘rejected, and is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned.’ Then he softens, and knowing that rebukes are never so pointed as when the arrow is feathered by love, he changes his voice. ‘But, beloved’ – they needed to be assured that all the thundering and lightning did not mean anger, but affection – ‘we are persuaded better things of you, and those things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.’ Wherever, then, salvation is, certain other things will also be. Now, of course, it is clear that the word salvation is not here used to mean the ultimate, complete deliverance from all evil of sorrow or sin, and the ultimate, complete endowment with all good of joy and holiness, but for that earlier stage of itself – which unfortunately, too often is supposed to be all that is needed, and to be sure to last, if once possessed, whether diligently tended or left neglected – the initial gifts which are received by a convert in the very beginning of his Christian career, viz., the assurance of divine forgiveness, and the establishment of a new relation between him and God. It is that initial and incomplete salvation of which the writer is here thinking. And, he says, it does not come alone. Like a planet set in the heavens, with moons that circle round it; like a diamond set in a cluster of precious stones; like some queen with her train of attendants, when that incipient salvation comes into a soul, it comes companioned by other blessings that are its natural and necessary attendants and accompaniments. And what are these? The whole context is full of instruction as to what they are. We can gather them all up into the one metaphor fruitfulness; or to put away the metaphor, we can gather them all up into the one phrase, ‘a holy life.’ That, or these – for the one phrase, ‘a holy life,’ will break up and effloresce into all manner of beautifulnesses and goodnesses – are ‘the things that accompany salvation.’ It is plain that the possession of ‘salvation’ is sure to lead to that result. For it is something more than a judge’s pardon; it is a Father’s forgiveness, and even if it were nothing more than forgiveness, it would, as such, set in operation new emotions and aims in the child’s heart and will. God’s forgiveness does not only take away guilt, but breaks the power of sin. But surely the faintest dawn of salvation brings a new life which has affinities for all righteousness and every form of goodness, and brings the forgiven man under the influence of new motives, drawn from his blessed new experience of the ‘mercies of God,’ and strongly impelling him to that grateful, happy yielding of himself as a living sacrifice, from which whatsoever things are lovely and of good report are sure to spring, as naturally as rare exotics will, even in our northern cold, when the right temperature is maintained in the conservatory. The initial salvation sets us in new relations with God; it puts into us a new life, infantile and needing much care in its feebleness, no doubt, but still capable of growth to power and maturity, and even in infancy like the new-born Hercules, able to strangle the serpents. The initial salvation turns us in a new direction, changes our estimate of things to be pursued and avoided, gives new standards, new aims, new desires, new power to reach these aims, to satisfy these desires. ‘If any man be in Christ’ – even if he has but this moment entered, and has gone but a step or two in – ‘he is a new creature; old things are passed away, all things have become new.’ Simultaneous with the rapturous new assurance that God loves and forgives, come the inclination towards, and possibility of, a new life of holiness. It is for the most part an undeveloped possibility, and will need much careful tending, and much fencing off of infantile diseases, and much discipline, before it comes to a ‘perfect man’ after the pattern of Jesus; but the life is there, and, with fair play, will come to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. ‘Salvation’ never enters alone, but ever is attended by a train of fair virgins. Now, from this thought of the primacy of salvation and the subordinate place of its certain accompaniments, important practical results follow. One of these is what we Christians need to have perpetually recalled to our minds, namely, that the way to increase our possession of the accompaniments is to increase our possession of the central blessing which they accompany, and therefore that the true course for us to pursue, if we would live that. holy life which accompanies salvation, is to seek to increase, first, our possession of those primary experiences that constitute salvation the sense of the divine favour, the consciousness of the forgiving and reconciling love of God, and to strive to increase that faith, by which a fuller tide of salvation will flow into our more widely opened hearts. Begin with that with which God begins; seek to have more of the divine salvation; that is the best way to get more of the graces that accompany it. Welcome the entrance of the queen, and her train of attendants, in all the variety of their sweet loveliness and feminine graces, will follow her. ‘The things that accompany salvation’ are best secured by making sure, and increasing our conscious possession of, the salvation which they accompany. To aim at possessing the graces of character which are the results of conscious enjoyment of salvation, without that enjoyment, is like the folly that would begin building a house at the rooftree. Such graces may be partially produced without ‘salvation,’ but they are but like artificial flowers in comparison with the sweet children of the dew and sun, and have no fragrance and no life. But another needful lesson is that the best test and evidence of our being saved, men and women, is our manifesting in our lives these certain attendants on salvation. We should be very sceptical of the genuineness of any profession of being ‘saved,’ whether made by ourselves or by others, which is not manifestly accompanied by these, its inevitable consequences and attendants. The pure heart, the clean hands, the truth-speaking tongue, the loving disposition, the integrity in business, the control of one’s own dispositions and tempers and tastes and appetites, and all these other fair traits of character which are the constituents of a holy life, the manifold rays which melt into the one white light of holiness – these things are the only tokens for the world, and the principal tests for myself, of the reality of my salvation. They are not the only tests for us. Thank God, Christian men do not need to take only the indirect method of determining the genuineness of their faith and love by examining their outward lives. They can say, ‘I have felt, I know and Thou knowest, that I love Thee.’ As to others, our only way of knowing whether the watch is going, is to note whether the hands are travelling round the dial, but for ourselves, we may have direct consciousness of our emotions, being, as it were, inside the watch ease and aware of its working. Yet, since we can hoodwink ourselves about our inward state, and inspection of ourselves is always difficult, and its results apt to be biased by what we wish to find within, we have all much need to check our judgments of ourselves, especially in regard to our faith and love, which are the conditions of our possessing salvation, by the test of our actions, which we are less liable to misconstrue, and which will often tell us unwelcome, but wholesome truth.
We shall be wise if we habitually test our Christian emotion by our conduct in the rough road of daily life, and if we gravely suspect the depth and genuineness of all feeling, however sweet and lofty it seems, which does not come out into action. If our Christian experience is worth anything, it will drive the wheels of self-sacrificing duty. It takes tons of pitchblende to make a drachm of radium, and it needs much experience of the possession of salvation, and many precious and secret inward emotions in order to produce the life of self-sacrifice which is the ultimate test of the worth of our religion. If these certain accompaniments are wanting, or are sparse and lacking in radiance in our lives, it is high time that we asked ourselves very seriously what the worth to us is of a salvation that does not produce in us ‘the things that accompany salvation.’ But the text suggests another thought to which we may now turn. It is that where these accompaniments of initial salvation are present, further salvation will follow. The whole of the context, including my text itself, goes upon the principle that whilst a holy life, or, to put it into other words, ‘good works,’ is, or are, the accompaniments of the initial salvation, they are the causes of a fuller salvation. For look what follows, and look what preceded our text. ‘The earth which drinketh in the rain’ – that is step number one and that drinking in of the rain is the initial act of faith which opens thirstily for the entrance of the initial salvation. Then follows – ‘and bringeth forth herbs’ – that is the second step, and corresponds to the holy life of which I have been speaking; and finally comes ‘receiveth a blessing from God,’ which corresponds to a fuller salvation. After the text we read: ‘God is not unrighteous to forget your work of faith and labour of love’ which implies a promise of rich reward. That is to say, if we have these accompaniments, and do our very best to make them conspicuous and continuous and more thoroughly the mainsprings of our actions, then we shall receive a fuller salvation, just because we have thus sought to appropriate and re develop the consequences in our conduct of the partial salvation with which we were started at first. Salvation is a great word which in Scripture is presented in many aspects. Sometimes it is spoken of as a thing in the past experience of the Christian; sometimes it is spoken of as a thing which he is progressively realising throughout his life: ‘The Lord added to the Church daily such as were being saved’; sometimes it is spoken of as an experience which is reserved for the future, ‘receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls,’ in that life beyond. Now, this experience or possession, call it which you like, or state of spirit and heart, which has its roots in the past, and is being developed all through the Christian life, and is to be perfected in the future world, has for one chief cause of its progressive increase in our own consciousness, a holy life. And if we, as good ground, are trying ‘to bring forth herbs meet for Him by whom it is dressed,’ we shall be like the earth softened by the rain, and smiling with harvest, on which God smiles down in the sunshine of His approval, and which He visits with His benediction. We shall possess a fuller salvation. A firmer grasp of the great truths which bring salvation when received, and of all their consequences of peace and joy, and spiritual elevation and calm, a closer union with Jesus, a larger endowment of the Spirit, will ‘follow our faithful attempts to ‘perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord,’ and so to possess, and to present, more of ‘the things that accompany salvation.’ Good works are a cause of a fuller salvation. The most fruitful Christians need to be warned against possible barrenness and apostasy.‘We are persuaded better things of you, beloved’ – but yet, though persuaded, the writer felt that he must ‘thus speak.’ For we never get beyond the risk of fruitlessness. We never get beyond the need of effort to resist the tendencies that draw us away. We never get beyond the need of warnings. It is always safe for us to look at the field that is bristling ‘with briars and thorns, and is nigh unto cursing.’ Therefore the warning note is sounded, and it is sounded, thank God! in order that what it points to as possible, may never be actual for any of us. We all need warning, but those of us who, like myself, are set to give it sometimes, have to remember that it loses all its force unless it is manifestly the warning of love. ‘Beloved I persuaded,’ as we are, ‘of better things of you,’ it yet is our solemn duty thus to speak, that thus it may never be with any of you. And it is the less likely to be the case with any of us that we shall bear but ‘thorns and briars,’ the more we remember that it is possible for us all, and will be possible until the very end.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Heb 6:9-12
9But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way. 10For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints. 11And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, 12so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
Heb 6:9 “beloved” This paragraph shows the intense love and care that the author has for the readers. Heb 6:11 mentions (1) “desire,” which could be translated “great desire” and (2) “each one of you,” which shows individual concern.
“we are convinced of better things concerning you” This is a perfect passive indicative plural. The author was confident that this group of readers were Christians and would continue to act appropriately.
For “better” see full note at Heb 7:7.
NASB, NKJV”things that accompany salvation”
NRSV”things that belong to salvation”
TEV”that belong to your salvation”
NJB”on the way to salvation”
This Greek phrase is literally “having (present middle participle) salvation” which defines the “better things” of Heb 6:9.
Heb 6:10 “so as to forget your work” God will judge fairly based on
1. the book of life (cf. Exo 32:32-33; Psa 69:28; Dan 12:1; Luk 10:20; Php 4:3; Heb 12:23; Rev 3:5; Rev 13:8; Rev 17:8; Rev 20:12; Rev 20:15; Rev 21:27)
2. the book of deeds (cf. Psa 56:8; Psa 139:16; Isa 65:6; Mal 3:16; Mat 25:31-46; Gal 6:7)
“the love which you have shown toward His name in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints” Although these believing Jews had not fully identified with the Church, they did help the Church in its time of persecution (cf. Heb 10:32-34). Remember the Synagogue was considered legal, while the church was illegal in Roman law of this period!
“Saints” (hagioi) is theologically related to the OT term “holy” (kadash), which meant “set apart for God’s service” (cf. 1Co 1:2; 2Co 1:1; Rom 1:1; Eph 1:1; Php 1:1). It is always plural in the NT except for one time in Php 4:21; even there, it is used in a corporate context. To be saved is to be part of the covenant community of faith, the family of believers.
God’s people are holy because of the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ (cf. Romans 4 and 2Co 5:21). It is God’s will that they live holy lives (cf. Eph 1:4; Eph 2:10; Eph 4:1; Eph 5:27; Jas 2:14-26; 1Pe 1:16). Believers are both declared holy (positional sanctification) and called to a lifestyle of holiness (progressive sanctification). This is typical of the NT theological tension between the “already of the Kingdom of God” and the “not yet of the Kingdom of God.”
SPECIAL TOPIC: SAINTS
Heb 6:11 “full assurance” Notice this is related to lifestyle action (cf. James, 1 Peter, and 1 John). Assurance is not primarily a doctrine to affirm, but a life to live (cf. Matthew 7).
“until the end” Perseverance is as true a biblical doctrine as security. By their fruits you shall know them (cf. Matthew 7; Jas 2:14-26). See note on perseverance at Heb 4:14, also note Special Topic at Heb 7:11.
Heb 6:12 “sluggish” This is the same term as “dull” (cf. Heb 5:11). It is used in contrast to “diligence” in Heb 6:11. The believers had not grown into Christlikeness nor Great Commission Christians as they should have (cf. Heb 12:1-3).
“imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises” This may alude to the roll call of the faithful in chapter 11. These faithful OT believers held out to the end amidst great conflicts and trials, often resulting in physical death (cf. often in chapter 11 and possibly in Heb 12:4). God’s promises are the focus of the paragraph, Heb 6:13-20. They are sure and faithful because He is sure and faithful!
SPECIAL TOPIC: BELIEVERS’ INHERITANCE
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
beloved. Greek. agapetos. App-135.
persuaded Greek. peitho App-150.
of = concerning Greek. peri. App-104.
that accompany = nigh to. Antithesis to “nigh unto cursing” above. Greek. echomai. The mid. of echo is to hold on to, depend on, be close to. See Mar 1:38. Act 20:15; Act 21:26.
though = even if. Greek. ei. App-118.
speak. Greek. laleo. App-121.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
9-20.] Encouragement to perseverance: and first (Heb 6:9-12), from Gods faithfulness: see summary at ch. Heb 5:11. . . , , , . . , , , , . Chrys.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Heb 6:9. -, we are persuaded-beloved) 1Co 13:7. In this one place he calls them beloved, namely, for the sake of exhortation. For Paul often gives exhortations without this title, but he never uses it except for the purpose of exhortation. So in the epistle to the Romans, in like manner once, viz. ch. Heb 12:19, but oftener to the Corinthians and Philippians.-, but) A remarkable Epitherapia[41] and softening of what might have appeared harsh.- , of you) An antithesis, in the hypothesis, to those, who are stigmatized in the thesis, Heb 6:6-8.- , better things) more consistent with godliness, Heb 6:10.- , which [accompany] are near to salvation) An admirable expression. GOD, conferring upon us salvation, , holds us: we, leaning upon Him by faith, are held, ; in which way we say , to hold ones self resting on the anchor: comp. Heb 6:19. Salvation itself will retain [hold safe] good men.
[41] See App. An after mitigation of what has been said.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Heb 6:9-12
ENCOURAGEMENT TO GREATER ZEAL IN
STRIVING AFTER THE FULL ASSURANCE OF
HOPE, DRAWN CHIEFLY FROM THE KNOWN
JUSTICE OF GOD, AND THEIR OWN DEEDS OF
CHARITY
Heb 6:9-12
Heb 6:9 —But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you,-The apostle having solemnly warned the Hebrew Christians against the threatening dangers and fearful consequences of apostasy, now speaks a word for their encouragement. They were still his beloved brethren, much endeared to him by their many Christian excellences, as well as by the ties of consanguinity, and he felt assured that a better destiny awaited them than that which he had just described and illustrated by the case of the barren and reprobate land, the end of which is for burning.
Heb 6:9 —and things that accompany salvation,-Things that stand in immediate connection with salvation, indicating that the Hebrews were still in a saved state; and, furthermore, giving hope and promise that they would persevere in well doing, even to the end of life. Some of these things the Apostle specifies in the following verse.
Heb 6:10 —For God is not unrighteous-It seems from Heb 5:12 that the Hebrew brethren had been culpably negligent in the study of Gods word; but, as we learn from our text, they had notwithstanding this been diligent in works of benevolence. They had faithfully ministered to the saints, and they were still continuing to do so. This, when done in the name of God and for the sake of Christ, is always a favorable indication of vital piety. See references. And hence the Apostle expresses his conviction that God would be mindful of them, and that he would sustain them in all their works of faith and labors of love.
The word labor (tou kopou) is now generally acknowledged to be an interpolation from 1Th 1:3. Literally rendered, according to our best authorities, the passage stands thus: For God is not unrighteous [so as] to forget your work, and the love which you have shown for his name, [in] having ministered to the saints, and [in still] ministering. The name of God is here equivalent to God himself as revealed to us in his Holy Oracles. He himself was the supreme object of this love, and whatever was done for the saints was done therefore for the sake and glory of his name. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, says Christ, ye have done it unto me. (Mat 25:40.)
Heb 6:11 —And we desire-Or, rather, But (de) we earnestly desire that every one of you do show the same diligence with regard to the full assurance of your hope until the end. It is our earnest wish that every one of you should even to the end of life show forth the same diligence in all things that appertain to the full assurance of hope, that you have so far manifested in your deeds of charity; that you show, for example, the same degree of diligence in the study of the Holy Scriptures, in prayer, praise, and meditation ; and also in whatever else is required of you in order to the full enjoyment of the great salvation. This will serve to increase your faith (Joh 7:17; Rom 12:2) ; and this again will perfect your hope and love (Rom 5:1-5).
Hope is a complex emotion of the human mind consisting of a desire for some known object, and an expectation of receiving and enjoying it. The object of the Christians hope is, of course, eternal life. And the full assurance (plerophoria) of this hope is simply the hope itself so increased and intensified, as to leave in our minds no doubt whatever that by the grace of God we will finally attain to the enjoyment of the object. This is to be reached only through the diligent use of all the means which God has himself ordained for our perfection in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. And hence Pauls anxiety that his Hebrew brethren should give all diligence to make their calling and election sure.
Heb 6:12 —That ye be not slothful,-Or, rather, That ye become (gene sthe) not slothful, but imitators of them who through faith and endurance inherit the promises: such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Stephen the first Christian martyr, and James the Apostle who was slain with the sword of Herod Agrippa. These, and many other Patriarchs, Jews, and Christians, had through faith and patience persevered in well doing to the end of life, and then they all entered upon the enjoyment of the blessings which are promised to those who die in the Lord. See Exo 3:6; Dan 12:13; Luk 16:22 Luk 16:25 ; 2Co 5:1-9; Php 1:21-23; Rev 2:10 Rev 14:13.
To this blessed state of the spirits of the just made perfect, all the promises of the Bible may be said to have reference either directly or indirectly. In this they all concentrate as in one common focus. And hence they may all be regarded either as one or as many according to circumstances, just as we call the whole Bible the Scripture (he graphe), when we contemplate it as one book; or the Scriptures (hai graphed), when we consider it with reference to its several parts. In 1Jn 2:25, everything appertaining to the future state of the redeemed, seems to be summed up in the one promise of eternal life. But in our text, the Apostle evidently looks at the promises of God to his redeemed saints distributively; having reference to the promise of a future rest (Heb 4:3-9.); ; the promise of houses not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (2Co 5:2); the promise of Gods presence (2Co 5:6 2Co 5:8), etc.
Commentary on Heb 6:9-12 by Donald E. Boatman
Heb 6:9 –But beloved we are persuaded better things of you
This is a word of encouragement to a people for whom Paul had affection. The better things would be the herbs, rather than the thorns and thistles.
The word persuaded indicates hopefulness on the part of the author.
a. Vincent: It is a past hesitation overcome.
b. Westcott: The form implies that the writer had felt misgivings and had overcome them.
The word beloved is one frequently applied to saints. See Rom 1:7; Rom 11:28; 1Jn 3:2; 1Jn 4:1; 3Jn 1:1-2; 3Jn 1:5; 3Jn 1:11.
Heb 6:9 –and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak
What are the things that accompanied the saved as seen in the Word of God?
a. Pentecostal brethren: fairer things. Act 2:42.
b. Stephen: forgiveness. Act 7:58-60. No retaliation.
c. Ethiopian eunuch: Rejoicing. Act 8:39.
d. Paul: Straightway proclaimed Jesus. Act 9:36-39.
e. Dorcas: Benevolent spirit. Act 9:36-37.
f. Bereans: Examining hearts. Act 17:11.
Though he has warned against backsliding and apostasy, he is hopeful that Christian fruit will be produced by them.
Heb 6:10 –for God is not unrighteous to forget your work
Gods character is at stake in relationship to memory.
a. A person who forgets leaves himself open for accusations.
b. He may be accused of intentional forgetting or carelessness if he forgets.
An honest person is obligated to remember to keep his promise.
a. These people had worked, and God is under obligation to honor faithful work.
b. We see the brethren, (Heb 5:12) had been neglectful of Bible study but they were to be commended for their work.
Heb 6:10 –and the love which ye showed toward His name in that ye ministered unto the saints and still do minister
We serve God by serving our fellow man.
a. Ministering to saints is showing love to God.
b. Jesus emphasized this, Mat 25:40.
c. John approaches the subject, 1Jn 4:20.
These people seem to have been strong on the social gospel.
a. It seems strange that neglected Bible reading would accompany this virtue.
b. A national love, nurtured by persecution, may account for it in some measure.
c. The Jew has always looked out for the Jew.
Heb 6:11 –And we desire that each one may show the same diligence
Desire for each individual to be faithful is expressed.
a. God is interested in each individual. Mat 10:30 : Hairs of your head are numbered, Heb 4:13 : There is no creature that is not manifest in His sight.
b. As individuals, we must stand before God, and not rest on the virtue of a group.
The Hebrews were benevolent in spirit, but each one was to be praised for this.
Heb 6:11 –unto the fulness of hope
It may also be translated, to the full assurance of hope. Fulness of hope refers to future glory intensified. Hope is an emotion, longing, fervent expectation.
Heb 6:11 –even to the end;
Stedfastness is an exhortation oft repeated. Rev 2:10 : Be thou faithful unto death. Mat 10:22 and Col 1:22-23. The end refers to their pilgrimage on earth.
Heb 6:12 –that ye be not sluggish,
Some Christians lack fervor, and show sluggishness when fervency is needed.
a. Jas 5:16 : Fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
b. Rom 12:11 : Fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.
A sluggard condition is awful in the sight of God.
a. It is conceited. Pro 26:16 : The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit.
b. It is sleepy, Pro 6:9 : How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard?
c. It stands condemned. Rev 3:16 : -so because thou art lukewarm.
Heb 6:12 –but imitators (from Greek mimic, translated followed)
This is a characteristic of people, for most people imitate.
Observe passages on imitator. 1Co 11:1 : Be ye imitators of me even as I also am of Christ. 1Co 4:16 : I beseech you therefore, be ye imitators of me. 1Th 1:6 : And ye become imitators of us, and of the Lord. Heb 2:14 : For ye brethren become imitators of the churches. We are also to imitate God, as mentioned in Eph 5:1 : Be ye therefore imitators of God as beloved children.
Heb 6:12 –who through faith and patience inherit the promises
Stedfastness is a characteristic of a strong faith. The backslider will not inherit the blessing, and should not be imitated. This passage does not sound as though salvation is a gift without works.
Study Questions
1022. Is the apostle hopeful for the Hebrews? (Heb 6:9)
1023. Does the text suggest any affection?
1024. What would the expression better things refer to, thorns or herbs?
1025. What things accompany salvation?
1026. Name the conversions in Acts and point out things that could be considered fruit or better things.
1027. Are the better things a return to repentance, or general good works? Is the conjunction and significant in Heb 6:9?
1028. How is Gods character involved in Heb 6:10?
1029. What charges may be brought against a forgetter?
1030. Is God duty-bound to honor good works? Always? Cf. Matt.
1031. What is the work of the Hebrews which is deserving of honor?
1032. How is service to our fellow man an evidence of love for God?
1033. Is this always true?
1034. Is service to our fellow man service to God?
1035. What did Jesus say? Mat 25:40.
1036. What did Jesus say? 1Jn 4:20.
1037. What does Heb 5:12 give as a clue to their trouble?
1038. How may we account for the fact that they were strong on the social gospel?
1039. What is Pauls desire for individuals in Heb 6:11?
1040. Is he saying that, as a group, they could be commended for works, but, individually, they could not?
1041. What is meant by fulness of hope?
1042. How long is it to be maintained?
1043. Does this verse teach that there is no hope for people who lack diligence?
1044. Describe a sluggish spiritual condition.
1045. Compare Jas 5:16 and Rom 12:11 with regard to sluggishness.
1046. Could sluggishness and the lukewarmness of Rev 3:16 be the same?
1047. What is meant by the exhortation to be imitators?
1048. Whose examples are we to follow?
1049. Could this be an allusion to the persons of Chapter Eleven?
1050. Why is he not urging us to imitate God as in Eph 5:1?
1051. How do we know that he is not doing this?
1052. What two companionate virtues are linked with the receiving of promise?
1053. Is it possible to see the faith alone doctrine in this verse?
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Expositors generally agree in giving these verses as an instance of the great wisdom and prudence used by the apostle in his dealing with these Hebrews. Chrysostom in especial insists upon it, making observations unto that purpose on all the considerable passages in the context. What is really of that nature will occur unto us, and shall be observed in our progress. His design in general is twofold:
First, To mollify the severity of the preceding commination, and prediction contained therein, that it might not have an effect on their minds beyond his intention. He knew that, all circumstances considered, it was necessary for him to make use of it; but withal he was careful that none of them who were sincere should be terrified or discouraged. For if men are disanimated in the way wherein they are engaged, by those on whose guidance they depend, and unto whose judgment they are to submit, it makes them despond and give over thoughts of a cheerful progress. Wherefore in all cases our apostle was exceeding careful not in any thing to make heavy or sorrowful the hearts of his disciples, unless it were in case of extreme necessity. Hence is his apology or excuse, as it were, to the Corinthians for having put them to sorrow by some severe reproofs in his former letter to them, 2Co 2:1-2 :
But I determined this with myself, that I would not come again unto you in heaviness. For if I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh me glad, but the same which is made sorry by me?
He lets them know, that whatever sorrow he had put them to, it was so unto himself no less than unto them, seeing they were the chiefest causes of his joy and gladness. And thus dealeth he in this place with the Hebrews. Lest they should be amazed with the terror of the preceding commination, and the prediction therein contained of the inevitable and dreadful ruin of slothful apostates and hypocrites, he lets them know that he did no way therein determine or pass a judgment on them, their state and condition. But having far other thoughts and hopes concerning them, and the end of their profession, he yet judged it necessary to excite them unto that diligence which some among them had neglected to use, by declaring the miserable end of those who always abide unfruitful under, or do apostatize from, the profession of the gospel. Herein doth he steer a direct and equal course between the extremes in admonition. For he neither useth so much lenity as to enervate his reproof and warning, nor so much severity as to discourage or provoke those who are warned by him. In a word, he layeth weight upon things, and spareth persons; the contrary whereunto is the bane of all spiritual admonition.
Secondly, He maketh use of this discourse for a transition unto the second part of his design. And this was, to propose unto them who were true believers such encouragements and grounds of consolation as might confirm and establish them in their faith and obedience; which are the subjects of the remaining part of this chapter. Wherefore, as, to make way for the severe threatenings which he hath used, it was necessary for him to describe the persons unto whom they did in an especial manner belong, so it was no less requisite that he should describe those also unto whom the ensuing promises and consolations do pertain; which he doth in these verses.
Heb 6:9. , , , .
, persuasi sumus, confidimus. Bez., persuasimus nobis, we are persuaded. . Syr., , my brethren. Vulg., dilectissimi. Rhem., we confidently trust of you, my best beloved. , meliora. Syr., , ea quae sunt bona, pulchra; the things that are good or comely. . Syr., , and such as draw near to life; that is, eternal. Vulg. Lat., et viciniora saluti. Rhem., and nearer to salvation. Others generally, et cum salute conjuncta. Ours, and such as accompany salvation; very properly.
Heb 6:9. But we are persuaded of you, beloved, better things, and such as accompany salvation, although we thus speak.
The especial design of the apostle, in this and the following verses, is to declare his good-will towards the Hebrews, his judgment of their state and condition, the reasons and grounds of that judgment, with the proper use and end of the commination before laid down, that neither theft might be neglected nor themselves discouraged. This verse contains,
1. An expression of his love and good-will towards them;
2. His judgment of them;
3. The reason of his present declaration of both these, with respect unto what he had spoken before unto them, namely, that although he had spoken it unto them, he did not speak it of them.
1. His love and good-will he testifies in his compellation, , beloved. It is an expression of most entire affection, and is never used in the Gospels but to express the love of God the Father unto his Son Jesus Christ, Mat 3:17; Mat 12:18; Mat 17:5; Mar 1:11; Mar 9:7; Mar 12:6; Luk 3:22; Luk 9:35; Luk 20:13. By the apostles in their epistles it is frequently applied unto believers, especially by Paul, in all those written by him: we might therefore pass it over, as that word which it was usual with him to express his sincere affection by towards all saints. But there seems to be a twofold reason of its especial introduction in this place, both of them respected in the wisdom of our apostle.
(1.) Perhaps these Hebrews were ready enough to entertain jealousies concerning him, that he had not that affection for them which he had for others. For he had now spent a long time with and among the Gentiles, for their conversion and edification. Among them he had planted very many churches, and that on one point contrary to the judgment of most of these Hebrews, namely, in a liberty from the law and the ceremonies of Moses. In this long converse and work, they might suspect that he had lost his natural love to his countrymen, as is usual in such cases, and as he was much accused to have done. To root this evil surmise out of their minds, as he useth frequently other affectionate compellations in this epistle, so he here calls them his beloved; than which he had used no expression of greater endearment towards any of his Gentile converts. And notwithstanding all the provocations and injuries he had received from them, he gave on all occasions the highest demonstration of the most intense affection towards them; never opposing them nor reflecting on them with any severity, but only then and wherein they opposed the gospel and the liberty thereof. This affection was such for them, as his countrymen and kinsmen in the flesh, as that he could willingly have died that they might be saved, Rom 9:2-3. And for this he prayed continually, Rom 10:1. And the addition of love that was made in him upon their conversion cannot be expressed. (2.) He hath respect unto his preceding severe expressions, as is plain from the close of this verse, though we thus speak. As if he had said,
Notwithstanding this severe admonition, which I have, upon the consideration of all circumstances, been forced to use, yet my heart stands no otherwise affected towards you but as towards my countrymen, brethren, and saints of God.And thus,
Obs. 1. It is the duty of the dispensers of the gospel to satisfy their hearers in and of their love in Jesus Christ to their souls and persons.
2. The apostle expresseth his judgment concerning these Hebrews, We are persuaded better things of you, and such as accompany salvation; wherein we have, first, the act of his mind in this matter: , We are persuaded. Chrysostom insists much on the force of this word. The apostle, as he observes, doth not say, We think,or We hope;but he was fully persuaded. He lets them know that he was fully satisfied in this matter. And he useth not this word anywhere in his epistles (as he useth it often), but he intends a full and prevalent persuasion. Now this a man may have in spiritual things on three grounds:
(1.) By especial revelation; so he was certain of the truth of the gospel that was revealed unto him, which he discourseth of, Gal 1:7-8.
(2.) By the evidence of faith; when any thing is believed on grounds infallible, namely, the revelation of the mind of God in the Scripture, or the promises of the gospel. So he useth this word, Rom 8:38, , For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, etc. This he believed, and had an infallible certainty thereof, because God had so promised. So also, 2Ti 1:12 : , I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him. He useth the same expression in matter of faith, Rom 14:14.
(3.) There is a certain persuasion of mind, that is founded on moral arguments, such as may bring a man to a full satisfaction in his mind, but yet so as it is possible he may be deceived. Of this nature is that persuasion, that trust or confidence, which we have of the good condition of other men. So our apostle speaks of Timothy and his faith, 2Ti 1:5 : The faith that dwelt in thy mother Eunice, , and I am persuaded in thee also. He was not persuaded of any sincere faith in Timothy by especial revelation, nor was it the object of his faith from any express word of Scripture, but he was satisfied of it upon such unquestionable grounds and motives as left no room for doubt about it. Some urge to the same purpose Php 1:6, , Being confident of this very thing, (persuaded of it), that he who hath begun a good work in you, will perform it to the day of Jesus Christ. But this persuasion, being built on a supposition that a good work was begun in them, was an act of faith infallible, built on the promises of God and the changeableness of his covenant. His persuasion here concerning the Hebrews was of this latter kind, even that which he had satisfactory reasons and grounds for, which prevailed against all contrary objections. In like manner he speaks of the Romans, Rom 15:14. , And I myself am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye are full of goodness. The grounds of this persuasion with respect unto the Hebrews, he expresseth in the next verse, where we shall consider them.
Obs. 2. It is our duty to come unto the best satisfaction we may in the spiritual condition of them with whom we are to have spiritual communion.
There is not any thing of our mutual duties that the gospel more presseth, or more supposeth. And it is necessary both unto ministers and private Christians. For the former, they are concerned in the advice of the wise man, Pro 27:23, Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks. They are not only to provide good pasture and feeding for them, but they must know their state and condition, that what they provide for them may be suitable and seasonable. And unto this end there were at first some in the church who had the immediate inspection of the state and walking of the members of it, and were thereby enabled, as Moses said to his father-in-law, Num 10:31, to be instead of eyes unto the teachers, to look into the condition of all sorts of persons. Nor can they without it discharge any one duty of their office in a due manner. For ministers to walk towards their people at peradventure, and to fight uncertainly, as men beating the air, without an acquaintance with their state, and especial consideration of their condition, and what therein is suited unto their edification (as is the manner of many), will leave them at a great uncertainty how to give in their account. See Heb 13:17. Unless a man have some good satisfaction concerning the spiritual condition of those that are committed unto his charge, he can never approve himself among them a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, to give unto all their proportion. And the work of the ministry is not by any means more evacuated and rendered ineffectual, than when men have not a certain design to deal with their hearers according unto what they are persuaded that their spiritual state doth require. How shall they instruct, how shall they warn, how shall they comfort any, but on a supposition of an acquaintance with the state and condition wherein they are? A general preaching at random, without a special scope, directed by the persuasion mentioned, turns the whole work for the most part, both in preachers and hearers, into a useless formality. In brief, this persuasion principally regulates the whole work of the ministry. He that is a physician unto the bodies of men, must acquaint himself with the especial state and condition of his patients, as also of their distempers, wherein his skill and judgment are especially to be exercised. Without that, let him be furnished with the greatest store of good medicines, if he give them out promiscuously unto all comers, all that he doth will be of little use. It may be, his medicines being safe, they will do no harm; and it is as probable they will do as little good. Nor will it be otherwise with the physicians of souls in the like case.
Four things are required to make the dispensation of the word proper and profitable; a good spring, a safe rule, a distinct design, and enlivening affections.
(1.) The first is the dispensers own light and experience. He is to see in his work with his own eyes, and not those of other men. And when he is by his own light as a scribe instructed unto the kingdom of God, it is out of the good treasure of his own heart that he is to bring forth good things, new and old.
(2.) His safe rule is the infallible word of truth. This must be the touchstone of his light and experience. And it is suited unto his whole work, unto all the duties of it, 2Ti 3:16-17. In nothing but what is regulated hereby are any to be attended unto, Isa 8:20.
(3.) His distinct design lies in the due consideration of the spiritual state and condition of them unto whom the word is to be dispensed. And herein consists the greatest part of the ministerial skill. This is that which secretly differenceth the constant ministerial dispensation of the word from the occasional exercise of the gifts of any. And this doth God make use of to convey unexpected relief or repose unto the souls of men, wherewith they are surprised and affected. If we have not this scope continually before us, we may run apace, but never know whether we are in or out of the way.
(4.) The enlivening affections that ought to accompany the dispensation of the word, are zeal for the glory of God and compassion for the souls of men. But these things must not here be insisted on. And for private Christians among themselves, their mutual duties are referred unto love and the fruits of it. That special love which ought to be among the disciples of Christ as such, takes up, in the description, injunctions, and directions of it, a great part of the writings of the New Testament. Nothing doth the Lord Christ himself and his apostles so urge upon them as this of mutual love. Upon the right discharge of this duty he frequently declares that his honor in them and by them in this world doth principally depend. And whatever we have besides this, our apostle declares that it is nothing, or of no use in the church of God, 1 Corinthians 13. And the greatest evidence of the degeneracy of Christianity in the world, consists in the open loss of this love amongst those who make profession thereof.
[1.] Now this love is founded in our persuasion concerning the spiritual state and condition of each other. I mean, that especial mutual love is so which ought to be among the disciples of Christ as such. For although we are on other grounds obliged unto a love towards all mankind, whether friends or enemies, yet that peculiar love which the gospel so chargeth on the disciples of Christ is an effect of, and is built upon their common and mutual interest in Christ. They are to love one another as members of rite same mystical body, and united unto the same spiritual Head. Whatever love there may be on other accounts among any of them, which doth not arise from this spring and fountain, it is not that gospel love which ought to be among believers. And how can this be in us, unless we have a good persuasion concerning our mutual interest and in-being in Christ? God forbid that any should press that peculiarly intense love that ought to be among the members of the body of Christ, to take off or derogate from that general love and usefulness which not only the law of our creation but the gospel also requireth of us in an especial manner towards all men; yea, he who professeth love unto the saints, that peculiar love which is required towards them, and doth not exercise love in general towards all men, much more if he make the pretense of brotherly love the ground of alienating his affection from the residue of mankind, can have no assurance that the love he so professeth is sincere, incorrupt, genuine, and without dissimulation. But this special love is the special duty of us all, if we believe the gospel, and without which foundation well laid we can rightly discharge no other mutual duty whatever. Now this, as is evident, we cannot have unless we have a persuasion of the only ground of this love, which is our mutual relation unto Jesus Christ. And to act this love aright as to its object, as grounded on this persuasion, take heed of evil surmises; these are the bane of evangelical love, though some seem to make them their duties. Those concerning whom we hear that they make profession of faith and obedience towards our Lord Jesus Christ, and know not that they any way contradict their profession by wicked works, we are obliged to bear the same love towards as if we knew them sincere. For charity hopeth all things, namely, that are good, if we have no certain evidence to the contrary. And thus in general we may have this persuasion concerning all that in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. We have no obligation, indeed, hereunto, towards such as visibly and evidently walk unworthy of that high calling whereby we are called. For concerning such our apostle assures us, that whatever they profess, they are
enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is their shame, who mind earthly things, Php 3:18-19.
It is a dishonor, a reproach to Christ and the gospel, that we should persuade ourselves that they are his disciples, and members of his mystical body, whom we see to walk after the manner of the world, and to have their conversation in the lusts of the flesh. These we are still to love, as those who once had, and are yet capable of the renovation of, the image of God upon them; but they proclaim themselves destitute of all those qualifications which are the formal object and reason of this peculiar love.
[2.] The Lord Christ hath, by his institution, secured us as to a certain rule of this persuasion and love, by the disposal of his disciples into church societies upon such grounds as are a sufficient warranty for it. Thus our apostle, in all his epistles unto the churches, salutes, esteems, judgeth them all to be saints, and called in Christ Jesus. For although some of them might not be so really and in the sight of God, yet his persuasion and his love being directed according to the rule, were acceptable unto Christ. And whereas our Lord Jesus hath commanded that all his disciples should join themselves unto and walk in such societies, were there not great confusion brought into the world in and about gospel institutions, we should not be atloss about this persuasion and love; for we should be obliged unto them towards all that are called Christians, until they had openly declared themselves to be enemies of the cross of Christ. But we are yet suffering under the confusion of a fatal apostasy, which God in his good time will deliver his churches from.
[3.] As we cannot direct our love aright without this persuasion, no more can we exercise any of the duties or fruits of it in a due manner. The fruits of mutual love among Christians are either in things spiritual, which concern edification; or in things temporal, which concern outward relief. Of the first sort, are admonition, exhortation, instructions, and consolations, mutually administered. Now, how can any man order or make use of these in a right manner, unless he have some directive persuasion of the spiritual condition of them unto whom he doth administer? It is true he may sometimes be therein mistaken; yet it is far better so to be than never to consider what is meet and requisite with respect thereunto. And as for the fruits of the same love in outward things, although they ought to be brought forth in the temporal supplies of all, according to our opportunities and abilities, yet without this persuasion they will want the quickening form and soul of them; which is a design to place our love in them ultimately on Jesus Christ.
Obs. 3. We may, as occasions require, publicly testify that good persuasion which we have concerning the spiritual condition of others, and that unto themselves.
Our apostle here acquaints these Hebrews with his good persuasion concerning them; and likewise in all his epistles he still declares his hope and confidence of their blessed interest in Christ unto whom he wrote; and spares not to give them all the titles which really belong only to elect believers. Now, as this is not to be done lightly, not in a way of flattering compliance, not but upon just and firm grounds from Scripture, least of all to give countenance unto any to continue in an evil way or practice; yet in three cases it is warrantable and requisite:
(1.) When it is done for their due encouragement. Gracious persons, through their temptations, fears, and sense of sin; yea, whole churches, upon occasion of trials, distresses, and backslidings among them; may so be cast down and despond, as to be discouraged in their duties and progress. In this case it is not only lawful, but expedient, yea necessary, that we should testify unto them that good persuasion which we have concerning their state and condition, with the grounds thereof, as the apostle doth in this place. So in like case testified our Savior himself concerning and unto the church of Smyrna: I know thy poverty, what thou complainest of, and art ready to sink under; but thou art rich, Revelation 2
(2.) It may and ought to be done for their just vindication. The disciples and churches of Christ may be falsely accused and charged, and yet it may be with so much probability, or at least appearance of evil, as that they may greatly suffer in their just reputation, whereby the holy name of the Lord Christ is also dishonored. He who falsely accuseth all the brethren before God continually, wants not instruments to fix calumnies upon them among men here below. In such a case it is our indispensable duty to testify our good persuasion concerning them, be they persons or churches, who are so traduced. And if we do it not, we have a copartnership in the guilt of their enemiesfalse accusations.
(3.) When we have any necessary duty to discharge towards them, which this testification of our persuasion concerning them may render more effectual, or prevent it having another end than what we aim at, or remove any prejudice out of its way. This was the very case wherein the apostle testifieth his persuasion concerning them unto these Hebrews. His design was to admonish them of some faults, sins, and miscarriages, that had already been among them; and, moreover, to charge them with a care about apostasy from the gospel, which the way wherein some of them were seemed to have a tendency unto. But lest this his dealing with them, which had an appearance of much severity, should have begotten prejudices in their minds against his person and ministry on the one hand, or too much dejected and cast them down on the other, he secures his procedure on both sides with this testification of his confidence concerning their spiritual condition; thereby at once assuring them of his love, and evidencing the necessity of his admonition. And herein hath he, in the example of the wisdom bestowed on him for this end, given us an inviolable rule of our proceeding in like cases.
Obs. 4. The best persuasion we can arrive unto concerning the spiritual condition of any, leaves yet room, yea, makes way for, gospel foreatenings, warnings, exhortations, and encouragements. There is nothing more common than to charge the ways of some, that, by persuading men of their regeneration and saintship, they render them secure, and the threatenings of the gospel in an especial manner unuseful unto them. Neither is there any question but that this, as all other ways of God and his grace, may be abused. But those who manage the charge in general may do well to fix it in the first place on the apostles. For there are not any of them but testify the same persuasion concerning all them to whom they wrote; and there is no doubt but that their way of preaching and writing was the same. But yet this hindered them not from the use of all sorts of evangelical comminations, exhortations, and encouragements; from whence we are to take our example and warranty for the same practice. This, therefore, lies evident in their procedure, which is our instruction and rule, namely, that looking on men as believers, or being persuaded of their good spiritual condition, we yet ought to apply unto them all the means appointed by Christ for the begetting, increase, and continuance of grace in them. And the reasons hereof are evident; for,
(1.) Although that persuasion which men may have of their spiritual condition, or which others may have or declare concerning them, may strengthen their peace, yet it neither doth nor ought to incline them unto security. Thou standest by faith, saith the apostle; be not high-minded, but fear, Rom 11:20; Take the peace and comfort of thy faith, but be neither proud nor secure.Where there is any such effect hereof, towards a Laodicean security, there is a just ground to suspect that the persuasion itself is a pernicious mistake. And it is the duty of all professors to give heed diligently lest any such root of bitterness spring up amongst them and defile them. If once a persuasion of this good condition begins to influence towards security and a neglect of duty, then ought they to be in the highest jealousy concerning their condition itself.
(2.) Whatever mens state and condition be under the gospel, they are still obliged unto the means appointed for their edification and preservation. Amongst all the vain imaginations about religious things vented in these latter days, there is none savours more rankly of satanical pride and human folly than that of such a state of perfection attainable in this life, wherein, as it is phrased, men should be above ordinances; that is, should be vainly puffed up in their fleshly minds, above the authority, and wisdom, and truth of God. Whilst we are in the way, under the conduct of the gospel, we need all the advantages it affords in our progress. Of this sort are all the threatenings, promises, exhortations, encouragements, contained in it. And the proper use of gospel threatenings in particular, such as that here insisted on by our apostle, I have declared at large on the first and second verses of the fourth chapter, and shall not here again insist thereon.
It followeth hence,
(1.) That whatever be the state and condition of them unto whom we dispense the word, or whatever we may conceive it to be, we are not, with respect thereunto, to baulk or waive the delivery and pressing of any evangelical warning, or the severest threatening contained in the gospel, much less encouragements and motives unto faith and obedience, though we are persuaded they both believe and obey. For as it is not impossible but that both they and we may be mistaken in their condition, and that the severest menaces may be their proper portion in the world; so, be their condition what it will, all these things have not only their proper use towards them, but are necessary for them in their several kinds. For although they, every one of them as singly laid down, are of the same signification in themselves, yet in their application unto men they have a sense suited unto their condition. For instance: the same threatening, as applied unto unbelievers, tends to beget dread, terror, and fear of wrath in them, to fill them with evidences of Gods displeasure: as applied unto believers, it tends only to fill them with reverential fear of God, care to avoid the sin threatened, and to excite diligence in the use of means for its avoidance. All of them are good for all. As, therefore, if we should always, in the dispensation of the word, insist on the threatenings of the law and gospel, whose denunciation multitudes do certainly stand need of, we might weaken and discourage those whom God would not have to be discouraged; so, on the other hand, if, out of an apprehension that our people or congregations are made up of believers, we should continually insist on the promises of the gospel, with the like springs of consolation, seldom or never pressing on them the threatenings and severe menaces thereof, we should certainly defraud them of a blessed means which God hath ordained for their edification and preservation in faith. The holy intermixture of all these things in the Scripture itself is to be our rule, and not any imagination of our own.
(2.) That others should not think themselves severely dealt with, when they are pressed on and urged with the severest threatenings of the gospel. Let them not say or think in their hearts, This preacher looks upon us as persons unregenerate, or hypocrites; perhaps out of ill-will unto us.It is certain that on such occasions men are apt to give place to such surmises; for an apprehension thereof is the reason why the apostle maketh as it were this apology for the use of the foregoing severe commination. As if he had said, Do not you entertain any hard thoughts or evil surmises concerning me or my dealing with you in this matter. There are other reasons of my thus dealing with you; for as unto your personal interest in the grace of Christ, I have as yet a good persuasion, although I thus speak.And let others take heed lest they fall into any such apprehension, which will certainly defeat them of the wholesome fruit of the word. Sharp frosts are needful to make the ground fruitful, as well as the clearest sunshine. And if a tree be not sometimes pressed on by the wind, it will never well firm its roots in the ground. Sharp reproofs, and earnestness in pressing gospel comminations, are sometimes as needful for the best of us as the administration of the richest and most precious promises, Hos 10:11.
3. Having considered in general the good persuasion of the apostle concerning those Hebrews, we may consider in especial his expression of the things which he was so persuaded to be in them. And this is double:
(1.) , Better things;
(2.) , Such as accompany salvation.
(1.) He was persuaded concerning them , better things. There seems to be a comparison included in this expression, and not only an opposition unto what was [formerly] spoken. If so, then there is a supposition of some good things granted unto those [formerly] treated of. This therefore cannot refer unto the verses immediately before, which express only their barrenness and destruction, but it must relate unto verses 4-6, where the spiritual gifts collated on them are enumerated. They are good things in themselves, but yet such good things as may perish, and they also on whom they are bestowed. Those who enjoy them may yet be barren ground, and so cursed and burned. But the apostle is persuaded better things of those to whom he speaks, namely, such things as accompany salvation; such as whosoever is made partaker of shall never perish eternally. Or may be put for , good things, as Chrysostom supposeth. But yet neither is there any need of supposing an impropriety in the expression; for it is usual to express excellent things in words of the comparative degree, although no comparison be included, especially when they are made mention of with respect unto others who have no interest in them. However, here is certainly an opposition unto what was before affirmed concerning others. And that may be reduced unto two heads:
[1.] That they were barren and destitute of all saving grace and fruits.
[2.] That they should in the end be destroyed. These better things must be opposed to the one or other of these, or unto them both. If they are opposed unto the first, then especial saving grace and fruit-bearing, such as are peculiar unto Gods elect, proceeding from the real sanctification of the Spirit, such as no perishing gifted hypocrites can be partakers of, are intended. If unto the latter, then those better things respect not their qualification, but their condition; that is, freedom from the curse and wrath of God, and from perishing under them: I am persuaded it will go better with you than with such apostates.It may be both are included; but the first is certainly intended, namely, that these Hebrews were not barren, but such as brought forth the saving fruits of the Spirit of grace.
(2.) For of these things it is added, , Such as accompany salvation: literally, such as have salvation; that is, such as have saving grace in them, and eternal salvation infallibly annexed unto them, things that are not bestowed on any, such as are not wrought in any, but those that shall be saved; that is, in brief, true faith and sincere obedience. For in whomsoever these are found, they shall be saved, by virtue of the faithfulness of God in the covenant of grace. And we may observe hence,
Obs. 5. That among professors of the gospel some are partakers of better things than others.
They were all professors concerning whom the apostle discourseth in this and the preceding verses; and yet, notwithstanding any good things that some might have had, or might be supposed to have had, others of them had better things than they. And this difference may be observed, first in the degrees, and secondly in the kinds of the things intended:
(1.) Spiritual gifts are of one kind. For although there are several sorts of them, yet they have all the same general nature; they are all gifts, and no more. The difference, therefore, that is amongst them being not to be taken from their own especial nature, but their use and tendency unto the common end of them all, I take it only to be gradual. For instance, to speak with tongues and to prophesy, are two gifts of different sorts; but whereas they are both gifts of the Spirit, and are designed unto the furtherance of the gospel and edification of the church, the true difference between them is to be taken from their usefulness unto this end. Those, therefore, who have only gifts in the church, as they have different gifts, so they have some of them better gifts than others; some as to the especial kinds of gifts, but mostly as to the degrees of their usefulness unto their proper end. Hence our apostle, having reckoned up the various and manifold gifts of the Spirit, adds this advice unto the Corinthians, upon the consideration of them, , 1Co 12:31; Covet earnestly the best gifts, those that tend most to the edification of the church. Thus ever it was, and ever it will be, in the church of God; some have had, and some have better gifts than others. And as the whole church is hence to learn to acquiesce in, and submit to the sovereignty of the Spirit of God, who divideth unto every man severally as he will; so those who have received these better and differing gifts, either in their especial nature or degrees of usefulness, have some duties singularly incumbent on them, and whose discharge will be required at their hands: as,
[1.] To walk humbly, with a constant care that a sense of their gifts and abilities do not in their minds puff them up, fill them with conceits of themselves, as though they were somewhat, and so make them exalt themselves above their brethren, in the apostolical and primitive church, when there was nothing of that secular grandeur, promotion, preferments, dignities, amongst the ministers of the church, as now-a-days fill the world with pride and domination, all the danger of a hurtful elation of mind in one above another was from the eminency of gifts which some had received above others. And it cannot be denied but that the abuse hereof laid the foundation of all that swelling secular pride and cursed domination, or lordly rule, which afterwards pestered the church. The two things which the apostle Peter in one place cautions and chargeth the elders and guides of the church against, became their ruin, namely, filthy lucre, and love of domination over the Lords heritage, 1Pe 5:2-3. And, indeed, it is a very hard and difficult matter for men totally to suppress those insinuations of a good conceit of themselves, and preferring themselves before others, which gifts singular in their use and kind will suggest. Neither will it be effected without a constant exercise of grace. For this cause the apostle would not have a novice called to the ministry, or public exercise of spiritual gifts, namely, lest he be puffed up with pride, and fall into the condemnation of the devil, 1Ti 3:6. Afflictions and temptations for the most part, are a needful balance for eminent gifts. This, therefore, the Scripture hath provided against, both warning us that knowledge, which is the matter of all spiritual gifts, will puff up; and forbidding us to boast in them, because they are things which are freely bestowed on us, without respect unto any thing of good or worth in ourselves, 1Co 4:7. And, if we reckon aright, those of us whose gifts are inferior unto those of other men, provided we use and improve what we have received unto the best advantage we are able, have no reason to envy them whose gifts outshine ours. For, if they are gracious, they have work enough cut out for them to keep them watchful over themselves unto humility; where yet it is to be feared that things do not always so well succeed, but that, by sinful surprisals of self-elating imaginations, there is work made for repentance and trouble. Yea, he who is eminently gifted, if he be not eminently humble, hath but an unquiet life within doors. And if such a person be not truly gracious, he is in the ready way to fall into the condemnation of the devil. Such a person is a prey to every temptation, and will also seduce himself into all evil.
[2.] It is required of such persons, as to be humble, so in an especial manner to be thankful. The things whereof they are partakers are gifts, and not to be thankful for gifts, is the most proper ingratitude.
[3.] A fruitfulness proportionable unto the excellency of their gifts. He who had received five talents was not only obliged to trade with them, but to get five talents more. The increase of one or two talents would not have served his turn. To whom much is given, of him not somewhat, but much is required. The hiding of many talents is a sin whereof there is no instance in the Scripture; it is a sin that hath a greatness in it not to be supposed; and those who may be concerned in it ought to tremble with the apprehensions of it. Our Lord is coming, and, alas! there is none of us who have traded with his talents as we ought to have done. We hope that, in his infinite mercy and compassion, he will spare and pardon, and accept of that little which we have endeavored after in sincerity; but in the. meantime we ought always to consider that labor and fruitfulness ought to be proportioned unto what we have received. But yet these are not the better things here directly intended. For from them, or any thing that is in the best of them, no such conclusion can be made as that here by our apostle, seeing he had showed before that they might all perish and be lost.
(2.) There are spiritual things which differ in their whole kind and nature from other things, and are better than they as to their essence and being. Such is all saving grace, with all the fruits of it. I shall not now stay to prove that true saving grace differs specifically from all common grace, however advanced in its exercise by the company and help of spiritual gifts, much less to wrangle about what doth formally constitute a specifical difference between things. But this I say plainly, which I can prove assuredly, that true gospel faith and sincere obedience are better things than the most glorious hypocrite or most reformed unregenerate person was ever made partaker of. In the visible professing church all things outwardly seem to be equal. There are the same ordinances administered unto all, the same profession of faith is made by all, the same outward duties are attended unto, and scandalous offenses are by all avoided. But yet things are not internally equal. Many are called, but few are chosen. In a great house there are vessels of wood and stone, as well as of gold and silver. All that eat outwardly in ordinances of the bread of life, do not feed on the hidden manna. All that have their names enrolled in the churchs book may not yet have them written in the Lambs book. There are yet. better things than gifts, profession, participation of ordinances, and whatever is of the like nature. And the use hereof, in one word, is to warn all sorts of persons that they rest not in, that they take not up with an interest in or participation of, the privileges of the church, with a common profession, which may give them a name to live; seeing they may be dead or in a perishing condition in the meantime.
Obs. 6. There are, according to the tenor of the covenant of grace, such things bestowed on some persons as salvation doth infallibly accompany and ensue upon; better things, and such as have salvation accompanying of them. This assertion is founded on the nature of the covenant of grace. In the first covenant it was not so. The best things bestowed by virtue of it might perish, and did so. Many excellent things were bestowed on us when we were created in the image of God: but they were all such things as we might lose, and did lose; and thereby came short of that glory of God which we were created for. But in the covenant of grace there is such a disposal and concatenation of spiritual things, that a real participation of some of them doth infallibly conclude unto an indefeasible interest in them all. This doth the apostle assure us in an express enumeration of them, Rom 8:29-30. For instance, there is a saving faith of this nature. For,
(1.) It is an effect of Gods immutable purpose of election. If that, therefore, cannot be changed, this cannot utterly fail and be lost. Whom he did predestinate, them he also calleth; that is, to saving faith by Jesus Christ. Faith is of Gods elect; and they only believe truly who are ordained to eternal life.
(2.) The Lord Christ intercedeth that this faith may never fail, or be utterly lost, Joh 17:9; Joh 17:11; Joh 17:15, etc.
(3.) The power of God is engaged in the preservation of it, 2Pe 1:3;1Pe 1:5; Eph 1:19-20.
(4.) The promises of the covenant are expressly multiplied unto this purpose, Jer 31:31-34; Jer 32:38-40. And the like may be said of all other saving graces. And on this ground doth the apostle call those better things that these Hebrews were made partakers of, being such as accompany salvation.
Obs. 7. It is the duty of all professors strictly to examine themselves concerning their participation of those better things which accompany salvation. Their condition is deplorable, who, under an outward profession, do satisfy themselves with those common gifts, graces, and duties, which are separable from salvation. Yet that it is so with many in the world, who thereon cry, Peace, peace, whilst sudden destruction is coming upon them, is openly manifest. See the advice of the apostle express to this purpose, 2Co 13:5.
We may yet further observe how variously the apostle treats these Hebrews. Sometimes he styles them holy brethren, affirming them to be partakers of the heavenly calling; so also, that they had those better things in them which accompany salvation. Sometimes he tells them that they were dull and slothful, and had need to be taught again what are the principles of the oracles of God; and sets before them the final destruction of apostates, to ingenerate a fear and apprehension of the terror of the Lord in them. Now this variety in the apostles treating of them proceeds not from present commotions, nor from any rhetorical artifice, but from a regular and steady judgment concerning the condition of the whole church. For,
(1.) There were, indeed, several sorts of professors among them, answering the several descriptions he gives of them. He spake, therefore, to the whole community indefinitely, leaving the especial application of what he speaks unto themselves in particular, according as their different conditions did require. And this is the only safe and prudent way for ministers to deal with their flocks. For when any conceive themselves by other circumstances to be singled out for reproof and threatening, they commonly draw forth disadvantage to themselves thereby.
(2.) The best of the hearers of the gospel may have much to be blamed in them, although their sincerity in general ought to be highly approved.
(3.) Severe threatenings in the dispensation of the gospel are usually proposed unto them who yet are not absolutely liable to the penalty threatened. They do not predict what will come to pass, but warn what is to be avoided.
Fuente: An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews
The Hope Set before Us
Heb 6:9-20
The keynote of this passage is patient continuance. We should seek not only faith but its accompaniments. It is not enough to manifest faith, hope and love, but to continue to do so unto the end. Notice that the two conditions on which the promises are inherited are faith and patience.
These truths are enforced by the example of Abraham. He believed God and patiently endured. Your prayers cannot be lost, as ships at sea; they will make harbor at last, laden with golden freight. Gods promise and oath are a double door, behind which they who have fled for refuge are safe-a double window beyond which all noise dies down. The allusion is either to the cities of refuge, or to a ship safely riding out the storm. Hope is sure, because the anchor has fastened in a sure ground; steadfast, because its cable will not snap in the strain; and entering, etc., because it unites us to the unseen. Jesus has taken our anchor into the inner harbor, and has dropped it down into the clear, still water there.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
salvation
(See Scofield “Rom 1:16”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
beloved: Heb 6:4-6, Heb 6:10, Heb 10:34, Heb 10:39, Phi 1:6, Phi 1:7, 1Th 1:3, 1Th 1:4
things: Heb 2:3, Heb 5:9, Isa 57:15, Mat 5:3-12, Mar 16:16, Act 11:18, Act 20:21, 2Co 7:10, Gal 5:6, Gal 5:22, Gal 5:23, Tit 2:11-14
Reciprocal: Rom 15:14 – I 2Ti 1:5 – I am
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THINGS THAT ACCOMPANY SALVATION
Things that accompany salvation.
Heb 6:9
It would seem that the things mentioned before were not necessarily marks of salvation. There was no love or faith. Out of the many biographies in the Bible, there is not one of an individual who was certainly once a child of God, and who afterwards fell away, and was as certainly lost. Sometimes a shoal or sandbank lies near the entrance to a port. So a lighthouse is created on or near the spot to warn the mariner of his danger. Hebrews 6, 10 are like two lighthouses near the entrance of the harbour of eternal safety. Their language is Beware: there are gifts without grace; there is a form without the power: it is possible to have a name to live and yet to be dead.
I will mention three things which accompany salvation.
I. A sense of need.Esau was a man of the world (Heb 12:16): his character was essentially worldly. He had no sense of any need of spiritual things. Though Jacob liked the good things of this world, like the rest of us, he knew there were better things still, and he set his heart on them, and even dreamed of them. Jacob knew his need of spiritual blessings, and that is always a thing which accompanies salvation.
II. A simple trust in Christ.Faith invariably accompanies salvation.
III. A Christ-like life.Let your light so shine. To repent and turn to God is right, but there are also works meet for repentance (Act 26:20). The imitation of Christ is sure to be poor and feeble and imperfect, marred and stained with sin, yet the great point is that it should be sincere.
Rev. F. Harper.
Illustration
Remember the story of the drummer-boy in one of the English regiments, who was captured by the French in one of the Napoleonic wars. They brought him before the general, and the general made him go through his various drum exercises. Beat the charge, said the general, and the boy banged his drum with great enthusiasm. Call a halt, said the general, and again the drummer-boy obeyed. Sound a retreat, said the general, but the boy laid his sticks across his drum and said, In the British army we never learn to beat a retreat.
(SECOND OUTLINE)
SALVATION AND FELLOWSHIP
It is quite right to be interested in a salvation that is central; that is essential, but salvation is not solitude. Salvation represents a great sociality. Salvation is the heart of a noble fellowship.
Amongst the things that accompany salvation, we find:
I. Purity of character.But does purity of character mean perfection? It does not. There is no perfect man. This cold space, this cage of time, could not hold him. Perfect man can only bloom in heaven, where the climate is pure and where the day has no night. By purity of character let us mean a real, honest motive, a just and noble desire, a wish to be, not in heaven, but heavenly in mind, thought, life, speech.
II. Unselfishness of service.The service that does never look at itself in the Church mirror; the service that never dresses itself to go out into public service; the service that is crowned with self-unconsciousness; the service that does good things by stealth and blushes to find them fame; the service that does things as a monarch does them, not knowing that they are being done without any sense of taxation, and sacrifice, and painfulness. There is a doing that would rather do than not do. There is an action that must take place because the not doing it would be not only unreasonable but intolerable. Love must serve.
III. Evangelistic zeal.What is the meaning of evangelistic? It means that some soul has a truth, a gospel, which he says he must go and tell everybody all over the world. That is the meaning of evangelistic. The truth burns him until he tells it. The gospel that fills his soul is the gospel for every creature.
Illustration
Many men are saved who do not know it. I have known so-called bad men whose disposition I have coveted. I have known them more largely than they have known themselves, though their breath is burned with unholy suggestion. I have known that their souls have been fruitful in noble and kindly thoughts. Let God say who is saved. Lord, are there few that be saved? No answer. Christ takes the statistics, but He does not publish them. He says in reply rather than in answer, Strive to enter in at the strait gate.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Heb 6:9. Paul expected his readers to understand the general lesson in the parable, but he does not mean for them to make a personal application of it as yet. Hence he makes the kindly remark that he is counting on a better showing from them than was indicated by the thorny ground. However, we are sure the apostle intended the illustration as an exhortation for them to be thoughtful and not fail at last. It is similar to the warning given in chapter 3:12 and 4:1.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Heb 6:9-10. After these solemn warnings comes the outburst of hope and love.
But, beloved (only here in this Epistle), we are persuaded (not the middle voice as often, we have the inward confidence, but the passive,we are led to the conviction,we are persuaded by evidence which Justifies the conclusion, the evidence being given in the next verse. The whole expression, as Alford and Delitzsch note, resembles Rom 15:14).
Better things (either in your moral state or in your final destiny; both are really combined), and things that accompany salvation (rather, things that lay hold of,that are in immediate connection with,so that he who has the one has the other); though (notwithstanding that) we thus speak (talk, not now only, but again and again). The better things, and things connected with salvation, are the holy dispositions they possessed (not the external privileges and spiritual gifts only), together with the final issues of that holy disposition in continued stedfastness and eternal life. They had received the knowledge of the truth in the love of it (the exactest definition that can be given of true and saving faith), and being rooted and grounded in love, he hoped they would persevere and be preserved (the two sides of perseverance) in believing even till the completion of their salvation.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Observe here, 1. The holy widom of our apostle, in mollifying the severity of the foregoing commination and prediction; and the good hope, and firm persuasion he had of the Hebrews’ perseverance in grace unto salvation, notwithstanding all the cautions and warnings he gave them of apostasy and apostates: I am persuaded better things of you, though I thus speak. We may represent the ugly and filthy face of sin to our best friends, to the end that they may hate it, and, as occasion requires, publicity testify that confidence to themselves; We are persuaded better things of you.
Observe, 2. The ground of this confidence declared, and that is two fold:
1. The graces of God’s Spirit found operative to them; their faith in Christ, and love to all his members; it was a working faith, and laborious love that was found with them, they have administered to the saints, and do minister. Behold the nature of Christian love, it is an immortal fire, ever burning, never dying.
2. Another ground of this persuasion, was the knowledge of God’s faithfulness in remembering and rewarding this their labour of love: God is not unrighteous to forget your work, and labour of love; that is, God is righteous, and will certainly remember and reward your faith, your charity, and good works; for he has promised so to do, and he is faithful that has promised.
Learn hence, 1. That faith, if it be a living faith, will be a working faith. Obedience is the fruit of faith, and we ought to look on obedience as our work.
Learn, 2. That it is the will and pleasure of God, that many of the saints and servants in this world be in such a condition, wherein they stand in need of being ministered unto.
Learn, 3. That the best evidence we can have of the sincerity of our love, is its readiness to minister to the saints in all distresses.
Learn, 4. That both the labour of our sufferings, and the labour of our services shall be remembered, and rewarded by a righteous God: God is not unrighteous to forget your work, and labour of love, in that ye have ministerd to the saints, and do minister.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
A Better Expectation
The writer desired, or had a deep longing (compare Luk 22:15 ), that they would continue in those good works until the end of life. This would have given them the assurance of their hope, being eternal life. They faced the ever present danger of giving up before achieving their purpose. He further hoped that they would not become lazy in their work. He wanted them to continue faithfully and patiently until the end where they had hope of a promise. This they were to do as others, such as Abraham, had done before them. Fudge says that the word here rendered “sluggish” is the same one translated “dull” in 5:11 ( Heb 6:11-12 ).
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Heb 6:9-11. But, beloved In this one place he calls them so. He never uses this appellation but in exhorting; we are persuaded better things of you Than those intimated verges 4-6. This is exactly in St. Pauls manner of softening the harsh things he found himself obliged to write. See Eph 4:20; 2Th 2:13. And things that accompany salvation Which argue you to be in a state of salvation, and will in the end, if you persevere, bring you to eternal salvation; namely, sincere faith in Christ and his gospel, love to God and one another, and obedience to his will; though we thus speak Declare the danger of apostacy to warn you, lest you should fall from your present steadfastness. For God is not unrighteous to forget, &c. You give plain proof of your faith and love, which the righteous God will surely reward; and, or rather, but, we desire that every one of you do continue to show the same diligence Which you have used hitherto; and therefore we thus speak; to the full assurance of hope That you may be fully confirmed in your hope of eternal felicity; unto the end As long as you live; which you cannot expect if you abate of your diligence. The full assurance of faith relates to present pardon, the full assurance of hope to future glory. The former is the highest degree of divine evidence that God is reconciled to us in the Son of his love: the latter is the same degree of divine evidence (wrought in the soul by the same immediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost) of persevering grace, and of eternal glory. So much, and no more, as faith every moment beholds with open face, so much does hope see, to all eternity. But this assurance of faith and hope is not an opinion, not a bare construction of Scripture, but is given immediately by the power of the Holy Ghost; and what none can have for another, but for himself only. Wesley.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Heb 6:9-12. The writer is afraid that in pointing out the danger of apostasy he may have spoken too harshly. He assures his readers that, by their past fidelity and their kindness to brethren in need, they have proved the genuineness of their religion. Only they must persevere as they began, holding fast to their hope until it reaches fulfilment. It was by this constancy, maintained all their life long, that Gods servants in the past won the reward that He had promised.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Verse 9
That accompany salvation; that lead to and attend salvation.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
6:9 {4} But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.
(4) He moderates and calms all that sharpness, expecting better things of those to whom he writes.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
4. The encouraging prospect 6:9-12
Even though the danger his readers faced was great, the writer believed they could avoid it. Consequently he concluded this warning, as he did the ones in Heb 2:1-4 and Heb 3:1 to Heb 4:16, with a word of hope to encourage his audience.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The "better things" in view reflect the writer’s confidence that his readers would not turn away from the truth. He based his confidence on their realizing the dreadful consequences of apostasy that he had just explained and avoiding it. "Salvation" refers to the full salvation ahead of them, about which he had been speaking throughout this epistle (cf. Heb 1:14).
"The things to which he refers are defined in the following verses (Heb 6:10-12): work and love, diligence to the end, and faith and patience. Salvation is the victorious participation with Christ in the coming kingdom as it is in Heb 1:14, which only those who persevere as companions of the King will inherit. The writer obviously expects that his readers will persevere to the end, enter into rest, and obtain these blessings." [Note: Dillow, p. 132.]
This is the only place in the epistle where the writer referred to his readers as "beloved" (dear friends). This affectionate address softens the severity of the warning just given (Heb 6:4-8). Heb 6:9-12 provide strong evidence, I believe, that genuine Christians are in view throughout this warning passage.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
CHAPTER VI.
THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF FAILURE.
“But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak: for God is not unrighteous to forget your work and the love which ye showed toward His name, in that ye ministered unto the saints, and still do minister. And we desire that each one of you may show the same diligence unto the fulness of hope even to the end: that ye be not sluggish, but imitators of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. For when God made promise to Abraham, since He could swear by none greater, He sware by Himself, saying,
Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.
And thus, having patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men swear by the greater: and in every dispute of theirs the oath is final for confirmation. Wherein God, being minded to show more abundantly unto the heirs of the promise the immutability of His counsel, interposed with an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us; which we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and entering into that which is within the veil; whither as a Forerunner Jesus entered for us, having become a High-priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.”– Heb 6:9-20 (R.V.).
Solemn warning is followed by words of affectionate encouragement. Impossibility of renewal is not the only impossibility within the compass of the Gospel.[106] Over against the descent to perdition, hope of the better things grasps salvation with the one hand and the climbing pilgrim with the other, and makes his failure to reach the summit impossible. Both impossibilities have their source in God’s justice. He is not unjust to forget the deed of love shown towards His name, when the only-begotten Son ministered to men and still ministers. Contempt of this love God will punish. Neither is He unjust to forget the love that ministered to His poor saints in days of persecution, when the Hebrew Christians became partakers with their fellow-believers in their reproaches and tribulations, showed pity towards their brethren in prisons, and took joyfully the spoiling of their goods.[107] The stream of brotherly kindness was still flowing. This love God rewards. But the Apostle desires them to show, not only faithfulness in ministering to the saints, but also Christian earnestness generally,[108] until they attain the full assurance of hope. The older expositors understand the words to express the Apostle’s wish that his readers should continue to minister to the saints. But Calvin’s view has, especially since the time of Bengel, been generally accepted: that the Apostle urges his readers to be as diligent in seeking the full assurance of hope as they are in ministering to the poor. This is most probably the meaning, but with the addition that he speaks of “earnestness” generally, not merely of active diligence. Their religion was too narrow in range. Care for the poor has sometimes been the piety of sluggish despondency and bigotry. But spiritual earnestness is the moral discipline that works hope, a hope that makes not ashamed, but leads men on to an assured confidence that the promise of God will be fulfilled, though now black clouds overspread their sky.
An incentive to faith and endurance will be found in the example of all inheritors of God’s promise.[109] The Apostle is on the verge of anticipating the splendid record of the eleventh chapter. But he arrests himself, partly because, at the present stage of his argument, he can speak of faith only as the deep fountain of endurance. He cannot now describe it as the realisation and the proof of things unseen.[110] He wishes, moreover, to dwell on the oath made by God to Abraham. Even this, if not an anticipation of what is still to come, is at least a preparation of the reader for the distinction hereafter effectively handled between the high-priest made without an oath and the High-priest made with an oath. But, in the present section, the emphatic notion is that the promise made to Abraham is the same promise which the Apostle and his brethren wait to see fulfilled, and that the confirmation of the promise by oath to Abraham is still in force for their strong encouragement. It is true that Abraham received the fulfilment of the promise in his lifetime, but only in a lower form. The promise, like the Sabbath rest, has become more and still more elevated, profound, spiritual, with the long delay of God to make it good. It is equally true that the saints under the Old Testament received not the fulfilment of the promise in its highest meaning, and were not perfected apart from believers of after-ages,[111] God’s words never grow obsolete. They are never left behind by the Church. If they seem to pass away, they return laden with still choicer fruit. The coursing moon in the high heavens is never outstripped by the belated traveller. The hope of the Gospel is ever set before us. God swears to Abraham in the spring-time of the world that we, on whom the ends of the ages have come, may have a strong incentive to press onwards.
But, if the oath of God to Abraham is to inspire us with new courage, we must resemble Abraham in the eager earnestness and calm endurance of his faith. The passage has often been treated as if the oath had been intended to meet the weakness of faith. But unbelief is logician enough to argue that God’s word is as good as His bond; yea, that we have no knowledge of His oath except from His word. The Apostle refers to the greatest instance of faith ever shown even by Abraham, when he withheld not his son, his beloved son, on Moriah. The oath was made to him by God, not before he gave up Isaac, in order to encourage his weakness, but when he had done it, as a reward of his strength. Philo’s fine sentence, which indeed the sacred writer partly borrows, is intended to teach the same lesson: that, while disappointments are heaped on sense, an endless abundance of good things has been given to the earnest soul and the perfect man.[112] It is to Abraham when he has achieved his supreme victory of faith that God vouchsafes to make oath that He will fulfil His promise. This gives us the clue to the purport of the words. Up to this final test of Abraham’s faith God’s promise is, so to speak, conditional. It will be fulfilled if Abraham will believe. Now at length the promise is given unconditionally. Abraham has gone triumphantly through every trial. He has not withheld his son. So great is his faith that God can now confirm His promise with a positive declaration, which transforms a promise made to a man into a prediction that binds Himself. Or shall we retract the expression that the promise is now given unconditionally? The condition is transferred from the faith of Abraham to the faithfulness of God. In this lies the oath. God pledges His own existence on the fulfilment of His promise. He says no longer, “If thou canst believe,” but “As true as I live.” Speaking humanly, unbelief on the part of Abraham would have made the promise of God of none effect; for it was conditional on Abraham’s faith. But the oath has raised the promise above being affected by the unbelief of some, and itself includes the faith of some. St. Paul can now ask, “What if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith” (no longer merely the promise) “of God without effect?”[113] Our author also can speak of two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie. The one is the promise, the immutability of which means only that God, on His part, does not retract, but casts on men the blame if the promise is not fulfilled. The other is the oath, in which God takes the matter into His own hands and puts the certainty of His fulfilling the promise to rest on His own eternal being.
The Apostle is careful to point out the wide and essential difference between the oath of God and the oaths of men. “For men swear by the greater;” that is, they call upon God, as the Almighty, to destroy them if they are uttering what is false. They imprecate a curse upon themselves. If they have sworn to a falsehood, and if the imprecation falls on their heads, they perish, and the matter ends. And yet an oath decides all disputes between man and man.[114] Though they appeal to an Omnipotence that often turns a deaf ear to their prayer against themselves; though, if the Almighty were to fling retribution on them, the wheels of nature would whirl as merrily as before; though, if their false swearing were to cause the heavens to fall, the men would still exist and continue to be men;–yet, for all this, they accept an oath as final settlement. They are compelled to come to terms; for they are at their wits’ end. But it is very different with the oath of God. When He swears by Himself, He appeals, not to His omnipotence, but to His truthfulness. If any jot or tittle of God’s promise fails to the feeblest child that trusts Him, God ceases to be. He has been annihilated, not by an act of power, but by a lie.
We have said that the oath met, not the weakness, but the strength, of Abraham’s faith. If so, why was it given him?
First, it simplified his faith. It removed all tendency to morbid introspection and filled his spirit with a peaceful reliance on God’s faithfulness. He had no more need to try himself whether he was in the faith. Anxious effort and painful struggle were over. Faith was now the very life of his soul. He could leave his concerns to God, and wait. This is the thought expressed in the word “enduring.”
Second, it was a new revelation of God to him, and thus elevated his spiritual nature. The moral character of the Most High, rather than His natural attribute of omnipotence, became the resting-place of his spirit. Even the joy of God’s heart was made known and communicated to his. God was pleased with Abraham’s final victory over unbelief, and wished to show him more abundantly[115] His counsel and the immutability of it. “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.”[116]
Third, it was intended also for our encouragement. It is strange, but true, that the promises of God are confirmed to us by the victorious faith of a nomad chief from Ur of the Chaldees, who, in the morning of the world’s history, withheld not his son. After all, we are not disconnected units. God only can trace the countless threads of influence. Abraham’s strong faith evoked the oath that now sustains the weakness of ours. Because he believed so well, the promise comes to us with all the sanction of God’s own truth and unchangeableness. The oath made to Abraham was linked with a still more ancient, even an eternal, oath, made to the Son, constituting Him Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. The priesthood of Melchizedek is said by the Apostle to be a type of the priesthood founded on an oath. It was becoming that the man who acknowledged the priesthood of Melchizedek and received its blessing should have that blessing fulfilled to him in the confirmation by oath of God’s promise. Thus the promises that have been fulfilled through the eternal priesthood of the true Melchizedek are confirmed to us by an oath made to him who acknowledged that priesthood in the typical Melchizedek.
Yet, notwithstanding these vital points of contact, Abraham and the Hebrew Christians are in some respects very unlike. They have left his serene and contemplative life far behind. The souls of men are stirred with dread of the threatened end of all things. Abraham had no need to flee for refuge from an impending wrath. His religion even was not a fleeing from any wrath to come, but a yearning for a better fatherland. He never heard the midnight cry of Maranatha, but longed to be gathered to his fathers. If any similitude to the Christian’s fleeing from the wrath to come must be sought in ancient days, it will be found in the history of Lot, not of Abraham. Whether the Apostle’s thoughts rested for a moment on Lot’s flight from Sodom, it is impossible to say. His mind is moving so rapidly that one illustration after another flits before his eye. The notion of Abraham’s strong faith, reaching out a hand to the strong grasp of God’s oath, reminds him of men fleeing for refuge, perhaps into a sanctuary, and laying hold of the horns of the altar, with a reminiscence of the Baptist’s taunting question, “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” and a side glance at the approaching destruction of the holy city, if indeed the catastrophe had not already befallen the doomed people. The thought suggests another illustration. Our hope is an anchor cast into the deep sea. The anchor is sure and steadfast–“sure,” for, like Abraham’s faith, it will neither break nor bend; “steadfast,” for, like Abraham’s faith again, it bites the eternal rock of the oath. Still another metaphor lends itself. The deep sea is above all heavens in the sanctuary within the veil, and the rock is Jesus, Who has entered into the holiest place as our High-priest. Yet another thought. Jesus is not only High-priest, but also Captain, of the redeemed host, leading us on, and opening the way for us to enter after Him into the sanctuary of the promised land.
Thus, with the help of metaphor heaped on metaphor in the fearless confusion delightful to conscious strength and gladness, the Apostle has at last come to the great conception of Christ in the sanctuary of heaven. He has hesitated long to plunge into the wave; and even now he will not at once lift the veil from the argument. The allegory of Melchizedek must prepare us for it.
FOOTNOTES:
[106] Compare Heb 6:4 and Heb 6:18.
[107] Heb 10:34.
[108] spoudn (Heb 6:11).
[109] Heb 6:13.
[110] Heb 11:1.
[111] Heb 11:40.
[112] SS. Legg. Alleg., 3:, p. 98 (vol. 1:, p. 127. Mang.). With Philo’s t spoudaia psych compare the Apostle’s spoudn (Heb 5:11).
[113] Rom 3:3.
[114] Heb 6:16.
[115] perissoteron.
[116] Psalms 24:14.