HEBREWS: “A Greater Endurance (Hebrews 12:1-17)" | 12/3/23
Hebrews 12:1-17 | 12/3/23 | Will DuVal
I’ve never been much of an endurance athlete, but when I was in 6th grade, and Kylie Keller was in 8th grade, she decided to run cross country. And when the hottest girl in middle school joins a co-ed, non-cut sport open to anyone, you join the team. I didn’t last long. But in my short career, I did learn a few lessons about running. For instance, I learned the hard way one race how important it is to have everything set in order when the race starts. Cross country isn’t like basketball or football, where you get breaks between plays to tie your shoes. I also learned not to stare at the ground right in front of me as I ran; you’re supposed to fix your eyes on a point off in the distance. My friends and I decided that point would be Kylie Keller’s backside. But you know, it DID keep us pushing forward, even when we got tired. I learned the importance of PACING yourself. One of my friends, Stephen Cole, thought he would try out a different strategy for one of the races: he decided to SPRINT ahead of the pack when the gun went off, stop and catch his breath, then sprint again; Stop, Sprint, Stop, Sprint… I think he finished dead LAST that race. Lastly, I learned how HARD endurance running is, yet how much EASIER it is when you’re running WITH others, who can PUSH you to keep going.
Throughout our study of Hebrews, we’ve seen the book’s anonymous author sort of allude to this metaphor of the Christian life being like a MARATHON, but this morning in ch12 he makes the comparison EXPLICIT, when he calls us to “run with endurance the race that is set before us” (12:1).
How do we DO that? How do we, as the apostle PAUL puts it “press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us” (Phil 3:14; NLT)?
Ch12 will answer that by offering us 15 tips for running with endurance in just the first 17 verses here; see if you can identify them as we work our way through.
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Would you stand with me… read it together… Hebrews ch12… the word of the Lord:
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.
6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”
7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. 14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.”
[This is the word of God… SEATED…]
#1 - His first tip for running our spiritual marathon - Embrace Encouragement (1a). ch12 opens with the word “THEREFORE”, which points us back to ch11, the “Hall of Faith”. “Consequently”, “as a RESULT of” all these great examples of faith from the OT… WHAT? “Let US now run the race set before US”. What motivates our running? v1: “...since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses”.
This is SUCH a profound truth! BTW- a while back I recorded an episode for our “Ask the Pastor” podcast (quick shout out!), someone had asked, “Can our Loved Ones See us from Heaven?”; maybe Pastor Brian can repost that in the West Hills Facebook group for those interested - but short answer is: we really don’t know for sure, biblically. But what we DO know, according to Hebrews 12:1, is that in SOME sense, the great HEROES of the faith are “witnesses” - they are “watching on” as we now run OUR race - they are “SURROUNDING” us; the imagery is that they’re like a great cheering CROWD in the STANDS, except they are described here as a “CLOUD”. Remember the old Zoloft ads, where the sad blob had a dark cloud following him around everywhere he went? We believers, if we had the spiritual eyes to SEE it, would realize we have the exact opposite - a BRIGHT cloud, a CHEERING crowd, following us everywhere that WE go.
And God wants us to draw SUCH encouragement from it, Church. Think about that, the next time you encounter hardship. When you walk out in the parking lot today and discover you’ve got a flat tire… when you wake up SICK tomorrow morning (I wrote that line Friday night, and kid you not, got woken up at 3:00 in the morning Saturday by Ellery puking) - I challenge you (I challenge MYSELF!), instead of going straight to GRUMBLING, let’s listen for their cheers - Abraham, Isaac, Jacob… all shouting, encouraging us, “You got this! Keep it up! Push even HARDER on the uphills! Consider it pure JOY when you meet trials… Rejoice in your sufferings, cuz suffering produces endurance”! (Jam 1:2; Rom 5:3)
And Church - let’s encourage ONE ANOTHER as well - you don’t HAVE to die and go on to Glory to join someone’s “cloud of witnesses”. As pastor, I get the joy of being a front row spectator, week in and week out, for 242 races of faith (actually MORE than that; that’s just our church members). And I can’t even TELL you how much ENCOURAGEMENT it brings me, personally, to watch the way so many of y’all RUN, so faithfully. But you don’t HAVE to be a pastor, to give and receive that kind of encouragement. This is the beauty of God’s design for His CHURCH: no one EVER has to run alone. Praise God for the CLOUD, that follows us, through life’s ups and downs.
#2- Discard Distractions (1b)
v1 says, “...let us also lay aside every weight”. I mentioned the race I started without realizing my SHOE was untied; imagine if instead I hadn’t realized that I actually had ANKLE weights strapped on. To a certain extent, that’s how ALL of us begin the race of faith, though, isn’t it? That’s why it makes no sense when people say things like, “I’ll clean my life up, and THEN I’ll come back to church… get right with God.” WHAT!? That’s the very REASON you come TO church, that’s WHY you start a relationship with God – in ORDER to clean your life up! That’s like saying, “I really need to drop 25 pounds, and THEN I’ll start running” - you RUN to lose the WEIGHT! That’s kinda the POINT!
But for those of us who HAVE by grace, embarked on this race of FAITH, we CAN look BACK now and recognize all the dead WEIGHT we started with: God finally brought me to a place of conviction, right around the time I came to faith, about how much time - HOURS! - I was spending watching college football - during rivalry week, conference championships week, these past 2 Saturdays, in years past I would’ve spent ALL DAY LONG glued to the TV.
I’ve had guys tell me they were too busy to lead a life group, and then LATER I discovered how many hours a week they spent in the basement playing video games. I’ve had gals come to me for pastoral counseling, struggling with anxiety, self-esteem… and then I see their social media feed and realize how much TIME they are clearly spending online.
Excessive gaming, social media, sports & entertainment consumption are they SINS? Maybe. But at the very least, they are “DISTRACTIONS”, aren’t they? They’re ANKLE WEIGHTS in your race of faith. And there are dozens, maybe HUNDREDS of others that we need to identify and cast aside, in our lives. What if you consciously asked yourself - PRAYED, and asked the LORD to reveal - with every activity, every relationship, every decision, every purchase: “Will this SLOW ME DOWN, in my race toward Jesus? or Will it help propel me forward?
In the case of SIN, the answer is CLEAR, friends: we must #3 - Slay our Sin (1c)
We must “lay aside… every SIN which clings so closely”.
Since I still have 12 tips left to cover, and y’all KNOW I could spend the rest of the morning talking about SIN! We don’t shy away from it here at West Hills. I could rehash all the “vice lists” in the New Testament… I could give you statistic after statistic about the prevalence and the pervasiveness of sin not just in the wider culture, but in our CHURCH culture today - divorce, pornography, racism, on and on and on - arguably just as bad in the CHURCH as the surrounding culture.
But listen: I’m gonna trust that MOST of us GET it. That most of us here are probably PLENTY aware of our own sin, and you don’t need an extra 30 min. of me piling on the conviction of sin.
So I’ll just simply exhort us here - you and me BOTH - to KILL it; let’s SLAY our sin, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 8:13 “if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death [you KILL] the deeds of the flesh, you will live.”
Colossians 3: “Put to death what is [worldly] in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in [sin]. But now you must put them all AWAY… you have put OFF the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator,” CHRIST (5-10).
Christian: Jesus has set you FREE from slavery to sin; don’t go on living like a SLAVE for one more DAY! “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, [in the SPIRIT] and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” (Gal 5:1)
Running tip #4 - Pace for Perseverance (1d)
“...let us run the race with endurance”. Don’t be like Stephen Cole! The life of faith is a MARATHON, not a SPRINT. And it’s not about how you START, but how you FINISH that counts.
Jesus told a story about a sower scattering seed. And some of the seed “fell on rocky ground, where it didn’t have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, but since it had no depth of soil, 6 when the sun rose [the plants] were scorched; since they had no root, they withered away.” (Matt 13:5-6)
We all know folks like this, don’t we? The gun goes off, and they SPRINT ahead of the pack. Such a strong, promising START in their race of faith. But without depth of SOIL - it takes TIME to develop the kind of ROOT SYSTEM needed to endure through the trials of life, the scorching sun. Again, faith is a spiritual MUSCLE that has to be BUILT. So they’re sprinting and the minute they start to cramp, they stop running. Maybe see if they can walk it off. The pack catches up, so they try jogging again. Cramp comes back; so they turn around and just walk home. Cuz they were never in it for the LONG HAUL.
How do we increase our spiritual ENDURANCE? 3 ways, biblically:
1) Through SUFFERING - Romans 5:3, “we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance”
2) Through SCRIPTURE - Romans 15:4, “whatever was written in [OLD Testament] was written for our instruction, that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” God’s word encourages us to ENDURE in the race.
Colossians 1: “may [you] be filled with the knowledge of [God’s] will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk [or jog 🙂] in a manner worthy of the Lord… increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power… for all endurance” (9-11); The “knowledge of God”, “spiritual wisdom and understanding” - these things come ONLY from knowing, internalizing, God’s WORD.
And Third- We increase our endurance Through the SPIRIT - Isaiah 40:31 “The LORD… does NOT faint or grow weary…
He gives power to the faint…
Even youths shall faint and be weary… fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.”
Accept Suffering, Absorb Scripture, and Ask for the SPIRIT. And you will endure.
One more quick but important note on tip #4 - it’s possible to OVER-pace in the race of faith. But personally I’ve witnessed FAR more runners who fail to persevere due to UNDER-pacing. A marathon - let’s call it an ULTRA marathon, 100 miles - that’s a LONG race! You can’t sprint it. But you can’t WALK it, either. You get too BORED, tired, hungry, distracted. If you’ve got a nice JOG going, with your eye on the horizon, you may not even NOTICE the McDonald’s halfway through the race, tempting you off onto a SIDE street. But when you’re WALKING, you see those golden arches a mile away, don’t you? That’s why Christians have midlife crises: cuz they’re BORED. And they get bored cuz they’re WALKING. You know what’s NOT boring: WAR! The Bible calls us SOLDIERS and it says we’re locked in a spiritual WAR. If God gave us the spiritual eyes to see the devil’s GRENADES exploding all around us… if He gave us the eyes to see our lost loved ones the way HE sees them - as spiritually DEAD; if we saw people we LOVE getting BLOWN UP all around us, spiritually speaking - I think it might motivate us to pick up the pace.
Don’t sprint. Don’t walk. Pace for perseverance.
#5 - We Fixate on Faith’s Founder & Finisher (2a)
Eyes on the horizon. Not on the McDonald’s tempting us; not on the ground right in front of us, discouraging us (cuz it just keeps coming, doesn’t it? Step after step after step… seems like we’re making no progress, if you only look at the SHORT term). We don’t even fix our eyes on Kylie Keller, though to some extent, that can motivate us too. We notice fellow believers running alongside us, or just ahead of us, who help us pace for perseverance - we see them out of our PERIPHERAL, maybe we even admire the ATTRACTIVENESS of their stride, as motivation to stick with the pack. But more than ANYTHING else, our eyes should be FIXED… [WHERE?]
On CHRIST! V2: “looking to Jesus”. Why?
Because he is “the founder and perfecter of our faith” - Jesus DESIGNED the race. And he’s the only one who’s ever run it PERFECTLY. Who better, then, to FIXATE on? Who better to GO to, when your race gets TOUGH, than the one who not only knows every twist and turn along the way - “Oh yeah, that really steep hill at mile 73? Yeah, I included that to HUMBLE you; to make you more reliant on MY strength, in your weakness” - Jesus not only DESIGNED your unique course, but he also understands your pain. Remember what the author said back in ch4: “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (4:15); you don’t think JESUS was tempted to throw in the towel? When he reached HIS big hill - Mount MORIAH, GOLGOTHA - at the end of HIS race?
But friends: Jesus didn’t QUIT. He finished the race, perfectly. Offering us an example as we now run in his footsteps.
But Jesus is so much MORE than just an EXAMPLE to us; he is our SAVIOR! He ran the perfect race that we NEEDED to but FAILED to. God’s standard is PERFECTION. God is perfect, Heaven is perfect. If you wanna be “GOOD ENOUGH” you better be PERFECT. Anyone read “The Perfect Mile”? About the quest for what was once considered the “holy grail” of running - a 4 minute mile? Turns out it wasn’t perfect after all; Hicham El Guerrouj ran the mile in 3 min, 43 seconds back in 1999. If it can be improved upon, it ain’t perfect.
But friends, Jesus is the “PERFECTER of OUR faith”. That means he not only ran the perfect race - NO ONE is beating JESUS’ time! - but then on the CROSS, Jesus actually exchanged TIMES with US! He took the officials’ clipboard - God’s clipboard - and he just started ERASING our times - 4:36, 5:53, 39 hours and 22 minutes?! Did you even jog AT ALL?! How many McDonald’s did you STOP at?! Nevermind - Doesn’t matter! Cuz Jesus wrote YOUR time down beside HIS name, AND HIS time down beside YOURS. He made YOUR faith, YOUR race, PERFECT. Such that now - by no merit of your OWN; it was all JESUS - now you and I get to enjoy the perfect race’s REWARD.
#6 - We endure by Remembering the Reward (2b)
Like JESUS did. How was Jesus able to endure the HORROR of the cross? V2 tells us: it was “...for the joy that was set before him”. What joy?
Church: It was the joy of “bringing many sons and daughters to glory” (Heb 2:10); the joy of our ADOPTION! As God’s children!
Adoption is a HARD process. Finding peace and clarity in the decision to even pursue it. Opening your entire life up to scrutiny. Getting rejected by birth moms. Getting CONNED sometimes (we did!), with NO legal recourse. The WAITING, the STRESS (“Is she gonna back out, when she finally gets to HOLD this baby? Did we just drive all the way out to Utah to get our hearts broken AGAIN?!”), the COST - Let me tell you: writing the CHECK, for my SON, was PAINFUL. Jesus didn’t ENJOY the cross - he BEGGED for another way; he “DESPISED the shame”.
But friends: driving home from the hospital with our brand new baby BOY in the backseat; it was ALL WORTH it! And we KNEW it would be; that’s what kept us GOING when the process got TOUGH - envisioning that joyful drive home. Friends: that’s what kept JESUS going on the cross - he was looking PAST the cross, to the JOY of bringing you HOME with him, strapped into the backseat.
But that wasn’t the ONLY joy he awaited; Jesus also knew where he’d be SITTING once he GOT home - v2: “at the right hand of the throne of God.” The place of ALL glory and honor and praise. BECAUSE Jesus “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God highly exalted him” (Phil 2:8) with the name above ALL names; the seat above ALL seats, FROM which he now reigns in glory FOREVER.
Church: if Jesus is our ultimate example in the race of faith, we too must look AHEAD, PAST our present suffering, to our promised REWARD. We said it’s not how you START, but how you FINISH that counts. Why? Cuz THAT’s when they hand out the trophies - at the FINISH line.
The apostle Paul put it this way: “Don’t you know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So [then] run that you may obtain it.” (1 Cor 9:24) Paul actually encourages us here to get COMPETITIVE about our race of faith; God knows there are far WORSE things we get competitive over - who has the bigger house, that you’re just gonna leave behind anyway, instead of who’s gonna inherit the bigger MANSION in HEAVEN, the infinitely greater, ETERNAL reward. (And they’re NOT all the same size; 1 Cor 3:14; 2 Cor 5:10).
But the BIGGER point Paul is making here is that we ought to run with the FINISH LINE in mind! Cuz that’s when GOD hands out the trophies. We ought to live every single second of this life, in anticipation of the first FIVE seconds of the AFTER-life; will you get to hear Him say: “‘Well done, good and faithful servant… Enter into the joy of your Master.’” (Matt 25:23) Don’t you wanna HEAR those words, from your heavenly Father? Won’t those 5 seconds with HIM make a LIFETIME of pain and earthly disappointment all WORTH it?!
Remember your reward.
And #7 - Consider Christ (3-4)
He already told us to “LOOK to Jesus”. Now he adds: don’t just LOOK at him; RUMINATE on him - analogizomai means to “consider fully; ponder DEEPLY”.
We ought to contemplate, meditate, FIXATE on Christ. “Who endured from sinners such hostility against himself [don’t forget: Jesus was HOLY; he deserved NO hostility. ESPECIALLY not from SINNERS. But you and me - we WERE sinners. And IN our sin, we deserved every bit of the suffering that we had COMING for us in this life, AND in the life to come - the eternal suffering from which Jesus has now SAVED us. So if HE endured all THAT, for our sake, we need to CONSIDER him] so that [WE] may not [now] grow weary or fainthearted”.
Considering Jesus puts OUR race in perspective, doesn’t it? He was FULLY man, like US. And yet look at all he ENDURED, FOR us! How could we now walk away from OUR race?
v4: “In your struggle… you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” Anyone here literally been BLOODIED for Christ?
Okay, then we need to keep OUR struggles in perspective.
Jesus endured MORE - infinitely MORE - for US. Therefore we can… we must… we WILL press on, in Jesus’ name.
And along the way, he actually invites us, #8, to Delight in your Dad’s Discipline (5-11).
We won’t reread the whole passage. But I see 3 points of emphasis here:
First, our SONSHIP. Our aforementioned ADOPTION, as God’s children.
NINE TIMES here, in just 5 verses, he mentions either our sonship, or God’s fatherhood. God “addresses you as sons…“My son…””, he “chastises every son”, “God is treating you as sons.”
SECOND: what do good parents DO for their kids? They DISCIPLINE them! And THIRTEEN times he mentions DISCIPLINE, or some synonym: “do not regard lightly the Lord’s discipline… when you are reproved by him.”, “the Lord disciplines those he loves… chastises every son”. If he DIDN’T discipline you, he’d be treating you like BASTARDS (that’s how the KJV translates v8; SPICY!)
“Discipline” can really have TWO connotations: it can simply mean “to TRAIN”, but it can ALSO mean “to PUNISH or CORRECT”. And it’s used in BOTH those ways here: v11 references being “TRAINED” by God’s discipline, but vv5 & 6 mention God “reproving” us, “CHASTISING” us (some translations even say he “SCOURGES” us; it’s the same verb in the Greek that was used of Jesus when he was WHIPPED before his crucifixion).
We don’t LIKE to think of our earthly suffering in that way, do we? And to be sure, not ALL suffering is God punishing us. Job was righteous, yet suffered, because God wanted to showcase his FAITH. Once the disciples came across a man born BLIND and asked Jesus, “Was that his PARENTS’ fault? They're SIN, that caused his blindness?” And Jesus answered, “No; it was just God’s excuse for me to prove my miracle-working POWER; watch THIS…
And yet, we ALSO know that sometimes suffering IS God’s way of disciplining the SIN out of us. Not “PUNISHMENT”, per se, since Jesus took ALL our punishment, bore ALL God’s wrath against sin for us once and for all, on the cross. Punishment is PUNITIVE; discipline is CORRECTIVE. V10 says, “he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.” God PRUNES the sin out of us.
So it IS a perfectly reasonable and BIBLICAL response for a suffering Christian to pray and ask the Lord: “God, I KNOW I’m still sinful. And I KNOW you want to RID me of that sin, and that you’ll use any means necessary to DO it, including suffering. Father: Is that what you are doing RIGHT NOW, in my present life circumstance? Am I guilty of some SIN here, that you want to EXPOSE and EXPUNGE? If so, then “Search me, O God, and know my heart!
…see if there be any grievous way in me,
[CLEANSE me!] And lead me in the way everlasting!”” (Ps 139:23-24)
THIRD- insofar as we TRAIN ourselves to respond to God’s discipline in that way, and learn and GROW from it, we can even come, in time, to be GRATEFUL for it, dare I say, “DELIGHT” in it. For TWO reasons:
First, it reminds us that God LOVES us. If a dad can sit there and listen to his son talk back to Mom, but cannot be bothered to pause the game long enough to stand up and actually DO something about it, teach the son a LESSON - that’s a dad who doesn’t truly love his kid. At least not as much as he loves watching sports. The game is more important to him than PARENTING. Our Dad’s not LIKE that. He will STOP what He’s doing to make sure that you and I get the discipline we need. Cuz he LOVES us.
And Second, we can delight in discipline because it SANCTIFIES us; it BETTERS us; it is “for our GOOD, that we may share in God’s HOLINESS”. God’s discipline is a refiner’s fire, that burns away the blemishes from our faith, to make us more wholly devoted to Him.
So we “count it all JOY… for [we] know that the testing of our faith produces steadfastness… that [we] may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (Jam 1:2-4)
Running Tip #9 - We need to Fix our Form (12-13)
V12: “lift your drooping hands… strengthen your weak knees”; v13: run in a straight PATH! No WONDER you’re so EXHAUSTED, he says; you’re zigzagging all over the course, running like [**IMITATE**] you’re all DROOPY and LAME and everything’s all OUT OF JOINT…
THAT is his picture of the tired runner. You need to FIX YOUR FORM!
And now he’s gonna leave us with 6 specific correctives for a good spiritual running posture. We could really consider these as SUB-points of #9, but I thought 10-15 was simpler than 9A thru F.
But we’re gonna FINISH in a FLURRY now. Each one of these correctives could be its own sermon. But they also all belong together, and unless y’all can give me another 3 hours (45-min per point) we’re just gonna have to do our best here.
#10 - Pursue Peace (14a)
“Strive for peace with everyone”. Maybe the reason you’re so TIRED is cuz you’re wasting so much ENERGY FIGHTING with your fellow RUNNERS! Elbowing ‘em, shoving ‘em… and you need to CHILL OUT!
Now, at the same time - like my earlier caveat about PACING - I would argue that more often than NOT, most Christians actually impede peace by AVOIDING conflict. The OT prophets warned repeatedly against those who cry for “Peace, Peace, when there is no peace” (Jer 6:14, et al). When Hamas invaded Israel on October 7th and slaughtered and kidnapped civilians - that afternoon was NOT the time to call for PEACE. The Bible says, “There’s a time for EVERYTHING - a time for peace AND a time for WAR” (Ecc 3:8). But so MANY Christians are too conflict-AVERSE.
Listen: biblically speaking, peace isn’t the absence of CONFLICT; it’s the absence of CHAOS. And sometimes in order to ACHIEVE peace, you have to be WILLING to endure a little healthy CONFLICT.
If you’re out there running YOUR race, and another Christian, a so-called “teammate”, keeps elbowing and tripping you, then I question whether or not you’re TRULY “striving for peace” by just continuing on, IGNORING it, as if everything’s hunky-dory, when it’s NOT.
Are we willing to CONFRONT, when necessary, for the sake of PEACE?
And when it’s NOT necessary, when you just didn’t happen to LOVE the Christmas song choices this year, will you LET IT GO, for the sake of PEACE?
#11 - We must Have at Holiness (14b)
“Strive for… the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.”
God is HOLY. Relationship with him requires HOLINESS. By God’s GRACE, we have been MADE holy, by the blood of JESUS; that was ch10, “A Greater SANCTIFICATION” - Christ’s sacrifice “has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (10:14). So what does he mean HERE, when he exhorts us to “strive for HOLINESS”?
I think he’s calling us to strive for CHRIST! Jesus IS our holiness. So we don’t just LOOK to him, v2… we don’t just CONSIDER HIM, v3… we need to CHASE AFTER him! So as to TAKE HOLD of him!
Here’s how PAUL put it; he said: “I am PURSUING, that I may LAY HOLD of, or SEIZE, that for which Christ JESUS laid hold of ME ALSO” (Phil 3:12). And why did Jesus lay hold of US?
Colossians 1 says he DIED in order to “present us HOLY” before God! (v22). Christ SEIZED us to make us HOLY; now, therefore, let US strive to seize the HOLINESS that is found only in HIM.
#12 - Give Grace (15a)
“See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God”.
Does he mean “make sure you’re preaching the REAL gospel? Not the “gospel” of legalism (“you better be a good person”), or the gospel of prosperity (“God wants to make you healthy, wealthy and happy”), or the gospel of approval (“You are enough; God doesn’t want to change a THING about you”) - NONE of which are gospels, they’re not “good news” AT ALL! - Is he saying “give them the gospel of GRACE” - that although you were NOT enough… there was PLENTY about you that needed to change… CHRIST is enough, and he graciously laid down his LIFE for you? YES.
Does he ALSO mean “Do everything in YOUR power to make sure that no one in your radius FAILS to actually OBTAIN this grace? That everyone you know and love LAYS HOLD of God’s grace, personally, through saving faith in Christ. You can’t MAKE ‘em. But you can pray your HEART out for them, SHARE your heart with them. YES, he means that too.
Does he mean “GIVE people the grace of God, tangibly, through your actions”? Serve them… BE the hands and feet of Christ, the “only Bible some people might ever read”? YES. He means ALL that and more.
Give GRACE.
Therefore #13 - we Uproot Unkindness (15b).
Make sure “no “root of bitterness” springs up”; we UPROOT it. “Bitterness” - pikria - can refer to resentment, more narrowly, or it can mean “harshness”, UNKINDNESS more generally. Just tear it ALL out!
And while you’re at it, #14 - Purge Porneia (16)
“See to it… that no one is sexually immoral” - is pornos; this is where we get our word “porn” from, and it really refers to ANY sexual activity that is outside of God’s good, loving boundaries. According to Scripture, there is no easier way to make SHIPWRECK of your entire faith; it says, “Every other sin a person commits is outside the body” (1 Cor 6:18), but SEXUAL sin infects us in a uniquely DEEP, and PERSONAL, and DANGEROUS way.
So don’t be like ESAU, v16 says, “who sold his birthright for a single meal.” Remember that story, Genesis 25? Esau traded his double portion of Isaac’s considerable inheritance… for one bowl of LENTIL SOUP. IF we truly belong to Christ, we have an ETERNAL inheritance awaiting us; don’t throw it all away for SLOP.
But friends: you put ALL his exhortations here together…
1) Embrace Encouragement (1a)
2) Discard Distractions (1b)
3) Slay your Sin (1c)
4) Pace for Perseverance (1d)
5) Fixate on Jesus (2a)
6) Remember your Reward (2b)
7) Consider Christ (3-4)
8) Delight in God’s Discipline (5-11)
9) Fix your Form (12-13)
10) Pursue Peace (14a)
11) Have at Holiness (14b)
12) Give Grace (15a)
13) Uproot Unkindness (15b)
14) Purge Porneia (16)
…And you have got one VERY high calling! The life of faith, the RACE of faith, is not for the faint of heart! And NONE of us lives us to the calling at every stride of the run, do we? There are ONLY SINFUL runners in THIS race. And that’s why it’s so FITTING that we END,
#15 - with a call to Repeated Repentance (17)
How do you make sure your heart NEVER becomes so HARDENED by the deceitfulness of sin, like Esau’s did, that you cross that point of no return, where God gives you OVER to your sinning, and allows you to become so DESENSITIZED to it that you are no longer GRIEVED by your sin, the way we SHOULD be, the way it grieves GOD - how do you ensure that never happens to you? Well, first, you make a regular practice of SLAYING your sin, like we said. But then when you DO slip up again, when you DO stumble in your stride, maybe even fall down, maybe ever TAKE that detour you’re not SUPPOSED to, into McDonald’s - you ALSO make a practice of CONFESSION (admitting your sin), REPENTANCE (turning from sin), and RECOMMITMENT (getting back in the race).
Christian: you will fall. You will fail. But Jesus never will. Repent, turn BACK to Him, and fall back on his loving mercy and grace once more.”