Hebrews 12:3

Heb_12:3

Consider Him that endured such contradiction

Christs afflictions a lesson for His people:

All heaven considers or looks at Christ.

The angels look at Him with reverence and adoring wonder, as their Lord and King. All hell considers or looks at Christ. The devils look at Him with terror and alarm, as their Judge and the Author of their punishment. But neither heaven nor hell can get such precious views of Christ as can those whom Christ came to redeem. They consider Him as the Lawgiver who shows the path of duty, as the Redeemer who shows the way of life. They consider Him as the Physician who heals their spiritual diseases, as the Pattern after which they are themselves to copy. They consider Him who endured the contradiction of sinners, in order that they may be not wearied, nor faint in their minds. The flowers that bloom upon a thousand hills, in more than royal stateliness, are rich in fragrant moisture; but it is not every gaudy insect that can extract the honey they yield. So, Christ, however rich and precious He be to those who know Him, is rich and precious to them alone. The ungodly get nothing by their contemplation of Him, except, indeed, a greater aversion ever to contemplate Him again. Believers are always benefited by this exercise. They are made better, wiser, holier, happier, by it. Looking unto Jesus is the attitude of spiritual health, the posture of spiritual activity, the habit of spiritual enjoyment: it is a blessed exercise--it strengthens the soul, it animates the heart, it enlivens the whole frame of the inner man. And while it is beneficial to all who engage heartily in it, be their circumstances what they may, it is peculiarly beneficial to all those who are in distress or perplexity. The contemplation of Him who suffered the contradiction of sinners hinders the mind from becoming weary and faint.

I. LOOK AT THE PICTURE WHICH THE APOSTLE HERE EXHIBITS. It is the picture of Him who endured such contradiction of sinners. It is the picture of a mighty Being, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It represents Him, however, as man. It represents Him as suffering contradiction, that is, animosity, hatred, and persecution. It represents Him as suffering all this from sinners. It represents the suffering as being in every respect intense, aggravated, and indescribable. Let us seek to fill our minds with a sense of what He underwent.

1. The sufferings of Christ were Divinely appointed and tremendously severe. They were not the mere natural evils which are shed upon us, all in consequence of Adams disobedience. They were singular, peculiar, and transcendental. They had no like, no parallel. They were infinite sufferings.

2. The subject of Christs suffering is deserving of consideration because, had He chosen, He could have avoided them. But He did not so choose. He did not spare Himself. He gave Himself up to death for us all.

3. Again, in estimating the contradiction of sinners endured by Christ, let us remember that He was, through out the whole of it, actuated by disinterested motives.

4. Once more, Jesus did not deserve the punishment that was inflicted upon Him.

5. Lastly, the nature of Christs endurance will be still more strikingly manifested when it is recollected that it was borne for the sake of those who inflicted it.

II. Let us now speak of THE LESSONS CONVEYED BY THE PICTURE on which we have been meditating.

1. By looking to the afflictions of Christ we derive materials for encouragement, because we could not of ourselves do what Christ has done for us. We may endure contradiction of sinners, as Christ Himself did; but ours will never be such contradiction as His.

2. Again, by looking to the tribulations of Christ we derive materials of encouragement, because we should not expect to be treated better than He Himself was.

3. By looking to the tribulations of Christ we derive materials of encouragement, because, as our great Model and Exemplar, He has exhibited to us a specimen of patient endurance and submission under the most dreadful inflictions.

4. By looking to the tribulations of Christ we derive materials of encouragement, because we find that, as our great High Priest and Redeemer, He is able to sympathise with us in all our afflictions.

5. Lastly, by looking to the tribulations of Christ we derive materials of encouragement, because, as He triumphed over all His enemies, so shall we if we be partakers of His salvation. Christians are one with their Redeemer. (Alex. Nisbet.)

The endurance of Christ

The contemplation of Christs sufferings may, or may not, be spiritually beneficial to us. It is possible to occupy our attention with the physical side of the Passion to the exclusion of the moral and spiritual, and to think almost exclusively of the sufferings and scarcely at all of the Sufferer. Such contemplation may work upon our feelings much in the same way as thrilling incidents in a powerful work of fiction, and create a spurious sympathy with the Sufferer which cannot produce the effect which the passion of our Lord ought to have upon our lives. The remedy is to be found mainly in considering Him that endured--in keeping before us the personality of the Sufferer. But we shall only rightly consider the Sufferer Himself when we keep in mind the purpose He had in His endurance. He suffers for sinners, as well as from sinners; and He suffers for the direct purpose of removing the contradiction which He endures--to take away sins. And all profitable contemplation of the sufferings of Christ ought to have in it the desire and willingness to have its purpose fulfilled in us. In considering Him we must keep in mind His faultlessness; the entire absence of any justification for the contradiction. He was not only faultless, but good. Although graced with the perfect qualities of human virtue, and rich in the beneficent works of goodness, He endured the contradiction of sinners. Remember, too, that within, and perfectly conjoined to, that holy humanity, was all the fulness of God. In every act of endurance there is the manhood which endures as human, and there is the deeper endurance of God underlying it all. The word contradiction is here used to include the whole of the opposition which our Lord experienced from sinners. The Cross was only the climax of a long and varied course of antagonism out of which it sprung, without which it would not have been reached, and by which alone it can be understood and duly estimated. The first contradiction Christ endured was in the unbelief which met Him. He was the True One and the Truth; but they affirmed Him either deceived or a deceiver--utterly untrustworthy. But this contradiction advanced to open condemnation. He was said to be a gluttonous man, &c. They said His power over evil spirits was due to a league between Himself and the prince of the devils. They charged Him with being the enemy of God and man, a blasphemer and an evildoer. Remember who it was against whom all these false and bitter things were spoken. Consider Him, and see His brave endurance. And there was an element in all this contradiction which added to its painfulness. It was not the result, in general, of a mistake, which could be excused by the Sufferer. It had its root in personal hate (Joh_15:24). And He knew the cause ofthat hate. It came out of a conscious moral antipathy. His pure, holy, humble, unselfish life made them conscious of the unreality and hollowness of their assumed excellence. And He endured this hate--He who combined in His own person all that is gracious in God and lovable in man. This antagonism and hate could not fail to proceed to acts of violence if occasion should arise. They took up stones to stone Him; and, think you, was it not as if He felt the blows of hardness of heart hurled at Him as He preserved Himself from this attempt upon His life? To Christ the spiritual was not less real than the physical; and in every infliction of suffering and wrong upon Him by the hands of wicked men He felt the spirit of the acts--the sin of the world--going right down deep into His soul. Yes, thepainful pressure of the crown of thorns, the piercing of nails and the anguish of the body, were means through which He bore in Himself the contradiction of sinners and of sin. One point more: This endurance of the contradiction of sinners was out of consideration to them. He might have saved Himself, and have made them to feel His contradiction against themselves. But He suffered Himself, instead of making them to suffer. His consideration for them was grounded in love--love to them and to us. In love He endured seeing them the opposite of that which He could love; endured receiving from them the reverse of what He had a right to expect, the opposite of that which His coming had made possible. If He could have hated and despised those who contradicted Him, it would have been less painful to His spirit to endure the contradiction. But the more He loved us, the more bitter became every experience, the more pointed and painful every act of wrong. Consider Him who endured, etc., and consider Him, with this fact in mind, that in thus enduring He was exhibiting and putting forth His gracious power to save us from sinning against Him. The purpose of His Cross is to reconcile us and all things to Himself; to bring us to harmony of mind and life with Him; to destroy our contradiction by enduring it. (R. Vaughan, M. A.)

The great source of courage:

Consider Him. Learn to look up. It is an exercise in which we have to be trained and drilled until we have mastered it. Unbelief gives a man a crick in the neck so that he cannot look up. But faith, like the eagle, sets her eyes on the sun and soars away until earth is lost in the mists below, and she lights on the highest mount of God. If we would have a life of singing and triumphant courage, we must get into this habit--the heavenly habit of considering Jesus. Consider Him. This is everything. In the Christian life Christ Himself is the Source and Strength of all. A man is a Christian exactly as he receives Christ into his thought, and heart, and life. And this is the order, through the thought into the heart and thence into the life. Therefore consider Christ--gather the thoughts in from other things, and set them upon Christ. In everything that we would get hold of thoroughly we must give our minds to it, as we say. And this means give your mind to Christ. Christ is to us what we will let Him be. If I will let Him into my life, He will fill it with light and blessedness, as the sun fills the heavens. Consider Him--not the truth about Him. Lectures on botany are poor things to put in place of flowers. Sermons and teachings about Christ are poor things indeed to put in place of Him. It is more than ever needful in times like these, when life is such a rush and whirl, that we make room and leisure in our lives to cultivate this art of considering Christ. Alas! what hurried and passing glimpses of out great Master do content us! There is a bit of the country--than which, I think, there is nothing more lovely in all England--that I have often passed through in the railway carriage; eagerly I have looked out of the window, over the deep valleys, woods overhanging woods, going down to misty depths, and away to the moorland, stretching up to the rugged heights; then suddenly a bank of earth has blotted it all out; a narrow cutting has hemmed us in--and then the tunnel darkness. Out again and across some viaduct; looking down on the clear stream amidst the boulders below, another glance of the hills, and then a new obstruction. And some people call that seeing the country. How much can one consider it amid such vexatious glimpses? But some fine day I have left the railway station and stepped out on to the moor, and in a few moments have stood amidst its stillness, the great unbroken stretch of earth and sky, the music of some little brook and the plovers call not breaking the silence, only heightening it. Then I have gone up on to the granite height, and there under the blue heaven I have looked away, away on every side, over the miles of country, catching here and there the faint, silvery line of the sea. Then and then only I saw it--thus I could consider it. We must get away alone up into the mount of the Lord if we would consider Him. The busier you are the more you need it: this thinking about Him until He comes to reveal Himself. With many bow would half an hour of such considering transform the life I He, my Lord and Captain, my Friend and Helper, my Deliverer and my God. (M. G. Pearse.)

Suffering and glory:

No pain, no palm; no thorn, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown. (Wm. Penn.)

Consider Him:

Our troubles are but as the slivers and chips of His Cross. (J. Trapp.)

Christ with us in trial:

One thing which contributed to make Caesars soldiers invincible was their seeing him always take his share in danger, and never desire any exemption from labour and fatigue. We have a far higher incentive in the war for truth and goodness when we consider Him wire endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Considering Christ in persecution

Li Cha Mi, a Chinese preacher, was nearly killed by robbers during the excitement against foreigners, in 1872. At a subsequent conference, he said; You have all heard of my sufferings during the past few months. I wish to say that these sufferings were very slight. It was easy to endure pain when I could feel that I bore it for Christ. It is wonderful--I cannot explain it. When attacked by the robbers, and beaten almost to death, I felt no pain. Their blows did not seem to hurt me at all. Everything was bright and glorious. Heaven seemed to open, and I thought I saw Jesus waiting to receive me. It was beautiful. I have no words to describe it. Since that time I seem to be a new man. I now know what it is to love not the world. My affections are set on things above. Persecutions trouble me not. I forget all my sorrows when I think of Jesus.

I call nothing on earth my own. I find that times of trial are best for me. When all is quiet and prosperous, I grow careless and yield to temptation, but when persecutions come, then I fly to Christ. The fiercer the trial, the better it is for my soul. (The Christian.)

Lest ye be wearied

Spiritual weariness

I. THERE IS A CONFLICT WHICH STILL DEMANDS OUR FAITH AND PATIENCE, The great purpose of life should be to attain the highest excellent of which our nature is susceptible. This involves difficulties.

II. WE ARE IN DANGER OF LOSING HEART, AND GROWING WEARY IN THIS CONFLICT. Perhaps we may hardly wonder at this, if we think of the nature of the conflict itself, its continuousness, its unintermittent character. This result ensues, too, from the providential trials under which we are sometimes called to carry on the conflict. This danger also arises from the perpetual vigilance and resistance which are required to be exercised against custom, against kindness, against the slumbrous atmosphere in which we live.

III. THIS WEARINESS AND FAILURE OF SPIRITUAL DETERMINATION IS AN EVIL WHICH OUGHT TO BE STRENUOUSLY RESISTED. Weariness and exhaustion are fatal to real enjoyment. They are equally fatal to work. When worn down by fatigue, you have neither strength nor spirit for work. Moreover, there must be much danger in this state of weariness and exhaustion.

IV. THE REST MEANS OF AVOIDING THIS WEARINESS AND SPIRITUAL EXHAUSTION IS STEADILY TO CONTEMPLATE JESUS. Look upon Him in such a way as to call out comparison with),ourselves, and it will encourage you, and enable you to rise above this exhaustion and fear.

1. The greatness and nobleness of the Sufferer!

2. Consider the poignancy and the severity of His suffering.

3. Consider the innocency of the Sufferer.

4. Consider the spirit in which Jesus suffered. (J. C. Harrison.)

Discouragements in the Christian life

I. MANY PERSONS ARE DISCOURAGED AT THE GREAT DIFFERENCE WHICH THEY EXPERIENCE IN THEIR FEELINGS, WHEN THEY RECEIVE INSTRUCTION FROM THE MINISTRATION OF OTHER PEOPLES MINDS, AND WHEN THEY ARE OBLIGED TO FURNISH THEMSELVES WITH THE TRUTH WHICH IS REQUIRED FOR THEIR DAILY CHRISTIAN LIFE.

II. MANY ARE LIABLE TO BECOME WEARIED AND FAINT FROM POSITIVE REACTION, FROM DEPRESSION ARISING FROM EXHAUSTION.

III. PERSONS OF A TIMID NATURE, WHOSE RELIGIOUS LIFE HAS, EITHER BY EDUCATION OR FROM SOMETHING IN THEMSELVES, TURNED UPON CONSCIENCE, OR IN WHOM THEIR RELIGIOUS LIFE IS OF THE TYPE OF CONSCIENCE RATHER THAN OF LOVE, OR TRUST, OR HOPE, ARE PECULIARLY LIABLE TO DISCOURAGEMENT AND WEARINESS.

IV. GREAT DISCOURAGEMENT BEFALLS MEN WHO HAVE A RELIGION WITHOUT ANY SOCIAL ELEMENT TO CORROBORATE IT.

V. MANY PERSONS ARE BROUGHT INTO GREAT DISCOURAGEMENT AND UNCERTAINTY AS TO WHAT THEY SHALL DO, BECAUSE THEY HAVE MISTAKEN THE FULL PURPORT OF RELIGION.

VI. THE NEGLECT TO CONSOLIDATE RELIGIOUS FEELINGS INTO HABITS IS FREQUENTLY AN OCCASION OF DISCOURAGEMENT, BECAUSE IT LEAVES MEN SUBJECT TO ALL THE FLUCTUATIONS OF FEELING.

VII. MANY ARE CONVICTED OF SIN LESS DEEPLY AT THE BEGINNING OF THEIR CHRISTIAN LIFE THAN LONG AFTER CONVERSION; AND THIS NOT ONLY ALARMS, BUT SERIOUSLY DISCOURAGES THEM. (H. W. Beecher.)

Spiritual weariness and its antidote

I. THE LIABILITY OF CHRISTIANS TO SPIRITUAL WEARINESS. Arising from

1. The little advancement we seem to make in spiritual excellence.

2. The little good we seem to accomplish in all our efforts to serve our fellows.

3. The little difference which Providence in its dispensation makes between us and those who are the enemies of Christ.

4. The little influence which our best efforts seem to have in correcting the evils of our age.

II. THE ANTIDOTE OF CHRISTIANS TO SPIRITUAL WEARINESS. Reflection on Christ will renew our energies, reinvigorate the soul.

1. Consider what He endured. The contradiction of sinners.

2. Consider how He endured (1Pe_2:23).

3. Consider why He endured. For His enemies. (Homilist.)

Liability of saints to faint-heartedness

It was stated some time ago, that a man had discovered an invention for making a form of crystallised carbon, which to all intents and purposes was a diamond; but his invention was useless, because of the difficulty and expense in getting any vessel strong enough to bear the intense heat to which it must be subjected during the process. And so with some of Gods saints, they faint beneath the trial, and the saintly virtue is not formed within their characters, because they have lost the power of endurance. (Canon Newbolt.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Heb 12:3-4. For consider him — Draw the comparison and think; the Lord bore all this, and shall his servants bear nothing? If he suffered, if he endured such things, why should not we do so also? If he, though so great, so excellent, so infinitely exalted above us; yet endured such contradiction of sinners — Such grievous things, both in words and deeds, from his enemies; against himself — Ought not we to do so too, if called to it? Consider this; lest ye be wearied — By the greatness and length of your trials and sufferings; and faint in your minds — Lest your hearts should fail you, and you should draw back, partially or totally, from the profession of the gospel. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood — Your sufferings are far short of those which Christ endured. He grants that they had met with many sufferings already, but their enemies had been so restrained that they had not proceeded to take their lives, or to inflict wounds and bruises upon their bodies. By which the apostle intimates two things: 1st, That those who are engaged in the profession of the gospel have no security that they shall not be called to the utmost and last sufferings, by laying down their lives on account of it; and 2d, That whatever befalls us on this side martyrdom, is to be looked on as a fruit of divine tenderness and mercy. Striving against sin — Or against violent and injurious persons, and in opposing men’s wicked practices, and your own sinful inclinations, lusts, and passions.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3. ADMONITORY.—Review your past history as of cheerful and hopeful, yet fearful, endurance, Heb_12:3-17.

3. For consider him—Our author pauses to hold the suffering phase of the victorious Exemplar before their mind’s eye steadily. Think of his old-time endurances, and that will explain and lighten your own. His Father, permissively, exposed him to trials; so then realize that your trials are the dealings of a Father.

We may lose the connexion here by not keeping in mind that the chastisements of 4-13 all refer primarily to the persecutions the Hebrews had to endure from their unbelieving adversaries. Not that the specific acts of persecution were preordained of God; but the endurance of trials is part of our probation, and it is a cheering explanation to interpret every infliction as a divine discipline.

Endured such contradiction— Contradiction, a pregnant term, including all that the sinners referred to inflicted.

Lest ye be wearied—In order that ye may not falter and apostatize.

Faint—Exhausted by the wearing contest; forgetting your Exemplar, and losing sight of the final exaltation.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES

Heb_12:3. Consider.—Place your sufferings in comparison with His. Against Himself.—R.V. renders “against themselves,” which is a well-supported reading. Wearied.—R.V. renders “that ye wax not weary, fainting in your souls.” Stuart renders, “lest, becoming discouraged in your minds, ye grow weary.”

Heb_12:4. Unto blood.—The last extremity; the surrender of life. Implying that Christ had so resisted. From this we infer that there had been no actual martyrs among the Christian Jews addressed by the writer.

Heb_12:5.—Better read as a question, “Have ye forgotten?”

Heb_12:8. Bastards.—νόθοι, illegitimate children, who cannot be properly thought of as God’s spiritual children.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Heb_12:3-8

The Strain of Maintaining Christian Profession.—These verses indicate three sources whence strain cannot fail to come, and they suggest considerations which may help the professor successfully to endure the strain, whencesoever it may come.

I. One source is the contradiction of sinners.—They that would live godly will, in every age, suffer some form of outward persecution. The persecution need not always take coarse and violent forms; in our times it takes refined and subtle forms, which are often harder to bear. Let any man to-day try to live a really spiritual life, and teach men really spiritual truth, lifting off material coverings, and bringing to view spiritual realities, he will be sure to meet with persecutions at the hands of those who are zealous for the literality and materiality of religion. Our Lord embodied an ever-acting principle when He said to His disciples, “Ye are not of the world; therefore the world hateth you.” Put the earnest young Christian into the worldly-toned house of business to-day, and he will get the “contradiction of sinners against himself,” as certainly as did the Christian men and women in the old Pagan days. The peril of persecution from without, on account of our religious opinions, or our religious life, must be duly estimated. What can bring us strength to endure? “Consider Him.” “It is enough for the disciple that he be as his Master.” We need not wonder that we should be misrepresented and misunderstood, for so was He. We need not wonder even that our words should be resolutely turned against us, for so were His. We need not wonder even if we are the victims of hostile schemes and combinations, for so was He. But He triumphed over all; and, in spite of all, lived through His “godly, righteous, and sober life”: and so may we. The principles on which He triumphed may be ours. The spirit in which He triumphed may be ours. We need not faint.

II. Another source of strain is the weakness of self.—There is such an easily reached limit to our power of resistance. We can try a little; but if we do not immediately succeed, we give up trying. Our striving against sin is at best but a poor thing; there is seldom anything heroic about it. Cranmer may be weak enough to yield when the stake is right in view, but we weakly shrink back long before we reach any such extremities. To us it can be said, with a most pointed application, “Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.” We are far enough away from the martyr spirit. What shall so inspire us as to lift us into moral strength for enduring? To some extent the story of the martyr ages; but chiefly the thought of Him who did resist unto blood—who did wrestle with sin, and yielded His life in the struggle, but yielded it only when the victory was won. We must never wonder if the demand upon our moral strength is such a demand as was made upon Christ’s. It is inspiration to us to look and see how He “resisted unto blood.”

III. Another source of strain is the discipline of God.—We wish that to be saved was to be saved once for all. And it is not. It is to be put into the school of God for discipline, involving chastisements, with a view to full sanctifying. God’s discipline is as that of a father with his sons.

1. There is love at the heart of it.

2. There is wisdom in the arranging of it.

3. But there is no hesitation in putting all needful severities into it. The Christian can no more expect to understand the discipline of God than the son can expect to understand the corrections and restraints of his father. The son endures through the trustfulness of his love. And the Christian endures in the same way. No noble human character ever yet existed that had not come out of a school of discipline; and no saintly character ever yet was found among us which had not come out of the disciplinary school of God. What shall help us to bear this form of strain? Looking unto Jesus, who, “though He were a Son, learned obedience by the things which He suffered,” while in God’s earthly school of discipline.

SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES

Heb_12:3. Christ’s Enduring Contradiction.

I. What forms of contradiction Christ was subjected to.—

1. His design in founding a spiritual kingdom was contradicted.

2. His spirit and character were misunderstood both by His own disciples and by His enemies. He was often hindered, as at Capernaum and Gadara, and above all at Jerusalem. And at last He was turned out and crucified.

II. In what forms, and on what principles, did Christ overcome the contradiction?—

1. An amazing patience was shown by Him. He proved the power that lies in “patient continuance in well-doing.”

2. The consciousness of His Divine mission sustained Him. A man can always be strong if in his soul is the cherished conviction that he has a work to do. “A man is immortal until his work is done.”

3. His faith in the abiding presence of God with Him constantly sustained Him. St. Paul in this sense of God’s presence comes a long way behind our Divine Lord, and yet he could say, “I can do all things through Him who strengtheneth me.”

III. How does Christ’s overcoming contradiction become an encouragement and a help to us?—None of us can ever have so extreme a conflict as He had. But none can ever have any conflict that will be really different to His.

1. His was a conquest on our behalf. It was really our foe He disabled. And it is a weakened, humbled foe that is left to us to fight.

2. He presented the example which may guide us to wise methods in our conflict.

3. His triumph has brought Him a trust of grace which He now dispenses to all who follow Him in the same holy war, and are subject now to a similar “contradiction of sinners.” Whatever then may be the precise form which our difficulties take, as we endeavour practically to live the Christian life amid depressing and opposing circumstances, we are distinctly called to endure, in Christ’s strength, for Christ’s sake, and after the pattern of Christ’s example.

Heb_12:4. War with Sin to the Death.—Read only with the imperfect human vision, the “great cloud of witnesses” are but men, who sustained human relationships, fulfilled human duty, and suffered human sorrows. Read with the illuminations of the Divine Spirit, they are more than men; they are spiritual men, carrying on a spiritual warfare, gaining spiritual triumphs, and looking for the eternal rewards of righteousness. And such as they were we are or may be. Looking down on our lives, they may seem to be wholly human things, full of human cares, human toils, and human associations. But learn to, look aright, and then, though our world-sphere may seem to be insignificant, we are really occupying the places of the old heroes, and doing the work of the old giants. We are spiritual men, wrestling with human circumstances, and forcing them to yield us spiritual strength, spiritual riches.

I. Christian life, in all its aspects, presents to us sin as a fact.—St. Paul says, as an unfolding of private and personal experience that somewhat surprises us: “For that which I do I know not: for not what I would, that do I practise; but what I hate, that I do.… I find then the law, that, to me who would do good, evil is present. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members” (Rom_7:15; Rom_7:21-23). We can sympathise with him. It is the fact, that conscious evil is intimately connected with all the expressions and associations of the Christian life.

1. The field of Christian thought. The conceptions, imaginations, desires, of Christian thinking. Who can say, “I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin”? There is no side of the Christian life in which the subtlety of sin is so painful and oppressive. Even in the house of God we cannot keep our thoughts free from that which is unsuitable and disturbing.

2. The Christian’s bodily nature. Desires, dispositions, passions, tempers, lusts, are closely related to bodily conditions, and the sincere man is conscious that they are not always kept under hand, subject to authority. There are indulgences of bodily evil which do not come forth to public view, or bring us into the condemnation of even social law. In even the outer relations of life evil is always near, in forms of omission or of commission. There are falterings in honesty, in truth, in long-suffering, in faithfulness, in speech, and in duty. He must be a very bold man, and withal a very foolish one, who thinks he can read his life in the light of the spiritual and holy laws of God, and can say, “All these have I kept from my youth up.” Sin is not only an existing thing; it exists in activity; it is ever moving and working as an opposing force. The “heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked”; in it is a world of undeveloped evil capacity. Out of the heart proceedeth all kinds of evil. It is not properly sin that all these evil things should be in our hearts. Sin is really something done, something wrong cherished, something bad that is sought after. The sadness of sin lies in this—that it exists in activity; the evils in our hearts are always proceeding forth, coming out. St. Paul speaks of the “motions of sins in our members.” It would have mattered little if they had kept still. It was imperilling, it was humiliating, that, serpent-like, they writhed and twisted, and strove to lift up the head and thrust forth a deadly sting. He speaks of evil as warring within him. He had not cared, if it had only sheathed sword, and lain still; but it was perpetually harnessed, sallying forth, and watching for every opportunity of striking a deadly blow. We need to face this fact—the evil in us is evil in activity, in an activity of opposition to the work of grace in our souls. It is a masked thief, actively engaged in stealing our peace; a masked slanderer, trying to make us think ill of our God; a masked serpent, watching to thrust out a sting, and fill our natures with the poison of hell; and a masked murderer, who would, if he could, destroy both body and soul.

II. The Christian life in us is a Divine force, also existing in activity, and conflicting with sin up to the measure of blood.—St. Paul says, “I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” That gives the true idea of Christian life. It is “Christ living in us.” It is the power of God dwelling in us, so as to be the main-spring, the motive-power, the controlling principle, of our life. As truly as the soul possesses the body and uses its faculties, so truly does God possess the soul and express Himself in all the powers and workings of the soul. Evil is near to us, closely associated with every aspect of the religious life; but this new thing, this vital force, this power of the Divine, is nearer, is in closer relations, is truly ours. However the evil may get in to us, it is still an outside thing. It is a parasite on the outside of the tree: this Divine life is the very sap which flows in the tree itself. The parasite may cling very closely, it may even pierce the bark, but it can never be more than an outside thing; while every duct and vessel of the tree is filled with this flowing life of God. Being the Divine Spirit, it must be active. We cannot think of God otherwise than as ever working. And it is active, we may be sure, to mould character, to settle right dispositions, to influence and tone human relationships, to recover from human failings, to battle with spiritual foes. The activity of the Christ-life will be seen in opposition to that evil which comes so close, puts on so many forms, and stands in such constant antagonism to everything that is good and God-like. Wherever there is active evil there is an opposing active good. Wherever there are microbes there are also phagocytes. Every man’s life is the scene of a twofold conflict. Each of these represents the other. In the physical sphere there is a perpetual struggle between disease and health, death and life. Every breath of air we breathe, every measure of food we eat, has poisonous matter with it, and may breed disease. Our vital force is constantly trying to eliminate the poison. So in the sphere of morals. In our spirit is present, active evil, only kept down by the unceasing activity of the new life in Christ. Our text gives the measure up to which God expects this conflict to go. “Resisting unto blood.” There must be this striving against sin, even at the peril of expending life itself in the striving. As the martyr stands for the truth, and resists evil, up to the very sacrifice of his life, so must every Christian man expect, and even desire, to stand for purity, for truth, for God, resisting all the forms of evil that may assail him, even up to the measure of the sacrifice of life itself. In the old days of chivalry, when tournaments were held, and knights, clad in armour, met within the lists to prove their prowess, and young squires fought to win their knightly spurs, the struggle was not usually for life: whoever was unhorsed was reckoned to be vanquished. But if there was family feud, and deadly hatred filled the mind of the combatant, he would go up and touch his foeman’s shield with the point of his lance. That meant war to the death. In that case there must be “resisting unto blood”—the life of one or the other of those combatants must stream forth upon those lists. Such is the conflict of evil and good within the Christian. It is an irreconcilable feud; no play of blunted spears. When a man becomes a Christian, he virtually goes up to strike with the lance-point the shield of his foe, and there must be no putting spear in rest, no sheathing of the sword, until the foe is vanquished, and the victory of righteousness is won. This is the standard of the Christian conflict; but in us the conflict too often falls below the standard. God, indeed, does not often call for the extreme self-sacrifice. Within this limit, how real is our battle with sin? How much has it cost us to resist sin, taking form as

(1) weaknesses of Christian character;

(2) neglect of Christian duties;

(3) besetting sins;

(4) social and business errors and failings? Unto blood? So far from our life-struggle reaching unto blood, there is a much smaller test which we cannot bear to have applied to us. It has not reached to the imperilling of a limb. What passion, like a hand, has been resolutely cut off, and cast away? What sinful appetite, like a right eye, has been determinedly plucked out, and cast away? What questionable business habit which brought money in, what comfortableness which led to the neglect of Christian ordinances, has, like a foot, been cut off, and cast away? Would we gain the full victory? Then must we keep “looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.”

Heb_12:5. Men’s Persecutions as God’s Chastenings.—“The chastening of the Lord.” This expression might seem to be especially suited to the distresses that come by disease, calamity, failure; pain, bereavement—things in which man’s action is not evident, but God’s providential workings are very manifest. It is, however, singular and suggestive that the writer has so distinctly in mind the persecutions which the Jewish Christians were then suffering, and the strain which those persecutions were putting on their loyalty to Christ. Even those persecutions he would have them think of as God’s chastisements—things which God was graciously using for the carrying out of His disciplinary work. Illustration may be taken from the nation of Israel. They were subject to oppression and persecution from many outside foes—Assyrian, Egyptian, Babylonian, Syrian, Roman; but those foes could never be other than instruments in the hands of Jehovah, for the disciplinary work needed by His people. The manifest human element in outward persecutions makes it difficult to realise the Divine element in them. If God is in them, and working His work by means of them, then of these things we may be sure:

1. They are held within strict limitations.

2. The schemes of men in arranging them have no security of being carried out.

3. We are not left alone in the enduring of them.

4. Instead of injuring us, they can only do us the good God has assigned for them to do.

Heb_12:7-8. The Fatherliness of the Heavenly Father.—We are permitted to use our earthly paternal relations in the endeavour to understand the paternal relations of God. But this is often a difficulty to devout souls, who hesitate to compare the heavenly Father with imperfect earthly fathers. It may be helpful, therefore, to present and to illustrate this point. There is a perfect fatherliness conceivable. If we could put together the many forms of fatherliness which have been presented by unusually good fathers, we should have a satisfactory apprehension of it. That fatherliness can but be incompletely represented in any one human father; but that fatherliness—ideal fatherliness—is found in the relations of God with us.

Heb_12:7. Life an Education.—God’s purpose in placing us in this world is not chiefly that He may put us to the proof, but that He may educe and train our faculties and gifts, and make the best of us, whatever our natural virtues or failures. This is the proof of Scripture, and of the teachings of experience. Life is an education.

I. God educates us by means of our physical needs.—We alone, of all God’s creatures, are sent into this world unprovided with any of those things which are necessary to the support of physical life. God has not made our task easy. He does not mean that work shall be mechanical, but that it shall tax our ingenuity, and bring out our mental powers to the uttermost. Relatively, too, we are one of the weakest of living beings. We must work. That is the law of life. It strengthens the mind, produces patience, endurance, forethought, courage. Thus is God educating us.

II. God educates us by means of our mental needs.—He has implanted in nature that which awakens our curiosity, and He has implanted in us a hunger and thirst after knowledge and truth, and the result is education. There is in us all a love of the beautiful. Our hearts go out after these things in nature. They have a strange power to make us think.

III. God educates us by the sorrows and trials of life.—The lower animals are almost exempt from suffering. “Life to them is a maximum of enjoyment, with the minimum of suffering.” Man is born to trouble. All life is leavened with pain, forebodings, vain regrets, unsatisfied longings. Why? Because “God dealeth with you as with sons.” “Mystery of pain.” The saintliest of men are those who have suffered the most. It behoved even the great Captain of our salvation to be made perfect through suffering.

IV. God educates us by our spiritual needs.—Our greatest want is to know God. All feel the need of propitiation and reconciliation. Just as nature satisfies mind, so the Bible satisfies spiritual needs.

1. The text throws light on the mystery of the present. We are often puzzled by the question, “What will become of the heathen?” If life is only a probation, I can show no light; but if life is an education, then this earth is only the lowest room in God’s school; and in other spheres and at other times the education which circumstances thwarted and hindered here can be carried on under happier circumstances.

2. It throws light on the mystery of the future. Here is a powerful argument for a future life. Our education here is at best but in its initial stage when death removes us. Our education here is only the learning of the alphabet. In our Father’s house are many mansions, and in one of these our education will be continued.—Angus M. Mackay, B.A.

ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 12

Heb_12:6. The Uses of Affliction.—Note the difference between summer storms and winter ones, the latter rushing over the earth with all their violence; and if any poor remnants of foliage or flowers have lingered behind, these are swept along at one gust, leaving nothing but desolation; while the former make all things to rise as it were with renewed beauty,—the types of the difference between the storms of affliction as coming upon the Christian and the sinner.—Guesses at Truth.

Perfect through Suffering.—Stars shine brightest in the darkest night; torches are better for beating; grapes come not to the proof till they come to the press; spices smell best when bruised; young trees root faster for shaking; gold looks brighter for scouring; juniper smells sweetest in the fire; the palm tree proves the better for pressing. Such is the condition of God’s people; they are most triumphant when most tempted, most glorious when most afflicted.—Bogatsky.

Heb_12:7. God’s Dealing with Us.—Visiting a person who was in deep affliction and sorrow, Gotthold was told by the family that he was in the garden. Thither he followed, and found him employed in clearing a vine of its superfluous leaves. After a friendly salute, he inquired what he was doing. “I find,” was the reply, “that, owing to the abundant rain, this vine is overgrown with wood and leaves, which prevent the sun from reaching and ripening the grapes; I am, therefore, pruning part of them away, that it may bring its fruit to maturity.” Gotthold rejoined, “And do you find that in this operation the vine resists and opposes you? If not, why are you displeased that a gracious God should do to you what your vine must not be displeased that you do to it?”

The Estimate of Things lost.—

For so it falls out,

That what we have we prize not to the worth,

Whiles we enjoy it; but being lacked and lost,

Why then we rack the value; then we find

The virtue, that possession would not show us

Whiles it was ours.—Shakespeare.

Like birds, whose beauties languish, half concealed,

Till, mounted on the wing, their glossy plumes

Expanded, shine with azure, green, and gold;

How blessings brighten as they take their flight!—Young.

Farewell I did not know thy worth,

But thou art gone, and now ‘tis prized:

So angels walked unknown on earth,

But when they flew were recognised.

Thomas Hood.

’Tis only when they spring to heaven that angels

Reveal themselves to you; they sit all day

Beside you, and lie down at night by you,

Who care not for their presence, muse or sleep;

And all at once they leave you, and you know them.—Robert Browning.

Not to understand a treasure’s worth

Till time has stolen away the slighted good,

Is cause of half the poverty we feel,

And makes the world the wilderness it is.

Cowper.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

12:3 Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people: The recipients of Hebrews had become weary and were about to give up—they were emotionally fatigued because of the persecution they were facing. The key to their endurance was to focus on Jesus, who had been through even worse hostility.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Heb 12:3. Ἀναλογίσασθε) consider, by instituting a comparison. The Lord has suffered so much; how much more should His servants encounter some suffering? It is, so to speak, a modal expression (an appeal to their feeling); for it very rarely happens that γὰρ is added to the imperative;—it is the same as if he had said: for the Lord has endured so great contradiction, and you ought to remember it. The force of the Ætiology (assigning of the reason by γὰρ) falls upon the other verb, which is put beside it; comp. ὑπομεμενηκότα, here, and also ὑπέμεινε, Heb 12:2.—ὑπὸ τῶν ἁμαρτωλῶν, by sinners) It is said of us, against sin, Heb 12:4: comp. Heb 12:1. Sin itself, by which others are led away and we are tempted, assails us; not sin, but sinners, contradicted Christ.—ἀντιλογίαν) LXX. ἀντιλογία for מדון, Psa 80:7: for ריב, often. Contradiction involves striving against, Joh 19:12; Act 28:19, and mostly denotes the natural disposition of infidelity or unbelief, as confession follows faith.—ἵνα μὴ κάμητε ταῖς ψυχαῖς ὑμῶν) LXX. κάμνων τῇ ψυχῇ μου, Job 10:1. For in other places κάμνειν refers to the body; but ἐκλυόμενοι is put absolutely, as Heb 12:5.—ἐκλυόμενοι) Heb 12:5. He who ἐκλύεται, actually fails or faints, κάμνει is habitually wearied out.

Heb 12:3. In the Old Testament there were many sprinklings, whether those be considered who performed the sprinkling, or the matter with which the sprinkling was performed, or the men and things for whom and on whom the sprinkling was made, or the object of the sprinkling—for dedication, consecration, etc. The whole of the people were sprinkled, Exo 28:8, and Exo 29:21; Lev 8:23, etc. Aaron and his sons, in both cases, at first for the purpose of initiation; and therefore, as they say, once for all. In like manner there was an initiation, in the case of lepers, for holding intercourse with the other Israelites, from whom they had been long excluded. There was always a particular sprinkling at the altar; but the Israelites were on their part kept in communion with God, by eating the sacrifices.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Heb_12:3. Γάρ] is here, on account of the imperative, the corroborative: Yea! (comp. Winer, Gramm., 7 Aufl. p. 415 f.); and ἀναλογίζεσθαι, in the N. T. a ἅπαξ λεγόμενον, denotes the comparing or reflecting contemplation. Bengel: Comparatione instituta cogitate: Dominus tanta tulit; quanto magis servi ferant aliquid?

ἀντιλογία, however, denotes nothing else than contradiction; and what is meant is, the contending against Christs divine Sonship and Messianic dignity. The notion of opposition and ill-usage in act, which is ordinarily assigned to it (still also by Böhme, Bleek, de Wette, Tholuck, Bloomfield, Delitzsch, Alford, and Maier) along with that of contradiction, this word never has. Even ἀντιλέγειν, to which appeal is made, has nowhere the sense of a hostile resistance manifesting itself in outward actions. See Meyer on Luk_2:34; Joh_19:12; Rom_10:21.

τοιαύτην] such, i.e. one so great, sc. that He was compelled to undergo the ignominious death of the cross (Heb_12:2), in comparison with which your sufferings are something insignificant.

ἵνα μὴ κάμητε κ.τ.λ.] that ye may not grow weary, desponding in your souls. ταῖς ψυχαῖς ὑμῶν is to be conjoined with ἐκλυόμενοι (Beza, Er. Schmid, Hammond, Kuinoel, Bleek, de Wette, Ebrard, Bisping, Delitzsch, Alford, Maier, Moll, Kurtz, Hofmann, al.), not with κάμητε (Luther, Bengel, Chr. Fr. Schmid, Storr, Schulz, Böhme, and others), since otherwise something of a dragging character would be imparted to the participle.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Heb 12:3 . ἀναλογίσασθε γὰρ .… The reason for fixing the gaze on Jesus is given. That reason being found in the τοιαύτην . This so great contumely and opposition endured by Jesus the Hebrews are to consider, “to bring into analogy, think of by comparing” with their own and so renew their hopeful endurance. τὸν … ἀντιλογίαν , “Him who has endured at the hands of sinners such contradiction against Himself.” The desire on the part of several interpreters to put a stronger meaning into ἀντιλογία although quite unsupported by usage reveals a feeling that verbal abuse or contradiction was a much less severe trial than such as are enumerated in chap. 11. But not only was it this ἀντιλογία which brought Christ to the cross and formed the αἰσχύνη of it, but it was the repudiation of His claims throughout His life which formed the chief element in His trial. It was predicted (Luk 2:34 ) that He would be a σημεῖον ἀντιλεγόμενον , full of significance misinterpreted, full of God rejected. It was precisely this general rejection and contempt from which the Hebrews were themselves suffering. They were finding how hard it was to maintain a solitary faith contradicted and scorned by public sentiment. Think then, says this writer, of Him who has endured at the hands of sinners so much more painful contradiction “against Himself”. ἴνα μὴ κάμητε … “that ye wax not weary, fainting in your souls”. ψυχαῖς may be construed either with κάμητε or with ἐκλυόμενοι ; better with the latter. [Polybius, xx. 4, 7, speaking of the demoralisation of the Boeotians says that giving themselves up to eating and drinking, οὐ μόνον ταῖς σώμασιν ἐξελύθησαν ἀλλὰ καὶ ταῖς ψυχαῖς .]

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

An amplification taken of the circumstance of the person, and the things themselves, which he compareth betwixt themselves: for how great is Jesus in comparison of us, and how far more grievous things did he suffer than we?

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

For--justifying his exhortation, "Looking unto Jesus."

consider--by way of comparison with yourselves, so the Greek.

contradiction--unbelief, and every kind of opposition (Act 28:19).

sinners--Sin assails us. Not sin, but sinners, contradicted Christ [BENGEL].

be wearied and faint--Greek, "lest ye weary fainting." Compare Isa 49:4-5, as a specimen of Jesus not being wearied out by the contradiction and strange unbelief of those among whom He labored, preaching as never man did, and exhibiting miracles wrought by His inherent power, as none else could do.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 3. For consider him] Αναλογισασθε - ἱνα μη καμητε, ταις ψυχαις - εκλυμενοι· Attentively observe and analyze every part of his conduct, enter into his spirit, examine his motives and object, and remember that, as he acted, ye are called to act; he will furnish you with the same Spirit, and will support you with the same strength. He bore a continual opposition of sinners against himself; but he conquered by meekness, patience, and perseverance: he has left you an example that ye should follow his steps. If ye trust in him, ye shall receive strength; therefore, howsoever great your opposition may be, ye shall not be weary: if ye confide in and attentively look to him, ye shall have continual courage to go on, and never faint in your minds.

Here is a continued allusion to the contenders in the Grecian games, who, when exhausted in bodily strength and courage, yielded the palm to their opponents, and were said καμνειν, to be weary or exhausted; εκλυεσθαι, to be dissolved, disheartened, or to have lost all bravery and courage.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

3. For consider him, etc. He enforces his exhortation by comparing Christ with us; for if the Son of God, whom it behoves all to adore, willingly underwent such severe conflicts, who of us should dare to refuse to submit with him to the same? For this one thought alone ought to be sufficient to conquer all temptations, that is, when we know that we are companions or associates of the Son of God, and that he, who was so far above us, willingly came down to our condition, in order that he might animate us by his own example; yea, it is thus that we gather courage, which would otherwise melt away, and turn as it were into despair.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(3) The figure of the race is still continued, “For unless ye thus look unto Jesus ye will grow weary.”

Consider.—Literally, compare; place your sufferings by the side of His.

Him that endured such contradiction.—Rather, Him that hath endured such gainsaying from sinners against themselves. The word “gainsaying,” (Heb_6:16; Heb_7:7) is so frequently used in the LXX. for the rebelliousness of the people of Israel, that we need not here limit it to contradiction in words. The change of “Himself” into “themselves” (the reading of the oldest MSS.) is important, but it is not easy to say with what the last two words should be joined; for the meaning may be either “sinners against themselves” (comp. Num_16:38), or “gainsaying against themselves,” In either case the force of the words will be that the sin or the opposition manifested against Him was really against themselves, since it was for their salvation that He came upon earth. To all His other sorrows were added the pain of their ingratitude and His grief over their aggravated guilt.

And faint.—Rather, fainting in your souls.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3. consider] Lit., “compare yourselves with.” Contrast the comparative immunity from anguish of your lot with the agony of His (Joh_15:20).

that endured …] Who hath endured at the hand of sinners such opposition.

such contradiction of sinners against himself] The Greek word for “contradiction” has already occurred in Heb_6:16, Heb_7:7. Three uncials (א, D, E) read “against themselves.” Christ was a mark for incessant “contradiction,”—“a sign which is spoken against” (Luk_2:34).

lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds] The correction of the R. V., “that ye wax not weary, fainting in your souls,” will be reckoned by careless and prejudiced readers among the changes which they regard as meaningless. Yet, as in hundreds of other instances, it brings out much more fully and forcibly the exact meaning of the original. “That ye wax not weary” is substituted for “lest ye be weary” because the Greek verb, being in the aorist, suggests a sudden or momentary break-down in endurance; on the other hand, “fainting” is in the present, and suggests the gradual relaxation of nerve and energy which culminates in the sudden relapse. Lastly the word in the original is “souls,” not “minds.” Endurance was one of the most needful Christian virtues in times of waiting and of trial (Gal_6:9).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For consider him,.... In the greatness of his person, as God, the Son of God, the heir of all things; and in his offices of prophet, priest, and King, as the Saviour of lost sinners, the Leader and Commander of the people, as the apostle and high priest of our profession: consider him in his human nature, his conversation on earth, and what he did and suffered for men; how that in his nature he was pure and holy, in his conversation harmless and innocent, in his deportment meek and lowly; who went about doing good to the souls of men, and at last suffered and died, and is now glorified: consider the analogy between him and us, and how great is the disproportion; and therefore if he was ill treated, no wonder we should consider him under all his reproaches and sufferings:

that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself; against his person, they denying his deity, and speaking against his sonship, and against his offices; mocking him as a King, deriding him as a prophet, and treating him with the utmost contempt as a priest and Saviour; and against his actions, his works of mercy to the bodies of men, when done on the sabbath day; his conversing with sinners for the good of their souls, as if he was an encourager of them in sin, and a partner with them; his miracles, as if they were done by the help of the devil; and against the whole series of his life, as if it was criminal. Now we should analogize this contradiction, and see what proportion there is between this, and what is endured by us: we should consider the aggravations of it, that it was "against himself"; sometimes it was against his disciples, and him through them, as it is now against his members, and him in them; but here it was immediately and directly against himself: and this he endured "from sinners"; some more secret, as the Scribes, Sadducees, and Pharisees; some more open, as the common people; some of them the vilest of sinners, the most abandoned of creatures, as the Roman soldiers, and Herod's men of war: and this should be considered, that we cannot be contradicted by viler or meaner persons; and it is worthy of notice, with what courage and bravery of mind, with what patience and invincible constancy he endured it: this should be recollected for imitation and encouragement,

lest ye be wearied, and faint in your minds; contradiction is apt to make persons weary and faint, as Rebekah was, because of the daughters of Heth, and as Jeremiah was, because of the derision of the Jews, Gen 27:46 but a consideration of Jesus, and of what he has endured, tends to relieve the saints in such a condition; See Mat 10:25.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

Ver. 3. For consider him] Gr. αναλογισασθε, comparationem instituite. Make the comparison betwixt Christ and yourselves, betwixt his sufferings and yours, and then you will see a difference. Our troubles are but as the slivers and chips of his cross. I am heartily angry (saith Luther) with those that speak of my sufferings, which if compared with that which Christ suffered for me, are not once to be mentioned in the same day.

Lest ye be wearied and faint] Gr. εκλυομενοι, loosened, as the nerves are in a swoon or palsy; or, let go, as water spilt upon the ground. This to prevent keep your eye upon your Captain and that cloud before mentioned. There were in Greece certain fields called Palaestrae, where young men exercised themselves in wrestling, running, &c. In these were set up statues of various valiant champions, that the young men that ran or wrestled, might fix their eye upon them. and be encouraged. When Jerome had read the life and death of Hilarion, he folded up the book, and said, Well, Hilarion shall he the champion that I will follow.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For consider him - Attentively reflect on his example that you may be able to bear your trials in a proper manner.

That endured such contradiction of sinners - Such opposition. The reference is to the Jews of the time of the Saviour, who opposed his plans, perverted his sayings, and ridiculed his claims. Yet, regardless of their opposition, he persevered in the course which he had marked out, and went patiently forward in the execution of his plans. The idea is, that we are to pursue the path of duty and follow the dictates of conscience, let the world say what they will about it. In doing this we cannot find a better example than the Saviour. No opposition of sinners ever turned him from the way which he regarded as right; no ridicule ever caused him to abandon any of his plans; no argument, or expression of scorn, ever caused him for a moment to deviate from his course.

Lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds - The meaning is, that there is great danger of being disheartened and wearied out by the opposition which you meet with. But with the bright example of one who was never disheartened, and who never became weary in doing the will of God, you may persevere. The best means of leading a faithful Christian life amidst the opposition which we may encounter, is to keep the eye steadily fixed on the Saviour.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

For consider him; the connection is rational, that they ought to regard this example, for that there were greater sufferings behind than any yet they had endured, which would enforce it, as Heb 12:4; αναλογισασθε signifieth the use of it proportionable consideration, thinking on or reasoning about this example within a man’s self, such as may make the considerer bear a proportion to the subject considered.

That endured such contradiction of sinners against himself; this Jesus spoken of before, who most patiently submitted to, and perseveringly bore up under, such opposition and contradiction by the words and works of the most wicked and vilest men against himself, who was the most innocent and best of men, always going about doing good to them, so as their sin and his patience were without parallel: none was ever so scorned, taunted, reviled, blasphemed, spit on, and ignominiously treated like him; and never any so invincibly endured it, Rom 15:3.

Lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds; the reason of this consideration is, lest faintness, languishing, or deficiency of soul, that is, of vigour, strength, and activity of heart in grace, should befall them; and so they should lie down and cease to run the Christian race, which the devil designed to oblige them to, as he would Christ, by the multitude and soreness of the contradictions they should suffer from sinners in it, so greatly as would not end but by broaching their life-blood, as they did Christ’s, and these must expect from them.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

For consider him that hath endured such contradiction of sinners against himself (or, of the sinners against him), lest ye be weary fainting in your souls. The word antilogia ("contradiction"), though strictly applicable to verbal gainsaying, and thus especially suggesting to our minds the blasphemies and false accusations against Christ, includes opposition of all kinds. It is used in the LXX for "rebellion" (Hebrew, yrs), 2Sa_22:41 Pro_17:11, cf. Jud_1:11, th antilogia tou Kore . (Instead of eiv eauton (al. eiv auton) there is weighty manuscript authority for eiv eautouv , equivalent to "against themselves. ") "Lest ye be weary," etc., keeps in view the idea of getting tired in a race, the word ekluesyai ("faint") being used primarily for corporeal, and figuratively for mental, lassitude. (cf. Mat_15:32, mhpote ekluywsi en th odw )

The Christian"s danger of weariness and his defense. "For consider him that endured such contradiction, etc. Our subject naturally divides itself into two branches,

I THE EVIL TO BE GUARDED AGAINST. "Lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds." The Christian is in danger of weariness in the course which he is called to run. This weariness springs from faintness of soul. When the heart loses its faith and hope and enthusiasm, the step soon loses its elasticity and vigor and speed. And this may arise:

1. From the difficulties of the course. The path of the Christian is not always through green pastures or beside still waters. It is often bleak and rugged, and mountainous. It is marked by trials of various kinds, which sorely strain his faith and patience and fortitude. And there are enemies who would delay his progress sometimes by subtle solicitations to ease and enjoyment, and at other times by opposing his efforts or obstructing his way. "And the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.

2. From the slowness of the apparent progress. There are times when the Christian runner seems to make little or no advancement in the race. Notwithstanding reading and meditation, aspiration and resolution, prayer and effort, we are still so hampered by imperfections and sins, so deficient in holiness and usefulness, and so little like our Lord, that at times all that we desire and do seems to be vain, and our souls wax faint within us.

3. From a false or exaggerated estimate of the value of feeling in the Christian life. There are those who are prone to test their spiritual condition and progress by the state of their feelings. If their emotions are tender and confiding and cheerful, they conclude that they are in the true course and moving onward to the goal; but if their hearts seem unfeeling, or cold, or cheerless, they doubt whether they are in the course at all, or ever started aright in the race, and so they faint in their souls and flag in their footsteps. Feelings fluctuate; they ebb and flow; they rise and fall. But we run this race, not by feeling, but by faith. We are saved, not by our emotions, however delightful they may be, but by our confidence in our Lord and Savior.

4. From neglect of the means by which hope and courage are maintained. If prayer be neglected; if meditation upon the spiritual and eternal, upon the soul and truth and God, cease; if the testimony of the "great cloud of witnesses" be unregarded; if "the Leader and Perfecter of the faith" be not contemplated, the soul will faint and the limbs become weary, and the attainment of the prize will be jeopardized, How, then, is the evil to be guarded against?

II THE SAFEGUARD AGAINST THIS EVIL. "Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself," etc. The meaning of the word rendered "consider" is not easily expressed in English. Analogize, compare, think on him and on his sufferings by way of comparison with ours. The "contradiction of sinners" should not be confined to words, but indicates the opposition of the wicked against him. A comparison of what he thus suffered and the trials we have to bear will preserve the soul from faintness, and the steps from faltering.

1. He suffered more than his followers are called to suffer. He was assailed by slander, by contradictions, by ensnaring questions. He was betrayed by one disciple, denied by another, and forsaken by all in the time of his trial. He was blasphemed, scourged, derided, and crucified. Think, moreover, how intensely susceptible to suffering he must have been, since he was untainted in his body and perfectly holy in his soul.

2. Yet his sufferings did not cause him to falter in his course, or to turn aside from it. Resolutely he went forward on his path of suffering and sacrifice; knowing the shame and anguish that awaited him, yet still he steadfastly pursued his appointed wayUntil the perfect work was done, And drunk the bitter cup of gall.

3. In this he is an Example to us. "If, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye shall take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For hereunto were ye called; because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example," etc. (1Pe_2:20-23) Consideration of him and of his sufferings makes our severest sufferings seem small, and saves us from weariness and discouragement in the Christian course. Lord, should my path through suffering lie, Forbid it I should e"er repine; Still let me turn to Calvary, Nor heed my griefs, remembering thine. (Conder.) W. J.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Consider - Draw the comparison and think. The Lord bore all this; and shall his servants bear nothing? Him that endured such contradiction from sinners - Such enmity and opposition of every kind Lest ye be weary - Dull and languid, and so actually faint in your course.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

consider consider well, i.e. weigh so as to judge its value.

sinners Sin. (See Scofield "Rom 3:23").

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3. Consider him. When you become faint and discouraged by persecution, consider what Christ suffered from sinners.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

3. εἰς ἑαυτόν. The MSS. vary between this reading (A, Vulg.) and εἰς αὑτόν, εἰς αὐτόν and εἰς ἑαυτούς.

3. ἀναλογίσασθε. Lit., “compare yourselves with.” Contrast the comparative immunity from anguish of your lot with the agony of His (Joh 15:20).

τὸν τοιαύτην κ.τ.λ. Who hath endured at the hand of sinners such opposition.

ἀντιλογίαν, “gainsaying” or “contradiction,” has already occurred in Heb 6:16, Heb 7:7. Three uncials (א, D, E) read “against themselves.” Christ was a mark for incessant “contradiction,”—“a sign which is spoken against”—(Luk 2:34).

ἵνα μὴ κάμητε ταῖς ψυχαῖς ὑμῶν ἐκλυόμενοι. The correction of the R.V., “that ye wax not weary, fainting in your souls,” will be reckoned by careless and prejudiced readers among the changes which they regard as meaningless. Yet, as in hundreds of other instances, it brings out much more fully and forcibly the exact meaning of the original. “That ye wax not weary” is substituted for “lest ye be weary” because the Greek verb, being in the aorist, suggests a sudden or momentary break-down in endurance; on the other hand, “fainting” is in the present, and suggests the gradual relaxation of nerve and energy which culminates in the sudden relapse. Lastly, the word in the original is “souls,” not “minds.” Endurance was one of the most needful Christian virtues in times of waiting and of trial (Gal 6:9).

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3.] For (q. d. and there is reason in what I say; ἀφορῶντες &c., for He like yourselves had much and continual conflict with the sinners of His day. γάρ is not as Lünem., “Yea,” merely strengthening the imperative: I heartily concur with the dictum of Hermann, cited here by Delitzsch: “γάρ semper reddit rationem antecedentis sententiæ vel expressæ vel intellectæ”) compare (with yourselves. ἀναλογίσασθε is very difficult to express in English. It is as Bengel, “comparatione instituta cogitare,” “to think on, by way of comparison.” So Plato, Theæt. p. 186 a, ἀναλογιζομένη ἐν ἑαυτῇ τὰ γεγονό καὶ τὰ παρόντα πρὸς τὰ μέλλοντα (comparing): Diod. Sic. xx. 8, τὸ μέγεθος τοῦ διείργοντος πελάγους ἀναλογιζόμενοι, τὴν σωτηρίαν ἀπεγίνωσκον (reputantes, bethinking themselves of, comparing with their power to cross it). So here it is, consider Him as set in comparison with yourselves. If the word to ‘ponder’ had any trace left of its primitive meaning, it might serve; but it has now become equivalent to ‘meditate’) Him who hath endured (perf. part. again, to set before them Christ as not merely a character of the past, but one ever present) such contradiction (ἀντιλογία need not be confined to words: see note on ch. 6:16, and cf. ref. John, ἀντιλέγει τῷ Καίσαρι. Œc. says, ἀντιλογίαν δέ φησι τὸν γέλωτα, τὰς πληγάς, τὰς χλευασίας, καὶ ὅσα ἀντέλεγον τοῖς αὐτοῦ δόγμασι καὶ διδάγμασι, καὶ τὰς ἐπὶ τοῦ Πιλάτου κραυγάς. And so Chrys. and Thl. Lünemann in vain denies this sense of ἀντιλογία and ἀντιλέγειν: see reff., and Bleek’s and Delitzsch’s notes) by the sinners against Himself (i. e. by those who sinned against Him. Whether ἑαυτόν or αὐτόν be read, the sense will be the same. Beware of Ebrard’s strange interpretation, given below on τὴν ἁμαρτίαν: “All mankind would be opposed to Christ as the sinners (the class of sinners); but the enemies of the gospel could not be opposed to the readers of the Epistle as the sinners, seeing that those readers themselves were sinners.” All such notions of οἱ ἁμαρτωλοί arise from wrongly connecting εἰς ἑαυτόν, which follows ἁμαρτωλῶν and not ἀντιλογίαν. So ἥμαρτον εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν Luk 15:18, Luk 15:21. See also Luk 17:4: Act 25:8), that ye weary not (reff.), fainting in your souls (ταῖς ψ. ὑμῶν may be joined either with κάμητε or with ἐκλυόμενοι. In ref. Job, we have κάμνων τῇ ψυχῇ μου: and ἐκλύεσθαι τῇ ψυχῇ is found in Polyb. ref., and xx. 4. 7, οὐ μόνον τοῖς σώμασιν ἐξελύθησαν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ταῖς ψυχαῖς. So also in Diod. Sic. xx. 1, διὰ τὸ μῆκος καὶ τὴν ἀκαιρίαν τοῦ συγγραφέως ἐκλυθέντες τὰς ψυχάς. And this latter is preferable, on account of the rhythm, and the improbability of the participle standing thus alone at the end of the sentence).

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For consider [αναλογισασθε γαρ] . Gar for introduces the reason for the exhortation to look unto Jesus. Look unto him, for a comparison with him will show you how much more he had to endure than you have. Analogizesqai N. T. o. Comp. 3 Macc. 7 7. It means to reckon up; to consider in the way of comparison.

Contradiction of sinners [υπο των αμαρτωλων αντιλογιαν] .

Contradiction or gainsaying. See on ch. Heb 6:16, and comp. ch. Heb 7:7. See on gainsaying, Jude 1:11. Of sinners, uJpo by, at the hands of.

Against himself [εις εαυτους] . According to this text we should render "against themselves." Comp. Num 16:38. The explanation will then be that Christ endured the gainsaying of sinners, who, in opposing him, were enemies of their own souls. The reading eJautouv however, is doubtful, and both Tischendorf and Weiss read eJauton himself, which I prefer. Lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds [ινα μη καμητε ταις ψυχαις υμων εκλυομενοι] . Rend. "that ye be not weary, fainting in your minds." 'Ekluein is to loosen, hence, to relax, exhaust. So often in LXX See Deu 20:3; Jud 8:15; 1Sa 14:28. Comp. Mt 14:32; Mr 8:3; Gal 6:9.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

3. ἀναλογίσασθε γάρ...) Vulg. Recogitate enim...For consider Him that hath endured...Be patient, the writer says, look to Christ ; for I charge you to considor His enfforings. If tho oyes aro stondfastly turnod to Him (dhoparres) the believer cannot fail to ponder the vision and to estimate the power of His work in relation to Life. That is sufficient in ordor that Christians may support their nfilictions. If tho leader boars tho brunt of the battle tho soldior can follow.

Tho uso of yap with imp. implies the result of the comparison.

The word ἀναλογίζομαι does not occur clecwhero in the Lxx. or N. T. It is common in classical Greek, and expresses in particular the careful estimate of one object with regard to another. Plat. Theat. p. 186 A (ἀναλ.

x x 618 o. The use here in respect of a person and not of a thing is remarkable. The writer seems to say ‘ Oonsider Christ, reckoning up His suffer-

ings point by point, going over them agnin and again, not the sufferings on the Cross only, bat all that led up to it’ This is to bo done once for all (ἀναλογίσασθε not ἀναλογίζεσθε).

τοιαῦτ. ὑπομεμ... «ἀντιλογίαν Him that hath endured such gainsaying, such opposition as showed itself in the infliction of tho most cruol shame and doath, in comparison with which your sufferings are insignificant.

For the use of the perfect (ὑπομεμενηκύτα) in connexion with the abiding results of Christ’s work the following passages should be carefully studied :

26 (πεφανέρωται).

Compare c. vii. 6 (note) for the use of the perfect generally.

Tho romarkable reading ὑπὸ τῶν dy. els daur. givos tho idea oxprossod in Num. xvi, 38, ‘sinners against thoir own selves.’ Tho definite form. (ὑπὸ τῶν dpapr. not ὑφ. duapr.) describes the representative class in the gront crisis of tho nation’s history. ᾿Αμαρτάνειν els is the common construction (Luke xv. 28 &c.).

Theodoret strangoly joins εἰς αὐτούς τοῦ εἷς ἑαυτούς. λογίσασθε, φησί, παρ᾽ ὑμῖν αὐτοῖς...

For the word ἀντιλογία, which corre-

sponds to 1") in Pas. xvii. (xviit.) 44;

xxx.(xxxi.) 21,compare Jude 11; John xix. 12; Luke ii. 34; Acts xxvili. 19; Tit. 1.9; fi. 9.

The opposition in words is the beginning of every form and act of opposition.

Brooke Foss Westcott (1825–1901), The Epistle to the Hebrews (1889) and The Epistles of St John (1883) — public domain (pre-1929). Text recovered from Internet Archive / Google Books OCR scans. Westcott’s Gospel of John commentary is not included (its OCR lost the chapter running-heads required for reliable verse-keying). Some Greek quoted in the Hebrews volume is imperfectly rendered by the OCR.