Hebrews 2:1

The apostle proceeds in the plain profitable method of doctrine, reason, and use, through this epistle. Here we have the application of the truths before asserted and proved; this is brought in by the illative particle therefore, with which this chapter begins, and which shows its connection with the former, where the apostle having proved Christ to be superior to the angels by whose ministry the law was given, and therefore that the gospel dispensation must be more excellent than the legal, he now comes to apply this doctrine both by way of exhortation and argument.

I. By way of exhortation: Therefore we ought to give the more diligent heed to the things which we have heard, Heb 2:1. This is the first way by which we are to show our esteem of Christ and of the gospel. It is the great concern of every one under the gospel to give the most earnest heed to all gospel discoveries and directions, to prize them highly in his judgment as matters of the greatest importance, to hearken to them diligently in all the opportunities he has for that purpose, to read them frequently, to meditate on them closely, and to mix faith with them. We must embrace them in our hearts and affections, retain them in our memories, and finally regulate our words and actions according to them.

II. By way of argument, he adds strong motives to enforce the exhortation.

1. From the great loss we shall sustain if we do not take this earnest heed to the things which we have heard: We shall let them slip. They will leak, and run out of our heads, lips, and lives, and we shall be great losers by our neglect. Learn, (1.) When we have received gospel truths into our minds, we are in danger of letting them slip. Our minds and memories are like a leaky vessel, they do not without much care retain what is poured into them; this proceeds from the corruption of our natures, the enmity and subtlety of Satan (he steals away the word), from the entanglements and snares of the world, the thorns that choke the good seed. (2.) Those meet with an inconceivable loss who let gospel truths, which they had received, slip out of their minds; they have lost a treasure far better than thousands of gold and silver; the seed is lost, their time and pains in hearing lost, and their hopes of a good harvest lost; all is lost, if the gospel be lost. (3.) This consideration should be a strong motive both to our attention to the gospel and our retention of it; and indeed, if we do not well attend, we shall not long retain the word of God; inattentive hearers will soon be forgetful hearers.

2. Another argument is taken from the dreadful punishment we shall incur if we do not do this duty, a more dreadful punishment than those fell under who neglected and disobeyed the law, Heb 2:2, Heb 2:3. Here observe, (1.) How the law is described: it was the word spoken by angels, and declared to be stedfast. It was the word spoken by angels, because given by the ministration of angels, they sounding the trumpet, and perhaps forming the words according to God's direction; and God, as judge, will make use of the angels to sound the trumpet a second time, and gather all to his tribunal, to receive their sentence, as they have conformed or not conformed to the law. And this law is declared to be stedfast; it is like the promise, yea and amen; it is truth and faithfulness, and it will abide and have its force whether men obey it or no; for every transgression and disobedience will receive a just recompence of reward. If men trifle with the law of God, the law will not trifle with them; it has taken hold of the sinners of former ages, and will take hold of sinners in all ages. God, as a righteous governor and judge, when he had given forth the law, would not let the contempt and breach of it go unpunished; but he has from time to time reckoned with the transgressors of it, and recompensed them according to the nature and aggravation of their disobedience. Observe, The severest punishment God ever inflicted upon sinners is no more than what sin deserves: it is a just recompence of reward; punishments are as just, and as much due to sin as rewards are to obedience, yea, more due than rewards are to imperfect obedience. (2.) How the gospel is described. It is salvation, a great salvation; so great salvation that no other salvation can compare with it; so great that none can fully express, no, nor yet conceive, how great it is. It is a great salvation that the gospel discovers, for it discovers a great Saviour, one who has manifested God to be reconciled to our nature, and reconcilable to our persons; it shows how we may be saved from so great sin and so great misery, and be restored to so great holiness and so great happiness. The gospel discovers to us a great sanctifier, to qualify us for salvation and to bring us to the Saviour. The gospel unfolds a great and excellent dispensation of grace, a new covenant; the great charter-deed and instrument is settled and secured to all those who come into the bond of the covenant. (3.) How sinning against the gospel is described: it is declared to be a neglect of this great salvation; it is a contempt put upon the saving grace of God in Christ, making light of it, not caring for it, not thinking it worth their while to acquaint themselves with it, not regarding either the worth of gospel grace or their own want of it and undone state without it; not using their endeavours to discern the truth of it, and assent to it, nor to discern the goodness of it, so as to approve of it, or apply it to themselves. In these things they discover a plain neglect of this great salvation. Let us all take heed that we be not found among those wicked wretched sinners who neglect the grace of the gospel. (4.) How the misery of such sinners is described: it is declared to be unavoidable (Heb 2:3): How shall we escape? This intimates, [1.] That the despisers of this salvation are condemned already, under arrest and in the hands of justice already. So they were by the sin of Adam; and they have strengthened their bonds by their personal transgression. He that believeth not is condemned already, Joh 3:18. [2.] There is no escaping out of this condemned state, but by accepting the great salvation discovered in the gospel; as far those who neglect it, the wrath of God is upon them, and it abides upon them; they cannot disengage themselves, they cannot emerge, they cannot get from under the curse. [3.] That there is a yet more aggravated curse and condemnation waiting for all those who despise the grace of God in Christ, and that this most heavy curse they cannot escape; they cannot conceal their persons at the great day, nor deny the fact, nor bribe the judge, nor break the prison. There is no door of mercy left open for them; there will be no more sacrifice for sin; they are irrecoverably lost. The unavoidableness of the misery of such is here expressed by way of question: How shall we escape? It is an appeal to universal reason, to the consciences of sinners themselves; it is a challenge to all their power and policy, to all their interest and alliances, whether they, or any for them, can find out, or can force out, a way of escape from the vindictive justice and wrath of God. It intimates that the neglecters of this great salvation will be left not only without power, but without plea and excuse, at the judgment-day; if they be asked what they have to say that the sentence should not be executed upon them, they will be speechless, and self-condemned by their own consciences, even to a greater degree of misery than those fell under who neglected the authority of the law, or sinned without the law.

3. Another argument to enforce the exhortation is taken from the dignity and excellency of the person by whom the gospel began to be spoken (Heb 2:3): It began at first to be spoken by the Lord, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is Jehovah, the Lord of Life and glory, Lord of all, and as such possessed of unerring and infallible wisdom, infinite and inexhaustible goodness, unquestionable and unchangeable veracity and faithfulness, absolute sovereignty and authority, and irresistible power. This great Lord of all was the first who began to speak it plainly and clearly, without types and shadows as it was before he came. Now surely it may be expected that all will reverence this Lord, and take heed to a gospel that began to be spoken by one who spoke so as never man spoke.

4. Another argument is taken from the character of those who were witnesses to Christ and the gospel (Heb 2:3, Heb 2:4): It was confirmed to us by those that heard him, God also bearing them witness. Observe, (1.) The promulgation of the gospel was continued and confirmed by those who heard Christ, by the evangelists and apostles, who were eye and ear-witnesses of what Jesus Christ began both to do and to teach, Act 1:1. These witnesses could have no worldly end or interest of their own to serve hereby. Nothing could induce them to give in their evidence but the Redeemer's glory, and their own and others' salvation; they exposed themselves by their testimony to the loss of all that was dear to them in this life, and many of them sealed it with their blood. (2.) God himself bore witness to those who were witnesses for Christ; he testified that they were authorized and sent by him to preach Christ and salvation by him to the world. And how did he bear them witness? Not only by giving them great peace in their own minds, great patience under all their sufferings, and unspeakable courage and joy (though these were witnesses to themselves), but he bore them witness by signs, and wonders, and divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his will. [1.] With signs, signs of his gracious presence with them, and of his power working by them. [2.] Wonders, works quite beyond the power of nature, and out of the course of nature, filling the spectators with wonder and admiration, stirring them up to attend to the doctrine preached, and to enquire into it. [3.] Divers miracles, or mighty works, in which an almighty agency appeared beyond all reasonable controversy. [4.] Gifts of the Holy Ghost, qualifying, enabling, and exciting them to do the work to which they were called - divisions or distributions of the Holy Ghost, diversities of gifts, Co1 12:4, etc. And all this according to God's own will. It was the will of God that we should have sure footing for our faith, and a strong foundation for our hope in receiving the gospel. As at the giving forth of the law there were signs and wonders, by which God testified the authority and excellency of it, so he witnessed to the gospel by more and greater miracles, as to a more excellent and abiding dispensation.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Heb_2:1-4

Give the more earnest heed.

--This exhortation reveals the purpose of the foregoing comparison between Christ and the angels. It is to establish Christs superior claim to be heard when He speaks in Gods name to men. Law and gospel might have been compared on their own merits, as is done by Paul in 2Co_3:6 in a series of contrasts. But the power of appreciating the gospel being defective in the Hebrew Christians, it is the merit of the speakers that is insisted on, though the incomparable worth of the gospel is implicitly asserted in the phrase, so great salvation. Respecting as we do the word of angels, let us respect more His word. Why should there be any difficulty in acting on such reasonable counsel? Because the word of Christ is new, and the word of angels is old, and has the force of venerable custom on its side. This difference is hinted at in the words lest at any time (or haply) we drift away. The figure is a very significant one. It warns the Hebrews to beware lest they be carried away from the salvation preached by Christ, the blessings of the kingdom of God, as a boat is carried past the landing-place by the strong current of a river. The current by which the Hebrews were in danger of being carried headlong was that of established religious custom, which in transition times is specially perilous. By this current they were in danger of being carried away from the gospel and Christ and the eternal hope connected with faith in Him down to the Dead Sea of Judaism, and so of being involved in the calamities which were soon to overwhelm in ruin the unbelieving Jewish nation. The exhortation to give heed to Christs teaching is enforced by three reasons. It is the teaching of the Lord; the penalty of neglect is great; the teaching is well attested. The word of the great salvation began to be spoken by the Lord. The word spoken through angels may appear a very solemn matter. Yet after all it was a word at second-hand. The law was given by God to angels, then by angels to Moses, who in turn gave it to Israel. The gospel came from God immediately, for Jesus was God incarnate speaking to men in human form. The penalty of neglecting this last word of God is great. How shall we escape? The penalty is enhanced by the nature of the word. It is a word of grace, of salvation. The old word was a word of duty. But it is far more culpable to sin against love than against law, to despise Gods mercy than to break His commandments. If breaches of the law had penalties attached, what must be the consequence of despising the gospel? For those who scorn arguments drawn from fear of consequences a more genial inducement is added. The teaching of Christ is well attested. The writer means to say that he and those to whom he writes, though not enjoying the advantage of having heard Jesus Himself speak the words of salvation, arc put practically by this attestation in the same position as those who did hear Him. It is obvious that the claim thus made to he virtually in the position of personal hearers of Jesus implies a knowledge of His teaching such as we possess by means of the Synoptical Gospels. The impression created by a perusal of the Epistle bears out this view. The image of Christ presented therein rests on a solid basis of fact. The writer knows of the temptations of Jesus, of His life of faith, and the scope that His experience afforded for the exercise of faith, of His agony in the garden, of the contradictions He endured at the hands of ignorant, evil-minded men; of His compassionate bearing towards the erring; of the fact that He occupied Himself in preaching the gospel of the kingdom; and also of the fact that He was surrounded by a circle of friends and disciples, whose connection with Him was so close that they could be trusted to give a reliable account of His public ministry. Of course the man who knew so much had the means of knowing much more. (A. B. Bruce, D. D.)

Watchfulness

Every one who has made the least endeavour to live for God, will know by experience how many are the temptations which hinder his progress--temptations to acquiesce in some secondary end, to relax the strenuousness of labour, to follow the promptings of his own will to look earthwards. He will know, therefore, that the spirit of the Christian towards himself must be watchfulness--the most open-eyed and the most far-seeing.

I. HE WILL BE WATCHFUL OVER HIS AIM. There is, indeed, one aim for all men--to grow into the likeness of God; but this general aim becomes individualised for every man. The complete likeness, so to speak, belongs to humanity, and each man contributes his peculiar part to the whole. His resemblance to others lies in the completeness of his consecration; and his difference from others follows directly from it. Something he has, however insignificant it may seem, which belongs to himself alone; and this he brings to Christ in sine trust that it represents the fulfilment of his special office.

Few temptations are more subtle and perilous than that which leads us to a restless search for some task which is more fruitful, as we think, or more conspicuous, or more attractive than that which lies ready before us; and it may happen that a self-chosen path will bring us renown and gratitude. But no splendid labours in other fields can supply the defect which must henceforth remain for ever through our faithlessness, if we leave undone just that tittle thing which God has prepared for us to do.

II. THE CHRISTIAN WILL BE WATCHFUL ALSO OVER HIS EFFORTS. It is as true that God gives nothing, as it is that He gives all. He accords to man the privilege of making his own that which He bestows freely, and He requires man to use the privilege. Nothing avails us which we have not actually appropriated. Life, indeed, brings to us the rudiments of spiritual teaching; but these need to be carefully studied, and, above all, to be brought into the light of our faith, not once only or twice, but as often as we are called to act or to judge; for though every attainment which is conformed to our ideal partakes of its eternal nobility, no solution of yesterday can be used directly to-day. Life, with all its questions, is new every morning. At the same time, the solution of yesterday leaves us in a favourable position to deal with the novel data. The Christian, then, will ask himself again and again whether his work costs him serious exertion; whether it exercises the fulness of his powers; whether he faces fresh duties as they arise with more and more strenuous endeavour because he uses the experience of the past to assist his thought, and not to supersede it; whether at every point he has gained the highest within his reach, or has at least refused to rest on a lower level; and whether he has taken to heart day by day the words of the psalm which from time immemorial has given the keynote of public worship: To-day, if ye will hear His voice; for that Voice is not, as we are too ready to believe, a tradition only, a sweet memorial enshrined in sacred books, but a living voice sounding in our ears with messages of truth, which earlier generations could not hear, and calls to action which we first are able to obey. (Bp. Westcott)

The true attitude of the soul toward Christ

I. THE DUTY ON WHICH THE APOSTLE INSISTS. An attitude of indifference is not the true attitude of the soul to Christ; nor of mere curiosity; nor of a cold professionalism. It is only by earnest thought that we can understand, realise, and retain the gospel of Christ.

II. THE ARGUMENT BY WHICH THE EXHORTATION IS ENFORCED. The exhortation is based upon a twofold comparison; i.e., between the heralds of the two covenants, and the natures of the two covenants.

III. THE WARNING BY WHICH THE APOSTLE SEEKS TO AROUSE ATTENTION TO HIS EXHORTATION.

1. The possibility of losing our hold.

2. The occasions of losing our hold.

3. The manner of losing our hold.

The idea is not of a sudden and total renunciation of Christian doctrine--we are not in much danger of that; but of an unconscious giving up of that doctrine. (W. L. Watkinson.)

Diligent attention to the gospel

I. Diligent attention unto the word of the gospel IS INDISPENSABLY NECESSARY UNTO PERSEVERANCE IN THE PROFESSION OF IT. Such a profession I mean as is acceptable unto God, or will be useful unto our own souls.

1. A due valuation of the grace tendered in it, and of the word itself on that account.

2. Diligent study of it, and searching into the mind of God in it, that so we may grow wise in the mysteries thereof

3. Mixing the word with faith (see chap. 4:2). As good not hear as not believe.

4. Labouring to express the word received in a conformity of heart and life unto it.

5. Watchfulness against all opposition that is made either against the truth or power of the word in us.

II. THERE ARE SUNDRY TIMES AND SEASONS WHEREIN, AND SEVERAL WAYS AND MEANS WHEREBY, MEN ARE IN DANGER TO LOSE THE WORD THAT THEY HAVE HEARD, IF THEY ATTEND NOT DILIGENTLY UNTO ITS PRESERVATION.

1. Some lose it in a time of peace and prosperity. That is a season which slays the foolish. Jeshurun waxes fat and kicks. According to mens pastures they are filled, and forget the Lord. They feed their lusts high, until they loathe the word.

2. Some lose it in a time of persecution. When persecution ariseth, saith our Saviour, they fail away. Many go on apace in profession until they come to see the cross; this sight puts them to a stand, and then turns them quite out of the way.

3. Some lose it in a time of trial by temptation. The means also whereby this wretched effect is produced are innumerable: some of them only I shall mention. As

(1) Love of this present world. This made Demas a leaking vessel (2Ti_4:10), and chokes one-fourth part of the seed in the parable (Mat_13:1-58.).

(2) Love of sin. A secret lust cherished in the heart will make it full of chinks, that it will never retain the showers of the word; and it will assuredly open them as fast as convictions stop them.

(3) False doctrines, errors, false worship, superstition, and idolatries will do the same.

III. The word heard IS NOT LOST WITHOUT THE GREAT SIN AS WELD AS THE INEVITABLE RUIN OF THE SOULS OF MEN. The word of its own nature is apt to abide, and to take root: but we pour it forth from us and they have a woeful account to make on whose soul the guilt thereof shall be found at the last day.

IV. It is in the nature of the word of the gospel TO ALTER BARREN HEARTS, AND TO MAKE THEM FRUITFUL UNTO GOD. Hence it is compared to water, dews, and rain. Where this word comes, it makes the parched ground a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water (Isa_35:7). These are thewaters of the sanctuary, that heal the barren places of the earth, and make them fruitful (Eze_47:1-23.). The river that makes glad the city of Psa_46:7). With the dew thereof doth God water His Church every moment (Isa_27:3). And then doth it grow as a lily, and cast forth its roots as Lebanon (Hos_14:5-7).

V. The consideration of the revelation of the gospel by the Son of God is A POWERFUL MOTIVE UNTO THAT DILIGENT ATTENDANCE UNTO IT.

1. And this is most reasonable upon many accounts.

1. Because of the authority wherewith He spake the word.

2. Because of the love that is in it. There is in it the love of the Father in sending the Son, for the revealing of Himself and His mind unto the children of men. There is also in it the love of the Son Himself, condescending to instruct the sons of men, who by their own fault were cast into error and darkness.

3. The fulness of the revelation itself by Him made unto us is of the same importance. He came not to declare a parcel, but the whole will of Go,t, all that we are to know, to do, to believe: In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col_2:3).

4. Because it is final. No farther revelation of God is to be expected in this world but what is made by Jesus Christ. To this we must attend, or we are lost for ever.

VI. THE TRUE AND ONLY WAY OF HONOURING THE LORD CHRIST AS THE SON OF GOD IS BY DILIGENT ATTENDANCE AND OBEDIENCE UNTO HIS WORD. (J. Owen, D. D.)

Taking heed

In this exhortation, first the apostle setteth down his doctrine: then his reason by which he will persuade us unto it: his doctrine is this.

I. THAT IT BELOVETH US NOWMORE CAREFULLY TO HEARKEN TO THE WORDS OF CHRIST, THAN AFORETIME IT BEHOVED OUR FOREFATHERS TO HEARKEN TO THE LAW OF MOSES. And here we must consider why we ought to be more careful than they; not that they might omit any care to add nothing, to take away nothing, to change nothing, not to depart neither to the right hand nor yet to the left, but day and night, at home and abroad, to do always this, to study it continually, as appeareth in Deu_4:6; Deu_5:32; Deu_6:6; Deu_11:18; Deu_12:32; Deu_28:14; Jos_1:8; Jos_33:6, &c. Nor is it saidthat we be more bound than they, as though the authority of God were changed; but because now Christ hath spoken by Himself, then by angels; now plainly, then in figures: therefore we ought more carefully to hearken, but because our punishment shall be more than theirs, even as we be despisers of the greatest grace.

II. After this, the apostle added HIS REASON TO PERSUADE US TO THIS ESPECIAL CAREFULNESS ABOVE ALL OTHER PEOPLE, to hearken to the voice of Christ; and that is, of the peril that ensueth, lest, saith he, we run out. The apostle useth a metaphor, taken of old tubs, which run out at the joints, and can hold no liquor. (E. Deering, B. D.)

The gospel requires the more earliest attention

The duty here intended is a serious and fixed setting of the mind upon that which we hear: a bending of the will to yield unto it: an applying of the heart to it, a placing of the affections upon it, and bringing the whole man into a holy conformity thereunto. Thus it compriseth knowledge of the Word, faith therein, obedience thereto, and all other due respect that may any way concern it (2Ti_2:7; Mat_15:10; Mat_13:23; Act_4:4; Act_16:14). The comparative degree addeth much emphasis, and intendeth a greater care and endeavour about the matter in hand, than in any other thing; as if he had said, More heed is to be given to the gospel than to the law; more to the Son than to any servant; for he speaks of the gospel preached by Christ. It may be here put for the superlative degree, and imply the greatest heed that may possibly be given; and the best care and diligence that can be used. Thus it is said of the Scriptures, We have a more sure word; that is, a most sure word (2Pe_2:19); thus this very word in my text is often put for the superlative degree. As where Paul saith of himself, "In labours more abundant, in prisons more frequent," that is, most abundant, most frequent (2Co_2:23). Hereby as he doth incite them for the future, to make the best use that possibly they can of the gospel that had been preached unto them, so he gives a secret and mild check to their former negligence, implying that they had not given formerly such heed, as they should have done, to so precious a word as had been preached unto them, but had been too careless thereabouts, which he would have them redress for the future. (W. Gouge.)

Earnest attention to salvation

To give earnest heed to the things which we have heard, comprehends several particulars.

1. There is the earnestness itself--that state of mind which is so graphically described (Pro_2:3-4). Such earnestness, from the nature of the case, has much to do with the attainment of the object; and the importance of that object requires such earnestness.

2. There must be the decided and vigorous application of the mind to the things propounded. They must be understood, if they are to be cordially embraced and practically applied. It is needful, accordingly, that the thinking powers should be attentively directed towards them.

3. By being believed and applied, they must be turned to practical account. Without this they will miss their end.

Subservient to the attainment of this threefold object, might be reckoned such rules and principles as these:

1. That the new heart, the Divine nature, which beats in sympathy with Christian truth, should be sought.

2. That men should watch against inward tendencies and outward influences, which are in danger of withholding them from earnest attention to the things of salvation.

3. That they should seriously ponder the relations of Divine truth to God, to their own souls, and to the destinies of the world to come.

4. That they should implore the Father-Spirit to teach and incline them to give earnest heed to these momentous truths, and to these high concerns. (A. S.Patterson.)

Fastening the impression

Physiologists say that the retina of the eye has a wash which, like the chemical used by the photographer, prepares the retina to receive the image and impress it for a moment, and then the image is gone. The mind must catch it instantly. So we must photograph the Word, and have our souls aroused to fasten the impression for ever. How many retain no impression, and let go their hold upon eternal things! (J. B. Thomas, D. D.)

To the things which we have heard

For the evening of the Lords Day

I. THE CAUSES OF FORGETFULNESS.

1. The indifferent manner in which we too often resort to the House of God.

2. The indifference which precedes is often carried into the House of God itself.

II. THE PRINCIPAL REASONS WHY THE GOSPEL ABOVE EVERYTHING SHOULD BE ATTENTIVELY REMEMBERED.

1. It is the message of heaven to mankind and therefore well deserves a place in the memory.

2. The peculiar character of the gospel. The things are of no common import, no temporary consequence, but of the highest possible moment.

3. The advantages which flow from this duty. Who enjoy the consolations of the gospel, and whose conduct is regulated by its influence? They, undoubtedly, who pay the greatest attention to it, and whose minds retain its instructions.

4. If we slight the message of truth, it will bear testimony against us, and aggravate our final condemnation. (Homilist.)

In attentive hearers

It is said of Demosthenes that, speaking to the Athenians on a very serious subject, and finding them to be inattentive, he paused, and told them that he had something of special importance to relate, which he was anxious that they should all hear. Silence being thus obtained, and everyone fixed upon him, he said that two men, having bargained for the hire of an ass, were travelling from Athens to Megara on a very hot day and both of them striving to enjoy the shadow of the ass, one of them said that he hired the ass and the shadow too; the other said that he hired the ass only and not the shadow. Having made His grave statement, Demosthenes retired; when the people pressed him with great eagerness to return and finish his tale. O ye Athenians, said he, will ye attend to me when speaking about the shadow of an ass; and will ye not attend to me when I address you on the most important affairs? This reproof does nut apply exclusively to the men of Athens. English people are deeply concerned in it; and the ministers of Christ who are accustomed to discourse upon subjects immensely more important than any that called forth the eloquence of the Athenian orator, have reason to urge the same complaint. Many persons have an ear for vanity, but none for the truth; they will listen to folly, but not to the words of wisdom. To the things of this world they will pay a fixed attention, bat to Christ and His salvation they are criminally indifferent. (J. Thornton.)

Redemptive truths

I. They are things COMMUNICATED. We have heard them from parents, teachers, ministers.

II. They are things TO BE RETAINED. Should be held, not merely in memory as facts, but in heart as forces.

III. They are things the retainment of which requires MOST DETERMINED EFFORT.

1. The loss of them would be the greatest calamity.

2. A possible calamity. Many things tend to relax the souls hold upon them remaining depravity within, seductive influences without. (Homilist.)

The gospel demands attention

I. By the things which we have heard, may be fairly presumed are meant, THE GRAND DOCTRINES AND PRINCIPLES OF THE GOSPEL.

II. From the text we may fairly conclude that it is the clear duty of all who have the dispensation of the gospel to give A SERIOUS AND FIXED ATTENTION to it.

III. From the text we may fairly conclude that THE CONSEQUENCES OF CONTINUING TO NEGLECT THE WORD OF GOD will he distressing and awful. (Essex Congregational Remembrancer.)

Art attentive hearing to be given to the gospel of Christ

Especially now in the time of the gospel: what attention is there in the Star Chamber when the Lords of the Privy Council speak? But if either the prince or the king himself make an oration, then there is wonderful attention. In the time of the Law the prophets spake, which indeed were of Gods counsel, by whom God revealed His will to the people: but now the Prince of peace, the Everlasting Counsellor, the Kings own Son, that lay in His own bosom, in whom all the treasures of wisdom are hid, speaketh to us. Therefore let us listen with all diligence to the things which He speaketh. And how doth Christ now speak? Not daily from heaven, as He did to Saul, but by the mouth of His ambassadors. He that heareth you heareth Me. Will ye have an experience of Christ that speaketh in me? Christ spake in Paul when he preached; and He speaks in us when we preach. The pearl is precious though it be an earthen vessel that brings it to you: therefore receive it with all reverence. (W. Jones, D. D.)

Lest at any time we should let them slip

Letting the truth slip

I. THE GREAT THINGS WE HAVE HEARD. There are no words of s profound moment as the truths of the gospel. They warn of hell, they welcome to heaven; they take from eternity its terror, and use it to measure their benefit.

II. THE EASY PERIL OF THEIR LOSS. NO better word for easy getting away than slip. He gave the officers the slip. His foot slipped, and he sustained a fatal fall. The whole company of travellers suddenly slipped into the deceptive, snow-filled precipice. The hour slipped away so rapidly in easy conversation, that I missed my train and lost the opportunity of a lifetime. While shipwrecked on a desert island, we saw a vessel. Supposing it was coming directly to us we went away after our treasure, and quickly returning, found it had slipped away far past the hearing of our wild outcries. We read every day sentences like the above. How easily are the most valuable things in this worlds life lost by reason of neglect!

III. THE INTENSE ATTENTION DEMANDED. It is wonderful that we can see every day the utmost pains taken to keep earths valuables from slipping away, and can yet treat the pearl of great price so recklessly! We see the careful cooper tightening his casks; the miner watching his ores as they pass the smelting furnace; the farmer in his cultivation; the vigilant policeman; the anxious physician; the scholar strengthening his memory so as to keep knowledge from slipping away. And yet we cram for the great examination of eternity. (C. M. Jones.)

Drifting from Christ

I. MOORED TO JESUS CHRIST. It is a long while now since men began to represent their life as a running stream. It was inevitable the figure should suggest itself to them as soon as they began to think--we air feel its appropriateness as often as we reflect upon the ceaseless vicissitude that laps our own lives round, and that is bearing us so quickly away. How remorseless the current is that flows beneath us, sometimes so noiseless, sometimes rippling in laughter against the sides of our bark, sometimes rising in foam and wrath and threatening our destruction, yet always bearing us onward upon its bosom, steadily onward to the unknown! And, when we consider it, not only how remorseless but also how rapid the movement is! How many scenes we pass through on our way! How many new reaches of experience we discover, then leave behind! How many faces flit and fade around us! How fast we all live! Of course, it would be sinful to think of this ceaseless movement in which we are all involved as if it were a mere brute fate to which we must perforce submit. This constant chance to which we are all committed is, for one thing, the condition of progress. Without it life would not become the deeper, broader, larger thing which somehow it does become as our years go on. And, besides, how flat and stale it would otherwise he! And yet every one must feel that were there only ceaseless change in our earthly lot--no anchor sure and steadfast for us anywhere--life would be terrible indeed. It is only children that seek perpetual novelty--children, and those who, though they have become men, have not laid aside childish things. Wiser men begin to perceive ere long that life is not a pleasure ,all after all, that the currents are stronger than they think, and may carry them away. Only Christ abides! Christ--the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever! Christ--who outlives the seeming changeless heavens themselves. Christ the True, the Unalterable Love, the Immovable Friend.

II. DRIFTING FROM CHRIST.

1. A storm may have broken out in your life, and driven you away from Christ.

(1) It may have been a storm of doubt. There are always some minds for whom it is peculiarly difficult to bold on to Jesus Christ. They find it hard to accept implicitly those half-revealed truths, like the incarnation, and the Cross, and the working of Gods Spirit in the heart of man, much harder than others find it. They cannot help themselves. Their mind works speculatively. They must peer over the edge of the known truth into the unknown abysses beneath, and there they stand amazed, affrighted. Also, perhaps, in our own lime it is more difficult than ever for such persons to believe. A vast number of new ideas have been thrown lately into the general mind which there has hardly been time as yet to estimate and assign to their proper place; and then, perhaps, men, becoming acquainted with these ideas, as they must, are at a loss to know how exactly to adjust the old view of things to them.

(2) Or the storm may have been a storm of trouble. Sometimes, I know, a storm of this kind may drive men to Christ rather than away from Him. But sometimes, too, it happens that the tempest that sends one man to Jesus Christ drives another away. He cannot see the meaning of a visitation so sore, or the righteousness of it, or any light upon it at all. Existence darkens round the man, and everything he once was sure of slips away from him- everything, including Christ.

2. Or, again, it may be an influence less obvious that does it. I question very much whether we make a much allowance as we should for what you may call the ebb and flow of the tide of life in us all. Perhaps it is because we understand so little about it. The fact appears to be that it is with man as with Nature. We know how the heart of Nature beats time to a mysterious mighty rhythm, and how regularly recurring arc those deep respirations of her life which we name summer and winter, and night, and day. But we forget how our own tiny being seems to share in this hidden law. Our very body is attuned to it; there are periods in our life at which our vitality is greater; others at which it is less; nav,in every twenty-four hems a wave of life-force rises within us, then falls again--so that a doctor will tell you beforehand at what),our the sufferers strength will flicker up most brightly, when it will be spent and die. Now, on this physical basis I believe more of the moral phenomena of our lives depend than we are aware. Our temptations mix themselves up strangely with this ebb and flow that ceaselessly goes on within. Our animalism takes advantage of the flowing tide of lustihood in youth to come in upon us like a flood. With the ebb of manhoods early vigour enthusiasm and the capacity of an ardent faith and love are apt to ebb also. And even at intervals much more frequent the same sort of thing occurs. If you will watch your temptations--especially the more notable of them--carefully you will find they almost obey a law of periodicity. As hunger and thirst assert themselves (roughly speaking) at regularly recurring intervals, so do our temptations. Our sins, like ourselves if they slumber for a time, awake with renewed energy.

3. If it has been neither of these, then it may have been something more slow and subtle and secret still. You have seen a vessel, owing to no sierra or the rise of any tide, but simply through the restlessness of the element in which it floats, gradually loosen from it- moorings, and little by little be borne out to sea. And even when lie more powerful currents are passing around us there is this infinite restlessness in all our lives which may of itself be fatal, Repose is an impossibility here. A thousand varying cares and moods and occupations agitate the surface of our lives. And with this there comes a chafing which may by slow degrees wear out the strands of loyalty that bind us to our Lord. Indeed, when Christians drift from Christ it is probably, in the vast majority of cases, due to this very cause.

III. REGAINING ONES MOORINGS. You will observe that the counsel the writer gives is with a view rather to prevent so sad a lapsing. It is the same prescription that apples here, whether the case be one of prevention or of cure. And certainly no prescription could well be simpler. It is by no violent efforts, no beating up against the adverse forces of his life, that any man will regain his old attachment to Jesus Christ, but just by giving earnest heed--the more earnest, heed to things he has heat d about Him. It is contemplation of the truth that brings him back again, and contemplation, not so much of any new discoveries he may make concerning Jesus Christ, but just of those familiar aspects of His person and His work that first won his trust. There is that in Jesus Christ which, if He is pondered humbly, has the power to draw the heart as with the force of gravity to centre and stay itself once more on Him. It is a great thing to keep near the old familiar fruit s--to keep near the old familiar Christi The stable Christian is always the simple Christian. Think of the staunchest believer you know, the least moved by any strums; how, you a-k, has this steadfastness come to him? Infallibly thus: through going much apart with God to muse and pray; through often saying within his heart, Jesus, my Friend, is God; through kneeling at the cross till the conviction has begun to stir within him, He loved me, He gave Himself for me; through pondering the vastness of forgiveness; through much looking in the Spirit towards that crown of righteousness which is laid up for him against that day. Such a believer has many an anchor to hold him. Neither things present not things to come will separate him from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Alex. Martin, M. A.)

Soul drifting

I. WHAT IS THIS DRIFT? It is the dying out of impression, the decay of faith, the gradual loss of force. The writer is not contemplating a change of attitude towards the gospel brought about by a preview as intellectual movement to which the man himself had been a party, but one which very slowly, but very certainly, reflects the silent action of unseen and unrecognised forces which are at work within and around him, and the ultimate effect of which may be an utter loss of all which once he most valued, and an abandonment to influences which once he regarded with mingled hatred and dread.

1. There is here clearly an anticipation of drift both in doctrine and practice. The two re regarded as so united that the one cannot suffer and the other be uninjured. The truth which holds a man rules his life, and the only way of getting rid of the effect, is to remove the cause.

2. The survival of Christian life after the loss of Christian faith is a contingency the sacred writer does not contemplate. The drift is a drift of the entire man--affections, aims, motives, as well as principles.

3. Drift is always to evil. It is by struggle that we advance heavenward; but there are countless influences inclining us to a retrograde course. Wit, out a strong force within, and without constant communications of Divine grace to maintain and strengthen it, we shall infallibly go back.

II. MARK THE SOURCES OF THIS EVIL.

1. It is not easy--if it be not impossible--for a Christian to live in the world without being exposed to influences unfriendly to his faith and loyalty.

2. It is in the tendencies o the age--tendencies which may have much in them that is beautiful and admirable--that this peril lies They assail us on the side where we least expect danger, and they have so fair and winning an aspect that it is hard to meet them with stern resistance.

3. These tendencies often, in their more exaggerated form, shape public sentiment, and the fear is lest we yield to the influence which they unconsciously exercise without sufficient discrimination between the good and the evil which may be in them. The spirit ,.f the age is against severity, whether in doctrine or practice; is easily moved by an appeal for Christian charity, and, with equal readiness, is excited to a righteous indignation against bigotry, and if it can itself be guilty of any approach to intolerance, is intolerant only of intolerance. The drift is to change; to greater breadth of thought, sympathy, and action; to creeds less elaborate and minute; to laws of conduct less exacting and severe, to enlarged freedom everywhere.

III. Is it necessary to point out THE POSSIBLE AND EVEN PROBABLE CONSEQUENCES. A little vessel which has been torn from its moorings, and is being carried far out to sea by the strong currents which are bearing it whithersoever they will, may be engulfed in some hidden quicksand, dashed to pieces on some rugged rock, carried thousands of miles away and stranded on a distant shore. The possibilities of evil are limitless to the ship which has lost helm and rudder, or has no one capable of using them wisely, and is at the mercy of wild winds and waves. There need be no truer picture of a soul that is drifting. It has elasped from the truths which once held it with a certain degree of force, which was a restraint from evil and a stimulus to good. Day by day they are receding into the distance, and becoming more dim and uncertain, while the soul, acted upon, by all varieties of influence, is borne hither and thither, uncertain in its aims, unstable in its course, unconscious of the fat to which it may be hastening. One thing only is sure about it--it is every day being carried further and further from all which once it loved and valued. Rocks of barren unbelief, or whirlpools of seductive pleasure and indulgence, may be in the path on which it is advancing, but there seems no power to arrest its course. The man has left himself to be the sport and plaything of outside circumstances or influences harmonising only too well with inclinations within, and now he is drifting before them to a miserable shipwreck of faith and of a good conscience. (J. G. Rogers, B. A.)

Drifting from Christ

I. THIS REPRESENTS A STATE WHICH IS FEARFULLY POSSIBLE (Ho 1Ti_5:15).

1. Tide is so in part because we are not always moored to Christ when we are brought to Him. A ship may be skilfully guided into the harbour, her crew may be able to leap ashore, and there she will remain till the tide turns; but then, unless her cables are thrown out and she is fastened there, she will drift to sea again. So we may be brought to Christ, a number of influences may lead us to Him, we may be so affected by religious emotion and reverence for Him and even a belief in our personal salvation as to be ready to endure reproaches and afflictions, and we may seem to be Christians, yet we may not have joined ourselves to the Redeemer by an act of living faith. Whilst the tide runs that way (and that may be for years) our safety is unsuspected even by ourselves; but let a change come, and slowly we slip away, and at length on some distant coast others come across the fragment of a wreck that bears our name. We may be close to Christ for long without the cable of faith binding us to Him, and thus the soul may drift away even from Him and be lost.

2. Besides which there are powerful adverse currents which tend to carry us from the Saviour. Difficulties occur, the fear of man begins to tell, the winds of temptation blow, the current of worldly custom runs strong, the unseen force of old habits and depraved inclination increases, and then I well, however strong the came, it will creak and strut., and every fibre of it be needed to bold the ship. But what if there be no cable--no vital faith? Why, then the soul will inevitably part company with Christ.

3. And this drifting away is more likely, because our departure from Christ may be for some time inperceptible. How many Christians there are whose religion once a delightful reality has become poor, who think distressingly, Oh, that, I were as in days that are past! who can see how tar they have drifted, but did not know they were drifting at the time, and who scourge themselves because of it!

II. TO DRIFT AWAY FROM CHRIST IS TO DRIFT TO RUIN.

1. To drift away from Christ is to forsake the only refuge for sinful men. The blessings we so sorely need are there alone, away from Him is but the wintry shoreless sea of doom.

2. To drift away from Christ is to disregard the supreme claims of Christ. For there is another aspect of drifting away from the Saviour; it isnt simply how it affects us, but how it affects Him. Oh, could we have but a glimpse of Him and of His authority, great horror would seize us at the thought of departing from Him. But when we further see this glorious One for us men pour out His soul in the anguish of the cross, and still cleave to us notwithstanding our worthlessness and sin, we are self-condemned to the lowest perdition if we suffer anything to let us drift away from Him, and may well ask in awe, How shall we escape?

3. To drift away from Christ is to resist the grace that has brought us close to Him.

III. THIS, THEN, IS A LOUD CALL TO EARNEST HEED LAST WE DRIFT AWAY.

1. If we are moored to Christ our blessedness consists in the maintenance of close fellowship with Him.

2. Though we are close to Christ, we are in great peril till we are anchored here.

3. If we are drifting away from Christ, everything depend, on our returning before we get further off. (C. New.)

Drifting

I prefer the rendering given by the revisers: least we should drift away from them; it is a more exact translation of the Greek term, and brings into prominence a truth which is almost entirely concealed by the common version. The writer is anxious to warn his readers of something which might happen to them before they were aware. On my first tour through Switzerland I visit d the quaint old city of Thun, along with three intimate friends. We stay, d at a hotel built on the side of the lake, just at the place where the Aar runs rapidly out of it, and we went to amuse ourselves for a season by rowing about in a little boat. After awhile a difference of opinion sprang up among us as to the direction we should take. One said, Let us go yonder; another answered, No; let us rather make for that other point; a third had another suggestion, and we ceased rowing until we should make up our minds; but meanwhile the current was settling the question for us, and unless we had speedily bent to the oars with all our might, we should have been hurried along into a dangerous place, out of which we could only have been rescued, if rescued at all, by the assistance of others. The influences, therefore, against which we are warned by the text are these of currents which are flowing just where we are, and which may operate so insidiously that we may not know of their effect until perhaps it is too late to resist their power.

I. Take then, first, that which I may call THE AGE-CURRENT, or what a re-eat English essayist, borrowing from the German, has called the Time-spirit. A physical science which has taken up with the doctrine of development, and has insisted that what is at best an ingenious hypothesis shall be accepted as a demonstrated fact, has prepared the way for an agnostic philosophy which refuses to believe that anything can be known save that which can be perceived by the bodily senses, aided by the scalpel and the microscope, and that, in its turn, has given birth to a rank atheism, which has adopted as its creed the terrible negation, No God. If it be true that the standard of piety and morality is lower among Christians than it was formerly; if it be the case that the Church is less of an aggressive force in our large centres of population than it was a generation ago; if the numbers of those enrolling themselves in its ranks are smaller than they have bees in other days, may it not be owing to the fact that we have not been taking heed to guard against this age-drift which has been flowing beneath us? Let us get back to Christ, and anchor fast on Him.

II. The second current to which I would refer is that of THE PLACE IN WHICH WE DWELL. Every city bus its own peculiar influence. We must guard against the slightest backsliding; and to succeed in that we must constantly test ourselves by the things which we have heard from Jesus. The navigator is saved from danger from unknown currents by his daily observations. The tides of ocean do not affect the heavenly bodies; and by testing himself by these he knows precisely where he is. So the principles of the temper are not shifted by the tendencies of anyplace; and when we measure-ourselves by them, we may discover how it is with us. Let us not take it for granted that because we are making some effort in the right direction, therefore we must be going forward. For these efforts may not be enough to resist the force of the current, and we may be drifting backward after all. You remember the case of Sir Edward Parrys crew in the Arctic regions. They set out one day to draw a boat over the ice, expecting thereby to get farther northward and in the open water, but after they had journeyed thus far, if I remember rightly, a day and a half or two days, they took an observation, which revealed to their surprise that they were farther south than they had been when they set out, because while they had been going toward the pole, the ice on which they were had been carried by the drift of an under-current in the opposite direction. I fear that in this great business mart, where we are so exclusively occupied in buying and selling, and getting gain, many Christians among us are like these northern voyagers: they make exertions, and they seem, too, to be making progress; but, alas I the drift that carries the whole place has carried them with it, and in reality they are not so far advanced as they were, it may be, years ago.

III. A third current, to the influence of which we are exposed I would call THE PERSONAL DRIFT, the drift in each of us individually. In making astronomical observations, one operator is never precisely the same as another. Some are quick, others are slow; some are exceedingly precise, and others not so perfectly exact; and these differences, of course, affect the results at which they arrive. Therefore, to neutralise, as far as possible, any error which may be thereby occasioned, there is what is known as a personal equation for each, and by that his conclusions are rectified before they are sent forth for general acceptance. Now, in a similar way, spiritually, each man has his individual tendencies, which easily carry him in one direction or another. This personal drift, as I have named it, is the same thing as the writer of the Epistle from which my text is taken calls in another place the sin that doth most easily beset us, and by yielding to that many are carried at last into perdition. How easy it in to acquire an evil habit! (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)

How to keep the Word from slipping from us

We must let the Word slip at no time, though we have never such weighty business: one thing is necessary. This one thing necessary is to be preferred before all others: never let a sermon slip from you without some profit. But how shall we keep them from slipping away? There be four things to hold the Word from slipping from us

1. A meditation in that which we have heard: blessed is the man that meditateth in the law of God. When thou hast heard a sermon, take some time to meditate on it, that thou mayest imprint it on thy memory. This is a common fault among us. The Word of God preached to us passeth away. When we are once out of the Church, we never think on it again, therefore no marvel though it slip away from us.

2. Conference with others. The disciples that travelled to Emmaus conferred together the Bereans that came from St. Pauls sermon, took their Bibles and conferred together of the sermon. Many eyes see more than one; that which one hath forgotten, another may remember. Therefore let Christians recount the things they have heard, and that repetition will be as a nail to fasten the things they heard.

3. Prayer.

4. A care to practise that which we have heard. This is the digesting of our spiritual meat, and the converting of it into our substance. Many hear, but few care to practise that which they hear; it is never our own truly and indeed, till it be practised; that will make us grow up as perfect men in Christ Jesus. We hear swearing reproved, yet we swear still; drunkenness inveighed against, yet we are drunk still; envy and malice centre led, yet malicious still, yea, against the preachers, that are as Gods arm to pull us out of our sins: a manifest argument that we hold not that which we hear, but suffer it without fruit to slip from us. (W. Jones, D. D.)

Men ruined by drifting

Lifes ocean is full of currents, any one of which will sweep us past the harbour mouth even when we seem nearest to it, and carry us far out to sea. It is the drift that ruins men: the drift of the religious world; the drift of old habits and associations; the drift of ones own evil nature; the drift of the pressure of temptation. The young man coming from a pious home does not distinctly and deliberately say, I renounce my fathers God. But he finds himself in a set of business associates who have no care for religion; and, after a brief struggle, he relaxes his efforts and begins to drift, until the coastline of heaven recedes so far into the dim distance that he is doubtful if he ever really saw it. The business man, who now shamelessly follows the lowest maxims of his trade, was once upright and high-minded. But he began by yielding in very trivial points to the strong pressure of competition; and when once he had allowed himself to be caught by the tide, it bore him far beyond his first intention. The professing Christian, who now scarcely pretends to open the Bible or pray, came to so terrible a position, not at a single leap, but by yielding to the pressure of the constant waywardness of the old nature, and thus drifted into an Arctic region, where he is likely to perish, benumbed and frozen, unless rescued, and launched on the warm Gulf Stream of the love of God. It is so easy, and so much pleasanter to drift. Just to lie back, and renounce effort, and let yourself go whither the waters will, as they break musically on the sides of the rocking boat. But, ah, how ineffable the remorse, how disastrous the result! Are you drifting? You can easily tell. Are you conscious of effort, of daily, hourly resistance to the stream around you, and within? Do the things of God and heaven loom more clearly on your vision? Do the waters foam angrily at your prow as you force your way through them? If so, rejoice; but remember that only Divine strength can suffice to maintain the conflict, and keep the boats head against the stream. If not, you are drifting. Hail the strong Son of God. Ask Him to come on board, and stay you, and bring you into port.(F. B. Meyer, B. A.)

The influences that cause men to drift frets Christ

The forces that with a continuous action tend to move men away from the faith of Christ, and were especially strong in the ease of the Hebrews, are--the many influences of life; the feeling of isolation in the world, or, the other side of this, sympathy with national sentiment and thought; the hardships and slights undergone at the hands of those without; and the monotonous uniformity of the world, where all things continue as they were and give no signs of the Lords coming: while the resistance offered to such forces is but feeble, owing to the sluggishness of the mind which permits it to take but a loose hold of truth, and the weakness of faith which makes it but dimly present to itself the hope of our calling. (A. B, Davidson, LL. D.)

Slipping back prevented

It would produce a wonderful change if men did all they knew they ought to do. There would then be a new encouragements to labour. The preaching of the Word would then make steady progress. I have seen the waggons of Pennsylvania armed with a stout, iron-shod stake trailing behind. Whenever in ascending a hill the horses stopped, the stake at once held the waggon fast and prevented it from slipping back. A device worthy of imitation in spiritual things! It is discouraging to press up the hill on the Sabbath-day and then keep slipping back through the week; to make large advance in a time of religious interest, and then slip downward through long succeeding months of deadness in the Church. Cannot this be prevented? Yes, by obedience to the suggestion before us we may hold ourselves firm. If each deed of life is faithfully performed according to our knowledge of duty, then are we going steadily on in spiritual blessing, losing no ground in our advance. We shall at last reach the summit of our hopes and stand in Christs presence complete in Him.

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

Heb 2:1. Therefore, &c. — The foregoing display of the greatness of the Son of God being designed to convince mankind of the great excellence and importance of that gospel of which he is the author, and of the great guilt of disobeying, neglecting, or apostatizing from it, the apostle now proceeds to caution his readers against these evils, solemnly warning them of the awful consequences thereof, and urging them to pay the utmost attention to the things which they had heard from Jesus and his apostles, that is, to the contents of the gospel in general, whether historical, doctrinal, preceptive, promissive, or comminatory. Therefore, says he, δια τουτο, on this account, because the Son, by whom God has spoken to us in these last days, and given us his gospel, is so glorious a person, infinitely superior even to the holy angels, and much more to every merely human messenger formerly sent by God to men; we ought to give the more earnest heed to it — More than the Israelites gave of old to the law, which had not such an immediate author, and more than we ourselves have formerly given to the gospel itself, when we were less acquainted with its excellence and importance. We ought to take heed that we neither forfeit nor lose our interest in it; to the things which we have heard — So the apostle expresses the doctrine of the gospel with respect to the way and manner whereby it was communicated, namely, by preaching, an ordinance which he magnifies, making it, as every where else, the great means of begetting faith in men, Rom 10:14-15. So that he insists upon and recommends to them, not only the things themselves, wherein they had been instructed, but also the way whereby they were made acquainted with them: this, as the means of their believing, as the ground of their profession, they were diligently to remember and attend to. The apostle says we ought, joining himself with them to whom he wrote, to manifest that the duty he exhorted them to was of general concern to all to whom the gospel was preached, so that he laid no singular burden on them; and that he might not as yet discover to them any suspicion of their inconstancy, or make them suppose that he entertained any severe thoughts concerning them; apprehensions whereof are apt to render exhortations suspected, the minds of men being very ready to disregard what they are persuaded to, if they suspect that undeserved blame is the ground of the exhortation. Lest at any time we should let them slip — Namely, out of our minds; lest we should lose the remembrance of them, or the impression they once made upon us. The Greek, μη ποτε παραρρυωμεν, is literally, lest we should run out, namely, as leaky vessels which let the water, poured into them one way, run out many ways. The word relates to the persons, not to the things, because it contains a crime. It is our duty to retain the word which we have heard, and therefore it is not said that the water flows out, but that we, as it were, pour it out, losing that negligently which we ought to have retained. And, says Dr. Owen, “there is an elegant metaphor in the word; for as the drops of rain falling on the earth water it and make it fruitful, so does the celestial doctrine make fruitful unto God the souls of men upon whom it descends: and hence, with respect to the word, of the gospel, Christ is said to come down as the showers on the mown grass, Psa 72:6; and the apostle calls preaching the gospel, watering men, 1Co 3:6-7; and compares them to whom it is preached, to the earth that drinketh in the rain, Heb 6:7. Hence men are here said to pour out the word preached, when, by negligence, they lose, instead of retaining, the benefit of the gospel. So when our Lord compares the same word to seed, he illustrates men’s falling from it by all the ways and means whereby seed, cast into the earth, may be lost or become unprofitable.” It may not be improper to observe here, that as water is lost gradually out of a leaky vessel, so the remembrance of, and faith in, the truths of the gospel, with the enlightening, quickening, renewing, strengthening, and comforting influence produced by them, are usually lost gradually, perhaps also insensibly. We lose, 1st, Our remembrance of them; 2d, Our love to and relish for them; and, 3d, The effect produced by them, perhaps both the internal graces and the external virtues flowing therefrom. The apostle says, lest at any time we should let them slip. Some lose their grace in a time of peace and prosperity, some in a time of persecution and adversity, and some in the hour of peculiar temptation: for God in his wisdom suffers such an hour to come upon the church for its trial, and upon every member of it, that they may be conformed to their Head, who had his special seasons of temptation. In this trying time many lose the good effects of the word they have heard, either wholly or in some measure. They are cast into a negligent slumber by the opiates of temptation, and when they awake and consider the state of their hearts and lives, they find that the whole efficacy of the word is lost. The ways also, it ought to be observed, whereby this woful effect is produced, are various; as, 1st, The love of the world, which made Demas a leaky vessel, 2Ti 4:10; and choked the fourth part of the seed in the parable, Mat 13:22. 2d, The love of sin; a vile affection or corrupt passion will make the spiritual vessel full of chinks, so that it will not retain the spiritual water. Again, 3d, False doctrine, formality in worship, contentions and divisions among the serious professors of religion, will easily produce, if yielded to, the same unhappy effect. Let the reader, thus warned, be upon his guard in these and such like respects.

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

3. The guilt of disobeying the word of the Son proportioned to the dignity of his nature, Heb_2:1-4.

1. Therefore—In view of the great fact unfolded in the last entire chapter, that the Son, who now speaks, is lord of angels, creator of worlds, the eternal through all ages of the changing temporals. The importance of the things… heard is proportionate to the eternal Speaker.

Let them slip— Rather, lest we slip past them, in carelessness and inattention. The Greek verb really signifies to flow or glide by, as a stream of water. It is really a neuter verb, and yet is here used in the subjunctive passive, so as to read literally, lest we be flowed (or glided) past them. Similar is the Septuagint phrase in Pro_3:2, rendered freely, “My son, let them not depart from thine eyes.”

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

THE HIGHER RESPONSIBILITIES OF HIGHER REVELATIONS

CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES

THE rhetorical character of the epistle is indicated in the hortatory passages that are so freely inserted. The exhortation here, Heb_2:1-4, introduces the reason for the peril of apostasy. It was the temporary humiliation of the Son which, unless its purpose was clearly understood, might so easily be misapprehended, and lead to a denial of His pre-eminence and Divine dignity. This brings the writer again to his argument. The humiliation of the Son was a necessity for the carrying through and perfecting of His high-priestly work.

Heb_2:1. Therefore.—Because such superiority belongs to Christ as the Author and Head of the new dispensation. It is an Eastern idea to honour an invited guest by sending a servant of the highest rank to call him to the feast. Meeting this idea, the writer sets forth the supreme dignity of Christ as giving special claim to the invitation He brings. More earnest heed.—Scripture conceives of attention as an effort of will, with a view to the active obedience of what is heard. Diligent application of the mind. Intelligent understanding is the proper basis of faith. We have heard.—Distinct reference to the gospel as the Divine revelation made to us. Slip.—R.V. “lest haply we drift away from them.” The word παραρρυῶμεν has two meanings:

(1) to fall, stumble, perish;

(2) to suffer to flow from memory, to forget. The Greek usage, as collected by Wetstein, is, “to flow as liquids.” Best translation is, “lest we should glide by them.” Not “run out as leaky vessels,” a rendering first given in the Genevan Testament, 1557 A.D. “Unless the mind be held closely to the words that God has spoken, it must drift away from them, and from the salvation which they promise.”

Heb_2:2. Word.—Reference is to the law given on Sinai, and said to have been given by “the disposition of angels.” See Act_7:53; Gal_3:10; Deu_33:2. Was stedfast.—Proved steadfast, its sanctions being fully upheld. Transgression.—The figure in this word is lost in the English translation. It is “walking alongside of,” and so, not walking in the path. The reference is to positive, intentional sin. Disobedience.—The figure in this word is “hearing”: “to hear beside”; so “to hear by stealth,” or inaccurately. Moral heedlessness. The reference is to negative sin, or neglect. Recompence of reward.—Pay for conduct. Reward of retributive justice, including punishments. A wide use of the term “reward.”

Heb_2:3. We escape.—We to whom the revelation ministered by the Son has come. Escape the judgment that must fall on those more highly privileged. Great salvation.—Proper word for the mission of the Son. The Jewish revelation may be called a “government,” or a “regulation”; it was not evidently a salvation. The greatness is especially seen in its having a Divine Administrator. By the Lord.—Jesus Himself. Compare directly in the Son, and indirectly by the medium of angels and Moses. Confirmed.—Ratified. Them that heard.—Apostles and first disciples, of whom the writer of this epistle was not one. The more unquestionable the gospel message was, the greater was the responsibility of those to whom it came.

Heb_2:4. Signs.—Tokens or indications of the near presence of God; a seal of power put on the person who accomplishes the miracle. Wonders.—Astonishing events, which the beholder can reduce to no law with which he is acquainted. Christ’s miracles are never called “wonders” only. Divers miracles.—Or manifold powers. Principal reference is intended to the miracles and spiritual endowments of the early Church. “Wonders,” indicating the effect on bystanders; “signs,” indicating that they had a moral purpose; “miracles,” or proofs of the presence and working of a Divine power; “gifts,” endowments for use, such as tongues, and power to interpret. The word “gifts” should be “distributions.”

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Heb_2:1-4

Three Great Things.—A remarkable feature of this epistle is the frequent introduction of hortatory passages, which remind us of the preacher rather than of the letter-writer. Those passages reveal the distinctly practical object of the writer. He is concerned with doctrine for the sake of its practical applications to life and conduct, rather than for the sake of its theological interests. Ever before his mind is the danger of the Jewish Christians relapsing from their Christian profession into their old and formal Judaism. And in dealing with them he does not wholly trust to argument as an appeal to mind; he uses urgent persuasions—the personal force—as an appeal to heart. “Out of the heart are the issues of life.” But it should be borne in mind that the appeals are made to persons with Jewish feelings and associations, and are precisely adapted to them.

1. “How shall we escape?” implies recognised peril. In the writer’s mind are the judgments which came on the unfaithful under the old covenant. These are representative of the judgments which come on those who are unfaithful to God’s covenant with man. To that covenant all of us are found unfaithful, and all of us stand exposed to judgment.

2. Neglect implies that a way of rescue has been provided. What was the way under the old covenant? Illustrated by the arrangement of cities of refuge. The way of bringing sacrifice; sin, trespass, burnt offerings. These foreshadow and represent the spiritual sacrifice which Christ offered, and which we offer—“our bodies a living sacrifice.”

3. Neglect further implies some preoccupation hindering attention. The preoccupation of some mistaken views. What would lead an old Jew to neglect sacrificing?

4. The greatness of the salvation implies a serious increase of peril for the negligent. That older salvation from ceremonial penalty was a great salvation. It was God’s own intervention. Now the salvation is from sins, and involves the sacrifice of God’s own Song of Solomon 5. The tone of the question “How escape?” implies the hopelessness of finding any other rescue. As addressed to the Jewish Christians, it pleads in this way: You cannot fall back on the old, now you know its essentially preparatory character, and its limited, ceremonial range. And certainly you cannot fall away to idolatrous schemes, seeing that your old religion was so decided an advance upon them. Once advance, you can never go back.

I. The great salvation.—A Divine intervention for man’s relief and help. God’s constant work is redeeming; that work, at its highest level, is redemption from sin. Think of the greatness of this salvation.

1. In its sphere—sin’s penalty and power.

2. In its range—all humanity.

3. In its agency—personal surrender and self-sacrifice. These are not, however, immediately present to the writer’s mind. He sees the greatness of the salvation

(1) in the Agent working it out;

(2) in the agents conveying the report of it;

(3) in the miracles supporting the agents.

II. The great responsibility.—“How shall we escape?” The plea is based on the universally working law that “privilege brings responsibility.” This is one of the truths of fact that were prominent in our Lord’s teaching. But it is very easy for men to say, “Then we are better off without the privilege, and may envy the heathen who have none.” We must not think thus, because our glory and our joy lie in advance, in progress. Animals make no progress. Birds build their nests to-day just as they built them in the trees of Paradise. For a man to hear the gospel is for him to become another man. He can never be the same again. He has stepped up into privilege. He must be judged in the light of the new knowledge.

III. The great condemnation.—“If we neglect.” Apply to the Jewish Christians, who were not rejecting, only neglecting. In some audiences it might be necessary to plead that Christ was being rejected. In ordinary congregations the danger is not rejection, but neglect. There is:

1. The neglect of indifference.

2. The neglect of preoccupation.

3. The neglect of shaken confidence. Rejection may be the sin of the one here and there. Neglect is the sin of the many. But is it reasonable to make so much depend on simple neglect? It is, if you recognise what moral character is shown in rejection, and what in neglect. Neglect is more hopeless than rejection. Those who reject may think again. Those who neglect let the opportunity slip by. For those who neglect there is the misery of having missed eternal life because they would make no effort.

SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES

Heb_2:1. “Let slip.”—You know how it is when water is poured into a leaky bucket: it runs out quickly; it is very soon all gone. When we have bad memories, our minds are such a leaky vessel; the things that we are taught run away from us as water runs through a sieve. And so this lesson about holding fast is a very important one; it is the same duty that the angel in the Apocalypse urges on the Christians of the “seven Churches.”—R. Newton.

Drifting.—Drifting! drifting! that is the precise word. The boat is unanchored. It is at the moment in a quiet place; but by-and-by the tide ebbs and bears it in its bosom on to the middle of the current, and then it is carried out and away, and perhaps, if no one has observed its motions, irrecoverably lost.—Dr. Tayler.

Drifting from Christ.—“Lest haply we drift away.” Those who deliberately renounce their Divine hope are few; those who make shipwreck of faith by imperceptibly getting further and further away are many. This drifting away is possible:

1. Because we are not always moored to Christ when we are brought to Him.

2. Because there are powerful adverse currents which tend to carry us from the Saviour.

3. Our departure from Christ may be for some time imperceptible. To drift from Christ is to drift to ruin.

(1) It is to forsake the only refuge for sinful men.

(2) It is to disregard the supreme claims of Christ.

(3) It is to resist the grace that has brought us close to Him. Conclusion:

1. If we are moored to Christ, our blessedness consists in the maintenance of close fellowship with Him.

2. Though we are close to Christ, we are in great peril until we are anchored there.

3. If we are drifting away from Christ, everything depends on our returning before we get further off.—Charles New.

Drawn on to the Coral Reefs.—In the Southern Seas sailing vessels, when there is no wind, dare not approach the islands nearer than two or even three miles. Currents constantly flow towards the land, and they insensibly act upon the vessels, so that they drift to destruction on the coral reefs.

Drifting from the Truth.—The idea is, that these Jewish Christians, to whom the epistle was addressed, were in danger of being carried away from the gospel of Christ, just as a vessel will be drifted down the stream unless it is held firmly to its anchorage, or unless there is constant exertion on the part of those who are on board to resist the current. There was a strong tide running, and unless they gave earnest heed to the gospel they would be swept away into their old Jewish life.—R. W. Dale.

Heb_2:3. Great Salvation because Great Saviour.—On the intrinsic greatness of the salvation the writer does not dwell. It is implied in the unique dignity and commission of Him through whom it is given. To the Jewish Christians the message of the salvation came:

1. Direct from Christ.

2. Then from those who actually knew Christ.

3. And their testimony was sealed by the miracles of healing and blessing which they wrought.

No escaping if there is neglecting.—Consider the argument of this epistle. It is an argument against apostasy. These Hebrew Christians were in danger of going back to an effete Judaism; but “the Old Testament dispensation, with its prophets and priests and Temple and sacrifices, was only a type of Christ, and was to disappear when Christ Himself had come.” The revelation of God in His Son is the culminating revelation. That having been made, that which has led to it and introduced it is no longer necessary, and to cling to it is to cling to superfluity. The man who trusts in Jesus is safe whether the Temple fall or stand, whether he worship within its precincts or be thrust out of them. Then the epistle goes on to substantiate this truth by various argumentation. Angels, the messengers of God, had to do with the introduction of the old economy; but Christ, the Founder of the new economy, is superior to angels. His title is superior. He is called the Son of God. No angel was ever called the son of God in such terms as would involve sameness of nature with God; but Christ is. Therefore He is superior; but angels are required to worship Christ. Therefore, again, He is superior. Then, again, the angels are called winds and lightning—names implying servitude; but Christ is He at whose behests the angels go forth as winds and as lightnings; and so, as King over them, Christ is their superior. And therefore, since Christ is thus the superior of angels, the dispensation which He Himself personally introduced must be higher in authority, and more enduring in existence. This, then, is the first argument in substantiation of the theme of the epistle. But the Bible is the most practical of books. Let a truth but be established, and at once it springs to press that truth in application. So before another argument is introduced to substantiate further the mighty theme of the epistle, the discussion tarries for pressing the truth it has carried home. If, though this preparatory dispensation was less in authority and grandeur, yet if even this lower and lesser word spoken by angels and delivered to men by Moses was nevertheless a word most firm; if disobedience even to that lower and lesser word was always followed with its threatened penalty,—then how shall we escape if we neglect this so great salvation; this word, the highest and most precious possible, which the Son of God Himself has come to tell us? Such is the setting of the inspired argument. A most pertinent question, How shall we escape if we neglect?

1. There can be no further and other Divine revelation as to salvation from sin. In Christ dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily (Eph_2:9). God cannot speak more plainly than He has spoken by His Song of Solomon 2. There can be no other and further Divine sacrifice for sin. God has nothing more to give than He has already given. Even infinity does not possess a preciousness beyond that of the only begotten Song of Solomon 3. Our own good works cannot possibly match or go beyond the efficacy residing in the finished work of Christ. To trust in them, rather than in what He has done, is not only folly—it is sacrilege.

4. No sacramental rite administered by man can possibly equal the completed atonement wrought by Christ and ministered by the Holy Spirit to the believing soul.

5. In every sense this salvation is a salvation utmost. In no way can we touch or pass beyond that limit. How, then, can we escape if we neglect?

6. And to neglect it is to refuse it.

Responding to our Privileges.—Perhaps you have not noticed the force of the text as it stands in its connection. It really is a very serious warning to converted people; the neglect referred to is the sort of neglect to which professing Christians are tempted. It sets us upon the inquiry, “How may you and I, who have so long borne the Christian name, be found to-day neglecting the responsibilities, claims, and duties of the ‘great salvation’?” The epistle to the Hebrews is distinctly addressed to Hebrew Christians, to Christians who had been Jews, and for the most part devout and zealous Jews. From the tone of the epistle we gather, that these Judaic Christians were placed under some special perils and temptations. There was evidently some grave danger of their returning upon the formalities of that Mosaic system out of which they had come. The writer seems deeply impressed with the peril, the disgrace, the hopelessness, of apostasy. The danger of those Hebrew Christians recurs in every age. It is ours to-day as truly as it was theirs yesterday. Those who have gained a spiritual religion are exposed to the temptation to pass back upon a sensuous religion. The religion of the surrendered will and the heart’s love is difficult to maintain; easily we come to substitute for it a religion of attending services, observing sacraments, and pressing conduct into moulds. The Christian Jews addressed in this epistle had stepped up out of formal Judaism into spiritual Christianity. They had served the law written upon tablets of stone; now they had learned to serve the law written on the mind and heart. They had been religious by following and obeying rules; they had become religious by responding to Divine inward inspirations. They had been associated with a material Temple; they had now discovered that man can be the “temple of the Holy Ghost, and the Spirit of God can dwell in him.” They had lived by the letter; they now lived in the Spirit. But it was only with extreme difficulty that they could keep up in that high, spiritual atmosphere. We can quite understand their difficulty. The interests of the old Mosaic system clung to them. They had been the associations of their earliest years. Judaism was the religion of their childhood and youth. Every sentiment of reverence and affection gathered round the old system. No man ever yet found it easy to grow out of his youth-time associations. Some of us to-day can scarcely say that we have quite outgrown that hard, unloving Calvinism which was the atmosphere of our boyhood. It is stern work this growing in spiritual things. And formal religion, which gives us something for the eyes to look on, for the hands to handle, and for the knees to do, always has a strange fascination for sense-bound man. Formal religion, that requires routine, but asks for no mind and no feeling, always has been attractive, and it always will be. The many will always find a sort of contentment in that lower stage. Enough for them to ask, “What good thing can I do to inherit eternal life?” The sad thing is, that the religion of forms and ceremonies should even keep its fascination for those to whom the glories of spiritual religion have once been unfolded. Well may the apostle exclaim, in a passion of indignation, “But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.” And we must take into due account another fact. The advocates of the Mosaic system, who resisted the claims of Christianity, were intensely active in demanding continued obedience to the Jewish laws and rules. What are called “Judaising teachers” followed Paul everywhere, and persisted in claiming that every Christian convert should keep Mosaic rules; should be circumcised, should make vows, should observe rites, and should bring sacrifices, just as if he were a Jew. They declared that the formal religion could never be superseded, could never rise into anything higher or more spiritual. The New Testament tells us of the peril of falling back on formal Judaism from spiritual Christianity. The history of the first three centuries of the Church shows us the peril of falling back on paganism from spiritual Christianity. It is a sad story. The Gentile converts brought in Gentile ways, and soon Christianity became the old paganism, with new associations. The Church ritual that is so fascinating to men to-day, is, in almost every detail, old pagan ritual carried in to the ruinous overlaying of spiritual Christianity. It is of course possible, in a spirit of self-complacency, for us to say that all this concerns the apostolic Christians and the early Church Christians, and it is very sad, but then it has nothing whatever to do with us. I want to show you that, in forms and ways suitable to our own cases, this danger of falling from spiritual religion back upon formal religion is precisely the danger to which you and I are exposed to-day. We need the warning, lest we too should be found “neglecting the great salvation.” Our own religion begins in formality and routine. Mother makes us say our prayers, and sees that we say them regularly; and it is only saying prayers. Mother takes us to the services, and sees that we behave suitably. For long years every child’s, every boy’s, religion is in the Judaic stage. It consists in doing things that ought to be done. Then may come the experience which we call “conversion”; the soul’s awakening to personal relation with Divine and eternal things. We rise, in that hour of personal decision, to spiritual religion. But it is as hard for us to keep up there, in that spiritual region, as it was for the converted Jew to keep up in the refined atmosphere of spiritual Christianity. You and I are always ready to fall back on our old boy-religion of ordered prayers, attended services, and shaped conduct. We have no harder task than that of keeping ourselves right up in that spiritual realm, which, in the power of God’s Spirit, we have entered. You can easily become a formal Christian. It will cost you much and constant watchfulness and endeavour if you keep a spiritual Christian. The tendency is an ever-enduring and universal one. It belongs to biassed and deteriorated human nature; and the epistle to the Hebrews has always been wanted, and will always be wanted, because it deals with this tendency. It does so partly by a series of arguments, and partly by a series of persuasions. These are blended in a very striking way throughout the epistle, each branch of the argument being followed by a characteristic warning or persuasion. The argument is mainly a rhetorical comparison between the agents and mediators employed in connection with the two dispensations—the Jewish and the Christian—and between the sacrifices required in the two dispensations. We only now take the first of these comparisons. What has to be compared is the two Divine dispensations, the two great religious systems established by the Divine revelation—the formal system of Judaism, the spiritual system of Christianity. It must first of all be made perfectly clear that these systems were not antagonistic. They are related to each other; they are in no sense opposed to each other. They may be helpfully compared; they may never be contrasted. They stand in an order of time. That is not first which is spiritual, but that which is carnal, and afterward that which is spiritual. The one is the preparation for the other, the necessary preparation; it is the schoolmaster that trains for the life in Christ. The earlier unfolds into the later, and it may pass away when it has done its preparation work. The seed we sow in the ground is preserved by the husk, and the germ of the future plant is fed by the starch stored in the seed. But when the germ bursts forth into leaf, the flour and the husk may die. They have done their work, and passed into the plant that is to be. The spring bud is encased in a sheath, and protected while it is maturing; but when the flower opens, the sheath may fade and drop off. It has done its work, and really lives still in the beauty of the summer flower. The children’s scrap-books and picture-books are put away on the shelf—every home has a big pile of them: they seem to be useless; nay, they live on in the cultured power to read which they have quickened and trained. The apostle Paul puts the matter in a clever and suggestive sentence: “When that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” Ceremonial Judaism is as the toys in the cupboard, and as the picture-books on the shelf. They have had their day, and done their work, but we do not want them now. Somehow we never quite lose our interest in the toys and the books; and some never lose interest in formal Judaism. But the Spirit of the Lord has come, and “where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.”

I. In the passage from which the text is taken the agents of the two dispensations are compared. It was the received opinion of the Jews that their law was given on Mount Sinai “by the disposition of angels.” That was thought to declare the supreme grandeur of the revelation, of the law-giving. Angels! But what are angels? What are angels more than we? Are they not all ministering spirits? Created dependent servants, executing their Lord’s bidding, even as we are? The spiritual revelation and law given from Mount Sion came by Jesus Christ, God’s only-begotten and well-beloved Son, who is the “heir of all things, and by whom God made the world; who is the brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express image of His person; who upholds all things by His own power.” The applications and enforcements of the Mosaic law were made by a series of prophets, among whom were many great, many extraordinary men. “God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets.” The applications and enforcements of spiritual Christianity are made by the apostles of Jesus. The word at first was “spoken by the Lord,” but “it was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him.” On the face of it, therefore, this new revelation of God’s will to men is altogether higher and nobler: it brings to us higher privileges; it involves us in heavier responsibilities; it can crush us with heavier penalties. This is the argument, and this is its attendant persuasion: “Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” It is suggestive that the old dispensation and the new one should both be called a “salvation.” It is evidently named from its initial incident. Its true beginning was the great and glorious redemption of Israel from the Egyptian bondage, when Pharaoh’s chariots and host were cast into the sea, and Israel walked a wondrous way, and began their national life from those farther shores as a delivered, redeemed people. They sang in their song of triumph, “The Lord is become my salvation: He is my God, and I will prepare Him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt Him.” But that “salvation” brought Israel under the claim to serve Jehovah, and Jehovah only. They were bound to receive, and to obey strictly and carefully, all the law that Jehovah might be pleased to declare to them; and seeing that they were a nation in its child-stage, Jehovah graciously adapted His revelation and His law to them, gave the knowledge of His will through elaborate pictures of rites, and ceremonials, and observances, and ruled conduct by precise laws covering all their daily life and relations—“a people saved by the Lord.” They knew their Lord’s will; and “every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward.” And so the new dispensation is called a “salvation,” “so great salvation,” because it too began with a great and glorious redemption—the redemption wrought in the ministry and sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that redemption brings us under claim to serve Jehovah Christ. We are bound to receive and obey His law in everything. And that law, in its most searching spiritual way, takes motive, principle, feeling, enriches them with new force, and so affects all our conduct from within. The ransomed of the Lord ought to respond to all the claims and responsibilities involved in so “great salvation.”

II. The penalties of the two dispensations are compared.—There is an appearance of severity in the Mosaic sanctions. But we need not misunderstand it or exaggerate it. All first education is necessarily precise and severe. It ought to be. Parents and school-teachers properly begin by requiring exact obedience on penalty of punishments and deprivations. Joubert finely says that the universal law of training is “force till right is ready.” There is a severe side to Christianity, though it does not show as plain as the severe side of Judaism. It is severer: its demands are more comprehensive and searching; they concern motive and feeling. Its penalties are severer: they come upon the soul; they break off its relations with God; they involve “the second death.” “Of how much sorer punishment are they worthy” whose neglect of the great salvation may be figuratively described as “trampling underfoot the Son of God, counting the blood of the covenant an unholy thing, and doing despite unto the Spirit of grace.” That severer side of spiritual Christianity directly concerns you and me. With what condition of religious life may we think the warnings deal?

1. Penalties hang over all who pass back upon formality. “Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect in the flesh.” I beseech you, search and see whether formalism has crept into any of the features of your religious life. Once your soul shaped all your doings and relations. Is it now thus with you? The routine is kept up, the order is gone through; but there is no soul inspiring it now. You say your prayers; you do not pray. You attend the services; you do not worship. You observe sacraments; you do not feed with ever-fresh appetite upon the Bread of Life. There is a terrible disease from which men suffer, often for a long time without knowing it. The very substance of the heart actually hardens. There is a strange dropping-well at Knaresborough, Eng. As the water falls on living substances it encrusts them with stone. That “disease” has its religious counterpart; that “well” has its religious antitype. Scripture describes the man who has fallen back from spiritual upon formal religion: He is “dead while he liveth.” The penalty of formal religion, what is it? To be dead, soul-dead. What more awful penalty can you possibly think of?

2. Penalties hang over all who shrink from gospel responsibilities. Neglecting the salvation is neglecting the things the salvation involves. These I will only state in two forms:

(1) We are put into the school of Christ. It is perilous work to show ourselves unwilling to learn of Him.

(2) We are put into the rule of Christ. And it is perilous work to shrink from any form of the obedience to which He calls us. What hope of escape, in the great testing day, can the unspiritual Christian have? What hope of escape can the disobedient Christian have? What hope of escape can the negligent, unfaithful Christian have? “Every man’s work shall be tried of what sort it is.” Are you neglecting any of the claims, responsibilities, duties, of this great, this spiritual salvation? What—say what is your hope of escape in the testing day of God?

Heb_2:4. Spiritual Gifts witnessing to the Salvation.—“Gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His own will.” The writer has evidently in mind the extraordinary gifts which were bestowed on the early Church. The disciples were bidden by their ascending Lord to “tarry in Jerusalem, until they were endued with power from on high.” What that power was, and what were the outward signs of its coming, we learn at the Day of Pentecost. What the power developed into, and how it differentiated, so as to gain adaptation to every necessity of the Church, St. Paul tells us in 1Co_12:8-11; and he most carefully associates the gift or power with the presence of the indwelling Spirit. “For to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom; and to another the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit: to another faith, in the same Spirit; and to another gifts of healings, in the one Spirit; and to another workings of miracles; and to another prophecy; and to another discerning of spirits: to another divers kinds of tongues; and to another the interpretation of tongues: but all these worketh the one and the same Spirit, dividing to each one severally even as He will.” In the possession of these gifts the Church has one of its best evidences of the “great salvation.” The bestowment of the gift is God’s direct witness to the “salvation.”

I. Gifts are special enduements of power.—The man who has the gift has something which he had not before. It might or it might not bear relation to some natural faculty. But it was something new.

II. Every person regenerate in Christ had some special gift.—This truth has not been fully apprehended; and so the gift of each disciple has neither been looked for by himself nor by others; and consequently the Church is full of men with unused, and so virtually lost gifts.

III. The gifts are the sign of the presence and the inworking of the Divine and indwelling Spirit.—This is their deepest significance. We have them only because we have the Spirit. The Spirit comes to us before the gifts.

IV. The presence of the Holy Spirit is the seal of our personal salvation.—And so the gifts which declare that we have the Spirit witness that we are the saved ones on whom the Lord has “set His mark.”

ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 2

Heb_2:3. Perils of simply neglecting.—Simply neglect the great salvation, and you will make your everlasting ruin sure. Many foolish, faithless parents have killed their child, not by administering slow poison, or striking an assassin-knife through its young heart, but by the simple neglect of the first laws of health. Many parents, too, have wrung their hands in agony over a ruined son, fallen into disgrace, not because they have led that son into ruin, but because they had let him alone, and left him to rush into the cause of his misery unrestrained. Neglect was the boy’s ruin. There is no need for a man to row towards Niagara’s cataract—resting on his oars is quite enough to send him over the awful verge into eternal ruin.—T. L. Cuyler.

The Insult of neglecting Religion.—I can understand that man who says, “I have examined all the evidence, I have weighed and tested every argument, and I have come to the conclusion that the Bible is a fable, Christianity is a romance, and all that it says of eternity, death, and judgment the visions of a mere baseless dream.” I pity and deplore his conclusions; but there is a consistency about it. I very much doubt if it be not a greater insult to God to neglect religion, which is altogether inexcusable, than it is to reject it.—Dr. Cumming.

How escape?—The question “How shall we escape?” implies

(1) peril;

(2) provided rescue;

(3) neglect of provision;

(4) consequent increase of peril; and

(5) hopelessness of finding any other rescue.

Heb_2:4. The Temporary Mission of Miracles.—A gardener, when he transplanteth a tree out of one ground into another, before the tree takes root, sets stays to it, and poureth water at the root of it daily; but when it once taketh root he ceaseth to water it any more, and putteth away the stays that he set to uphold it, and suffereth it to grow with the order and influences of the heavens. So the Lord, in planting of religion. He put miracles as helps to stay it; but when it was once confirmed and fastened, and had taken deep rooting, He took away such helps; so that, as St. Augustine hath it, He that looketh for a miracle is a miracle himself; for if the death of Christ will not work faith, all the miracles in the world will not do it.—Spencer.

Cycles of Miracles.—The power and acceptableness of the evidence afforded by miracles is relative to the age to which they are given. Therefore it will be found that they have always come in cycles, and only in cycles.

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.

III

Warning exhortation to give heed to the revelation that has been brought to us through so extraordinary a mediation

Heb_2:1-4.

1Therefore [For this reason, διὰ τοῦτο] we ought1 [it is necessary, δεῖ] to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard [to the things which were heard, τοῖς ἀκουσθεῖσι], lest at any time [lest haply, lest perchance, μήποτε] we let them slip [flow by or drift away from them]. 2For if the word spoken by [through, διά] angels was [became, proved, ἐγένετο] steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; 3How shall we escape, if we neglect [after neglecting, ἀμελήσαντες] so great [a] salvation; which at the first began to be [was originally] spoken by [through, διά] the Lord, and was confirmed unto [for] us by them that heard4 him; God also [jointly] bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles [acts of power, δυνάμεις], and gifts [distributions] of the Holy Ghost, according to his own [his αὐτοῦ] will?

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Heb_2:1. For this reason it is necessary.—For the term Gospel (εὐαγγέλιον) our author employs here, after the periphrastic style of Luke (who employs the term εὐαγγέλιον only Act_15:7; Act_20:24), the term τὰ ἀκουσθέντα, the things which were heard, as referring not so immediately to the subject-matter of the Gospel, as to that special form of announcement which stands distinguished above all other methods of revelation. The Gospel would demand and deserve attention in whatever manner it might have found utterance in words, and addressed itself to our ears. The transcendent preëminence, however, of the mode of its historical introduction, creates a necessity lying in the very nature of the case, and whose observance is imperatively binding upon us, to direct and yield up to it our persons, Act_16:14 (προσέχειν ἡμᾶς, with a correspondingly heightened devotion (περισσοτέρως), frequent with Paul, and not, as affirmed by Bleek, unknown to the classics, but found [Del.] Diod. Sic. XIII. p. 108; Athen., V., p. 192 f.). For the διὰ τοῦτο, on this account, so points back to the preceding exhibition of the glory of the Mediator of the New Testament revelation, as to furnish a basis for that warning admonition to fidelity of faith, to which the author’s anxiety for his readers leads him at this early stage of the Epistle. If the required heed and devotion are withheld, then must follow the fearful consequences, which, as shown by the μήποτε, the author would fain avert from his readers.—lest we be swept, or drift by (παραῤῥυῶμεν, Lachm., Tisch., Isaiah 2 Aor. Subj. Pass.). Drift by what? Not by the sure harbor of eternal blessedness—which were only properly a consequence—but by that which is heard. Here again, however, it is not to be understood of forgetting the mere words, which would be a meaning quite inadequate to the gravity of the passage; nor of drifting by the salvation contained in the Gospel, which is correct, indeed, as to the substance of the thought, but overlooks the specific demands of the context. It is rather that firm hold or holding-point, proffered in the Gospel, and which conditions our attainment of salvation. This those lose who do not yield themselves up personally to that which is brought to their hearing, and are then carried away from the Gospel, and as it were swept by the salvation which is in it not merely announced, but actually held out and communicated to believers, and are thus without stay or anchor, borne on by the stream, “as a ship before her landing shoots away into destruction.” (Gloss of Luther).

Heb_2:2. For if the word which was spoken through angels.—The supposition, which the author shares with his readers, and which he makes the basis of his reasoning, a minori ad majus, is the two-fold one, 1. that the Mosaic law is a word established by Divine authority, and which hence is not only obligatory, but also in earlier history vindicated its validity against every objective transgression (παράβασις), and subjective neglect (παρακοή, refusal to hear), by corresponding retribution; 2. that it was given through the intervention not of the Divine Messiah or Son, but only of angels. This angelic agency, however, finds no mention at Exodus 19. in connection with the legislation of Sinai, and also at Heb_12:19, only a Divine φωνὴ ῥημάτων, voice of words is mentioned in distinction from the accompanying natural phenomena. For this reason Dorsch, Calov, Schöttgen, Carpzov and Semler, have referred the passage to such revelations as Gen_19:26, in which angelic agency is actually mentioned, exclusively of the law; while again D. Heinsius and G. Olearius, seeing that λόγος here must refer to the Mosaic law, have regarded the ἄγγελοι as referring to human messengers. But for the existence of the belief that the law of God was given to Moses by the mediation of angels, we have as testimonies Joseph. Antiq. Jud., XV., 5, 3, and Carmina Samarit., Ed. Gesen. III. 8; IV—8, 11, and particularly Act_7:53, and Gal_3:19. The tradition itself seems to have its biblical origin in the obscure words of the Song of Moses, Deu_33:2 : “And thou from holy multitudes,” scil. didst come forth, where the LXX. make express mention of angels; as also in Psalms 68 composed in the time of Solomon, in which at Heb_2:18 the entrance of Jehovah into Zion in the midst of the myriad chariots of His angels, is compared to His descent upon Sinai. We must guard, however, against restricting this angelic agency to the Angel of the covenant, who acted as Mediator of the most distinguished revelations of God in the Old Testament; for here the word is plural (δἰ ἀγγέλων). The classical ἔνδικος is found elsewhere in the New Testament only at Rom_3:8. For the simple μισθός wages, or the classical μισθοδοσία, giving of wages, stands here the more full-sounding [indeed more intrinsically emphatic] form μισθαποδοσία rendering, or paying of wages; here the term is used in a bad sense, while at Heb_10:35; Heb_11:26, the requital is not that of punishment, but of approving reward.

Heb_2:3. How shall we escape—salvation?—The future ἐκφευξόμεθα stands in reference to the final judgment: we need not, however, (with Heinrichs, Steng., Ebr.) supply anything from Heb_2:2; but simply take the expression as at Heb_12:25; 1Th_5:3, technically and absolutely. The Aor. Part. ἀμελήσαντες specifies the act which must have preceded and determined the impossibility of escape. This utter and complete impossibility (πῶς) of escape lies in the fact that precisely we (ἡμεῖς), who live in the time of salvation, have to do with a salvation of such transcendent excellence (τηλικαύτης σωτηρίας)=talis tantæque salutis, as that now under consideration.

Which being originally spoken through the Lord, etc.—The clause commencing with ἥτις (quippe quæ) is not designed to show that which grows out of the nature of “so great a salvation,” (Thol.); nor to exhibit the greatness of this salvation in the exalted character of its Mediator (Del.); but to illustrate the sentiment of the entire passage. The contrast between the mediation accomplished by the Lord, and that effected by angels, forms but a part of the Gospel claim to attention. A second contrast is found in the fact that it is not merely commands (Theod. Mops., Lün., Del.)—we must add that it is not merely promises—which constitute the subject matter of the announcement, but salvation itself. Still we are not therefore authorized in saying (Ebr.) that the law was barely a word: the Gospel, on the contrary, is a deliverance, a redemption, an act. The emphasis lies here, not as at Tit_2:11, on the fact that “the grace of God which bringeth salvation” has been manifested in the world, but that the salvation, after having had its proclamation commenced and inaugurated by the intervention of the Lord the Saviour Himself, has, through immediate ear-witnesses, taking a sure place in history, been transmitted to us.

The link between σωτηρία, salvation, and the βεβαιωθῆναι εἰς ἡμᾶς, established for us, is found in the Word of Salvation (Act_13:26, ὁ λόγος τῆς σωτηρίας ταύτης), whose historical carrying forward and perpetuation was no less marvellous than its origin. Lönemann declines here to find a contrast between a more remote and a more immediate Word of God, on the ground that God himself is the ultimate and supreme author, as well of the Mosaic law as of the Gospel, and that the latter, as having originated διὰ τοῦ κυρίου is, in like manner, an intermediate one; while Ebrard and Delitzsch maintain such a contrast on the ground of the divine nature and equality of the Son. Both are equally wide of the mark. For while διὰ τοῦ κυρίου stands indeed parallel to δἰ ἀγγέλων, the relation of intermediateness expressed equally in both cases by διά, refers in this context not to the intrinsic relation of God Himself to men in His revelation, as being more direct through the Son, more indirect through angels, but contrasts the historical beginnings of the two Testaments, as being inaugurated the one through angels, and the other through the Lord Himself. The author’s eye is directed not to the transcendental, but to the historical mediation, as shown by the participial clause ἀρχὴν λαβοῦσα λαλεῖσθαι διὰ τοῦ κυρίου, which also is no mere objective apposition to ἐβεβαιώθη (Ebr.)—as if the province of the ear-witnesses was to vouch to later readers for the fact that the Gospel had come from the Lord Himself—but declares rather how the σωτηρία has become matter of evangelical proclamation, in which form it has had, through the ministry of those who heard it, its sure transmission to us.

Heb_2:4. God also jointly bearing them witness, etc.—The “confirmation” (βεβαίωσις) implied in the verb is all the more decisive and absolute from the fact that to the testimony of the Apostolic word is added the accompanying and authenticating testimony of God, Joh_5:31; Mar_16:20. This testimony comes in acts which, as tokens of an invisible and spiritual agency, are called σημεῖα, signs; as elevated above ordinary and natural laws, and thus exciting wonder and astonishment, τέρατα, prodigies, wonders. Their close connection, expressed by τε καί, both, and, corresponds to the Hebrew אוֹתוֹת וּמוֹפְתים, Exo_7:3. The mentiontion of these in this connection furnishes an irrefragable historical proof for the fact that not merely in Corinth, but also elsewhere within the sphere of Christianity, phenomena had appeared, which could not be regarded as a mere heightening of natural powers, and that the proclamation of the Gospel in Apostolic times was accompanied by miracles. As a special kind of charismata appear the δυνάμεις also at 1Co_12:10, which at once direct attention to the divine agency required and imparted for the working of miracles, and keep their divine purpose alive in the Christian consciousness. The position of the words shows that πνεύματος ἁγίου is not Gen. Subj. (Camero, etc.), but Gen. Obj.: that κατὰ τὴν αὐτοῦ θέλησιν is to be referred only to μερισμοῖς (De Wette), and neither (with Abresch, Böhme) to the whole clause, nor (with Bleek) to ποικιλοις μερισμοῖς; and that αὐτοῦ belongs not to πν. ἁγίου (Œcumen. Carpz.) but to θεοῦ. God communicates the Holy Spirit to believers, yet to no individual one of these His entire fulness, and the distribution takes place in each special appropriation, according to His will and purpose. The Hellenistic θέλησις, Pollux 2:165 calls ιδιωτικόν.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. With the dignity of the New Testament Mediator, and with the greatness of the salvation which is proffered by Him in the Gospel, stand in corresponding relation the heaviness of the responsibility of the hearers of the Gospel, and the certainty of the condemnation of its despisers. “The child owes a deeper debt than the servant.” (Stein.) “Strictness and rigor of judgment must stand in relation to infinite grace: the higher the grace, the heavier the punishment. Disobedience to Christ is the thrusting away of our own salvation.” (Heubner.) The reason lies in the fact that Christ came not to do away with and abolish the law, but to fulfil it, Mat_5:17. “With heedlessness, disregard and delay commences that which may end in the most fearful plunge into unbelief, disobedience, and their attendant judgment. Heedfulness, on the other hand, is the stepping-stone to faith, obedience, and the bringing forth of fruit in patience. What is more easily neglected, heeded lightly and thrown behind us, than a word which one hears? And yet how is, at the same time, the seed snatched from the heart, from which might grow faith and blessedness! But how frequently also does this word of patience again make its appeal to the heart!” (Rieger.)

2. The Gospel is not merely in its subject matter, but also in its form, the most perfect revelation of God. Salvation has not merely appeared, and been introduced into the world by means of the person of the Son of God and Lord of all things—exalted as He is infinitely above the angels—but has also, through the Lord Himself actually found utterance, and received, through His holy and truthful lips, its initiatory proclamation upon earth. “The strictness and rigor of the Old Testament are but a shadow beside the severity of the New.” (Quesnel.)

3. Not merely the establishment of Christianity, but also its maintenance and propagation in the world, are the work of the Lord. They stand not merely under divine supervision and guidance, but under divine agency, in which the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, take their respective share. But we are called not merely to a participation in the blessedness of salvation, but also to coöperation in this work of God, in aid of its actual extension and carrying forward in the world.

4. Christianity has not merely to do with the knowledge and recognition of the truth, but also preëminently with the procuring of salvation. But how this is to be accomplished is, under the arrangements of God, announced to us in His word. Precisely for this reason the Gospel of God has been supplied with the most efficient powers, and with the strongest testimonies, and demands of us personal devotion, alike in its appropriation to ourselves, and in its propagation.

5. The distribution of the gifts and influences of the Holy Spirit in the Church is made neither accidentally nor arbitrarily, but in accordance with the will of God. So also the authentication of our testimony by accompanying signs. We must, therefore, neither contemn the lesser and more sparing gifts and signs, nor allow the great, splendid and numerous tokens of such Divine coöperation, to minister to envy, self-exaltation and strife; but mindful of their origin and design, strive to be found in their possession and use, thankful, humble, industrious and faithful.

6. Taking into account the character of the recipients of our Epistle, this passage contains an irrefutable testimony to the actual working of miracles on the part of Jesus and the Apostles. In his appeal to this as a well known and unquestioned fact, the author would have rendered but the slenderest service to his cause, had its reality been open to the slightest shadow of doubt and questioning. Facts like these send to a common grave the mythological hypothesis regarding the history of Jesus, the naturalistic explanation of the miracles, the denial of the agency of the Holy Spirit, and the restricting to purely historical factors the explanation of the origin of Christianity.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The obligation resting on us to give earnest heed to the Gospel which has come to us through Divine coöperation. 1. How it is demonstrated: a. by the greatness of the proffered salvation; b. by the excellence of its original Bearer and Proclaimer; c. by our being placed in the Church of Jesus Christ. 2. How it finds a hinderance: a. in the skeptical spirit of our age; b. in the perversity of our own nature; c. in the temptations to apostasy from the Church. 3. How God aids to its performance: a. by the impressiveness of His judgments; b. by confirming the truth and power of the Gospel in history; c. by the imparting of His Spirit in His operations and gifts.—In the Gospel alone we are to find a sure means of resistance to the tide which would sweep us to perdition; for these means are: 1, originated by Christ; 2, confirmed of God; 3, made efficacious to our salvation by the Spirit.—With what have we, as preachers, most to do in the proclamation of the Gospel: 1, to see that we preach Christ as the Mediator of salvation to all believers; 2, that our preaching of salvation be found in harmony with that of the Apostles; 3, that the testimony of God in manifold tokens and proofs accompany and confirm our testimony.—To what are we especially to give heed in the hearing of the Gospel? 1, that we learn from it the counsel of God for our eternal blessedness; 2, that we accept it as, in accordance with the will of God, it has been brought to us by a special economy of salvation; 3, that we supplicate the assistance of God for our personal attainment of the salvation that is proffered to us.—It is the earnest will of the Lord that His Gospel be: 1, reverently heard; 2, conscientiously obeyed; 3, powerfully and efficiently spread abroad.—By what we recognize the true miracles of God in history: 1, they serve as signs which accompany the word of His revelation, and direct our attention to the sovereign sway of God in the world; 2, they present themselves as the witnesses of God’s pleasure in the proclamation of His word; 3, they evince themselves to be effects of Divine power by their connection with the gifts of the Holy Spirit.—We have no other means of escaping the coming destruction than by giving earnest heed to the Gospel: for 1, the Gospel is not an abrogation, but a confirmation of the Law; hence it, a. requires not merely to be heard, but believed and obeyed; and b. prophesies of the coming destruction of its contemners; but 2, the Gospel is not a repetion, but a fulfilment of the law; hence it, a. preaches in a sure way salvation in Christ; and b. is accompanied by God’s actual attestations to its truth and power.

Starke:—To whom much is given, of him will also much be required. In the New Testament the light of revelation is much clearer and more glorious than it was amidst the promises and the types of the Old Testament. Bethink thyself, thou who livest in the last time, to what this pledges thee, Luk_12:48; 2Co_6:1.—Thou reader of the Holy Scripture, mark well what thou readest, and give heed to the Divine truths which therein are set before thee, since it is God who speaks with thee; for otherwise thy heedlessness will be sorely punished, Mat_24:15.—The word of the Law has proved steadfast, in respect of the powerful proofs of Divinity, to wit, the numerous signs and wonders, which accompanied the giving of the Law; 2, in respect of the obligation which it involved to faith and obedience to all the words, commands and prohibitions of the Law; 3, in respect of the promises which the Law communicated to him who was obedient in faith, of which promises not one ever fell to the ground; 4, in respect of the threatenings with which the law is throughout enforced and confirmed.—God’s word, alike Law and Gospel, is unconquerable; it may, perhaps, be assailed, but cannot be overpowered, Luk_16:17.—Ah, what blessedness is it that we have the word from the mouth of God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ Himself, confirmed by so many signs and wonders! But precisely according to the greatness of this blessedness is the guilt and punishableness of the unbelief which, notwithstanding this great certainty, still doubts, Joh_5:38.—The Gospel leads us, indeed, also to our duties, which we have to practise toward God, our neighbor, and ourselves; but the Gospel itself consists in pure blessedness, in the recommending and actual proffering of all the treasures which accompany salvation, Act_13:26.—Although we, perchance, may not have heard the Son of God preach in person, still this will in no way impair our salvation. For even the author of this Epistle (whoever he is), according to his own acknowledgment, had himself not heard the Son of God, but been converted by the Apostles who had heard Him, Luk_10:18.—The Gospel is a doctrine of whose Divine truths we may be convinced even antecedently to, and without miracles; yet God, in accommodation to the weakness of men, has ex abundanti added miracles, partly to awaken the needed attention, partly to strengthen the faith already kindled, Joh_20:30-31.—The miracles that have confirmed the Gospel, God has held under His own control in respect of time, place, persons, number, and kind and manner, Psa_72:18.

Berlenburger Bible:—God uses means for our sakes, but we must ascend through the means to their author, and observe the hand of God, so that we may be able to conclude that this and that is the work of God, and not of man, Under the testimony of men, God’s procedure and joint testimony are to be recognized, and not to be disjoined from it.—Down to our own day, it is still a characteristic of ordinary conversions, that God, the Lord, who gives richly, does it still in measure, that man may recognize it as grace.

Laurentius:—What in spiritual and Divine things we have experienced, seen, and heard, we must also announce to others, that in the hearts of others the same may also be established.

Rambach:—The contemners of the Gospel will be more sorely punished than the transgressors of the law, as they have less excuse for their unbelief.—He who has done evil, seeks to escape judgment, but from the judgment of God there is no escape.—Miracles are 1. no mere matters of accident, but spring from the eternal counsel and purpose of God, to glorify His Son and His Gospel, Joh_9:3. 2. They are wrought of God’s free will, according as on special occasions it has seemed to Him good. 1Co_12:11.

Steinhofer:—Attention to the preached word is most powerfully urged upon us by the importance 1. of the person who has spoken to us of such things; 2. of the subject-matter which is thus revealed and tendered to us.—The proofs which formerly confirmed this word, have, in the lapse of time, lost none of their power.—We desire no other Gospel—as, in fact, there is no other—than that which we have heard from Him, and have believed.

Phil. Matth. Hahn:—Reasons for attention to the Gospel: 1. The Lord has spoken; 2. the word speaks of pure salvation; 3. it has been sealed by Divine testimony.

Rieger:—To refuse to give heed to the counsel of God for our salvation in the Gospel, is a heavier crime than to violate His law. In the case of the law, it is a cannot, of the Gospel, a will not.

Heubner:—Disobedience to Christ is a thrusting away of our own salvation.

Kluge:—The nobler the hope, the more earnest the sanctification.

Fricke:—As a kernel in the shell lies our whole salvation in the words of Christ. They are all fraught with meaning; here is salvation: hear and embrace!—The additions to the word, which salvation furnishes to us, God gives neither according to reckoning, nor according to desert, but according to His will.—What takes place in the kingdom of Christ, will always bear Christ’s impress upon it.

[Owen:—Diligent attendance unto the word of the Gospel, is indispensably necessary unto perseverance in the profession of it.—The profession of most of the world is a mere non-renunciation of the Gospel in words, while in their hearts and lives they deny the power of it every day.—If the ministration of the Gospel be not looked on as that which is full of glory, it will never be attended unto.—The word heard is not lost without the great sin, as well as the inevitable ruin, of the souls of men.—It is meet that the Gospel should be armed with threatenings as well as promises.—A sceptre in a kingdom, without a sword—a crown without a rod of iron, will quickly be trampled on.—The threatenings of future penalties on the disobedient, are far more clear and express in the Gospel than in the Law].

Footnotes:

[1] Heb_2:1.—[δεῖ, not moral necessity, we ought; but logical, we must, it is necessary.—τοῖς ἀκουσθεῖσιν, historically, to the things which were heard when God ἐλάλησεν spoke in his Son.—μήποτε not, lest at any time (as Moll: nicht jemals), but, lest perchance, lest haply as Heb_4:1; Mat_4:6; Mat_6:25. So Del. and De Wette, nicht etwa; so Alf. and Bib. Un. haply. Wordsworth both here and Heb_4:1 neglects it in his rendering.—παραῤῥυῶμεν 2 Aor. Subj. Pass. might be rendered figuratively to slip away from, but not possibly “to let slip, as if causative. Here better to flow by, or, aside from, to drift by, or, away from. Alt.: “to flow past or aside,” “deflect from a course,” and hence “be diverted.” Moll, with many others, vorbeigeströmt werden, to be drifted or swept by.

Heb_2:2.—διὰ ἀγγέλων not by angels as agents as if ὑπὀ ἀγγ.; but through, by means of angels, as instruments (διά).—ἐγένετὁ, became proved itself; not was, as Eng. Ver.

Heb_2:3.—So also διὰ κυρίου, through the Lord, God the Father being conceived as the supreme agent.—διὰ τῶν ἀκουσάντων, through them that heard him, with still the idea of intermediate agency.—αὐτοῦ, his, not the reflexive αὑτοῦ=ἑαυτοῦ, his own, viz., will (θέλησιν).—K.].

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Hebrews

DRIFTING

Heb 2:1.

‘LET them slip’; that conveys a vivid picture of a man holding some treasure with limp fingers, and allowing it to drop from his nerveless grasp. But, striking as that picture is, the one which is really expressed by the original word is more striking still The Revised Version correctly renders, instead of, ‘we should let them slip,’ ‘we drift away from them’; and that is the real meaning.

‘Drifting’ is the thing to be afraid of. Just as some boat, not made fast to the bank, certainly glides down stream so quietly and with so little friction that her passengers do not know that they are moving until they come up on deck, and see new fields around them, so the ‘things which we have heard,’ and to which we ought to be moored or anchored, we shall drift, drift, drift away from, and, in nine eases out of ten, shall not feel that we are moving, till we are roused by hearing the noise of the whirlpools and the falls close ahead of us; and look round and see a strange country. ‘Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest, haply, we should drift away from them.’

I. So my text suggests, first, our danger.

We are in danger of drifting unconsciously from the anchorage of our faith - namely, the great words which we have heard. The currents that are brought to bear upon us run as strong as do any that are marked on charts and are the terror of sailors, and they need as careful steering and as great engine-power to resist them. Let us try to think of one or two of them. There is the current of years. Time changes us all; and there is many a professing Christian who all unconsciously has slid away from his early better self, and is not now as devout a man - or with his life as completely under the influence of Christ and His gospel as he was in the early days. He keeps up appearances, but they are deceptive, and years have carried him down the stream and away from his old self.

There is the current of familiarity with the truth-It is a sad illustration of the weakness of human nature that we all tend to think that the familiar is commonplace, and that it is almost impossible for us, without a very specific and continuous effort, to keep up as fresh and deep an interest in a truth that we have believed all our days as in one that comes to us with the attraction of novelty. It has been well said that the most certain truths too often lie ‘in the dormitory of the soul, side by side with exploded errors.’ We all know how silently and unconsciously we lose our hold of the things that we think to be most surely believed among us; and whilst we fancy that we are grasping them they are gone from us just because we had never doubted, and always ‘believed’ them. Conjurers will tell you that if you press a coin in a man’s palm and shut the hand quickly, he does not know for a moment or two whether the coin remains there or not. There are many of us who have closed our hands on the precious gold coin of the gospel, and it has been filched away from us, and we do not know that it has been until we open our hand and see the empty palm. We drift away by time and by familiarity.

Then there is constantly acting upon us the current of the continual pressure of our daily cares and anxieties and duties and joys. All these in their minuteness and their multiplicity tend to weaken our possession of, and to carry us away from, the great central truths of the gospel. A snowflake is a very tiny thing, but when the air is full of them, minute as they are, their white multitudes will bring death and a grave to the creatures on which they fall. And so the thousand trifles of our daily lives are all acting upon us, whether we know it or not, to absorb interest and attention and effort, and to Withdraw all three from ‘the truths which we have heard.’ You may remember the story of the man in the Old Testament who had a prisoner put into his hands, with an injunction to guard carefully against his escape; and how, as he naively says, ‘As thy servant was busy here and there, lo! he was gone. I had so many other things to do, on this side and that, and in front and behind, that I could not always keep my eyes on him; and he slipped through my fingers, and showed a clean pair of heels, and that is all I know. I never knew that he had gone until I came to look for him in an interval of my business, and found his fetters were empty.’

Ah, dear friends, that is the history of the decline and fall of many a professing Christian’s Christianity: ‘Thy servant was busy here and there doing his day’s work’ - the legitimate things that we are bound to do, and which are not meant to be occasions for withdrawing our hold of the truths of the gospel, but for deepening it. We are busied about them. and that which was committed to our care sups away, and we never know it.

Yes, and it is not only ‘secular’ work that does that. It may be done by what is called Christian work too. I believe, for my part, that much as one rejoices in the continual calls for service and activity that are addressed to the Christian Church to-day, there is a distinct danger that there shall be so much work that there is no time for solitude, for contemplation, for reviewing and deepening our communion with Jesus Christ. And I sometimes feel as if I would like to say to all Sunday-school teachers, and visitors, and Christian Endeavourers, and all the host of ‘Christian workers’: ‘Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place and rest awhile,’ and then you will be ready for better work. At all events, it is quite possible - if we may so use a phrase which is, perhaps, done violence to in such a use - to water other people’s vineyards, and leave our own vines to die for want of tending and irrigation.

There are other currents as well, about which I need not say much here, but no doubt they are running very strong to-day, all round us: tides of opinion and ways of thinking about the gospel which will rob us, if we do not take care, of the simplicity and depth of our faith in that Saviour. I just specify these four currents: time, familiarity, work, and the prevalent tone of the people round about us - all these forces are continually operating on the Christian men and women of this day, and in many cases are doing their deadly work.

II. So let me say that, secondly, my text suggests our security.

‘Let us give the more earnest heed.’ Just because these forces are in operation, therefore there is more need that the vessel shall Be very safely moored to the strong post on the quay, than there would he if it was lying in a tideless harbour where the water was motionless. ‘The more earnest heed’ - if we know the danger we have gone a long way to escape it. If we will open our eyes to the fact that all about us there are thieves lurking and waiting to steal away our possessions, then we shall have done something towards securing the possessions. As in Christ’s parable, there are light-winged flocks of birds filling the air about us, and ready to pounce down upon the seed the moment the sower’s back is turned, and with a dig and a peck to pick it up, and then with glancing whir of the wings to be off, bearing away their prey out of sight and out of shot. If we realise that that is the condition of things, we shall have boys with clappers in the field to keep off the birds, at all events. If we have a clear sight of the fact that the world is full of thieves, we shall be likely to get strong locks to our doors, and bars to the windows, and not go to sleep, lest the house should be broken into.

But let me say a word or two about what we ought to do. ‘Let us give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard.’ That word ‘give heed’ suggests that there must be a concentration of attention, and a distinct effort of will in the way of resisting the tendencies. If you hold a thing slackly it goes out of your hands. If you have flung a careless bight of the rope round the post, and then lie down to sleep, the force of the stream will do the rest. There must be resistance to the continually acting tendencies, or they will become facts and realities. I have already suggested in the previous remarks what seems to me to be the great thing wanted in our present average Christian character, and that is the honest occupation of mind and heart with the truths of the gospel. We read newspapers, books, and magazines of all sorts, and we do not read our Bibles as our fathers used to do. There are many professing Christian people who do not make the Word of God familiar by daily and prayerful perusal; and there are many who do not understand much more about the whole majestic orb of divine truth than the one bit of it that they beheld at first, when they turned from darkness to light. That Jesus Christ is your Saviour is, in one sense, the whole gospel, but that is no reason for your not trying to understand all that is involved in, and all that flows from, that great truth, and all on which it rests as upon rock pillars. If we had more honest occupation of thought with, and more quiet feeding like a ruminant animal upon, the truths of the gospel, we might bid defiance to all the currents to sweep us away.

There is another thing by which we may hold ourselves fast moored to these truths - that is, by bringing them habitually to bear upon and to shape and dominate the little things of our daily lives. One way by which we can freshen up the most familiar, common, place truth is by acting on it. If you will do that, you will find that the old truths have sap and vitality in them yet. People talk about ‘toothless commonplaces.’ Take the commonplaces of your Christian profession, and conscientiously try to shape your lives by them; and take my word for it, you will find that they are not toothless. There is a bite in them If s man wants to be confirmed in his creed, let him make it the law of his conduct. So if we will meditate upon the truth, and if we will live the truth, we may snap our fingers at all the currents that seek to draw us away from it.

III. And now one last word. - My text suggests the reasons for this exhortation.

You will notice that it begins with a ‘therefore,’ and that ‘therefore’ sums up all that has gone before in the epistle; and it is further expanded by a ‘for’ which follows. And what are the reasons thus suggested? I have no time to enlarge on them, and I do not know that they need it.

They are three, and the first of them is the dignity of the speaker. The writer has just been demonstrating the superiority of the Son by whom ‘God hath, in these last times, spoken unto us,’ over all former ministers and messengers of His Word, and over all angels before His throne. And he says, because such august lips have spoken, ‘Let us give earnest heed to the things which we have heard.’ For ‘if the words spoken by angels’ demanded attention, how much more the word spoken ‘in these last times unto us by the Son,’ ‘whom He hath appointed heir of all things.’ That is reason number one.

Reason number two is the steadfastness of the truth. I have been working perhaps till it is threadbare the metaphor underlying my text; I come back to it for a moment more. What is the good of a strong cable, which is my faith, unless it is wrapped round a strong post? Why should I give heed to a truth, unless it is an irrefragable and undeniable and important truth? And so says this writer, it is worth your while to give your whole attention to these truths, and to grapple yourselves to them with hooks of steel, for they stand fast, The word spoken by angels was steadfast, but the word of the gospel was at the first spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed by them that heard it. He fixed the post; they hammered it in; there it stands. You may hold on to it, and if your tackle does not give, nothing will sweep you away.

And reason number three is, what we lose if we let our moorings there slip.

‘For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received its just recompense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect...’ - not reject; not fight against, simply ‘neglect’ - ‘so great salvation,’ and so let ourselves be drifted away from the things which we have heard?

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Heb 2:1

Drifting.

The influences against which we are warned by the words of my text are those of currents which are flowing just where we are, and which may operate so insidiously that we may not know of their effect until, perhaps, it is too late to resist their power. Of these currents I will specify three.

I. Take first the age current, or what a recent essayist, borrowing from the German, has called the "time-spirit." Every epoch has its own special tendency. These vagaries will pass away, even as the fleecy clouds remove from the summit of Mont Blanc; but Christ abides, like the grand old mountain, with its majestic mantle of stainless and eternal white. Hear Him, therefore. Hear Him, and keep fast hold of His sayings; so shall ye partake of His stability.

II. The second current to which I would refer is that of the place in which we dwell. Every city has its own peculiar influence. I do not hesitate to say that it is a less difficult matter to be an earnest Christian in some cities than it is in others. But the principles of the Gospel are not shifted by the tendencies of any place; and when we measure ourselves by them we may always discover how it is with us. Let us not take it for granted that because we are making some effort in the right direction, therefore we must be going forward. These efforts may not be enough to neutralise the forces of the current, and we may be drifting backward after all.

III. There is, thirdly, the personal drift—the drift in each of us individually. Let us not be self-confident here, or imagine that there is no fear of us. That imagination is itself the beginning of the personal drift. Distrust yourself, therefore, and trust only and always in the Lord. Anchor on to Christ; that is the sure preventive of all such drifting as I have been seeking to expose.

W. M. Taylor, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxii., p. 40.

References: Heb 2:1.—J. G. Rogers, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvii., p. 361; Bishop Westcott, Ibid., vol. xxxvi., p. 136; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. x., p. 83. Heb 2:1-4.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 183. Heb 2:3.—J. Natt, Posthumous Sermons, p. 425; Homilist, 2nd series, vol. iv., p. 207; 3rd series, vol. vi., p. 166; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. v., p. 300; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 185. Heb 2:3, Heb 2:4.—Hay Aitkin, Around the Cross, p. 145. Heb 2:4.—W. M. Taylor, The Gospel Miracles, p. 173. Heb 2:5.—Homilist, vol. v., p. 1. Heb 2:5-9.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 122; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 325.

Heb 2:5-10

Consider:—

I. What it is that the Son of man, humbling Himself for us, hath endured. There are two expressions used—to suffer death and to taste death. Let us remember that between Jesus, as He was in Himself and death, there subsisted no connection. In Him Satan could find nothing. Death had no personal or direct relation unto Him. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Prince of Life, of His own power and will, laid down His life. The death of the Lord Jesus in this respect is different from the death of any human being; it was the free, voluntary, spontaneous act of His will. When the Lord Jesus Christ died He put forth a great energy. He willed to die. And so in one sense we may say that His death was a great manifestation of His power.

II. Consider that the Lord tasted death. A man may die in a moment, and then he does not taste death. But all that was in death was concentrated in the cup which the Lord Jesus Christ emptied on the cross. He was made a curse for us; He was left alone with the power of darkness. But though He emptied the cup of wrath, though all the waves and billows of death went over Him, He continued to live, to trust, to love, to pray. He gained the victory in the lowest depth of His agony.

III. He tasted death by the grace of God for every man. We speak about the pardon of sins; we are pardoned, but all our sins have been punished. All our sins were laid upon Jesus, every one was punished. In the Cross there is not merely the forgiveness of sins, but there is the actual putting away of all our sins; and the Apostle explains to us that this great marvellous mystery of the death of Christ as our Substitute, bearing our sins, bearing our curse, enduring the penalty of our sins, and overcoming all our enemies (that is, the law of Satan and death), that this is in order to manifest unto us the fulness of the perfection of God.

A. Saphir, Expository Lectures on the Hebrews, vol. i., p. 118.

Heb 2:6

Faith.

I. When man rises above the merely savage state, he begins to show some signs of faith; some evidences of his looking forward to a future; some reliance upon powers which are unseen. For, observe, the savage lives by his bow or his nets; the next step is to the pastoral or agricultural life. The shepherd must trust to the sun that warms and to the rains that moisten, and the ploughman must trust to the bounteous earth and the gracious season, and look forward to the harvest which promises, and guard against the scarcity which threatens. He begins, then, to show faith, and a firm conviction that he will have the good things he looks for, though the ripened grain and blessed harvest be as yet unseen.

II. As man advances in the scale of civilisation, this faith in the future goes on ever increasing; there is a more unselfish looking forward, a more far-reaching prudence, a desire to conciliate even a posterity as yet unborn. As men get nobler and wiser and holier they look further and further. According as a man is animated by a lofty purpose or a merely selfish one, so his view is wider and far-reaching, or confined and paltry; according as his faith in things hoped for is firm and unwavering, and his conviction of the reality of things unseen is deep and reverent, so is he ready to dare and suffer to the utmost in any way his faith requires of him. They that love God, the Unseen, must trust Him, must believe that He is; and they that seek Him humbly and devoutly, will find their faith in Him grow, and their love for Him increase, and so receive from Him ever a fuller and fuller assurance of their acceptance.

A. Jessopp, Norwich School Sermons, p. 108.

References: Heb 2:6.—T. B. Dover, A Lent Manual, p. 66. Heb 2:6, Heb 2:7. —W. H. Dallinger, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxii., p. 360. Heb 2:6-8.—A. Rowland, Ibid., vol. xx., p. 164; W. H. Dallinger, Ibid., vol. xxxiv., p. 200.

Heb 2:8-9 (R. V.)

History is a succession of economies or dispensations, of which the Christian is the crown and completion. It follows on the rest, realises all they designed, and embraces the whole future of the coming world. The threads of the ages have been woven in the great loom of Time with the weft of the Divine purpose and the ways of human experience, and on the web is traceable in clear characters the God-given sovereignty of man. In the world that is coming man is king. "All things shall be put in subjection to him," like captured slaves to the authority and use of their conqueror,

I. "Not unto angels has God subjected the coming world." Angels filled and crowded Hebrew thought for a long time, as God’s "mighty ones," the swift-winged messengers who delighted to do His will; agents of deliverance, as for the imprisoned Peter, and of punishment, as for Sennacherib. "Ministering spirits sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation "; and thus they had aided the Jew in the explanation of the phenomena of life, and solved the more mysterious problems of supernatural and divine action. But not to these "men in lighter habit clad" had God subjected the coming world of manhood, the advancing goodness and perfecting character and service of the sons of God.

II. But if to man, to what man is this sceptre of dominion finally granted? To all and sundry, and to them all alike, simply as men, or to particular races or one race of men? To whom is the ultimate leadership of the world to be given? We believers are the heirs of the coming world, and belong to the meek who are now beatified with salvation, and destined ultimately to inherit and rule the earth. Not "the great white race," but the great Christian race rises to joint-heirship with Christ Jesus in the salvation, and service, and sovereignty of the future of humanity.

III. On this earth and amongst men—"we see Jesus"; and though, in seeing Him, our first glimpse may only confirm the impression that man has not yet fully entered on his inheritance; yet the deeper look assures us that he is on his way to it, has already been anointed with the oil of joy above his predecessors and contemporaries, and, though suffering, is really ascending by suffering to the throne from which He shall rule for evermore. ’’We see Jesus," Son of Mary, "man of sorrows," "made a little lower than the angels"; but "crowned with glory"; crowned, indeed, for sacrifice, but for the sacrifice which draws all men to Him, and wins them to loving and ardent loyalty to His authority, and makes them "kings and priests unto God." That sight explains the ages’ long delay; the dissolution and disappearance of the ancient and illustrious Jewish religion, and is the indefeasible pledge and guarantee that the sovereignty of man shall yet be realised, and all things be put under His feet. The Conqueror of Calvary shall take man’s crown from the dust and put it on his head. The Redeemer from sin shall break the chains of man’s long servitude, and lift him at once to freedom and power.

J. Clifford, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xl., p. 241.

Heb 2:8-9

Manhood crowned in Jesus.

The text brings before us a threefold sight.

I. Look around us. "We see not yet all things put under man." Where are the men of whom any portion of the Psalmist’s words is true? "All are yours and ye are Christ’s." If so, what are most of us but servants, not lords, of earth and its goods? We fasten our very lives on them; we tremble at the bare thought of losing them; we give our best efforts to get them—we say to the fine gold, "Thou art my confidence." We do not possess them, they possess us; and so, though materially we may have conquered the earth, spiritually the earth has conquered us. What then? Are we to abandon in despair our hopes for our fellows, and to smile with quiet incredulity at the rhapsodies of sanguine theorists like David? If we confine our new wealth—yes. But there is more to see than the sad sights around us. Looking around us, we have indeed to acknowledge with plaintive emphasis, "We see not yet all things put under Him "; but looking up, we have to add with triumphant confidence that we speak of a fact which has a real bearing on our hopes for men, "we see Jesus."

II. So, secondly, look upwards to Jesus. Christ in glory appears to the author of this epistle to be the full realisation of the Psalmist’s ideal. What does Scripture teach us to see in the exalted Lord? It sets before us (1) a perpetual manhood; (2) a corporeal manhood; (3) a transfigured manhood; (4) sovereign manhood.

III. Finally, then, look forward. Christ is the measure of man’s capacities. We too shall be exalted above all creatures,—far above all principality and power, even as Christ is Lord of angels. What that may include we can but dimly surmise. Nearness to God, knowledge of His heart and will, likeness to Christ, determine superiority among pure and spiritual beings. And Scripture, in many a hint and half-veiled promise, bids us believe that men who have been redeemed from their sins by the blood of Christ, and have made experience of departure and restoration, are set to be the exponents of a deeper knowledge of God to powers in heavenly places, and, standing nearest the throne, become the chorus leaders of new praises from lofty beings who have ever praised Him on immortal harps.

A. Maclaren, Sermons in Manchester, 2nd series, p. 170.

References: Heb 2:8, Heb 2:9.—R. Lorimer, Bible Studies in Life and Truth, p. 273. Heb 2:9.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiii., No. 777; vol. xxv., No. 1509; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. ii., p. 213.

Heb 2:10

Life ascending into Heaven.

I. At the moment that our blessed Lord was standing on the Mount of Olives, in the early morning, with a few faithful men around Him, and passed up into heaven in their sight, victorious, to begin His everlasting reign—at that moment the whole world lay in its many thousand years’ sleep of sin, and knew Him not; at that moment Jerusalem stood with its great walls, strong and bright as usual, and the sentinel passed to and fro; and here in Britain, in the great forests and the wild wastes, the native tribes hunted and fought, all unconscious of the early dawn on the far distant Eastern hill, and the Lord of life beginning His reign. It is a fact of the very simplest kind, that the whole world has changed, and has become practically a new creation, since that hour of the ascension, and because of that hour. The conquering spirit of life now reigns. That is the great truth of this day, this ascension time.

II. And we need to be reminded of it, because of the other truth, which is part of it, that on this earth there is no triumph of truth, only a victorious working, always unfinished, always to the human eye, at its best, the little company on the hill, with a sleeping hostile world against them. Note the seed-like character of the life of the ascension. Its intense vitality wrapped up in a seed. How, at the very moment of victory, Christ ascending in triumph, Lord of all the worlds, is represented by a small company, at dawn of day, on a hilltop. Stand with Him, and look down on the sleeping world, and be not discouraged. You are not overmatched. The smallest seed of life in your hearts will live and prevail. We serve the King of heaven, Christ ascended; He knows His own and their trials.

E. Thring, Uppingham Sermons, vol. i., p. 218.

Christian Suffering.

I. Christian perfection does in some degree consist in, or rise out of, Christian suffering. Christian perfection is the working out of Christian character, up to the height of the Divine ideal. The means by which Christian character is to go on to that perfection is Christian suffering; for in order that you may have perfection, in order that your Christian character may be crowned, it must be consolidated by the acquirement of Christian virtues; and it is by the power of suffering that Christian virtues are acquired. (1) Christian humility, which is one of the very deepest, most fundamental, as well as most beautiful Christian virtues, is the result of Christian suffering. (2) Patience is also a result of suffering; the "trial of our faith" is to "work patience." (3) Courage is born of suffering. If we are to crown our Christian life with courage, it must be by Christian suffering.

II. If we are to go on to perfection, we require elevation of nature and purification of heart. What are the powers of purification and elevation? I answer, without the slightest fear of challenge, The power of separation, and the power of aspiration towards God; or, to put it in simpler language, the power of sacrifice and the power of prayer. (1) Prayer preeminently springs from suffering. If a man prays he lives. Once let the clouds come; once let us lose a friend whom we have loved; once let us stand face to face with the great revealer—Death; once let health give way, or circumstances change, or sorrows rain down upon us, then, then preeminently if we are Christians, we learn to pray. (2) Purification comes from a deep sense of immortality. Now that sense of immortality is deepened by suffering, for it is suffering that teaches us what this world is. It is suffering that brings the gayest, the most trifling to be real at last. Therefore it is suffering that helps to purify our lives.

III. Christian perfection comes from Christian suffering. Suffering in itself works no perfection. (1) If your suffering is Christian suffering, it must be willingly accepted for the love of God. (2) To suffer as a Christian is not only that; it implies also looking unto Him. To keep our eyes steadily fixed upon the King of suffering is to see what suffering was, in God’s life, as He came to bear sin in His human nature.

W. J. Knox Little, Characteristics of the Christian Life, p. 96.

References: Heb 2:10.—H. Bushnell, Christ and His Salvation, p. 219; Expository Sermons on the New Testament, p. 256; C. J. Vaughan, Lessons of the Cross and Passion, p. 76; R. W. Dale, The Jewish Temple and the Christian Church, p. 57; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. viii., p. 144; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 326; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. viii., No. 478; C. Kingsley, National Sermons, p. 17; Homilist, vol. iv., p. 402; 3rd series, vol. i., p. 345; J. Oswald Dykes, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxi., p. 97. Heb 2:10-14.—Expositor, 1st series, vol. i., p. 418. Heb 2:10-18.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iii., p. 186.

Heb 2:11

The Mystery of Godliness.

I. Our Lord has the Divine nature, and is of one substance with the Father, which cannot be said of any creature. He it was who created the worlds; He it was who interposed of old time in the affairs of the world, and showed Himself to be a living and observant God, whether men thought of Him or not. Yet this great God condescended to come down on earth from His heavenly throne, and to be born into His own world; showing Himself as the Son of God in a new and second sense, in a created nature, as well as in His eternal substance. Such is the first reflection which the birth of Christ suggests.

II. And next observe, that since He was the All-holy Son of God, though He condescended to be born in the world, He necessarily came into it in a way suitable to the All-holy, and different from that of other men. He took our nature upon Him, but not our sin; taking our nature in a way above nature. He came by a new and living way, by which He alone has come, and which alone became Him.

III. When He came into the world He was a pattern of sanctity in the circumstances of His life, as well as in His birth. He did not implicate and contaminate Himself with sinners. He came down from heaven, and made a short work in righteousness, and then returned back again where He was before He came into the world; and He speedily left the world, as if to teach us how little He Himself, how little we His followers, have to do with the world. He could not rest or tarry upon earth; He did but do His work in it; He could but come and go. And while He was here, since He could not acquiesce or pleasure Himself in the earth, so He would have none of its vaunted goods. When He humbled Himself to His own sinful creation, He would not let that creation minister to Him of its best, as if disdaining to receive offering or tribute from a fallen world. He came to it as a benefactor, not as a guest; not to borrow from it, but to impart to it. He who was so separate from the world, so present with the Father even in the days of His flesh, calls upon us, His brethren, as we are in Him, and He in the Father, to show that we really are what we have been made, by renouncing the world while with the world, and living as in the presence of God.

J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. v., p. 86.

Heb 2:11

The Brother born for Adversity.

I. The relation of a brother. What is the essential feature of this family relationship as compared with others, close and dear, which we sustain? Surely it is that father, mother, brother, sister, wife, child belong to us, are part of our very being; while in the same measure we belong to them. There is a oneness which precludes the idea of separate interests; interests, cares, sorrows, hopes, joys, are common. Our brethren are obeying the instincts of their own hearts, and seeking their own noble ends, in the sympathy and help they may extend to us. The sense of indebtedness hardly enters into the service on either side. The brother who helps, urges no claim in helping; the brother who is helpful, feels no debt but to love. It is a delight to them to undertake for us in our necessity. There then is an association, a relationship, which has an element of rest, of satisfaction in it, which no other known to man in this world offers; fairest type on earth of the relationships of that celestial state where love reigns supreme in the universal brotherhood, of which the Lord Christ is the Elder Brother, and the great Father is the Head.

II. It is precisely this relationship which by His Incarnation and Passion the Saviour claims. He seeks to give us a relation that we can rest upon; which will draw us by the bands of fraternal sympathy to His strength when we are weak, to His bosom when we are weary and long for rest. We have wearied God with our sins, we cry. The sense of the profound wrong we have done Him is the heaviest part of life’s burden. There is that in man which is unable to repose in the naked idea, nay, even in the naked assurance of God. We want some natural bond of union, some natural relationship in which we can rest. Hence the essential gladness of the glad tidings, "Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."

III. It is said in a passage of the Book of Proverbs that "a brother is born for adversities." That He might know our souls in adversities surely the elder Brother of the great human family was born in the human home, tasted all pure human experiences, and made Himself familiar with all forms of human pain. We are of His kindred, the brethren of Christ. It is no pity that moves Him to us; it is pure and perfect love. God is pleading His own cause in pleading against our sins. The battle which God is fighting in our hearts is the battle for which He made the great universe to be the theatre, and in which the devil’s triumph would rob Him of His everlasting glory and joy.

J. Baldwin Brown, The Sunday Afternoon, p. 10.

References: Heb 2:11.—Homilist, 2nd series, vol. iii., p. 102; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. ix., p. 279; H. W. Beecher, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 199. Heb 2:11-13.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 453.

Heb 2:11-18

I. The first truth which is brought before us in these verses is, that Jesus, who is not ashamed to call Himself brother, and us His brethren, is one with us. We who are sanctified by Him, and He who sanctifies, are of one. Christ is He who sanctifies. The source and power of sanctification are in Jesus the Son of God, our Saviour. He is the foundation, source, method, and channel of our sanctification. The Holy Ghost, the Comforter, is sent by Christ to glorify Him, and to reveal and appropriate to us His salvation. We are conformed to the image of Christ by the Spirit, as coming from Christ in His glorified humanity. II. Jesus, by His experience, by His sufferings, and, above all, by His death, has become a merciful and faithful High Priest. We are now on earth, in the flesh, sin around and within us. How can the Holy God look on us, and grant us blessings? How can there be communion between heaven and earth? Jesus is ascended, and having put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, presents us to the Father, and we are holy and unblameable before Him, and Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are able to send down the fulness of blessings, of grace and strength; to have communion with us, notwithstanding all our sin and defilement. Christ is a merciful High Priest, not merely full of pity, compassion, and grace, but full of sympathy. He is most lovingly and earnestly anxious that we should always obtain the victory, and suffer no injury; for having gone through all the conflict Himself, without a single moment’s wavering or surrender, He wishes us to be found continually in Him, and to conquer continually. He is faithful in bringing down to us all the gifts of God; all the counsel, will, and blessings of the Most High; faithful in taking up to God all our need and trial; all our petitions, fears, and tears; all our sufferings, and all our works.

A. Saphir, Expository Lectures on the Hebrews, vol. i., p. 142.

Heb 2:14-15

In Bondage to the Fear of Death.

I. There is no real ambiguity in the passage before us, though it may appear so at the first glance, in the use of the word death. Our Lord is said, by means of death, to have destroyed him who has the power of death. On the first occasion of its use, death means of course the death of the body; the completion of the life of suffering which is in itself inchoate death. In the second instance, the death, of which the devil is the source and power, includes more, for it includes the death of the soul. But the Christian writers look upon death, whether that of the body or soul, as the victory of a power opposed to God. As God is the God, not of the dead, but of the living, so He is the God of life, not of death. Every one who has died since Adam has yielded to a conqueror, and confessed his power. It is the curse of sin, that only through defeat can we conquer. We watch a Christian deathbed, and see it calm and triumphant; but it is the triumph of a confidence that is in obedience to power; in submission is victory.

II. The fear of death is not connected with any special religion. It belongs to the constitution of our being. We are made to love life, and to shrink from annihilation. Christ died, not to remove the necessity of death, but to deprive it of its sting; to rob the grave of its victory. Death remains; the last enemy, whose defeat is not yet, but seen in the light of Christ’s revelation, and encountered in His Spirit, its triumph is annulled. For the Christian’s triumph over sin is the pledge and foretaste of his triumph over death. The resurrection of the soul is earnest of the resurrection of the body. Death is a curse still; but we are no longer slaves to it when once we feel the stronger arm on which we may lean, the rod and staff which are at hand to comfort. And we may feel that He who has power to kill the body is welcome to the victory, since Christ has obtained for us the salvation of the soul.

A. Ainger, Sermons in the Temple Church, p. 87.

References: Heb 2:14.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iv., No. 166; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 111; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 273; Bishop Westcott, The Historic Faith, p. 59. Heb 2:14, Heb 2:15.—Church of England Pulpit, vol. xviii., p. 3; F. Lawrence, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvi., p. 267; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 454. Heb 2:14-16.—Homilist, 2nd series, vol. iii., p. 109. Heb 2:14-18.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 249. Heb 2:15.—Ibid., vol. xiv., p. 43.

Heb 2:16

Christian Sympathy.

I. We are all of one nature, because we are sons of Adam; we are all of one nature, because we are brethren of Christ. The thought of Him, "the beginning of the creation of God," "the first-born of every creature," binds us together by a sympathy with one another, as much greater than that of mere nature as Christ is greater than Adam. All those common feelings which we have by birth are far more intimately common to us now that we have obtained the second birth—One thing needful, one narrow way, one business on earth, one and the same enemy, the same dangers, the same temptations, the same afflictions, the same course of life, the same death, the same resurrection, the same judgment. All these things being the same, and the new nature being the same, and from the same, no wonder that Christians can sympathise with each other, even as by the power of Christ sympathising in and with each of them.

II. Nay, and further, they sympathise together in those respects, too, in which Christ has not, could not have gone before them—I mean in their common sins. We have the same gifts to sin against, and therefore the same powers, the same responsibilities, the same fears, the same struggles, the same guilt, the same repentance, and such as none can have but we. The Christian is one and the same, wherever found; as in Christ, who is perfect, so in himself, who is training towards perfection; as in that righteousness which is imparted to him in fulness, so in the righteousness which is imparted to him only in its measure, and not yet in fulness. We are much more like each other, even in our sins, than we fancy. Perhaps the reason why the standard of holiness is so low, why our attainments are so poor, our view of truth so dim, our belief so unreal, our general notions so artificial and external, is this, that we dare not trust each other with the secret of our hearts. If it be awful to tell to another in our own way what we are, what will be the awfulness of that day when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed? Now, though there be shame, there is comfort and soothing relief; though there be awe, it is greater on the side of him who hears than of him who makes avowal.

J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. v., p. 116.

References: Heb 2:16.—J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 8th series, p. 163; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ii., No. 90; Homilist, 1st series, vol. vi., p. 264; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. x., p. 151. Heb 2:16-18.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 455.

Heb 2:18

I. The Divine Son of God, before His incarnation in our flesh, was in His own personal being separate from the sons of men. The counsels of infinite love resulted in His becoming the Saviour of the world—of that world whereof man was the head and lord. It pleased Him, in His amazing condescension, to plant Himself in the root of our human nature, which had fallen from God and from love. We all see and know how necessary this was. But we do not, perhaps, so often reflect upon the necessity which there was, that He should take upon Him human infirmity, and trial, and suffering, for a reason that sprang, not so much from Divine as from human requirements. He knew, he felt, as a Creator, all that we suffer. But one link was wanting to bind Him to us—in fact, a gulf of vast extent lay yet between us—He had not undergone these things; we had undergone them. He can now be touched with a feeling of our infirmities, not merely because, as our God, He knows them,—and not one pang of the suffering heart is hidden from Him—but for more, because, as our brother, He has Himself felt them; has been a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.

II. Christ’s temptation was His training for our help in temptation. Not only does He know our frame, and remember that we are but dust, but each trial of our faith and constancy finds a vibrating chord in His personal being. His temptation was His training, and it is our help. Do you find Christ not sufficient for your day of temptation? It is because your view of Christ wants enlarging and deepening. But this is not all. Christ is not a fact but a Person. Study the character and acts of Jesus, but with a view to know not only more about Him, but more of Himself, by personal communion.

H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. iii., p. 84.

The Efficient Sympathy of Christ.

I. The Suffering. (1) It was personal suffering. This is impressively indicated by the use of the word Himself. (2) It was positive and most painful suffering. (2) In all its reality, variety, and extent, it bore the special character of temptation.

II. The Succour. (1) This succour is accompanied with the truest sympathy. Our knowledge of temptation or trial is measured by our personal endurance of it. (2) This succour is imparted with the utmost promptitude. (3) This succour is conveyed in the form of actual deliverance, or effective relief, or, at least, adequate support.

E. Thomson, Memorials of a Ministry, p. 264.

References: Heb 2:18.—J. Irons, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. x., p. 377; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ix., p. 487; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 279; A. Rowland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxvi., p. 246; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iv., p. 89; vol. x., p. 78; Homiletic Magazine, vol. vi., p. 153.

The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Section 3. (Heb 2:1-4.)

The publication of these good news with threefold attestation.

We have now the proclamation of glad tidings such as these, and that in a threefold way: first as begun to be spoken by the Lord Himself; then, as confirmed by those who heard Him; and finally, as attested by the Holy Ghost with signs and wonders and various acts of power. All this declares, indeed, the necessity of that salvation which the gospel proclaims. God has been in earnest about it. We, says the apostle, must give earnest heed to it also. Alas, it is man’s chief blessing which he constantly refuses, and which even Christians, as has been fully demonstrated in the history of the Church, have proved themselves least competent to hold. That God’s grace could not, after all, fail of its object, should be self-evident. God will not leave Christ without that which love in Him could account His recompense. He must see of the fruit of the travail of His soul. He must be satisfied. But with all this, the incompetence of man is fully demonstrated, and nowhere so much as when God has spoken and wrought after this manner. But the apostle is addressing himself in the first place to unbelieving Jews, or to those who might have given a temporary and superficial faith to Christianity. He therefore declares that if the law required that every transgression and disobedience should receive just retribution, it would be indeed impossible for those to escape who should neglect so great a salvation. What must be the final portion of those for whom God’s work by His Son and Spirit should yet be in vain?

F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Hebrews Chapter 2

This is the reason why it is so much the more needful to hearken t the word spoken, in order that they should not let it pass away form life and memory.

God had maintained the authority of the word that was communicated by means of angels, punishing disobedience to it, for it was a law. How then shall we escape if we neglect a salvation which the Lord Himself has announced? Thus the service of the Lord among the Jews was a word of salvation, which the apostles confirmed, and which the mighty testimony of the Holy Ghost established.

Such is the exhortation addressed to the believing Jews, founded on the glory of the Messiah, whether with regard to His position of His Person, calling them away from what was Jewish to higher thoughts of Christ.

We have already remarked that the testimony, of which this epistle treats, is attributed to the Lord Himself. Therefore we must not expect to find in it the assembly (as such), of which the Lord had only spoken prophetically; but His testimony in relation to Israel, among whom He sojourned on the earth, to whatever extent that testimony reached. That which was spoken by the apostles is only treated here as a confirmation of the Lord’s own word, God having added His testimony to it by the miraculous manifestations of the Spirit, who distributed His gifts to each according to His will.

The glory of which we have been speaking is the personal glory of the Messiah, the Son of David; and His glory in the time present, during which God has called Him to sit at His right hand. He is the Son of God, He is even the Creator; but there is also His glory in connection with the world to come, as Son of man. Of this chapter 2 speaks, comparing Him still with the angels; but here to exclude them altogether. In the previous chapter they had their place; the law was given by angels; they are servants, on God’s part, of the heirs of salvation. In chapter w they have no place, they do not reign; the world to come is not made subject to them-that is, this habitable earth, directed and governed as it will be when God shall have accomplished that which He has spoken of by the prophets.

The order of the world, placed in relationship with Jehovah under the law, or “lying in darkness,” has been interrupted by the rejection of the Messiah, who has taken His place at the right hand of God on high, His enemies being not yet given into His hand for judgment; because God is carrying on His work of grace, and gathering out the assembly. But He will yet establish a new order of things on the earth; this will be “the world to come.” Now that world is not made subject to angels. The testimony given in the Old Testament with regard to this is as follows: “What is man, that thou art mindful of him; or the son of man that thou visitest him? Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels; thou hast crowned him with glory and honour; thou hast set him over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet.” Thus all things without exception (save He who has made them subject to Him), are, according to the purpose of God, put under the feet of man, and in particular of the Son of man.

When studying the Book of Psalms, we saw that which I recall here, namely, that this testimony in Psa 8:1-9 is, with regard to the position and dominion of Christ as man, an advance upon Psa 2:1-12. Psa 1:1-6 sets before us the righteous man, accepted of God, the godly remnant with which Christ connected Himself;Psa 2:1-12, the counsels of God respecting His Messiah, in spite of the efforts made by the kings and governors of the earth. God establishes Him as King in Zion, and summons all the kings to do homage to Him whom He proclaimed to be His Son on the earth. Afterwards we see that being rejected the remnant suffer, and this Psa 2:1-12 is what Peter quotes to prove the rising up of the powers of the earth, Jewish and Gentile, against Messiah. (Act 4:26) But Psa 8:1-9 shews that all this only served to enlarge the sphere of His glory. Christ takes the position of man and the title of Son of man, and enjoys His rights according to the counsels of God; and, made lower than the angels, He is crowned with glory and honour. And not only are the kings of the earth made subject to Him, but all things, without exception, are put under His feet. [8] It is this which the apostle quotes here. The Christ had already been rejected, and His being established as King in Zion put off to be accomplished at a later period. He had been exalted to the right hand of God, as we have seen; and the wider title had accrued to Him, although the result was not yet accomplished.

To this the epistle here calls our attention. We see not yet the accomplishment of all that this Psalm announces, namely, that all things should be put under His feet; but a part is already fulfilled, a guarantee to the heart of the fulfillment of the whole. Made a little lower than the angels in order to suffer death, He is crowned with glory and honour. He has suffered death, and He is crowned in reward for His work, by which He perfectly glorified God in the place where He had been dishonoured, and saved man (those who believe in Him) where man was lost. For He was made lower than the angels, in order that, by the grace of God, He should taste death for all things. It appears to me that the words “for the suffering of death,” and “a little lower than the angels” go together; and “so that by the grace of God” is a general phrase connected with the whole truth stated.

This passage then, which is thus applied to the Lord, presents Him as exalted to heaven when He had undergone the death which gave Him a right to all in a new way while waiting till all is put under His feet. But there is another truth connected with this. He had undertaken the cause of the sons whom God is bringing to glory, and therefore He must enter into the circumstances in which they were found, suffer the consequences thereof, and be treated according to the work He had undertaken. It was a reality; and it was fitting that God should vindicate the rights of His glory, and should maintain it with reference to those who had dishonoured Him, and that He should treat the one who had taken their cause in hand, and who stood before Him in their name, as representing them in that respect. God would bring the captain of their salvation to perfection through sufferings. He was to undergo the consequences of the situation into which He had come. His work was to be a reality, according to the measure of the responsibility which He had taken upon Himself, and it involved the glory of God where sin was. He must therefore suffer; He must taste death. It is by the grace of God that He did so-we, because of sin; He because of grace for sin.

This shews us the Christ standing in the midst of those who are saved, whom God brings to glory, although at their head. It is this which our epistle sets before us-He who sanctifies (the Christ), and they who are sanctified (the remnant set apart for God by the Spirit) are all of one: an expression, the force of which is easily apprehended, but difficult to express, when one abandons the abstract nature of the phrase itself. Observe that it is only of sanctified persons that this is said. Christ and the sanctified ones are all one company, men together in the same position before God. But the idea goes a little farther.

It is not of one and the same Father; had it been so, it could not have been said, “He is not ashamed to call them brethren.” He could not then do otherwise than call them brethren.

If we say “of the same mass” the expression may be pushed too far, as though He and the others were of the same nature as children of Adam, sinners together. In this case He would have to call every man His brother; whereas it is only the children whom God has given Him, “sanctified” ones, that He calls so. But He and the sanctified ones are all as men in the same nature and position together before God. When I say “the same,” it is not in the same state of sin, but the contrary, for they are the Sanctifier and the sanctified, but in the same truth of human position as it is before God as sanctified to Him; the same as far forth as man when He, as the sanctified one, is before God. On this account He is not ashamed to call the sanctified His brethren.

This position is entirely gained by resurrection; for although in principle, the children were given to Him before, yet He only called them His brethren when He had finished the work which enabled Him to present them with Himself before God. He said indeed “mother, sister, brother;” but He did not use the term “my brethren,” until He said to Mary of Magdala, “Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God an your God.” Also in Psa 22:1-31 it is when He had been heard from the horns of the unicorn, that He declared the name of a Deliverer-God to His brethren, and that He praised God in the midst of the assembly.

He spoke to them of the Father’s name while on earth, but the link itself could not be formed; He could not introduce them to the Father, until the grain of wheat, falling into the ground, had died; until then He remained alone, whatever might be the revelations that He made to them and in fact, He declared the name of His Father to those whom He had given Him. Still He had actually taken the human position, and He Himself was in this relation ship with God. He kept them in the Father’s name, they were not yet united to Him in this position; but He was as man in the relationship with God in which they also should be, when brought in by redemption into association with Himself. That which He does in the latter part of the Gospel by John is to place His disciples-in the explanations He gave of the condition in which He left them-in the position which He in fact had held in relationship with His Father on earth, and in testimony to the world, the glory of His Person as representing and revealing His Father being necessarily distinct. And, in seeking t associate with them, He associated them with Himself and Himself with them when He ascended to heaven, although no longer corporeally subject to the trials of their position. [9] He was not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, though risen, yea, only when risen, “I will declare thy name unto my brethren, I will praise thee in the midst of the assembly.” And speaking of the remnant separated from Israel, He says, “Behold I and the children whom God hath given me are for signs unto the two houses of Israel;” and again, “I will put my trust in him”-another quotation from Isa 8:1-22. So in the Psalms, especially in Psa 16:1-11, He declares that He does not take His place as God-”my goodness extendeth not to thee,” but that He identifies Himself with the excellent of the earth-that all His delight is in them. This is again the remnant of Israel called by grace.

Christ associates these sanctified men, godly men on earth, with Himself. In the passage quoted it is still His place on earth: His sufferings, His exaltation, future glory, divinity are, as we have seen added here.

Having taken this place as of, but at the head of, the chosen band-their servant in all things, He must conform Himself to their position. And this He did: the children being partakers of flesh and blood, He took part in the same; and this, in order that by death He might put an end to the dominion of him who had the power of death, and deliver those who, through fear of death, had been subjected all their life to the yoke of bondage.

Here also (the apostle seeking always to display the glorious and efficacious side, even of that which was most humbling, in order to accustom the weak heart of the Jews to that portion of the gospel) we find that the Lord’s work goes far beyond the limits of a presentation of the Messiah to His people. Not only is He glorious in heaven, but He has conquered Satan in the very place where he exercised his sad dominion over man, and where the judgment of God lay heavily upon man.

Moved by a profound love for man, the Son-become the Son of man-enters in heart and in fact into all the need, and submits to all the circumstances, of man in order to deliver him. He takes (for He was not in it before) flesh and blood, in order to die, because man was subjected to death; and (in order to destroy him who exercised his dominion over man through death, and made him tremble all his lifetime in the expectation of that terrible moment, which testified of the judgment of God, and the inability of man to escape the consequences of sin) and the condition into which disobedience to God had plunged him. For verily the Lord did not undertake the cause of angels, but that of the seed of Abraham, and in order to proclaim the work that was necessary for them, and to represent them efficaciously and really before God, He must needs put Himself into the position and the circumstances into which that seed were found, thought not the state they were personally in.

It will be remarked here, that it is still a family owned of God, which is before our eyes, as the object of the Saviour’s affection and care-the children whom God had given Him, children of Abraham after the flesh, if in that condition they answered to the designation of “seed of Abraham” (this is the question of Joh 8:37-39), or his children according to the Spirit, if grace gives it them.

These truths introduce priesthood, As Son of man, He had been made a little less than the angels, and, crowned already with glory and honour, was hereafter to have all things put under His feet. This we do not yet see. But He took this place of humiliation in order to taste death for the whole system that was afar from God, and to gain the full rights of the second Man, by glorifying God there, where the creature had failed through weakness, and where also the enemy, having deceived man by his subtlety, had dominion over him (according to the righteous judgment of God) in power and malice. At the same time he tasted death for the special purpose of delivering the children whom God would bring to glory, taking their nature and gathering them together as sanctified ones around Himself, He not being ashamed to call them brethren. But it was thus that He was to present them now before God, according to the efficacy of the work which He had accomplished for them; He would become a priest, being able through His life of humiliation and trial here below, to sympathize with His own in all their conflicts and difficulties.

He suffered-never yielded. We do not suffer when we yield to temptation: the flesh takes pleasure in the things by which it is tempted. Jesus suffered, being tempted, and He is able to succour them that are tempted. It is important to observe that the flesh, when acted upon by its desires, does not suffer. Being tempted, it , alas! enjoys. But when, according to the light of the Holy Ghost and the fidelity of obedience, the Spirit resists the attacks of the enemy, whether subtle or persecuting, then one suffers. This the Lord did, and this we have to do. That which needs succour is the new man, the faithful heart, and not the flesh. I need succour against the flesh, and in order to mortify all the members of the old man.

Here the needed help refers to the difficulties of the faithful saint in fulfilling all the will of God. This is where he suffers, this is where the Lord-who has suffered-can succor him. He trod this path, He learn in it what which can be suffered there form the enemy, and from men. A human heart feels it, and Jesus had a human heart. Besides, the more faithful the heart is, the more full of love to God, and the less it has of that hardness which is the result of intercourse with the world, the more will it suffer. Now there was no hardness in Jesus. His faithfulness and His love were equally perfect. He was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief and weariness. He suffered being tempted. [10]

Footnotes for Hebrews Chapter 2

8: Compare the answer of Christ to Nathanael at the end of Joh 1:1-51; also Mat 17:1-27 and Luk 9:1-62, where the disciples are forbidden to announce Him as the Christ, and He declares He is about to suffer as Son of man, but shews them the coming glory.

9: This however in relationship with God. They did not represent nor make known the Father as He did. Also, while we are brought into the same glory with Christ and the same relationship with the Father, the personal glory of Christ as Son is always carefully secured. It has been justly remarked to the same purpose by another, that He never says “our” Father with the disciples. He tells them to say “our” but says “my and your,” and it is much more precious.

10: Four distinct grounds may be noticed in the chapter for the humiliation of Jesus: it became God-there was His glory; the destruction of Satan’s power; reconciliation or really propitiation by His death; and capacity for sympathy in priesthood.

John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2:1-4 The author makes an argument from lesser to greater: If, in the lesser situation of the Old Testament era, people who rejected God’s word as delivered by angels were severely punished, how much greater the punishment will be for those who now reject the word of salvation that has been delivered by the Son himself and confirmed by the Holy Spirit.

2:1 The truth we have heard is the message of salvation delivered through Christ (2:3). • Drift away pictures a ship getting off course. Here it speaks of getting off track spiritually due to not listening very carefully to the Good News.

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

Heb 2:1. Δεῖ) Elsewhere he uses the verb ὀφείλειν, to owe; here δεῖ, it behoves. The former implies obligation; the latter urgent danger, Heb 2:3. Now the discourse is verging towards exhortation, point by point corresponding to the preceding chapter, concerning Christ the prophet, the king, the priest: concerning Him as the prophet, for it is said, He hath spoken, Heb 2:2: concerning Him as king, for it is said, Thy throne, Heb 2:8: concerning Him as priest, for it is said, He hath made purification, Heb 2:3. And so ch. 2, concerning Him as prophet, presently in Heb 2:1, etc.: concerning Him as king, Thou hast crowned, Heb 2:7: concerning Him as priest, everywhere. The exhortation begins in the first person; then becomes stronger in the second, ch. Heb 3:1.—περισσοτέρως, the more abundantly) The comparative in the strict sense; comp. the following verses: it is construed with δεῖ, it behoves.—προσέχειν, to attend, to give heed) by obedience; comp. Heb 2:2, note.—τοῖς ἀκουσθεῖσι, to the things which we have heard) The reference is to ch. Heb 1:1, at the end: and comp. below Heb 2:3, ch. Heb 5:11. The part (office) of speaking and hearing is, therefore, superior to that of writing and reading.—μήποτε παραῤῥυῶμεν) 2d Aorist pass. with an act. signification, from ῥεύω, I flow, and I pour out: lest at any time, he says, we should [let them slip, Engl. Vers.] flow past (them); i.e. allow them to flow away with extreme levity of mind; comp. Gen 49:4. The apostle had respect to the LXX., Pro 3:21, υἱὲ, μὴ παραῤῥυῆς, do not flow or slip by them, my son, let them not depart from thine eyes; where also, Pro 2:20, we read, νέφη ἐῤῥύη δρόσῳ, the clouds dropped with dew, in an active sense; and so everywhere. Zosimus, 50:2: ἡ Ῥωμαίων ἀρχὴ ὑπεῤῥύη κατὰ βραχὺ, the empire of the Romans gradually failed. Greg.: ἵνα μὴ ἐξίτηλα τῷ χρονῷ γένηται τὰ καλὰ καὶ μὴ παραῤῥυῇ, that what is beautiful should not be effaced by time and should not slip away. This word frequently occurs in a metaphorical sense. Hesychius: παραῤῥυῶμεν, ἐξολισθῶμεν. The punishment of the slothful is expressed by a similar word, ἐτάκησαν, they wasted away, or were consumed, Wis 1:16. The word stands: the slothful man slips away.

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

Heb_2:1. Διὰ τοῦτο] therefore, sc. because Christ, the mediator of the New Covenant, is as the Son of God so highly exalted above the angels, the intermediate agents in the giving of the Old Covenant.

δεῖ] indication of the inner necessity resulting of itself from the described conditions.

περισσοτέρως] so much the more, sc. than would be the case if He who proclaimed the ἀκουσθέντα were one of lower rank. We have not, however, to connect περισσοτέρως with δεῖ (Grotius, Bengel, Dindorf, Böhme, Kuinoel), but with προσέχειν as the main idea.

προσέχειν τινὶ πρ.] to give heed or attention to anything, sc. in order to hold fast to it.

τοῖς ἀκουσθεῖσιν] to that which has been heard. The salvation preached by the Lord and His immediate disciples is intended, of which the readers had heard. Comp. Heb_2:3.

μήποτε παραῤῥυῶμεν] lest haply we should be carried past it (comp. LXX. Pro_3:21 : υἱὲ μὴ παραῤῥυῇς, τήρησον δὲ ἐμὴν βουλὴν καὶ ἔννοιαν), i.e. lest we lose it, fail of obtaining the salvation promised to us by the word we have heard; comp. Heb_2:3. The interpretation of Erasmus, Clarius, Beza, Cameron, Stuart, al.: lest we forget it, or let it escape attention, is unmeaning and almost tautological, παραῤῥυῶμεν (or παραρυῶμεν, as Lachmann and Tischendorf 2 and 7 write it, after A B* D* L א), moreover, is not, as Wittich, Dindorf, and others suppose, conjunctive present active of παραῤῥυέω,for the forms παραῤῥυέω, παραῤῥύω, παραῤῥύημι are mere figments of the grammarians,[41] in order to derive certain tenses therefrom,but sec. aorist conjunct, passive from ΠΑΡΑῤῬΈΩ.

[41] Without warrant Delitzsch denies this. He has not been able to adduce an instance in favour of the opposite opinion.

Heb_2:1-4. The author, in availing himself of the communicative form of speech, deduces from the superiority of the Son over the angels, set forth in chap. 1, as likewise from the fact that even the Mosaic law, given through the instrumentality of angels, could not be transgressed with impunity, the imperative obligation for the readers to hold fast to the salvation revealed by Christ, securely handed down, and confirmed by God with miracles. Thus there already comes out here the paraenetic main tendency of the epistle: to animate the Hebrews, urgently exposed as they were to the peril of apostasy, to perseverance in the Christian faith, as this aim is also manifested elsewhere in repeated admonitions (e.g. Heb_3:6; Heb_3:14, Heb_4:14, Heb_6:11, Heb_10:23); although the author has the intention of speaking further concerning the relation of Christ to the angels (comp. Heb_2:5 ff.).

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 2:1-4 . From this proved superiority of the Son to the angels the writer deduces the warning that neglect of the salvation proclaimed by the Lord Himself and attested by God in miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost will incur heavier punishment than that which was inflicted upon those who neglected the word spoken by angels.

Heb 2:1 . Διὰ τοῦτο : “on this account,” because God has now spoken not through prophets or angels, but through a Son. δεῖ … ἡμᾶς : “we must give more excessive heed”. “Alibi utitur verbo ὀφείλειν debere : hic δεῖ oportet . Illud dicit obligationem : hoc, urgens periculum”; Bengel, who also remarks on 1Co 11:10 , ὀφείλει notat obligationem: δεῖ necessitatem; illud morale est, hoc quasi physicum; ut in vernaculâ, wir sollen und müssen”. Here then it is the logical necessity that is prominent. περισσοτέρως is to be joined not with δεῖ as in Vulg. (and Bengel), “abundantius oportet observare,” but with προσέχειν . The adverb occurs in Heb 13:19 and six times in 2 Cor.; the adj. frequently in N.T. περισσοτέρως [ περιττοτέρως ] occurs in Diod. Sic., xiii. 108, τὰ περ . εἰργασμένα ; also in Athenaeus, v., p. 192 F. κλισμὸς περιτ . κεκόσμηται . The comparative is here used with reference to the greater attention due to the revelation than if it had been delivered by one of less position. Atto Vercell. suggestively, “Quare abundantius … Nonne et illa Dei sunt et ista?” His answer being that those who had been brought up to reverence the O.T. might be apt to despise the new revelation. προσέχειν never in N.T. and only once in LXX (Job 7:17 ) has the added τὸν νοῦν usual in classics. As προσέχειν is commonly used of bringing a ship to land, this sense may have suggested the παραῤῥυῶμεν . ἡμᾶς , including himself, but meaning to indicate all who in these last days had heard the revelation of Christ. τοῖς ἀκουσθεῖσιν : “the things heard,” the great salvation first preached by the Lord, Heb 2:3 ; cf. Act 8:6 ; Act 16:14 . He means to disclose the significance of what they have already heard, rather than to bring forward new truth. μὴ ποτε παραῤῥυῶμεν : “lest haply we drift away”. μή ποτε , as Hoogeveen shows, occurs in N.T. as = ne quando and also as = ne forte ; but in clauses expressing apprehension, as here, it can always be rendered “lest perchance”. [“In Hellenistic Greek μήποτε in a principal clause means ‘perhaps,’ in a dependent clause ‘if perchance,’ ‘if possibly,’ ” Blass, p. 212.] παραῤῥυῶμεν is 2nd aor. subj. pass. (with neuter meaning) of παραῤῥέω , I flow beside or past; as in Xen., Cyrop. , iv. 52, πιεῖν ἀπὸ τοῦ παραῤῥέοντος ποταμοῦ . Hence, to slip aside; as in Soph., Philoct. , 653, of an arrow slipping from the quiver; in Xen., Anab. , iv. 4, of snow slipping off; Ælian, V. H. , iii. 30, of a coarse story unseasonably slipping into a discreet conversation; and in medical writers, frequently of food slipping aside into the windpipe. Origen ( Contra Celsum , 393) says the multitude need fixed holy days, ἵνα μὴ τέλεον παραῤῥυῇ , “that they may not quite drift away”. See also Pro 3:21 , υἱὲ , μὴ παραῤῥυῇς , τήρησον δὲ ἐμὴν βουλήν .

Heb 1:4 to Heb 2:18 . The Son and the Angels . Heb 1:4 , although forming part of the sentence 1 3, introduces a subject which continues to be more or less in view throughout chaps 1 and 2. The exaltation of the Mediator to the right hand of Sovereignty is in keeping with His designation as Son, a designation which marked Him out as superior to the angels. Proof is adduced from the O.T. To this proof, in accordance with the writer’s manner, a resulting admonition is attached, Heb 2:1-4 . And the remainder of chap. 2 is occupied with an explanation of the reasonableness of the incarnation and the suffering it involved; or, in other words, it is explained why if Christ is really greater than the angels, He had to be made a little lower than they.

τοσούτῳ κρείττων γενόμενος … “having become as much superior to the angels as He has obtained a more excellent name than they”. The form of comparison here used, τοσ .… ὅσῳ is found also, Heb 7:20-22 , Heb 8:6 , Heb 10:25 ; also in Philo. κρείττων is one of the words most necessary in an Epistle in which comparison is never out of sight. The Son became ( γενόμενος ) greater than the angels in virtue of taking His seat at God’s right hand. This exaltation was the result of His earthly work. It is as Mediator of the new revelation, who has cleansed the sinful by His death, that He assumes supremacy. And this is in keeping with and in fulfilment of His obtaining the name of Son. This name κεκληρονόμηκεν , He has obtained, not “von Anfang an” as Bleek and others say, but as Riehm points out, in the O.T. The Messiah, then future, was spoken of as Son; and therefore to the O.T. reference is at once made in proof. The Messianic Sonship no doubt rests upon the Eternal Sonship, but it is not the latter but the former that is here in view.

In support of this statement the writer adduces an abundance of evidence, no fewer than seven passages being cited from the O.T. Before considering these, two preliminary objections may first be removed. (1) To us nothing may seem less in need of proof than that Christ who has indelibly impressed Himself on mankind is superior to the angels who are little more than a picturesque adornment of earthly life. But when this writer lived the angels may be said to have been in possession, whereas Christ had yet to win His inheritance. Moreover, as Schoettgen shows (p. 905) it was usual and needful to make good the proposition, “Messias major est Patriarchis, Mose, et Angelis ministerialibus”. Prof. Odgers, too, has shown ( Proceedings of Soc. of Hist. Theol. , 1895 6) that quite possibly the writer had in view some Jewish Gnostics who believed that Christ Himself belonged to the angelic creation and had, with the angels, a fluid personality and no proper human nature. In any case it was worth the writer’s while to carry home to the conviction of his contemporaries that a mediation accomplished by one who was tempted and suffered and wrought righteousness, a mediation of an ethical and spiritual kind, must supersede a mediation accomplished by physical marvels and angelic ministries. (2) The passages cited from the Old Testament in proof of Christ’s superiority although their immediate historical application is disregarded, are confidently adduced in accordance with the universal use of Scripture in the writer’s time. But it must not be supposed that these passages are culled at random. With all his contemporaries this writer believed that where statements were made of an Israelitish king or other official in an ideal form not presently realised in those directly addressed or spoken of, these were considered to be Messianic, that is to say, destined to find their fulfilment and realisation in the Messiah. These interpretations of Scripture were the inevitable result of faith in God. The people were sure that God would somehow and at some time fulfil the utmost of His promise.

The first two quotations (Heb 1:5 ) illustrate the giving of the more excellent name; the remaining quotations exhibit the superiority of the Son to angels, or more definitely the supreme rule and imperishable nature of the Son, in contrast to the perishable nature and servile function of the angels.

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

Chap.

2:1-4.] Practical inference from the proved superiority of the Son of God to the angels.

1.] On this account (viz. because Christ, the mediator of the New Covenant, is far above all the angels, who were the mediators of the former Covenant) it behoves us (ταύτην τὴν διαφορὰν ἐπισταμένους, Thdrt.: δεῖ, of moral necessity arising from the previous premises: so Mat 18:33; Mat 25:27: 2Ti 2:6 al. There is no stress on ἡμᾶς according to the reading of the text) to give heed (προσέχειν usually in the classics is transitive, with τὸν νοῦν following: so e. g. Aristoph. Nub. 566, ὦ σοφώτατοι θεαταί, δεῦρο τὸν νοῦν προσέχετε, and Plut. 113, 151, al. In Demosth. both usages are found: e. g. p. 21. 26, εἴ τις ὑμῖν προσέξει τὸν νοῦν:—p. 132. 9, προσέχουσιν ἅπαντες, οὐχ οἷς εἴπομέν ποτε ἢ νῦν ἂν εἴποιμεν, ἀλλʼ οἷς ποιοῦμεν. And later, intrans. usage prevailed: see reff.) more abundantly (some as Grot. (“eo magis par est”), Kuin., al. would join περισσοτέρως with δεῖ: but if so intended, it would certainly have been before that verb. We must not understand after the comparative, τοῦ νόμου, “than we did to the law,” as Chrys., al.; or the aim of the Writer to be, to shew the superiority of the gospel over the law, as Thdrt.: but the adverb intimates how much our attention ought to be increased and intensified by our apprehension of the dignity of Him whose record the gospel is, and who is its Mediator) to the things heard (by us) (ἀκουσθεῖσιν is better taken neuter than masc., “the persons whom we have heard.” Bleek remarks, after Böhme, the difference between the tone of exhortation here and in St. Paul, e. g. Gal 1:6 ff.: but perhaps the remark is hardly just to the Pauline hypothesis: for difference of circumstances should be taken into consideration. Even the same person would not exhort in the same tone, converts to whom he stood in such different relations as St. Paul did to the Galatians and the Jewish converts. A similar criticism will apply to Bleek’s second remark, that the Writer here classes himself absolutely with his readers who had heard the gospel from others. There may have been reasons for his descending to the level of those whom he was addressing. But see below on ver. 3, and on the authorship, the Prolegomena), lest haply (the ποτε is not to be pressed as meaning ‘at any time:’ it simply generalizes and renders indefinite the μή,—‘ne forte,’ dass nicht etwa) we be diverted (παραρυῶμεν is the 2nd aor. subj. passive (ἐρύην) from παραρέω, not the pres. subj. active from παραρυέω, which latter verb is not in use. The orthography with one ρ only is characteristic of the Alexandrine Greek: which usually wrote double consonants single. (See Sturz. de Dial. Maced.) The verb signifies to flow by: so Xen. Cyr. iv. 5. 2, πιεῖν ἀπὸ τοῦ παραῤῥέοντος ποταμοῦ: ref. Isa. ὡς ἰτέα ἐπὶ παραῤῥέον ὕδωρ. Bleek gives an example from Artemidorus viii. 27, where dreams of running water are interpreted to signify change and instability, διὰ τὸ μὴ μένειν τὸ ὕδωρ ἀλλὰ παραῤῥεῖν. Aristotle, de Part. Animal. iii. 3, uses this same passive form to indicate that which we familiarly call food going the wrong way in course of swallowing: ἐὰν γάρ τι παρεισρυῇ ξηρὸν ἢ ὑγρὸν εἰς τὴν ἀρτηρίαν, πνιγμοὺς καὶ πόνους κ. βηχὰς ἰσχυροὺς ἐμποιεῖ·—συμβαίνει γὰρ φανερῶς τὰ λεχθέντα πᾶσιν οἷς ἂν παραῤῥυῇ τι τῆς τροφῆς: see also numerous instances of the same or a similar meaning, from Galen, in Wetst. Plut. Amator, p. 754 a, says of fear lest a ring should fall off, ὡς μὴ παραῤῥυῇ δεδιώς. Elsner quotes similar Latin usages, among which notice Cicero pro Balbo, c. i., “Oratio quæ non prætervecta aures vestras, sed in animis omnium penitus insederit.” The meaning of the verb παραῤῥεῖν seems then to be clear—to flow past, or away, or aside, to fall off, deflect from a course. But it is to one part of that verb that our attention is here directed,—the 2 aor. passive: and it may be noticed that whereas in the above examples that which flows away or flows aside is said παραῤῥεῖν, that which is carried away or aside by floating on it, or which is caused to fall off or away, is said παραῤῥυῆναι: cf. also υἱέ, μὴ παραρυῇς in ref. Prov. And so must the word be taken here. We, going onward in time, living our lives in one or another direction, are exhorted προσέχειν τοῖς ἀκουσθεῖσι, ‘to adhere to the things we have heard’ (see above), and that, μή ποτε παραρυῶμεν, ‘that we do not at any time float past them,’ be not carried away beside them, led astray from the course on which they would take us. Two mistakes respecting the word are to be avoided: 1. that of Bos, Valcknaer, al., and the E. V., “ne quando præterfluere ea sinamus:” “lest at any time we should let them slip.” From what has been above said of the tense and voice, it will be clear that such cannot be the meaning. 2. Still worse is that of those who, misled by the vulgate “pereffluamus,” have thought of a comparison with a sieve, or leaking vessel. So Est. (preferring however the other, the “ne defluamus” of ), Calv. (“Attenta mens similis est vasi bene obstructo: vaga autem et ignava, perforato”), Owen, al.: and I find it reproduced in Tait’s commentary on the Hebrews: “lest.… we should run out as leaking vessels.” The meaning is as untenable, as the simile (after προσέχειν) is irrelevant. And, as Kuin. and Bleek remark, the passage of Terence cited in justification, Eun. i. 2. 25, “Plenus rimarum sum, hac atque illac perfluo,” has reference not to forgetfulness, but to indiscreet loquacity. The Greek expositors, whose authority in matters of Greek verbal usage is considerable, all explain it as above:—so Chrys., τουτεστι, μὴ ἀπολώμεθα, μὴ ἐκπέσωμεν. καὶ δείκνυσιν ἐνταῦθα τὸ χαλεπὸν τῆς ἐκπτώσεως, ὅτι δύσκολον τὸ παραῤῥυὲν πάλιν ἐπανελθεῖν, καθότι ἐκ ῥᾳθυμίας τοῦτο συνέβη. ἔλαβε δὲ τὴν λέξιν ἀπὸ τῶν παροιμιῶν· “υἱὲ” γάρ, φησί, “μὴ παραῤῥυῇς:” Thdrt., μή τινα ὄλισθον ὑπομείνωμεν: Œc., τουτέστιν, ἐκπέσωμεν τοῦ καθήκοντος καὶ τῆς ἐπὶ σωτηρίαν ὁδοῦ: Hesych., ἐξολισθαμεν: Suidas, παραπέσωμεν. So also all the more accurate of the moderns) (from them) (such is the most natural object to supply after παρά: turned aside from and floated away from the course on which the προσέχειν to them would have carried us).

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

They are said to let the word run out, which hold it not fast when they have heard it.

Now as it were pausing with himself and showing to what end and purpose all these things were spoken, to wit, to understand by the excellency of Christ above all creatures, that his doctrine, majesty and Priesthood is most perfect, he useth an exhortation taken from a comparison.

He maketh himself an hearer.

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

CHAPTER II.

The use we should make of the preceding doctrine, and the danger

of neglecting this great salvation, 1-4.

The future world is not put in subjection to the angels, but all

is under the authority of Christ, 5-8.

Jesus has tasted death for every man, 9.

Nor could he accomplish man's redemption without being

incarnated and without dying; by which he destroys the devil,

and delivers all that believe on him from the fear of death and

spiritual bondage, 10-15.

Christ took not upon him the nature of angels, but the nature of

Abraham, that he might die, and make reconciliation for the

sins of the people, 16-18.

NOTES ON CHAP. II.

Verse 1. Therefore] Because God has spoken to us by his Son; and because that Son is so great and glorious a personage; and because the subject which is addressed to us is of such infinite importance to our welfare.

We ought to give the more earnest heed] We should hear the doctrine of Christ with care, candour, and deep concern.

Lest at any time we should let them slip.] μη ποτε παραρρυωμεν. "Lest at any time we should leak out." This is a metaphor taken from unstanch vessels; the staves not being close together, the fluid put into them leaks through the chinks and crevices. Superficial hearers lose the benefit of the word preached, as the unseasoned vessel does its fluid; nor can any one hear to the saving of his soul, unless he give most earnest heed, which he will not do unless he consider the dignity of the speaker, the importance of the subject, and the absolute necessity of the salvation of his soul. St. Chrysostom renders it μηποτε απολωμεθαεκπεσωμεν, lest we perish, lest we fall away.

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

1. Therefore we ought, etc. He now declares what he had before in view, by comparing Christ with angels, even to secure the highest authority to his doctrine. For if the Law given through angels could not have been received with contempt, and if its transgression was visited with severe punishment, what is to happen, he asks, to the despisers of that gospel, which has the Son of God as its author, and was confirmed by so many miracles? The import of the whole is this, that the higher the dignity of Christ is than that of angels, the more reverence is due to the Gospel than to the Law. Thus he commends the doctrine by mentioning its author.

But should it seem strange to any one, that as the doctrine both of the Law and of the Gospel is from God, one should be preferred to the other; inasmuch as by having the Law lowered the majesty of God would be degraded; the evident answer would be this, — that he ought indeed always to be heard with equal attention whenever he may speak, and yet that the fuller he reveals himself to us, it is but right that our reverence and attention to obedience should increase in proportion to the extent of his revelations; not that God is in himself less at one time than at another; but his greatness is not at all times equally made known to us.

Here also another question arises. Was not the Law also given by Christ? If so, the argument of the Apostle seems not to be well grounded. To this I reply, that in this comparison regard is had to a veiled revelation on one side, and to that which is manifest on the other. Now, as Christ in bringing the Law showed himself but obscurely or darkly, and as it were under coverings, it is nothing strange that the Law should be said to have been brought by angels without any mention being made of his name; for in that transaction he never appeared openly; but in the promulgation of the Gospel his glory was so conspicuous, that he may justly be deemed its author.

Lest at any time we should let them slip, or, “lest we should at any time flow abroad,” or, if you prefer, “let dip,” though in reality there is not much difference. The true sense is to be gathered from the contrast; for to give heed, or to attend and to let slip, are opposites; the first means to hold a thing, and the other to let off like a sieve, or a perforated vessel, whatever may be poured into it. I do not indeed approve of the opinion of those who take it in the sense of dying, according to what we find in 2 Samuel 15:14, “We all die and slide away like water.” On the contrary, we ought, as I have said, to regard the contrast between attention and flowing out; an attentive mind is like a vessel capable of holding water; but that which is roving and indolent is like a vessel with holes.

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.

(1) Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard.—Better, to the things heard; for this expression contains the complement of the thought of Heb_1:1. Both “speak” and “hear” are words which carry weighty emphasis in this Epistle. (See Heb_1:1; Heb_2:2; Heb_12:25; Heb_3:5; Heb_3:7; Heb_4:2, et al.) Because of the supreme dignity of Him in whom at the last God speaks, men are bound to give the more earnest heed to the words spoken, whether heard by them from the Lord Himself or (as in this case, Heb_2:3) from His servants.

Lest at any time we should let them slip.—This translation (first introduced by the Genevan Bible of 1560) substantially gives the sense, but inverts the figure presented in the Greek. The words must be rendered, lest possibly we drift away (Wiclif, “lest perauenture we fleten awey”). It is the man that is in danger of being carried along by the current: unless the mind be held closely to the words that God has spoken, it must drift away from them, and from the salvation which they promise. There seems no foundation for the rendering of the margin, first given in the Genevan Testament of 1557.

II.

(1-4) These verses must be closely joined with the first chapter. Before advancing to the next step in his argument, the writer pauses to enforce the duty which results from what has been already established. But (as in Heb_4:14-16) the exhortation does not interrupt the thought, but rather serves as a connecting link. (See Note on Heb_2:5.)

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

1. Therefore] Because we are heirs of a better covenant, administered not by Angels but by a Son, to whom as Mediator an absolute dominion is to be assigned.

we ought] The word implies moral necessity and not mere obligation. The author never loses sight of the fact that his purpose was to warn as well as to teach.

to give the more earnest heed] If the command to “take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently lest thou forget the things that thine eyes have seen” (Deu_4:9) came with awful force to those who had only received the Law by the disposition of Angels, how much “more abundantly” should Christians attend to Him of Whom Moses had spoken to their fathers? (Act_3:22).

to the things which we have heard] Lit., “to the things heard,” i.e. to the Gospel.

lest at any time] Rather, “lest haply.”

we should let them slip] Rather, “should drift away from them.” Wiclif rendered the word more correctly than the A. V. which here follows the Genevan Bible of 1560—“lest peradventure we fleten away.” The verb thus resembles the Latin praetervehi. The metaphor is taken from a boat which having no “anchor sure and steadfast,” slips its anchor, and as Luther says in his gloss, “before her landing shoots away into destruction” (Pro_3:21 LXX. υἱὲ μὴ παραῤῥυῆς). It is obvious that these Hebrew converts were in great danger of “drifting away” from the truth under the pressure of trial, and in consequence of the apathy produced by isolation and deferred hopes (Heb_3:6, Heb_6:11, Heb_10:25; Heb_10:36-37, Heb_12:1-3).

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.

Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed,.... This is an inference from the apostle's discourse in the preceding chapter; since he, by whom God has spoke in these last days, is his Son, who is infinitely above the angels, they being his creatures, and worshippers of him, and ministers to him, and his; therefore the greater regard should be had to the Gospel spoken by him: even to the things which we have heard; which are no other than the truths of the Gospel, which had been preached unto them, and which were heard by the apostles, who had preached them to them; and they had heard them from them, or from Christ himself, and were what their forefathers had desired to hear, and which the carnal ear has not heard; for there is an internal and an external hearing of the Gospel. Now it becomes the hearers of it to give heed, or attend unto it, to beware of that which is pernicious and hurtful, and to regard that which is good and profitable; and this giving heed takes in a close consideration of Gospel truths, a diligent inquiry into them, a valuable esteem of them, a strict adherence to them, and a watchfulness to retain what is heard, and to conform unto it: and this was to be done "more earnestly" than their forefathers had, or than they themselves had; or this may be put for the superlative degree, and signify, that they should give the most earnest heed; for they had the most abundant reason to give heed, since what they heard was not from Moses, and the prophets, to whom they did well to take heed, but from Christ the Son of God, who was greater than they: "lest at any time we should let them slip": and this either respects persons; and so the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "lest we should run out"; and the Syriac version, "lest we should fall"; and the Arabic version, "lest we should fall from honesty": which may intend partial slips and falls, to which the people of God are subject; and which are oftentimes owing to inadvertency to the word; for the Gospel, duly attended to, is a preservative from falling: or it may respect things, even the doctrines of the Gospel, lest we should let them slip out of us, through us, or besides us: the metaphor seems to be taken either from leaking vessels, which let out what is put into them; or to strainers, which let the liquor through, and it falls on the ground, and cannot be gathered up, and so becomes useless; and which is expressive of unprofitable hearing of the word, through inattention, negligence, and forgetfulness, and the irrecoverableness of it, when it is gone: the Gospel may be lost to some that hear it, as to any real benefit and advantage by it; and some who hear the Gospel may be lost and perish; but the grace of the Gospel can never be lost.

Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed,.... This is an inference from the apostle's discourse in the preceding chapter; since he, by whom God has spoke in these last days, is his Son, who is infinitely above the angels, they being his creatures, and worshippers of him, and ministers to him, and his; therefore the greater regard should be had to the Gospel spoken by him: even to the things which we have heard; which are no other than the truths of the Gospel, which had been preached unto them, and which were heard by the apostles, who had preached them to them; and they had heard them from them, or from Christ himself, and were what their forefathers had desired to hear, and which the carnal ear has not heard; for there is an internal and an external hearing of the Gospel. Now it becomes the hearers of it to give heed, or attend unto it, to beware of that which is pernicious and hurtful, and to regard that which is good and profitable; and this giving heed takes in a close consideration of Gospel truths, a diligent inquiry into them, a valuable esteem of them, a strict adherence to them, and a watchfulness to retain what is heard, and to conform unto it: and this was to be done "more earnestly" than their forefathers had, or than they themselves had; or this may be put for the superlative degree, and signify, that they should give the most earnest heed; for they had the most abundant reason to give heed, since what they heard was not from Moses, and the prophets, to whom they did well to take heed, but from Christ the Son of God, who was greater than they: "lest at any time we should let them slip": and this either respects persons; and so the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "lest we should run out"; and the Syriac version, "lest we should fall"; and the Arabic version, "lest we should fall from honesty": which may intend partial slips and falls, to which the people of God are subject; and which are oftentimes owing to inadvertency to the word; for the Gospel, duly attended to, is a preservative from falling: or it may respect things, even the doctrines of the Gospel, lest we should let them slip out of us, through us, or besides us: the metaphor seems to be taken either from leaking vessels, which let out what is put into them; or to strainers, which let the liquor through, and it falls on the ground, and cannot be gathered up, and so becomes useless; and which is expressive of unprofitable hearing of the word, through inattention, negligence, and forgetfulness, and the irrecoverableness of it, when it is gone: the Gospel may be lost to some that hear it, as to any real benefit and advantage by it; and some who hear the Gospel may be lost and perish; but the grace of the Gospel can never be lost.

Hebrews 2:2

heb 2:2

heb 2:2

heb 2:2For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast,.... This is a description of the law, from whence the apostle argues to a stricter regard to the Gospel, as from the lesser to the greater: this is called "the word", and a terrible one it was; it was a voice of words, which they that heard entreated they might hear no more; it was the word "spoken" with an articulate voice, and was heard by the Israelites, and it was spoken "by angels". Jehovah the Father's voice was never heard; when he came to give the law, ten thousand angels came along with him; and the ministry of these he used in the delivery of the law; by them he spoke it; they formed in the air the voices heard; it was ordained by them, and given by the disposition of them; see Act 7:53. To which agree those words of Herod, spoken to the Jews, recorded by Josephus (b); that we learn of God, , "by angels", the best of doctrines, and the most holy things in the law. And this was "steadfast"; firm, and sure, being the word of God, which cannot pass away, until it be fulfilled: it was confirmed by terrible signs attending it, and by the people's assent unto it; the penalty of it is sure and certain, in case of disobedience; and as to the form and ministration of it, it remained until Christ, the end of it, came; and as to the matter of it, so far as of a moral nature, it still remains: the judicial and ceremonial parts of it are abrogated; and the whole of it is abolished, as in the hands of Moses, and as a covenant of works, and as to the curse and condemnation of it, and with respect to justification by it; but it still continues as a cursing law to all that are under it; and as a means of conviction to sinners in the hands of the Spirit; and as a rule of walk and conversation to saints, as in the hands of Christ:

and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; every precept of the law had a penalty annexed to it; and every breach of it was punished as that penalty required; and that according to the strict justice of God, and the just demerit of sin; and none escaped, but suffered the punishment due to the violation of the precept either in themselves, or in their surety; so steadfast and immovable was this law.

(b) Antiqu. l. 15. c. 5. sect. 3.

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

1 Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.

Ver. 1. We should let them slip] Or, run out, παραρρυωμεν, as water runs through a cracked vessel. The word mingled with faith in the heart, as Act 16:14, must be carefully kept, and it will safely keep us, Pro 6:20-22. Some render it, Nequando procter fluamus, lest we pass by the things we have heard, as a river swiftly passeth by the side of a city, as the fashion of this world passeth away, as a picture drawn upon the ice soon vanisheth, &c. The Arabic rendereth it, "lest we fall," the Syriac, "lest we perish." They must needs fall and never rise again, perish without remedy, that reject the remedy, that hate to be healed, that spurn at the grace of the gospel, which is post naufragium tabula, the power of God to salvation. This is as if a condemned prisoner should reject a pardon.

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.

Therefore - Greek “On account of this” - Δια τοῦτο Dia touto - that is, on account of the exalted dignity and rank of the Messiah as stated in the previous chapter. The sense is: “Since Christ, the author of the new dispensation, is so far exalted above the prophets, and even the angels, we ought to give the more earnest attention to all that has been spoken.”

We ought - It is suitable or proper (Greek δεὶ dei) that we should attend to those things. When the Son of God speaks to people, every consideration makes it appropriate that we should attend to what is spoken.

To give the more earnest heed. - To give the more strict attention.

To the things which we have heard. - Whether directly from the Lord Jesus, or from his apostles. It is possible that some of those to whom the apostle was writing had heard the Lord Jesus himself preach the gospel: others had heard the same truths declared by the apostles.

Lest at any time. - We ought to attend to those things at all times. We ought never to forget them; never to be indifferent to them. We are sometimes interested in them, and then we feel indifferent to them; sometimes at leisure to attend to them, and then the cares of the world, or a heaviness and dullness of mind, or a cold and languid state of the affections, renders us indifferent to them, and they are suffered to pass out of the mind without concern. Paul says, that this ought never to be done. At no time should we be indifferent to those things. They are always important to us, and we should never be in a state of mind when they would be uninteresting. At all times; in all places; and in every situation of life, we should feel that the truths of religion are of more importance to us than all other truths, and nothing should be suffered to efface their image from the heart.

We should let them slip. - Margin, “Run out as leaking vessels.” Tyndale renders this, “lest we be spilt.” The expression here has given rise to much discussion as to its meaning; and has been very differently translated. Doddridge renders it, “lest we let them flow out of our minds.” Prof. Stuart, “lest at any time we should slight them.” Whitby: “that they may not entirely slip out of our memories.” The word used here - παραῤῥυέω pararrueō - occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. The Septuagint translators have used the word only once. Pro 3:21. “Son, do not pass by (μὴ παραῤῥυῇς mē pararruēs but keep my counsel;” that is, do not pass by my advice by neglect, or suffer it to be disregarded. The word means, according to Passow, to flow by, to flow over; and then to go by, to fall, to go away. It is used to mean to flow near, to flow by - as of a river; to glide away, to escape - as from the mind, that is, to forget; and to glide along - as a thief does by stealth. See Robinson’s Lexicon. The Syriac and Arabic translators have rendered it: “that we may not fall.” After all that has been said on the meaning of the word here (compare Stuart in loc.), it seems to me that the true sense of the expression is that of flowing, or gliding by - as a river; and that the meaning here is, that we should be very cautious that the important truths spoken by the Redeemer and his apostles should not be suffered to “glide by” us without attention, or without profit. We should not allow them to be like a stream that glides on by us without benefiting us; that is, we should endeavor to secure and retain them as our own. The truth taught, is that there is great danger, now that the true system of religion has been revealed, that it will not profit us, but that we shall lose all the benefit of it. This danger may arise from many sources - some of which are the following:

(1) We may not feel that the truths revealed are important - and before their importance is felt, they may be beyond our reach. So we are often deceived in regard to the importance of objects - and before we perceive their value they are irrecoverably gone. So it is often with time, and with the opportunities of obtaining an education, or of accomplishing any object which is of value. The opportunity is gone before we perceive its importance. So the young suffer the most important period of life to glide away before they perceive its value, and the opportunity of making much of their talents is lost because they did not embrace the suitable opportunities.

(2) By being engrossed in business. We feel that that is now the most important thing. That claims all our attention. We have no time to pray, to read the Bible, to think of religion, for the cares of the world engross all the time - and the opportunities of salvation glide insensibly away, until it is too late.

(3) By being attracted by the pleasures of life. We attend to them now, and are drawn along from one to another, until religion is suffered to glide away with all its hopes and consolations, and we perceive, too late, that we have let the opportunity of salvation slip forever. Allured by those pleasures, the young neglect it; and new pleasures starting up in future life carry on the delusion, until every favorable opportunity for salvation has passed away.

(4) We suffer favorable opportunities to pass by without improving them. Youth is by far the best time, as it is the most appropriate time, to become a Christian - and yet how easy is it to allow that period to slip away without becoming interested in the Saviour! One day glides on after another, and one week, and one month, one year passes away after another - like a gently-flowing stream - until all the precious time of youth has gone, and we are still not Christians. So a revival of religion is a favorable time - and yet many suffer this to pass by without becoming interested in it. Others are converted, and the heavenly influences descend all around us, but we are unaffected, and the season so full of happy and heavenly influences is gone - to return no more.

(5) We let the favorable season slip, because we design to attend to it at some future period of life. So youth defers it to manhood - manhood to old age - old age to a death-bed - and then neglects it - until the whole of life has glided away, and the soul is not saved. Paul knew man. He knew how prone he was to let the things of religion slip out of the mind - and hence, the earnestness of his caution that we should give heed to the subject now - lest the opportunity of salvation should soon glide away. When once passed, it can never be recalled. Hence, learn:

(1) The truths of religion will not benefit us unless we give heed to them. It will not save us that the Lord Jesus has come and spoken to people, unless we are disposed to listen. It will not benefit us that the sun shines, unless we open our eyes. Books will not benefit us, unless we read them; medicine, unless we take it; nor will the fruits of the earth sustain our lives, however rich and abundant they may be, if we disregard and neglect them. So with the truths of religion. There is truth enough to save the world - but the world disregards and despises it.

(2) It needs not great sins to destroy the soul. Simple “neglect” will do it as certainly as atrocious crimes. Every person has a sinful heart that will destroy him unless he makes an effort to be saved; and it is not merely the great sinner, therefore, who is in danger. It is the man who “neglects” his soul - whether a moral or an immoral man - a daughter of amiableness, or a daughter of vanity and vice.

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

Lest perhaps we should let them slip away,[1] or run out, like water out of leaking vessels, which is lost, and cannot be take up again. According to the letter it is, lest we run out; the sense must be, lest we do not sufficiently attend to these truths. (Witham)

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Ne forte pereffluamus, Greek: mepote pararrnomen.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

In this and the three following verses the apostle applieth the doctrine of the great gospel Prophet’s being more excellent for nature and person than any of the angels in respect of his Deity; and from thence inferreth the dnty, that since God speaking by the prophets is to be heard by those to whom he sends them; how much more when speaking to them by his Son-prophet, who so infinitely excelleth not only all prophets, but angels too!

We ought to give the more earnest heed; we believers, who know the things spoken to be good for us, whether apostles, ministers, or Christian members, by the indispensable necessity laid on us by God’s precept, are obliged more abundantly, exceeding abundantly, than formerly they had; more than they gave to Moses and the legal ministry, excessively beyond that, 2Co 11:23; Eph 3:20; to give heed with an attentive and intent mind, so as to have hearts fastened to what was diligently considered of before, received, believed; heeding them so as to retain and practise them; so to believe, profess, be, keep, and do what he speaks from the Father to them, having souls knit and cleaving to them, Jam 1:22,25.

To the things which we have heard; all that mind and will of God which his Son revealeth to us fully, the whole gospel doctrine which by himself, and by his Spirit in the apostles, he had preached and written to them, Rom 10:14-16.

Lest at any time we should let them slip; an act opposite to the former giving heed, which is by them to be denied, viz. their being like leaking vessels, or having chinks open in their souls, letting by them slide out the most precious gospel of Christ, as water out of a cracked, leaky, broken vessel, or split on the ground. All forgetfulness of memory, all apostacy in heart or profession, is that which the Spirit forbiddeth in this metaphor, παραρρυωμεν. Their danger as to their persons is made a motive to this duty, Heb 2:3, and is not therefore so immediately concerned in this, though it may be implied, for none will let the gospel of Christ slide from them who will not, as to their persons, slide from him at last.

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

Jesus Exalted in Humiliation

1-4. The former dispensation, even though mediated by comparatively inferior beings such as the angels, was yet so sacred that all neglect of it was severely punished. This being so, a far more terrible fate must now be theirs who neglect the revelation brought by the Son of God Himself, delivered to us by eye-witnesses, and authenticated by miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost.

1. Let them slip] RV 'drift away from them,' as a ship from its moorings. This was what the readers were in danger of doing: see Intro, 'Aim and Object,'

2. Spoken by angels] RV 'through angels,' Angels were the mediators of the Law: see Deu_33:2; Act_7:53; Gal_3:19.

Was stedfast] RV' proved stedfast,' i.e. was authoritative while it lasted.

4. Gifts] RM 'distributions.' The word implies variety of spiritual endowments: cp. 1Co_12:4-11; Rom_1:26; Eph_4:7.

5-18. It is no objection to the supremacy of Christ to say that by assuming human nature He became therefore lower than the angels. His humiliation was temporary, and undergone for purposes of redemption, His sufferings and death constituting Him an adequate High Priest through His oneness with humanity. And it is man (not angels) who is lord of the world to come. The lordship of humanity is not yet indeed realised, but the exaltation of Christ is the pledge of it.

5. RV 'not unto angels did he subject.' The position of the negative is emphatic.

The world to come, whereof we speak] i.e, the new dispensation, which is the theme of our Epistle. In the world to come the rule of the angels is ended.

6. The quotation is from Psa_8:4-6.

7. A little lower] This is the meaning of the Heb, but the rendering 'for a little lower' (RM) seems to be required for the argument. Man's inferiority to the angels is only temporary.

8. He left nothing] nothing will be left for angels to rule over.

9. Jesus.. made a little lower than the angels] The words imply the doctrine of the Incarnation of One who was essentially and previously higher than the angels. For the suffering of death] RV 'because of.' The clause is to be connected with what follows. The exaltation seems to be regarded here as the consequence or reward of the humiliation. Cp. Php_2:6-11, and especially Heb_2:9, 'wherefore God highly exalted him': see on Heb_12:2. Taste death] i.e. experience its full bitterness: see on 64.

10. It became him (sc. God)] i.e, it was in accordance with His gracious nature: cp. Heb_2:9, 'by the grace of God.' Captain of their salvation] lit. 'leader,' i.e. not only originator, but the sharer of their lot, leading the way to glory. Make.. perfect] a characteristic word of the Epistle. In the new dispensation everything is perfect. The word means, to bring to its destined or appropriate consummation. Here the thought is, that by sharing the sufferings of humanity Christ was enabled to effect a perfect salvation for the sons of God, and attain that supremacy which is rightfully His: cp. Heb_1:3; Heb_2:9.

11. Of one] i.e. God. Christ and Christians, the Captain and the host whom He leads to glory, are all sons of the one Father—He by nature, they by grace. Hence he calls them brethren.

14. Destroy] RV 'bring to nought,' i.e. render powerless. Death and the devil still exist, but their power is broken. The power of death] Death being the direct consequence of sin (Rom_5:12; Rom_6:23), the devil may be said to have the power of death in so far as he tempts men to sin, and so keeps sharp the sting of death (1Co_15:56).

16. RV 'not of angels doth he take hold.' The word does not mean (as in AV) to assume the nature of, but to put out a hand in order to support or help. 'Christ took in hand to save not angels but you, my Hebrew brethren'. (Bruce). The seed of Abraham are the Hebrew race, the representative or priestly race, through which Jesus came to redeem mankind: cp. Rom_9:5. The writer believes, at the same time, that Christ tasted death 'for every man' (Heb_2:5).

17. In all things] i.e. in participation of flesh and blood and experience of death.

That he might be] Gk. 'might become.' Christ became High Priest when He offered His sacrifice, which He did by His death on the Cross: cp. Heb_9:24, Heb_9:25. Merciful] cp. Heb_5:2. Reconciliation] RV 'propitiation': cp. Heb_5:3. To 'purge sins' and to 'make propitiation for sins' describe the same act from different points of view. In the former case what is in view is the removal of uncleanness; in the latter, of the alienation from God caused by sin.

18. RM 'having been himself tempted in that wherein he hath suffered.' This is the simplest rendering of a difficult passage. Christ's temptations arose out of His sufferings (not conversely, as AV seems to suggest); hence He is able to succour the Hebrews who are tempted by their hardships: see Heb_12:3. As High Priest Christ, therefore, not only effects reconciliation between God and man, but brings men safe through all hardships to the inheritance appointed for them. Cp. for the same combination of propitiation and succour, Psa_79:9.

J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 1-5. INTERPOSED EXHORTATION as explained above.

On this account (i.e. on account of what has been seen of the SON"S superiority to the angels) we ought (or, we are bound) more abundantly to give heed to the things that we have heard ( i.e. the gospel that has been preached to us in the Son), lest at any time (or, lest haply) we let them slip (rather, float past them). The word pararruwmen (aorist subjunctive from pararrew ) denotes flowing or floating past anything. The allusion is to the danger, incidental to those to whom the Epistle was addressed, of failing to recognize the transcendent character of the gospel revelation, missing it through inadvertence, drifting away from it.

Vers. 1-4. A solemn parenthetical warning. Out of solicitude for the spiritual well-being of his readers, the writer pauses here for a moment, to enforce upon them the necessity of" holding fast the New Testament salvation. He does so in words which are burning with urgency.

I THE DUTY. How prone men are to "neglect the great salvation" (ver. 3)! All classes of sinners do so the blasphemer, the infidel, the self-righteous mart, the respectable worldling, the procrastinator. Thousands of church-going people ignore the gospel, out of love of the world and secret repugnance to Christ and his cross. Even believers themselves are very prone to "drift away from" (ver. 1) their anchorage in the gospel verities. The early Hebrew Christians were strongly tempted to relapse into Judaism; our besetting danger is that we allow ourselves to glide with the multitude down the swift current of worldliness and indifference. We need, therefore, "to give the more earnest heed." Want of heedfulness on the part of professing believers is a great evil of our time. "My people doth not consider." What a blessing would dawn upon the Church, were all its members to begin to "search the Scriptures," and to make intense application of mind and heart to the spiritual study of saving truth! Only thus will Christian faith both live and grow. Only thus may one"s life be a life of real devotion to the Redeemer. Only by discharging this duty of constant watchfulness will a believer be preserved from apostasy.

II THE MOTIVES BY WHICH IT IS ENFORCED. Therefore" (ver. 1); i.e. on account of all that has been said in the previous chapter.

1. The greatness of the gospel. "So great salvation (ver. 3). What an unfathomable depth of meaning underlies this little word "so"! The new revelation far transcends the old, inasmuch as in the Son we have received a visible manifestation of God, an adequate atonement for sin, an intelligible exhibition of the spirituality of religious service, a perfect expression of the dignity of man, and a clear revelation of eternal life. Especially does the new economy excel the old in the distinctness with which it exhibits "salvation" as its characteristic feature. The gospel proclaims the love of God. It offers pardon. It breathes a new life into the soul. It rescues from the despotism of sin. It promises a glorious immortality. And at what an infinite expenditure has this salvation been provided! It cost the incarnation of Christ, together with his obedience, suffering and death. It costs still the pleadings and strivings of the Spirit.

2. The dignity of its first Preacher. "At the first spoken through the Lord." (ver. 3). In Hebrews 1, the writer has unfolded and illustrated from Scripture the glory of Christ. He is greater than the prophets of the Old Testament, and more eminent than the angels by whose ministrations the Sinaitic Law had been proclaimed. He is the Son of God his visible manifestation and his exact counterpart. He made and sustains and possesses the universe. He is not only the Prophet of the Church; he is its atoning Priest and. its exalted King. And this first Preacher continues with the Church as its perennial Prophet. He speaks to us today and always by his Word and Spirit.

3. The attestations which it has received (Vers. 3, 4.) The Church has the testimony of the apostles and early evangelists to the facts and doctrines of the gospel. These were even sealed from heaven by the miracles of Christ and. his apostles, as well as by gifts from the fullness of the Spirit distributed among the early Christians. But we have now far greater witness than these. The highest evidence of the truth is the truth itself. The history of the Church has been an ever-cumulating attestation of Christianity. Myriads of believers have certified the gospel by their experience of its power within their hearts. It has been attested from millions of death-beds. "We are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses.

4. The inevitable doom of those who neglect it. (Vers. 2, 3.) If the Law, given by angels, could not be violated with impunity, how much more certain and dreadful must be the ruin of all who reject the message of mercy spoken by the lips of the Lord himself! (Heb_10:28-31) Escape for such is plainly impossible. For did not man"s redemption cost the tears and. groans and blood of the Redeemer? Had these not been indispensably necessary, they would not have been expended. And what can any despiser of them propose to put in their place? Let professing Christians remember that they will miss salvation if they merely neglect it. As the farmer will lose his harvest by simple neglect, as the business man will become bankrupt by simple neglect, as the scholar will strip himself of his attainments by simple neglect, so the surest way by which to accomplish the irremediable ruin of the soul is just to "neglect so great salvation." In conclusion, these four motives to heedfulness are the very strongest that can be urged. The Three Persons of the Trinity all speak to us in them. They remind us at once of the unutterable love of God, and of the power of his anger. They appeal to the most sacred interests of our souls. If we are not aroused by these motives, even God himself can do no more for us.

HOMILIES BY W. JONES. Vers. 1-4. The superior privileges of Christians. "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to," etc. The therefore" connects this chapter with the preceding. Because the Son of God is immeasurably greater than the angels, "we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard," etc. Our text presents to us a view of the superior privileges and the more solemn responsibilities of Christians as compared with those who lived in the earlier dispensation. We shall confine our attention at present to the former portion of the subject, which we may state thusThe privileges of this Christian dispensation are much superior to those of the Mosaic economy.

I THE EARLIER REVELATION WAS MADE BY ANGELS, THE LATER BY THE LORD. The Law was a "word spoken by angels." The Law came from God, but it was given to Moses by the mediation and ministry of angels. They were present and assisted at the giving of the Law on Sinai. The testimony of Scripture upon this point is conclusive. (see Deu_33:2 Psa_68:17 Act_7:53 Gal_3:19) And Josephus says, "Our best maxims and most excellent laws we have learned of God by means of angels." And Philo: "There were present at the giving of the Law, visible sounds, animated and splendid, flames of fire, spirits, trumpets, and Divine men running hither and hither." But the revelation of the gospel was by the Son of God at the first been spoken by the Lord." "Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." Inasmuch as the Son is higher than the angels, insomuch is the revelation of the gospel higher than that of the Law.

II THE EARLIER REVELATION WAS CONFIRMED BY SUPERNATURAL AND TERRIBLE SIGNS, THE LATER BY MORE NUMEROUS AND GRACIOUS SUPERNATURAL SIGNS. Very awful and alarming were the extraordinary phenomena at the giving of the Law. "The mount burned with fire," etc. (Heb_12:18-21) "And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke," etc. (Exo_19:18) But the gospel revelation is more abundantly and more convincingly confirmed. "God also bearing witness, both with signs and wonders," etc. (ver. 4). The miraculous confirmations of the Christian revelation were:

1. More numerous than those of the revelation of the Law. The Savior"s public ministry was marked by an almost unbroken series of miraculous works.

2. More marvelous. To raise the dead to life again with a word is far more wonderful than all the fire and smoke, the thunderings and trumpetings and tremblings of Sinai.

3. More various. The miracles of Sinai seem to have been limited to the phenomena and forces of nature. But those which were wrought by our Lord and his apostles related to nature"s forces, to nature"s products, to diseases of the body, to diseases of the mind, to evil spirits, to life and death.

4. More beneficent. At the giving of the Law the miracles were amazing and alarming, and fitted to impress and awe an uncultivated people. But the miracles associated with the promulgation of the gospel, while even more amazing, were also gracious and helpful, beneficent and rich in blessing, and fitted, not to terrify, but to attract and exalt and purify. As confirmed by these superior signs, the gospel revelation is higher than that of the Law.

III THE EARLIER REVELATION WAS IN THE LETTER, THE LITER WAS IN A LIFE. The Sinaitic Law was written; but the revelation made by the Lord was not merely in word, but in tone and accent, in gesture and expression of countenance, in involuntary influence and voluntary action. The greatest revelations are never verbal, but always vital. The deepest emotions cannot be expressed in any words. The highest truth far transcends the utterance of the loftiest eloquence of the tongue or the pen; it can be expressed only as it is lived. Thus "the greatest truth of the gospel is Christ himself a human body become the organ of the Divine nature, and revealing, under the conditions of an earthly life, the glory of God." And when even his life in the human body could not adequately express the riches of the grace of God, he laid down his life, and perfected his revelation by voluntarily dying, "the Just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." And now "God commendeth his own love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

IV THE EARLIER REVELATION WAS OF LAW ONLY, THE LATER IS OF A "GREAT SALVATION." "The word spoken through angels" consisted chiefly of commands and prohibitions; it expressed the authoritative" Thou shalt," and" Thou shalt not;" and it promised to the obedient life and prosperity, to the disobedient punishment and death. But ours is a revelation of grace. The gospel does not abrogate moral law; it rather insists upon its sacred authority, its great comprehensiveness, its intense spirituality, and its pure benevolence. We have law still, but it is law steeped in love. The gospel is also a revelation of forgiveness of sin for the penitent, of a new life for the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and of inspiration and power for those who desire help to serve God; in a word, it is the free offer of a "great salvation." Let us briefly contemplate this "great salvation." It is:

1. Salvation from great evils. We have gazed upon the crumbling ruins of what was once a spacious and massive castle, or upon the venerable remnants of some ancient temple, and while we have pictured to ourselves the scenes of which they had been the theatre in olden days, a feeling of mournfulness has stolen over us. We have thought of the brave doings connected with the old castle hunting, fighting, feasting, singing, dancing, love-making all gone. We have thought of the earnest and eloquent pleadings of the servant of God in the temple, of the waves of music from pealing organ and living voices, of the devout, yearning, sorrowing, rejoicing hearts of worshippers, now all gone. Nought but ruins remain. How mournful and oppressive! These are faint pictures of the calamities which have befallen our nature through sin. The original dignity and glory, heroism and harmony, purity and peace of human nature have been lost by sin. And by sin it has become subject to guilt and fear, shame and suffering, death and dread of measureless woe hereafter. But most terrible of all is sin itself. The sinfulness, the degradation, and prostitution of our powers and our being, these are our greatest curse. Can this fallen temple be rebuilt? etc. Is there a salvation great enough to deliver from these dread evils? Yes; "so great salvation" is this.

2. Salvation by great Agents and means. Not by angels or by men, but by God manifest in the flesh." "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself;" "What the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son," etc. (Rom_8:3, Rom_8:4) The "strong Son of God" is the great Savior of men. Then think of the distinguished means which he employed in effecting salvation. His marvelous incarnation, his simple and sublime teaching, his holy and beautiful life, his sacrificial sufferings and death, etc. "Ye were redeemed, not with corruptible things," etc. And in bringing this salvation near to men"s hearts another great Agent is employed, even the Holy Spirit. (see Joh_15:26, 27 16:7-15)

3. Salvation to great glory. This salvation raises man to a more glorious condition than was his before he ruined himself by sin. It saves from the lowest degradation to the highest perfection. It rescues groin hell and introduces to heaven. It includes pardon, peace, purity, perpetual progress, fellowship with God, etc.

4. Salvation of a great multitude. "Many shall come from the cast and west," etc. (Mat_8:11) Our Lord will bring "many sons unto glory." "In my Father"s house are many mansions;" "I saw, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number," etc. (Rev_7:9, Rev_7:10) So great salvation." How immeasurably greater, then, are our privileges than those of the men who lived under the Mosaic economy! W. J.

Vers. 1-4. The more solemn responsibilities of Christians. "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed," etc. As a necessary sequel to our former homily on these verses, let us now consider

I THAT THEY TO WHOM ARE OFFERED THE GREATER PRIVILEGES OF THIS CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION ARE UNDER GREATER OBLIGATIONS THAN THEY OF THE EARLIER DISPENSATION WERE. In human relations as well as in the Divine government this principle is generally acknowledged and acted upon, that "unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required; and to whom they commit much, of him will they ask the more." This principle underlies the reasoning of our text. Our greater privileges bring us under greater responsibilities in this way.

1. The more amply verified revelation has the more imperative claim on our belief. The more convincing the evidence by which a truth is supported, the more binding is the obligation to believe that truth. To doubt the truth of that which bears the manifest seal of God is to rebel against the Divine claims upon our credence.

2. The more gracious revelation has the greater claim upon our loving acceptance. The gospel appeals not only to the reason and conscience, as the Law did, but also to the heart. It is fitted to inspire us with gratitude; it would enkindle our afflictions; it would secure our willing obedience by first eliciting our hearty trust in God. And this involves an increase of our obligations.

3. That our responsibilities are measured by our privileges is an immutable principle of the Divine government. "That servant which knew his lord"s will," etc.; (Luk_12:47, Luk_12:48) "A man that hath set at nought Moses" Law," etc.; (Heb_10:28, Heb_10:29) "See that ye refuse not him that speaketh," etc. (Heb_12:25) So great are our advantages, equally great are our responsibilities.

II TEAT IF THESE GREATER PRIVILEGES, WITH THEIR CORRESPONDING OBLIGATIONS, ARE DISREGARDED BY US, A TERRIBLE RETRIBUTION WILL OVERTAKE US. "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?

1. We may neglect this salvation. Though it is provided for us, offered to us freely, and we are entreated to accept it, yet we may neglect it.

(1) The fact of our moral agency shows this.

(2) The method of God"s dealing with us shows it. He respects our moral freedom. He invites, entreats, reasons with, warns, and draws us; but he does not force or compel us.

(3) The hypothesis of the text also shows this. The "lest" (ver. 1) shows that we may "be diverted from" (Alford), or "drift away from" (Revised Version), "the things which we have heard." The "if" (ver. 3) shows that we may "neglect so great salvation.

2. Should we neglect this salvation, nothing can avert from us a terrible retributions. "How shall we escape?" etc. A forcible way of expressing the impossibility of escape. Under the Law "spoken through angels" retribution was certain transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward." How much more certain is it under the gospel! The far superior dignity of him through whom it was first spoken attests with greater force the reliableness of its retributions. The increased evidence by which it is confirmed witnesses to the increased certainty of the punishment of these who neglect it. The very grace which has provided and which offers the great salvation" renders the punishment of those who reject it more certain and inexpressibly more terrible. Their punishment is more certain, for their guilt is greater; for the same reason it will be more terrible also. It will be punishment from One who in infinite love has done everything which he could do to save us. It will be "the wrath of the Lamb." How, then, "shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation"? Can your temporal resources open up a way for your escape? Can your own arm save you? "Hast thou an arm like God?" Can education, or science, or philosophy save you? There is but one Savior from sin, even Jesus. Accepting him, we shall be saved with "so great salvation." Neglecting him and his salvation, we shall be lost. You need not toil to secure your ruin. Neglect alone is sufficient to bring you under the most terrible condemnation and punishment. Disregard the offered salvation, and all the dread consequences of sin will fall upon you with pitiless and inflexible severity. "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard," etc. W.J.

HOMILIES BY C. NEW Vers. 1-4. An exhortation against drifting away from the glorious Son of God.

This passage is evidently a parenthesis, no link in the argument. Like the acknowledged Epistles of Paul, this is characterized by frequent sudden and brief departures from the general outline of thought. Like a river, the outline is clear from beginning to end, but here and there are small side channels into which the stream is swiftly, involuntarily drawn, to rejoin the mare current a little lower down. One of these we have before us. The interjection of this passage is very natural. The last chapter ended with "the heirs of salvation;" the writer has brought his hearers to this point the grandeur of the salvation they inherit. But, remember, he has one object before him, the confirmation of the Hebrews wavering under the pressure of persecution. He doesn"t write merely as a logician, but as an anxious friend; he cannot, therefore, wait to enforce the application of his argument when he reaches the end, but drops the thread of his idea for a moment to break out in an earnest appeal that this great salvation should be cleaved to.

1. Observe that he is not writing to the ungodly, but to a Christian Church. However suitable these words as an address to the ungodly, they are here spoken to professing Christians who had taken a bold stand for Christ and the gospel (581032Heb_10:32-34).

2. Observe that the literal rendering of the end of the first verse is "lest at any time we drift away. " The words, "from them," italicized in the Revised Version, are misleading. The drifting away that is deprecated is, not from the things that were heard," but from Christ. SubjectAn exhortation against drifting away from the glorious Son of God.

I TO DRIFT AWAY FROM CHRIST IS FEARFULLY POSSIBLE. It is SO:

1. Because the soul is not always moored to Christ when it is brought to Christ. We regard it a doctrine of the New Testament that the true believer cannot be lost, that the salvation which on faith in Christ he receives is for ever, the might of Christ to supply all that is necessary to salvation being the warrant of it. Why, then, are these professing Christians warned against drifting away from Christ? It is possible to be brought to Christ without being anchored to him. A number of influences may lead one close to the Redeemer, between whom and Christ there is, nevertheless, no vital union, and as long as the tide runs that way his safety may not be suspected even by himself, but let the tide turn and his lack of union becomes apparent and he may drift away and. be lost.

2. Because powerful adverse currents tepid to carry the soul from the Savior. Sometimes the current leads toward Christ. It had been so with these professing Hebrews. But it is not always that way; difficulties occur, winds of temptation blow, the tide of worldly custom runs high, the unseen force of depraved inclination gathers power; and then, however strong the cable, however firmly it may bind shore and ship together, it will creak and strain, and every fiber of it be needed to hold the ship in safety. But what if there be no cable, no vital faith, in that day? Then the soul will inevitably part company with Christ, leaving the harbor where it has lain so long, and be seen (when such a storm shall blow as has never blown on it yet) drifting away.

3. Because the departure of the soul from Christ may be for some time imperceptible. Drifting away is a departure silent, gradual, unnoticeable. At sunset the ship is close to shore and all is safe; without a warning it drops into the tide, and swings round, and with no sound but the ripple of the water is carried down the stream to the open sea, and the crew may sleep through it all. So, departure from Christ may be as involuntary and quiet as that; a silent, ceaseless, unconscious creeping back to old habits. There is its danger. Drifting away means leaving Christ without knowing it, till we find ourselves far out at sea, and a tide we cannot resist bearing us still further away. You have seen men who were once close to Christ, but whilst they slept they have unconsciously glided away, and by the current of worldliness been carried into the rapids and whirled along faster and. faster, only waking to stare wildly at their helplessness, and close hands and eyes in despair for the final plunge into the eternal gulf.

II TO DRIFT AWAY FROM CHRIST MUST END IN HOPELESS RUIN. If we drift away "how shall we escape?

1. To drift away from Christ is to leave the only Refuge from our sins consequences. "For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression, how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" The point is, we are condemned already; apart from the great salvation we are in the position of those whose transgressions and disobediences were followed by righteous judgment. But under these circumstances a "great salvation" has been provided. "Great," indeed! A full and everlasting remission of all sin, the enjoyment of God"s fatherly favor, the transformation of our moral nature, a tranquil conscience, a bright and glorious hope for eternity; and all this free to whosoever will accept it. Now, if man is under condemnation apart from this, what must he be if, this having been secured and offered to him, he ignores and neglects it? To suffer ourselves to drift away from Christ is to add to the madness of leaving the only haven of security, the guilt of refusing that grace which would have saved us had we let it.

2. To drift away frown Christ is to disregard the supreme dignity of him who offers the salvation to us. "So great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord." The point is the dignity of him who brings the salvation to us. Angels were employed in the ministrations of the old dispensation; "The Law was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator." But he who has brought the word in these last days is God the Son. He has spoken it by being it; and then by uttering it uttering it to our hearts by his Spirit. The overtures of salvation are not made by man to God, but by God to man; it is not the condemned rebel that appeals to the offended Sovereign for salvation, but the offended Sovereign appealing to the rebel. What a spectacle God, as it were, on his knees before men, beseeching them to be saved! "As though God did beseech you," etc. See how that adds to man"s guilt, and the certainty of his ruin if he drifts away from Christ.

3. To drift away from Christ is to close our eyes willfully to the urgency of his claims. "Which, having at the first been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed unto," etc. (vers. 3, 4). The abundant proof they had received as to the divinity of this Word of salvation is the point here. Man has received the utmost evidence of the truth of the gospel. What he has seen of its results in the lives and characters of others is, of itself, overwhelming assurance that it is of God; and when he hears it preached he knows it is from above, he knows its worth, he knows its claim. Think of what it is to leave Christ after that; to depart from him, though you know the right he has to you, and. the blessings he wants to impart; to be lost, not in the dark, but in the light! The apostle gathers up these arguments against leaving Christ, in this earnest appeal to reason and conscience: "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" There is no answer to that. "Friend, how earnest thou in hither without a wedding garment? And he was speechless.

III TO DRIFT AWAY FROM CHRIST IS PREVENTED BY EARNEST HEED TO HIS WORD. "We ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that were heard, lest haply we drift away." Faith is the cable which alone can moor us to Christ; but the Word of God has a vital bearing on faith; therefore, where the Scriptures are neglected, there is the utmost peril of drifting away.

1. Only by earnest heed to Divine truth can you discover whether, in your soul, faith exists. You think it does, but you may be deceived; then search here for the fruits and evidences of faith; then see if they exist in your heart and life. If you would know whether you have faith, you must bring yourself to the test this Book affords.

2. Only by earnest heed to Divine truth can you create faith where it does not exist. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." To make light of this Book is to remain faithless.

3. Only by earnest heed to Divine truth can faith be maintained where it does exist. How does Christ; maintain faith in the soul, but by the means he has appointed? He gives grace through the means of grace. To neglect the means, therefore, is to lose the grace. Scripture declares the Divine Word to be the means employed for our sanctification. Faith is the cable that holds the soul to the Redeemer. The Word creates and maintains the faith.

"Therefore we ought to give," etc. "Drift away!" Away from Christ, the only Haven; drift away into the wild, wintry, shoreless sea of doom drifted away by the currents of worldliness and care. We drift away silently and imperceptibly; are you sure you are securely moored to the Rock of ages? C.N.

HOMILIES BY J.S. BRIGHT Vers. 1-4. The glory of the Gospel.

I HERE ARE TO BE SEEN THE SUPERIOR GLORY OF THE GOSPEL TO THE LAW IN THE PERSON OF ITS REVEALER. There are frequent proofs of the wisdom of God in the adaptations of means and ends both in the spheres of providence and the institutions of worship. When Jehovah published the Law from Sinai, the angels were mediators between himself and the tribes of Israel; as it is written in Deu_33:2, "The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Sear unto them; be shined forth from Mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of his saints or angels." Stephen remarks that "the people received the Law by the disposition, or ministry, of angels," who probably, by vocal utterance, proclaimed the commands which required and shaped the obedience of the Hebrew race. This was an august and sublime ministry, and raised the giving of the Law above the great events and important crises of earthly affairs, whether they were the gaining of victories, the founding of cities, or the coronation of monarchs. There are many ranks, orders, and principalities among the angels, who are pre-eminent for their wisdom, power, and holiness; but they must all yield to One who is far above them all. This is the Son of God, who alone was able to convey, with sufficient dearness, attraction, and power, all the sacred truths which concern the character of God, the character of man, and the way of bringing the sinner into a state of reconciliation now, and into the possession of eternal life hereafter. He said, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father;" and in all the acts of his public ministry and his sacrificial death he revealed God as he had never been known before. He is the Eternal Image bright, Where angels view the Father"s light; And there in him the humblest swain May read his holy lesson plain.

The glory of our Lord is further displayed by the confirmation of his work by the Divine Spirit, who enabled the apostles and others to work miracles of healing, and gave those supernatural powers which were an indisputable authentication that Jesus Christ was the true Messiah. These miracles transcended the usual course of human experience were signs of the connection of the gospel with Divine power, and were fitted to awaken wholesome wonder in the hearts of those who heard the truth. It need occasion no surprise that apostles and early believers should feel an unshaken confidence in their own convictions, and desire to implant similar convictions in the hearts of others. The transmission of gospel truth thus began with Christ, and through apostles and. those who heard the apostles, repeated the same facts and doctrines to others; and so the lamp of light has been handed on from one believer to another, and from one generation to another; and practically calling attention to the glory of the Transfiguration, in which we hear the voice, "This is my beloved Son: hear him.

II THERE FOLLOWS THE SOLEMN RESPONSIBILITY OF HEARING AND OBEYING THE VOICE OF JESUS CHRIST. Wherever the Word of God comes there is an altered relation of the soul towards its Divine Author, and serious indebtedness to him for the use of so precious a talent. Caution and prayer are necessary, lest the truths which our Lord proclaimed should silently evaporate from the soul like morning dew, and leave the spirit dry and barren. They may, amid the pressure of worldly affairs, the attractions of this life, and the agency of Satan, who carries away the seed sown, be lost for all the purposes of salvation. There must be decisive and intentional acts of meditation, prayer, and obedience, and then they will not slip away from us. They should be held as the miser holds his gold, lest the cunning and violence of men should rob him of his treasure. The gravity of this question enhanced by the certainty that neglect will be punished; for if the offenders against a law published by angels "died without mercy", (Heb_10:8) then those who disobey the will of the Lord, who is infinitely above angels, must meet with a tremendous penalty and retribution; because to offend him is, in a sense, to tread underfoot the blood of the Son of God and do despite to the Spirit of grace. To turn aside from him is to reject unutterable grace, and to undervalue the labors, sufferings, and martyrdoms of apostles, faithful preachers of the gospel, and the life and prayers of believers, and to incur the judicial anger of him who requires all men "to honor the Son, even as they honor the Father." The question is asked, "How shall we escape?" The reply must be, "There is no escape." It is the great salvation, because it is the fruit of an eternal purpose, revealed by holy prophets, illustrated by various types, wrought out by the incarnation, ministry, and. sorrow of Jesus, who drank the bitter and brimming cup in Gethsemane and. on the cross; and has engaged the work of the Holy Spirit and the co-operation of the Church of God. It is great in the range of its present blessings and in the prospects of everlasting life. "How shall we escape, if rye neglect so great salvation?" Conscience answers, "There is no escape. B.

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

In this and the two following chapters the apostle subjoins an exhortation, answering each head of the preceding chapter.

Lest we should let them slip - As water out of a leaky vessel. So the Greek word properly signifies.

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

salvation

(See Scofield "Rom 1:16").

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

The Need of Cheerful Obedience to Christ.

The excellence of the Gospel-message:

v. 1. Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.

v. 2. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward,

v. 3. how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him,

v. 4. God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His own will?

The writer, in the first chapter, has proved the superiority of the Son to the angels, showing Him to be the eternal and almighty Creator of the universe, equal in majesty and glory with God the Father Himself. From these facts he now deduces a warning with regard to the neglect of the salvation as proclaimed by the Lord Himself and attested by God in various miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost: For this reason it is necessary that we attend more closely to the words which we have heard, lest perhaps we drift away. Instead of naming the Gospel outright, he circumscribes the term, reminding his readers of the things that they had heard, of the great salvation preached by the Lord Himself and carried out into the world by the apostles and evangelists. It is not the writer’s purpose to bring forward new truths, but to have all men keep those that have been proclaimed by the servants of God from the beginning. For all believers are under obligation to pap the most careful attention to these words, to heed them with all eagerness. For if by any chance we let the words slip away from us, if we drift away from them, we shall be without a hold in life, like the clouds and waves that are driven to and fro by every wind. It is absolutely necessary that we, by the power of God, keep a firm hold on the Gospel and on the salvation which is offered in the Gospel, Php 2:12.

This warning the sacred writer enforces by a comparison between the word of the Law and the preaching of the Gospel: For if the word spoken through angels proved certain, and every transgression and disobedience received a just punishment, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? The Law was given to the children of Israel by the disposition of angels, Act 7:53, the Lord employing these servants to make known His will to men amid the thunderings, lightnings, and quakings of Mount Sinai. This word of the Law, moreover, held good, it proved certain and sure, it was God’s will that it be kept by His people. In token of this it was by His judgment that every transgression of His holy Law and every willful going aside and neglect every disobedience, met with due punishment, with that reward which justice demanded. Both the refusal to heed a positive command and the neglect to obey were treated by the Lord with the same stern vengeance. But if this was the case with that doctrine whose chief function was preparatory, whose character was transitory, what chances have we to escape the wrath of God and the final judgment, to whom God has spoken through the Son, who have the full revelation of the grace and mercy of God in Christ Jesus in the Word of the Gospel? If we should neglect that great and wonderful salvation which was made known to us, the wonderful news of our redemption in Christ, if we should deliberately set aside and despise what we know to be the one way to heaven, there would be no excuse for us when the Lord calls us to account on the last day.

This news of salvation is further described: Which was originally spoken by the Lord, and certified to us by them that heard Him, God at the same time being their witness, through signs as well as wonders and various powers and distributions of the Holy Spirit according to His own will. The inspired author is addressing people that had not seen the Lord Jesus in person, but had received the glorious Gospel-news from the mouth of such as had been fortunate enough to hear Him as He taught the way to everlasting happiness and glory. These men, the apostles and evangelists, had certified to the truth of the message which they proclaimed; they had given the most undoubted assurance of the veracity and importance of the Gospel. They had, moreover, been given such testimony in corroboration of their preaching that the assent of all men was almost demanded; for God Himself had testified in their behalf, had substantiated their claims by signs and wonders and various powers, Mar 16:20. The miracles which the apostles performed were a proof of the presence of God, they calling attention to the power of God which was active through these men. And not only did the Lord confirm the preaching of His servants by such miracles as evidently set aside the course and the laws of nature, but also with such peculiar distributions and gifts of the Holy Ghost, Rom 12:3; 1Co 7:17, as gave undeniable proof of the presence of God in them. ALL these cases of the miraculous confirmation of the Gospel message took place according to God’s own will, as He found it necessary to bear witness to the truth of the Gospel, Eph 4:17; 1Co 12:11. Thus the sacred writer spoke to the Jewish Christians that were in danger of neglecting the blessed Gospel of Christ for the sake of the Law, whose subsidiary position was apparent from every angle. See 2Co 3:7-16.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

As if our apostle had said, Seeing Christ is so excellent in his person, and seeing the gospel has such a glorious author as the blessed Jesus let us take great heed that we esteem his person, revere his authority, reverence his ministry and message, and that our memories be not like leaking vessels, suffering the word at any time to slip and run from us.

Learn hence, 1. The consideration of the revelation of the gospel of the Son of God, is a powerful motive to an high estimation of it, Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed; that is, knowing the excellency of his person, and the sublimity of his doctrine.

2. The true and only way of honouring our Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God, is by diligent attendance and obedience to his word: where there is no faith in, nor love unto, Jesus Christ, the author and dispenser of the gospel.

3. There are sundry times and seasons wherin, and several ways and means whereby, men are in great danger of losing the word, if they attend not diligently to its preservation. Lest at any time; some lose the word in a time of prosperity, others in a time of persecution, some in a time of temptation.

4. The word heard is not lost without great sin, as well as with the inevitable ruin of the souls of men. If we suffer the word to slip out of our memories, that we forget it; out of our hearts, that we despise it; out of our lives, that we are disobedient to it; it is lost as to us, and will end in our loss, yea, in our ruin at the last.

5. The only way to prevent this sin and danger, under the word, is by a very diligent attendance upon it, and giving mor earnest heed to the things contained in it: we are to attend to the word before we hear, to bring us to it; to attend upon it in hearing, that it may be remembered by us; and after we have heard it, that it may be practised by us.

This consideration, that it is the word of Christ, the great an mighty God, the wisdom of the Father, that we are going forth to hear, will engage us to give the more earnest heed to the things we hear, lest at any time we should let them slip.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1. “Lest we let them slip” should read, “Lest we leak out.” This is an exceedingly profitable warning, admonishing us to watch and pray incessantly lest we sadly incur the leakage of love. Not only regenerated people, but the sanctified are in imminent danger of losing ground by the leakage of grace. In this way multiplied thousands unconsciously and inadvertently become backsliders, having lost the joy of their salvation, the fire and the power by which they save others. The simile is that of a water barrel leaking out its contents. There is but one way to prevent this leakage, and that is to keep it full. When it gets partially empty, the burning solar rays — which powerfully symbolize Satan’s temptations- will shrink the staves, producing constant leakage, increasing more and more till the barrel is empty, dry, and falls. The only remedy in the case of the barrel is to keep it under the spout, where it will always keep full; meanwhile, the overflow will be a constant blessing to the circumambient fruits and flowers. Therefore, O soul, if you would heed this warning so faithfully given by the Holy Ghost, and not suffer the fatal evanescence of the grace out of your heart, you must constantly keep under the mercy- seat, where you will not only keep full, but the perpetual overflow will make you a benediction to all you meet.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1–4. Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed. Because the message to us is spoken, not by angels or prophets, but by the Son of God. To the things which we have heard. To Christ's gospel, and to his words of instruction. Lest … we should let them slip. Lest we should let them slip from us because we drift away from them and refuse to heed them.

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.

Connecting Statement:

This is the first of five urgent warnings the author gives.

we must

Here "we" refers to the author and includes his audience. (See: Inclusive "We")

so that we do not drift away from it

Possible meanings for this metaphor are 1) people who stop believing in God's word are spoken of as if they were drifting away, like a boat drifts from its position in the water. AT: "so that we do not stop believing it" or 2) people who stop obeying God's words are spoken of as if they were drifting away, like a boat drifts from its position in the water. AT: "so that we do not stop obeying it" (See: Metaphor)

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

CH. 2. A SOLEMN WARNING AND EXHORTATION (1–4). CHRIST’S TEMPORARY HUMILIATION FOR THE REDEMPTION AND GLORIFICATION OF MANKIND DOES NOT DISPARAGE HIS PRE-EMINENCE OVER ANGELS (5–13), BUT WAS NECESSARY FOR THE PERFECTNESS OF HIS HIGH-PRIESTLY WORK (14–18)

1–4. A SOLEMN WARNING AND EXHORTATION

1. Διὰ τοῦτο. Because we are heirs of a better covenant, administered not by Angels but by a Son, to whom as Mediator an absolute dominion is to be assigned.

δεῖ. The word implies moral necessity and not mere obligation. The author never loses sight of the fact that his purpose was to warn as well as to teach.

περισσοτέρως προσέχειν. If the command to “take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things that thine eyes have seen” (Deu 4:9), came with awful force to those who had only received the Law by the disposition of Angels, how much “more abundantly” should Christians attend to Him of Whom Moses had spoken to their fathers? (Act 3:22).

τοῖς ἀκουσθεῖσιν, “to the things heard,” i.e. to the Gospel.

μήποτε, “lest haply.” See Heb 3:12, Heb 4:1.

παραρυῶμεν. This is the 2nd aor. subj. pass. of παραρέω. In classical Greek it would be spelt ρρ. There are no such verbs as παραῤῥυέω, παραῤῥύω, or παραῤῥύημι, which seem to be mere fictions of grammarians. The meaning is “should drift away from them.” Wiclif rendered the word more correctly than the A.V. which here follows the Genevan Bible of 1560—“lest peradventure we fleten away.” The verb thus resembles the Latin praetervehi. The metaphor is taken from a boat which having no “anchor sore and steadfast,” slips its anchor, and as Luther says in his gloss, “before her landing shoots away into destruction” (Pro 3:21 LXX. υἱὲ μὴ παραῤῥυῇς). It is obvious that these Hebrew converts were in great danger of “drifting away” from the truth under the pressure of trial, and in consequence of the apathy produced by isolation and deferred hopes (Heb 3:6, Heb 6:11, Heb 10:25; Heb 10:36-37, Heb 12:1-3).

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.

Therefore [δια τουτο] . Because you have received a revelation superior to that of the old dispensation, and given to you through one who is superior to the angels.

To give the more earnest heed [περισσοτερως προσεξειν] . Lit. to give heed more abundantly. Prosecein to give heed, lit. to hold (the mind) to. o P. The full phrase in Job 7:17. Mostly in Luke, Acts, and the Pastorals. See on 1Ti 1:4. Perissoterwv more abundantly, in Hebrews only here and Heb 13:19; elsewhere only in Paul.

To the things which we have heard (toiv ajkousqeisin). Lit. to the things which were heard, that is, from the messengers of the gospel. Comp. the phrase oJ logov thv ajkohv the word of hearing, ch. 4 2; 1Th 2:13. jEuaggelion gospel does not occur in the Epistle, and eujaggelizesqai to proclaim good tidings, only twice.

We should let them slip [παραρυωμεν] . Rend. should drift past them. N. T. o. From para by and rJein to flow. Of the snow slipping off from the soldiers ' bodies, Xen. Anab. 4 4, 11 of a ring slipping from the finger, Plut. Amat. 754 : see also LXX, Pro 3:21, and Symmachus's rendering of Pro 4:21, "let not my words flow past [παραρρυησατωσαν] before thine eyes." The idea is in sharp contrast with giving earnest heed. Lapse from truth and goodness is more often the result of inattention than of design. Drifting is a mark of death : giving heed, of life. The log drifts with the tide : the ship breasts the adverse waves, because some one is giving earnest heed.

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

1. διὰ τοῦτο] For this cause... ThereJSore..., because of tho superiority of the Son over the angels, through whom the Law was given.

δεῖ] The word marks a logical necessity and not a moral obligation: 406 must rather than we ought. Compare xi, 6, ix. 26, and contrast ὀφείλειν Ὁ. 17, v. 3, 12. Bee 1 John ii 6 note.

περισσ. προσ. Vulg. abundantius observare. The adverb expresses, 60 to speak, an absolute excess (xiii. 19, 6. vi. 17, vii. 15), and not simply a relative excoss (μᾶλλον ix. 14, X. 25, xii. 9, 25). The connexion of περισσοτέρως with δεῖ is unnataral, Tho force of the comparative is ‘more oxceedingly than if there had been no such marked preeminence of the Son.’ The form in -ws is not found in the Lxx. or Philo.

προσέχει» The full phrase προσ. τ. νοῦν does not occur in the N.T. (but see Job vii. 17 Lxx.). The word is used of things Acts viii. 6; xvi. 14; 1 Tim. i 4; Tit i 14; 2 Pot. i. 19; iv. 1. The absolute use occurs as early as Demosthenes. Compare vii. 13 Ὁ.

ἡμᾶς] we Christians, The obligation is a special one.

rois ἀκουσθ.] to the things that were heard, to the message received by the apostles (ol ἀκούσαντες) when ‘God spake in His Son’ ; or, more aimply, to the things we heard (a8 κατηχούμενοι) when first the Gospel was preachod to i, 13. Oomp. Rom. x. 17).

It is to be noticed that the writer

of the Epistle does not use

(the vorb occurs iv. 2, 6). tho writings of δὶ John it is found only in Apoc. xiv.

μή wore] Van haply, Vulg. ne forte

popular influences from the observance of regular religious duties.’

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.