Hebrews 6:9

The apostle, having applied himself to the fears of the Hebrews, in order to excite their diligence and prevent their apostasy, now proceeds to apply himself to their hopes, and candidly declares the good hope he had concerning them, that they would persevere; and proposes to them the great encouragements they had in the way of their duty.

I. He freely and openly declares the good hope he had concerning them, that they would endure to the end: But beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, Heb 6:9. Observe, 1. There are things that accompany salvation, things that are never separated from salvation, things that show the person to be in a state of salvation, and will issue in eternal salvation. 2. The things that accompany salvation are better things than ever any hypocrite or apostate enjoyed. They are better in their nature and in their issue. 3. It is our duty to hope well of those in whom nothing appears to the contrary. 4. Ministers must sometimes speak by way of caution to those of whose salvation they have good hopes. And those who have in themselves good hopes, as to their eternal salvation, should yet consider seriously how fatal a disappointment it would be if they should fall short. Thus they are to work out their salvation with fear and trembling.

II. He proposes arguments and encouragements to them to go on in the way of their duty. 1. That God had wrought a principle of holy love and charity in them, which had discovered itself in suitable works that would not be forgotten of God: God is not unrighteous to forget your labour of love, Heb 6:10. Good works and labour proceeding from love to God are commendable; and what is done to any in the name of God shall not go unrewarded. What is done to the saints, as such, God takes as done to himself. 2. Those who expect a gracious reward for the labour of love must continue in it as long as they have ability and opportunity: You have ministered to the saints, and you do minister; and we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence. 3. Those who persevere in a diligent discharge of their duty shall attain to the full assurance of hope in the end. Observe, (1.) Full assurance is a higher degree of hope, is full assurance of hope; they differ not in nature, but only in degree. (2.) Full assurance is attainable by great diligence and perseverance to the end.

III. He proceeds to set before them caution and counsel how to attain this full assurance of hope to the end. 1. That they should not be slothful. Slothfulness will clothe a man with rags: they must not love their ease, nor lose their opportunities. 2. That they would follow the good examples of those who had gone before, Heb 6:12. Here learn, (1.) There are some who from assurance have gone to inherit the promises. They believed them before, now they inherit them; they have got safely to heaven. (2.) The way by which they came to the inheritance was that of faith and patience. These graces were implanted in their souls, and drawn forth into act and exercise in their lives. If we ever expect to inherit as they do, we must follow them in the way of faith and patience; and those who do thus follow them in the way shall overtake them at the end, and be partakers of the same blessedness.

IV. The apostle closes the chapter with a clear and full account of the assured truth of the promises of God, Heb 6:13, to the end. They are all confirmed by the oath of God, and they are all founded in the eternal counsel of God, and therefore may be depended upon.

1. They are all confirmed by the oath of God. He has not only given his people his word, and his hand and seal, but his oath. And here, you will observe, he specifies the oath of God to Abraham, which, being sworn to him as the father of the faithful, remains in full force and virtue to all true believers: When God made a promise unto Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself. Observe, (1.) What was the promise: Surely, blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. The blessing of God is the blessedness of his people; and those whom he has blessed indeed he will go on to bless, and will multiply blessings, till he has brought them to perfect blessedness. (2.) What was the oath by which this promise was ratified: He swore by himself. He staked down his own being and his own blessedness upon it; no greater security can be given or desired. (3.) How was that oath accomplished. Abraham, in due time, obtained the promise. It was made good to him after he had patiently endured. [1.] There is always an interval, and sometimes a long one, between the promise and the performance. [2.] That interval is a trying time to believers, whether they have patience to endure to the end. [3.] Those who patiently endure shall assuredly obtain the blessedness promised, as sure as Abraham did. [4.] The end and design of an oath is to make the promise sure, and to encourage those to whom it is made to wait with patience till the time for performance comes, Heb 6:16. An oath with men is for confirmation, and is an end of all strife. This is the nature and design of an oath, in which men swear by the greater, not by creatures, but by the Lord himself; and it is to put an end to all dispute about the matter, both to disputes within our own breasts (doubts and distrusts), and disputes with others, especially with the promiser. Now, if God would condescend to take an oath to his people, he will surely remember the nature and design of it.

2. The promises of God are all founded in his eternal counsel; and this counsel of his is an immutable counsel. (1.) The promise of blessedness which God has made to believers is not a rash and hasty thing, but the result of God's eternal purpose. (2.) This purpose of God was agreed upon in counsel, and settled there between the eternal Father, Son, and Spirit. (3.) These counsels of God can never be altered; they are immutable. God never needs to change his counsels; for nothing new can arise to him who sees the end from the beginning.

3. The promises of God, which are founded upon these immutable counsels of God, and confirmed by the oath of God, may safely be depended upon; for here we have two immutable things, the counsel and the oath of God, in which it is impossible for God to lie, contrary to his nature as well as to his will. Here observe,

(1.) Who they are to whom God has given such full security of happiness. [1.] They are the heirs of the promise: such as have a title to the promises by inheritance, by virtue of their new birth, and union with Christ. We are all by nature children of wrath. The curse is the inheritance we are born to: it is by a new and heavenly birth that any are born heirs to the promise. [2.] They are such as have fled for refuge to the hope set before them. Under the law there were cities of refuge provided for those who were pursued by the avenger of blood. Here is a much better refuge prepared by the gospel, a refuge for all sinners who shall have the heart to flee to it; yea, though they have been the chief of sinners.

(2.) What God's design towards them is, in giving them such securities - that they might have strong consolation. Observe, [1.] God is concerned for the consolation of believers, as well as for their sanctification; he would have his children walk in the fear of the Lord, and in the comforts of the Holy Ghost. [2.] The consolations of God are strong enough to support his people under their strongest trials. The comforts of this world are too weak to bear up the soul under temptation, persecution, and death; but the consolations of the Lord are neither few nor small.

(3.) What use the people of God should make of their hope and comfort, that most refreshing and comfortable hope of eternal blessedness that God has given them. This is, and must be, unto them, for an anchor to the soul, sure and stedfast, etc., Heb 6:19. Here, [1.] We are in this world as a ship at sea, liable to be tossed up and down, and in danger of being cast away. Our souls are the vessels. The comforts, expectations, graces, and happiness of our souls are the precious cargo with which these vessels are loaded. Heaven is the harbour to which we sail. The temptations, persecutions, and afflictions that we encounter, are the winds and waves that threaten our shipwreck. [2.] We have need of an anchor to keep us sure and steady, or we are in continual danger. [3.] Gospel hope is our anchor; as in our day of battle it is our helmet, so in our stormy passage through this world it is our anchor. [4.] It is sure and stedfast, or else it could not keep us so. First, It is sure in its own nature; for it is the special work of God in the soul. It is a good hope through grace; it is not a flattering hope made out of the spider's web, but it is a true work of God, it is a strong and substantial thing. Secondly, It is stedfast as to its object; it is an anchor that has taken good hold, it enters that which is within the veil; it is an anchor that is cast upon the rock, the Rock of ages. It does not seek to fasten in the sands, but enters within the veil, and fixes there upon Christ; he is the object, he is the anchor - hold of the believer's hope. As an unseen glory within the veil is what the believer is hoping for, so an unseen Jesus within the veil is the foundation of his hope; the free grace of God, the merits and mediation of Christ, and the powerful influences of his Spirit, are the grounds of his hope, and so it is a stedfast hope. Jesus Christ is the object and ground of the believer's hope, and so it is a stedfast hope. Jesus Christ is the object and ground of the believer's hope in several respects. 1. As he has entered within the veil, to intercede with God, in virtue of that sacrifice which he offered up without the veil: hope fastens upon his sacrifice and intercession. 2. As he is the forerunner of his people, gone within the veil, to prepare a place for them, and to assure them that they shall follow him; he is the earnest and first fruits of believers, both in his resurrection and in his ascension. 3. And he abides there, a high priest after the order of Melchisedec, a priest for ever, whose priesthood shall never cease, never fail, till he has accomplished its whole work and design, which is the full and final happiness of all who have believed on Christ. Now this should engage us to clear up our interest in Christ, that we may fix our hopes in him as our forerunner, that has entered thither for us, for our sakes, for our safety, to watch over our highest interest and concerns. Let us then love heaven the more on his account, and long to be there with him, where we shall be for ever safe, and for ever satisfied.

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

Heb_6:9

We are persuaded better things of you

Pastoral solicitude

I.

THE BETTER THINGS.

1. Better things than to be moral dwarfs.

2. Better things than treating the Son disrespectfully.

3. Better things than to be withering for the flames.

II. THE SAVING THINGS.

1. Inward change.

2. Love to God and the brethren.

3. Prayer.

4. Perseverance in spite of obstacles. (A. Griffiths.)

Judging in charity

Those of us who have read classic history may remember an incident in the history of the Macedonian emperor. A painter was commanded to sketch the monarch. In one of his great battles, he had been struck with the sword upon the forehead, and a very large scar had been left on the right temple. The painter, who was a master-hand in his art, sketched him leaning on his elbow, with his finger covering the scar on his forehead: and so the likeness of the king was taken, but without the scar. Let us put the finger of charity upon the scar of the Christian as we h,ok at him, whatever it may be--the finger of a tender and forebearing charity, and see, in spite of it and under it, the image of Christ notwithstanding. (J. Cumming, D. D.)

A good persuasion

I. IT IS THE DUTY OF THE DISPENSERS OF THE GOSPEL TO SATISFY THEIR HEARERS IN AND OF THEIR LOVE IN JESUS CHRIST TO THEIR SOULS AND PERSONS.

II. IT IS OUR DUTY TO COME UNTO THE BEST SATISFACTION WE MAY, IN THE SPIRITUAL CONDITION OF THEM WITH WHOM WE ARE TO HAVE SPIRITUAL COMMUNION.

III. WE MAY AS OCCASIONS REQUIRE, PUBLICLY TESTIFY THAT GOOD PERSUASION WHICH WE HAVE CONCERNING THE SPIRITUAL CONDITION OF OTHERS, AND THAT UNTO OURSELVES.

IV. THE REST PERSUASION WE CAN ARRIVE UNTO CONCERNING THE SPIRITUAL CONDITION OF ANY LEAVES YET ROOM, YEA, MAKES WAY FOR THE GOSPEL TREATENINGS, WARNINGS, EXHORTATIONS, AND ENCOURAGEMENTS.

V. AMONG PROFESSORS OF THE GOSPEL, SOME ARE PARTAKERS OF BETTER THINGS THAN OTHERS.

1. Spiritual gifts are of one kind. For although there are several sorts of them, yet they have all the same general nature, they are all grits and no more. The difference therefore that is amongst them being not to be taken from their own especial nature, but their use and tendency unto the common end of them all, I take it only to be gradual.

2. There are spiritual things which differ in their whole kind ,n,I nature from other things, and are better than they as to their essence and being. Such is all saving grace, with all the fruits of it. All that eat outwardly in ordinances of the bread -f life do not feed on the hidden manna. All that have their names enrolled in the Churchs book, may not yet have them written in the Lambs book. There are yet better things than gift,, profession, participation of ordinances, and whatever is of the like nature. And the use hereof in one word is to warn all sorts of persons, that they rest not its, that they take not up with an interest in, or participation of, the privileges of the Church, with a common profession, which may give them a name to live; seeing they may be dead or in a perishing condition in the meantime.

VI. THERE ARE, ACCORDING TO THE TENOR OF THE COVENANT OF GRACE, SUCH THINGS BESTOWED ON SOME PERSONS, AS SALVATION DOTH INFALLIBLY ACCOMPANY AND ENSUE UPON--BETTER THINGS, AND SUCH AS HAVE SALVATION ACCOMPANYING OF THEY.

VII. IT IS THE DUTY OF ALL PROFESSORS STRICTLY TO EXAMINE THEMSELVES, CONCERNING THEIR PARTICIPATION OF THOSE BETTER THINGS WHICH ACCOMPANY SALVATION. Their condition is deplorable who under an outward profession do satisfy themselves with those common gifts, graces, and duties which are separable from salvation. (John Owen, D. D.)

Encouragement in the midst of warnings

Though the Church be persuaded of thee that thou art a wise man, witty, learned, that is to small purpose. So live, that both the preachers and all good people may be persuaded you have that in you, for the which they may judge you to be heirs of salvation. Here be prevents an objection that might be made. What, Paul, hast thou been so bitter towards us? Hast thou called us babes and novices in religion? Hast thou set before our eyes such a terrible example of backsliders, as if we were birds of the same feather, and now art thou well persuaded of us? Thou dost but flatter us, we can hardly think so. Oh yes, says St. Paul, assure yourselves, we have a good opinion of you; though we thus speak, these are but trumpets to waken you out of sin, the wounds of a lover to cure you withal; they be but spurs of fatherly admonitions to prick you forwards unto all goodness. We made mention of these men, not as it you were such, but to warn you that you be not such. Though the preacher be sometimes round and vehement, yet the people must not imagine that he is hardly conceited of them. A father loves his child when he chides him, a physician his patient, though he give him bitter pills; and we love you, though we be hot against the corruptions that reign among you. (W. Jones, D. D.)

Things that accompany salvation

Things that accompany salvation

Picture to yourselves the march of some ancient monarch through his territory. We read stories of eastern monarchs in the olden time, that seem more like romance than reality; when they marched with thousands of flying banners, and with all kinds of riches borne with them. Now you are to take that as the basis of my figure, and suppose salvation to be the sacred treasure which is being carried through the world, with guards before and guards behind, to accompany it on its journey.

I. First, then, IN THE MARCHES OF TROOPS AND ARMIES THERE ARE SOME THAT ARE OUTRIDERS, AND GO FAR AHEAD OF THE OTHER TROOPS. So in the march of salvation there is a certain body of great and mighty things that accompany salvation, which have far preceded it to clear the way. I will tell you the names of these stupendous Titans who have gone before. The first is Election; the second is Predestination; the third is Redemption; and the Covenant is the captain of them all. Now, this advance-guard is so far ahead that you and I cannot see them. These are true doctrines, but very mysterious; they are beyond our sight; and if we wish to see salvation, we must not stop until we see the vanguard, because they are so far off that only the eye of faith can reach them. Then Election is thine. Dost thou believe? Then Predestination is as surely thine as thou art alive. Dost thou trust alone in Jesus? Then fear not; Redemption was meant for thee.

II. But mark, we are about to review THE ARMY THAT IMMEDIATELY PRECEDES SALVATION; and, first, in the forefront of these, there marches one whose name we must pronounce with sacred awe. It is God the Holy Spirit. Before anything can be done in our salvation, there must come that Third Person of the Sacred Trinity. Without Him, faith, repentance, humility, love, are things quite impossible. And now, close in the rear of the adorable Spirit follow the Thundering Legion. No sooner does God the Holy Ghost come into the soul, than He brings with Him what I have called the Thundering Legion; and those of you that hay, been saved will not be at a loss to understand what I mean. Some of the men in this Thundering Legion bear with them swords; with these swords they are to slay the sinner. For, be ore he can be made whole, he must b, spiritually killed; the sword must pierce him, and must slay all his selfishness before he can be brought to the Lord Jesus. Then another body of them carry with them axes, with which they cut down the thick trees of our pride and abase the goodly cedars of our righteousness. There are with them those that fill up the wells with stones, and break up all the cisterns of our carnal sufficiency, until we are driven to despair, having all our hopes despoiled. My friend, has this Thundering Legion ever come to your house? Have they ever taken up their quarters in your heart? For, rest assured, these are some of the things that accompany salvation. More or less of terrors every man must feel Before he is converted. Oh, Thundering Legion, ye are gone; we hear their trumpets and the dying echoes still apped us. What see we in the rear of them? Close in the rear there follows a broken heart. Are you sorrowful at this very hour? Be of good cheer, salvation is not far behind When there is once a broken heart, there is mercy very near. God is looking on thee with love, and will have mercy upon thee. But who are those that follow in the rear? Another troop; but these are far different from the rest. The Silken Legion follow. No weapons of war in their hands; no thunders do they utter; but they speak kind words of pity, and their hands are full of benedictions. Shall I tell you who this Silken Legion are? There is a troop of them who take the poor wounded heart, and wash it first in blood; they sprinkle on it the sacred blood of the Atonement; and it is amazing how the poor broken heart, though faint and sick, revives at the first drop of the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. And oh, what a washing it is? The heart that was once black as the coals of hell, seems white as the snow of Lebanon. When it has once been bathed in the bath of the Saviours blood and water, oh, how pure it becomes Then follow those who pour oil and wine into the wounds of this poor broken heart, so that where it smarted before, the wounds begin to sing. The sacred oil and wine of the precious promise is poured into every wound. The whole heart sings for gladness; for God hath rest, red its strength and bound up all its wounds, according to His promise: He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. And then, since the work is not quite done, there come those who carry the Kings wardrobe; and with the things out of this rich storehouse thy array the soul from head to foot; they clothe it with everything that for lustre and for glory could adorn it, and make it bright as the spirits before the throne. And then the Kings jewellers come in and complete the whole; they array the soul with ornaments, and bedeck it with precious stones. And now we have not yet come to a full conviction of salvation. The silken legion are gone. What cometh next? Now come those that are the actual attendants upon salvation or rather, that march in the rank immediately before it. There are four of these, called Repentance, Humility, Prayer, and a tender Conscience. Has Humility ever come to you? Has she ever abased your pride, and taught you to lie in the dust before God? Has Repentance ever watered the floor of your hearts with tears? Have you ever been led to weep in secret for year sins, and to bewail your iniquities? Has Prayer ever entered)our spirit? Remember, a prayerless soul is a Christless soul. And, lastly, are you tender of Conscience, for unless your conscience is made tender, salvation has not met you, for these are the immediate attendants upon it.

III. And now comes SALVATION IS ALL ITS FULNESS. And now comes the precious casket set with gems and jewels. It is of God-like workmanship; no hammer was ever lifted on it; it was smitten out and fashioned upon the anvil of Eternal Might, and cast in the mould of Everlasting Wisdom; but no human hand hath ever defiled it. And who are those that are close around it? There are three sweet sisters that always have the custody of the treasure--you know them; their names are common in Scripture Faith, Hope, and Love, the three Divine sisters; these have salvation in their bowels and do carry it about with them in their loins. Faith, who layeth hold on Christ, and trusteth all in Him; that ventureth everything upon His blood and sacrifice, and hath no other trust. Hope, that with beaming eye looks up to Jesus Christ in glory, and expects Him soon to come: looks downward, and when she sees grim death in her way, expects that she shall pass through with victory. And then sweet Love, the sweetest of the three; she, whose words are music and whose eyes are stars; Love also looks to Christ and is enamoured of Him; loves Him in all His offices, adores His presence, reverences His words; and is prepared to bind her body to the stake and die for Him, who bound His body to the cross to die for her.

IV. Now! MUST BRING UP THE BEAR GUARD. It is impossible that with such a vanguard, grace should be unattended from behind. Now see those that follow salvation. The first is Gratitude--always singing, Bless the Lord O my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy name. And then Gratitude lays hold upon its sons hand; the name of that son is Obedience. In company with this fair grace is one called Consecration--a pure white spirit that hath no earthliness; from its head to its foot it is all Gods, and all gold. Linked to this bright one, is one with a face serene and solemn, called Knowledge. Then shall ye know when ye follow on to know the Lord. Those that are saved understand mysteries, they know the love of Christ; they know Him, whom to know is life eternal. Now, have you these four? They are rather, the successors of salvation than the heralds of it. Oh yes, the believer can say, I trust I have Gratitude, Obedience, Consecration, and Knowledge. I will not weary you, but there are three shining ones that follow after these four, and I must not forget them, for they are the flower of them all. There is Zeal with eyes of fire, and heart of flame, a tongue that burneth, a hand that never wearies, and limbs that never tire; Zeal, that flies round the world with wings swifter than the lightnings flash, and finds even then her wings too tardy for her wish. This Zeal always dwells near one that is called Communion. This, sure, is the goodliest of all the train; an angel spiritualised, an angel purified and made yet more angelic, is Communion. Communion calls in secret on-its God; its God in secret sees. It is conformed to the image of Jesus; walks according to His footsteps. And as a necessary consequence, on the other side of Communion--which with one hand lays hold of Zeal, is Joy--joy in the Spirit. Joy, like the nightingale, sings in the dark, and can praise God in the tempest and shout His high praises in the storm. This is indeed a fitting cherub to be in the rear of salvation. Just in the rear is Perseverance, final, certain and sure. Then there follows complete Sanctification, whereby the soul is purged from every sin, and made as white and pure as God Himself. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Things that accompany salvation

This is the only place in this letter where the readers are addressed as beloved. The especial tenderness of the appellation follows very beautifully and significantly upon one of the sternest and solemnest warnings which Scripture contains as to the impossibility of those who were first enlightened, if they shall fall away, being renewed again to repentance, and as to the rejection, and cursing, and destruction of the barren and profitless ground. It is as if the writer had felt that after these dark and terrible thoughts he must soften his voice still more, and make haste not only to show how affection had dictated the warning, but also how joyful confidence in his brethren was present throughout it. The writer assumes, as understood and inspired by all to whom he is speaking, that what he calls salvation never comes into any mans hand or heart alone. This great gift never draws near singly. That precious stone is always set in a cluster of little stones around it. This angel of God never enters unattended by the virgins, her companions following her. There is ever a courtly dance of graces and fair figures that pass into the heart, and sweep in unison through the life which has received salvation. And what are these inseparable accompaniments; these continual companions of this central gift? The context distinctly bears the answer. They are all the things which the writer includes in the herbs brought forth meet for the husbandman. All the things which he includes under another figure, in your work and labour of love. That is to say, a fruitful Christian life of joyful obedience, of manifest issues, of a supreme love to God, which flashes out into all kinds of gentleness and amiabilities towards others, and has other regions, often nobler, in which it manifests itself. These are the companions, the things which accompany salvation. All that lustrous beauty and radiant completeness of human character is treated here as being a secondary and a consequent thing. The queen is salvation; they that follow her are all these great and beautiful things. Which is just to say, if a man wants to be good let him begin by taking for his own Gods great gift of forgiveness and acceptance in Jesus Christ. What would you think of a master who said he bad found out a new way of architecture, and he was about to begin building a house at the chimneys? It would be about as wise as the man that seeks, by painful effort, which effort I would be the last to say a word to despise, to make his life full of these beauties of conduct and character without having laid the foundation with Christ, who is the only foundation. If you take and plant some aromatic shrubs, hitherto unknown, upon some bare and sandy down, a whole fleet of bees and butterflies will come, drawn to the blossoms, that never were seen there before. And so if, and only if, we have in our hearts by faith in Jesus Christ, that tree of immortal life and manifold fragrances, round it will buzz and hover, and from it will draw honey and sustenance, all manner of fair and flying things, else and otherwise strangers to our spirits. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

The true order in salvation

In those days (Cornwall, 1851), when I was building my new church, and talking about the tower and spire we were going to erect, an elderly Christian lady who was sitting in her wheel-chair, calmly listening to our conversation, said, Will you begin to build your spire from the top? It was a strange question, but she evidently meant something, and looked for an answer. I gave it, saying, No, madam, not from the top, but from the foundation. She replied, That is right--that is right, and went on with her knitting. This question was not asked in jest or in ignorance; it was like a riddle. What did she mean? In a few years this lady passed away, but her enigmatic words remained. No doubt she thought to herself that I was beginning at the wrong end, while I went on talking of the choir, organ, happy worship, and all the things we were going to attempt in the new church; that I was aiming at sanctification, without justification; intending to teach people to be holy before they were saved and pardoned. This is exactly what I was doing. I had planted the boards of my tabernacle of worship, not in silver sockets (the silver of which had been paid for redemption), but in the sand of the wilderness. In other words, I way teaching people to worship God, who is a Spirit, not for love of Him who gave His Son to die for them, but in the fervour and enthusiasm of human nature. (W. Haslam ,M. A.)

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

Heb 6:9-11. But, beloved — In this one place he calls them so. He never uses this appellation but in exhorting; we are persuaded better things of you — Than those intimated verges 4-6. This is exactly in St. Paul’s manner of softening the harsh things he found himself obliged to write. See Eph 4:20; 2Th 2:13. And things that accompany salvation — Which argue you to be in a state of salvation, and will in the end, if you persevere, bring you to eternal salvation; namely, sincere faith in Christ and his gospel, love to God and one another, and obedience to his will; though we thus speak — Declare the danger of apostacy to warn you, lest you should fall from your present steadfastness. For God is not unrighteous to forget, &c. — You give plain proof of your faith and love, which the righteous God will surely reward; and, or rather, but, we desire that every one of you do continue to show the same diligence — Which you have used hitherto; and therefore we thus speak; to the full assurance of hope — That you may be fully confirmed in your hope of eternal felicity; unto the end — As long as you live; which you cannot expect if you abate of your diligence. “The full assurance of faith relates to present pardon, the full assurance of hope to future glory. The former is the highest degree of divine evidence that God is reconciled to us in the Son of his love: the latter is the same degree of divine evidence (wrought in the soul by the same immediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost) of persevering grace, and of eternal glory. So much, and no more, as faith every moment beholds with open face, so much does hope see, to all eternity. But this assurance of faith and hope is not an opinion, not a bare construction of Scripture, but is given immediately by the power of the Holy Ghost; and what none can have for another, but for himself only.” — Wesley.

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

CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES

Heb_6:9-10.—The writer now turns from warning to conciliation and encouragement. He urges steadfastness, diligence, and growth. Better things.—Than any such tendency to apostatise. Accompany salvation.—Full salvation is meant, which includes growth and sanctifying. Farrar renders, “that are akin to salvation”: “near to, conjoined with, salvation.” As apostates are κατάρας ἐγγύες, nigh unto a curse, so those who persevere in maintaining the true religion are ἐχόμενοι σωτηρίας, their salvation is at hand. Labour of love.—Christian service is ever the best Christian defence.

Heb_6:11. Same diligence.—Continuing efforts until you have reached the very fulness of the stature of Christ. Full assurance of hope.—Indicating confirmed Christian stability, beyond all fear of falling away.

Heb_6:12. Slothful.—Remiss in discharge of Christian duties, or in using all means of Christian culture. Always peril of Christian indifference. The word νωθροί, “tardy,” is applied either to body or mind, to external actions or internal conceptions.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Heb_6:9-12

Blended Hopes and Fears.—The writer of this epistle evidently occupied a ministerial position in relation to the Churches he addressed. There is the union of recognised authority with personal interest and anxiety in his advice and reproofs. It may be at any time ministerial duty to say stern, severe, searching things, but they should never be said in a hard or harsh tone. Personal interest and affection should at once qualify the severity, and make it all the more severe. The spirit of Christian reproof is given in this sentence: “As my beloved sons, I warn you.” The strong things this writer found it necessary to say concerning wilful apostasy might offend some, and might give many a wrong impression of the writer and of Christianity. He must make it plain that he was dealing with a possible case, and not assuming that they were in such a condition. It was necessary to point out what might be, in order to gain an influence over the evil things which might work out into such hopeless relations. To see where a road leads is often enough to convince us that it cannot be the right road. Every minister of Christ shares the experience of this writer concerning those entrusted to his charge.

I. He has hope in some.—The hope is based on recognised signs of Christian life. Hope is essential to the Christian ministry. There should be persistency in looking at the brighter side of things, quickness to discern every sign and possibility of good, and skill to nourish it into expression and strength. In many really good people, good has a way of hiding and almost disguising itself; and ministers need the wisdom of hopefulness in dealing with such persons. It may be that some in every Christian Church cause grave anxiety; it is almost always true that the many inspire confidence, win affection, and become to the minister his “joy and crown of rejoicing” in the day of God. He must never shrink from the duty of dealing with the careless, the inconsistent, and the wilful, but he can never do his work worthily unless he persistently hopes for the best. And the signs of healthy Christian life, which man may observe and God is sure not to forget, are summed up in this: “your work, and the love which ye shewed toward His name, in that ye ministered unto the saints, and do minister.”

1. Your work; activity and energy are satisfactory indications of vigorous and healthy life.

2. Love for Christ’s name, seen in doing the service which He did, and wants done. Christ’s name is a synonym for service to others, ministry to others. There is something of Christliness in all self-denying ministry; the full true Christliness when the ministry is distinctly rendered for Christ, and as Christ’s. Defection from the Christian spirit shows itself at once in failing ministry to others. Where soul-health flags there is no love of service.

II. He has fears for some.—And the fears find expression in anxious prayers on their behalf. Three things are objects of desire and prayer:

1. Where there is trembling and sign of weakness, the minister has his fears, and prays that these may be replaced by steadfastness, the firm tread, and upright pose of the man who feels the strength of good health.

2. Where there is flagging, through failing interest in Divine things, the minister has his fears, and prays that a new spirit of persistency may be given, and the aims of the Christian life become the inspiration of new and holier endeavour.

3. Where there is sluggishness, the dulness of stealthy spiritual disease, which saps the vital energy, and makes life a weariness, and lays the soul open to the attacks of spiritual disease, there the minister has his grave fears, and prays for grace to enable him to arouse and revive, by presenting in an inspiring way the example of them who “through faith and patience inherit the promises.” What the minister wants for all his people is, that they should have two graces—faith and patience; that each should be in full vigour of health; that the two should harmoniously and helpfully blend together; and so blending, protect from all attacks of temptation, open or insidious,—faith ever looking toward higher things, and patience ever enduring while those higher things are being attained.

SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES

Heb_6:9. The Hopefulness of the Christian Teacher.—“We are persuaded better things of you.” A well-known and greatly honoured Christian preacher, in advising a younger minister, once said, “I would not care to preach, if the Christian religion were not a religion of hope.” Whatever subject that good man dealt with, he persisted in seeing the hopeful side of it, though he bore the burden of a frail body, and was placed in circumstances of great strain and difficulty. In hopefulness concerning those to whom he ministers, the preacher gains his power. He has reason to nourish a spirit of hopefulness:

(1) in view of the truths with which he has to deal;

(2) in view of the presence of the Spirit with him, in doing the service of Christ;

(3) in view of the inspiring power of hope on the human heart;

(4) in view of the fact that just what the pressure of weekly life does for men is, take the hope out of them;

(5) and in view of the fact, that Christianity holds out its best things as things to come. But the hopefulness of the Christian teacher is only sometimes a happy disposition. The nature of the minister’s work tends to nourish depression. Hopefulness is usually a gracious disposition won out of fierce conflict, won for the sake of gaining efficiency in the service of men, and of rightly representing Him who saves us by kindling hope.

Heb_6:10. God’s Observations and Remembrances.—“God is not unrighteous to forget your work.” When the Divine inspections are dealt with, the observation of our frailties, short-comings, and sins is usually commended to our attention. The Divine observation is made a ground for nourishing a holy fear. But we have lost much in fixing too close an attention on this side of the Divine observation. It ought to be made the means of nourishing a holy restfulness, and a holy joy. The inspection takes notice of everything that is good and hopeful in us. The inspection always considers the good things in their relation to the capacities and possibilities of the individual who does them, and so calls things very good which the individual mourns over as sadly below his own standard. And it is of the essence of God’s righteousness that He never forgets what He observes. His dealings with us are based on what He remembers, as well as what He sees.

Heb_6:11. Hope elevated into Full Assurance.—“Full assurance of hope unto the end.” R.V. “fulness of hope even to the end.” Can human hope ever rise to “full assurance,” to absolute confidence? Not in a strict sense. The element of human frailty, that necessarily involves uncertainty, must always be in it. It can never cease to be hope, because trust, which is the ground of hope, can never be removed from the creature, who is, and for ever must be, a dependent being. If hope then is to grow and enlarge, what can it grow into? The R.V. may help us. It can grow into “fulness,” into maturity, into completeness, into its ideal, into itself at its best possible. The man who has nourished the grace of hope into its maturity has whatever is meant by “full assurance.” And matured hope can do a most full and gracious work in the Christian life—especially in steadying it. Therefore the anchor is the symbol of hope, because it keeps the vessel steady when tides sway, currents draw, and winds drive. When the hold of Christian hope—its hold of the present realities of our Christian standing, and its hold of the exceeding great and precious promises, and its hold of God as the infinite satisfaction for our future—is firm and full and strong, then we can move calmly among the ever-changing, often trying, scenes of our mortal life. With the good hope of the heavenly Canaan, we can deal wisely with the wearying experiences of our “forty” long wilderness years. It is not, however, very frequently or very forcibly presented in Christian teachings, that Christian hope may and ought to grow into something, and that we are responsible for its nourishment and growth into something. It may be well therefore—

1. To show what a passionate, but unintelligent, and sentimental thing—often utterly unworthy thing—hope is in the young Christian. Its value is not unfairly represented by the expectations of Pliable in the Pilgrim’s Progress.

2. To show what a thing of mixed value hope is in the middle-aged Christian; often by no means cleared of its sordid and sentimental elements, and indeed often crushed down into silence, by the fierce strain, the wearying care, and the overwhelming disappointments of life. To the middle-aged Christian there is seldom any vision from Delectable Mountains, and Heaven seems “far to go.”

3. To show how in days of Christian maturity hope comes out clear, gains its fulness, and anchors the soul in quietness, security, and peace.

Heb_6:12. The Peril of Slothfulness.—“Be not slothful,” R.V. “sluggish.” Slow-blooded; showing no enterprise or energy. “Let us then be up and doing.” In the religious life there is supreme peril in resting content with anything that has been attained. The laissez-faire principle must be stoutly resisted, if any attempt is made to apply it in the Christian life. Therefore the apostle Paul so vigorously describes his own resolve, “Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on, if so be that I may apprehend that for which also I was apprehended by Christ Jesus.” And the living Lord sends His messages to His seven Churches, making His promises only to “him that overcometh,” which must mean that he has kept up the fight even to the end.

I. Under what circumstances is a spirit of slothfulness likely to creep over the professing Christian?—

1. It is a frequent attendant on certain natural dispositions. The man who is slow-moving, sluggish, listless, in business affairs, is sure to carry his natural disposition into his religion. His life-work is correcting natural disposition.

2. It is associated with conditions of bodily health. There is lowered vitality where there is not active disease; and subtle diseases usually show themselves in languor, and flagging interest in things; and our bodily states affect the spirit in which our religious duties are done.

3. Slothfulness and indifference are often the rebounds from times of strained religious excitement and emotion. It should always be borne in mind that unusual religious emotion cannot be maintained, and the rebound from it is always serious.

4. Slothfulness in religious life may come with unusual business demands. A man may be compelled to give up his Christian work for a time, and then he has no interest in taking it again.

5. Slothfulness is sometimes a result of Christian jealousy. Others seem to be doing the work better than we are, and then we say, “Let them do it,” and put ourselves out of the ranks of the workers.

II. What perils lie in the path of those who give way to slothfulness?—

1. This peril—their own souls cease to grow, because they have no exercise.

2. This peril—temptation and religious disease secure their opportunity.

3. This peril—the final judgment of their Divine Master, who will surely be severe in dealing with those who “came not to the help of the Lord against the mighty.”

Slothfulness.—“Slothful”—a word which has quite passed out of common use. It may, however, be only the more suggestive to us for that reason. Sometimes our familiar employment of a word plucks out all vigour and force from its meanings. It is a strong old Saxon word, very little changed. The Saxon form is slewdth, from slaw, slow; and the idea of the word is tardiness, disinclination to action or labour; sluggishness, as represented by the level river in contrast with the fresh-flowing, hurrying, eddying mountain stream. It may even be dull, as the same word is translated in Heb_5:11 : “Ye are dull, or slothful of hearing; take heed lest ye become dull altogether.” This slothfulness was the characteristic sin of the civilised and effeminate times of the book of Proverbs. It is the great sin, in respect of religious things, of all highly civilised and luxurious ages and nations, and the great peril of all persons who are not placed under the stern necessity of working with hand or brain for their daily bread. But a more precise idea can be given to this term as it is used in this epistle. Slothfulness is action which has in it no energy; nothing of that essential characteristic of manliness—energy. The precise danger against which we are warned in the text is that of dropping down from the earnestness of our first love, to live a Christian life without energy. Such words as “energy” we know apply directly to success in business life, but it seems strange to apply such a term to Christian life and work. We dwell so often on the submissive, patient, and trustful sides of Christian duty, that we may profitably consider other sides which are, perhaps, too much neglected in religious teachings. If a religious life is to be worth anything at all, it must be a life in earnest. The epistle to the Hebrews we cannot affirm with certainty was written by Paul, but it is certainly Pauline in tone and doctrine; it belongs most closely to Paul’s order of thought. It is more rhetorically constructed than any of Paul’s known epistles. There is a balancing of sentences, a sense of artistic effect, a choice of language, and a wealth of elaborated illustration which we do not find in Paul’s intenser writings; and there is a breaking up of the argument for the sake of introducing hortatory passages, which belongs to the public speaker rather than the logical writer. Paul has, indeed, passages of splendid eloquence; but they are specimens of the natural eloquence to which an impassioned soul rises, rather than the eloquence which attends speaking gifts and elaborate education. Such an eloquent contrast as that given in the twelfth chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews between the Mounts Sinai and Sion you feel is the result of study and care. The occasion of writing this epistle is evidently the observation, or the tidings, of flagging and relaxed energy marking the Christian life and work of the disciples, and putting them in peril of final apostasy from the Christian faith. They were caught in the downward current, and, though they discerned it not, Christian teachers knew that the rapids and the fatal falls were near. The cause of such slothfulness was partly the state and tone of society in that age, partly the enervating influence of a divided effort. The disciples could not rise wholly up out of Judaism, but painfully tried to blend Jewish observances with Christian spirituality. The corrective proposed is a worthier estimate of Christ and of Christianity, in contrast with the great Jewish officials and Judaism. Each stage in the contrast is relieved by passages of direct and intense personal application and persuasion. Our chapter is one of these digressions, partly persuasive, partly introductory to a difficult branch of the subject, viz. the deeper meaning of the Old Testament figure of Melchizedek. The writer urges that there ought to be kept up an exceeding interest in Christian growth—growth in intelligence, growth in activity, growth into the very fulness of the Christian manhood. Christians ought to respond to the various influences culturing growth, even as the earth ought to respond to the refreshing rains. What must become of earth that lies barren, or only brings forth thorns and briars, merely receiving all those quickening rains, and never worthily responding? Surely, “it is nigh unto cursing; its end is to be burned.” But counsels couched in this reproachful tone tend only to depress; so he speaks brightly and hopefully, as indeed he well may, of the Church as a whole; there was a general desire for growth, and signs of the spirit of energy. But he was afraid of individuals, and of their hindering, repressive influence. He has a word of earnest persuasion for them. “We desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end.” Show the same diligence. Be not slothful. Share all together in the Church energy, activity, and growth. Worthily follow the examples of those heroic men who, by daily faith that kept alive daily energy, and by daily patience that kept the energy from flagging, have obtained the promises. Remember Abraham, the father of the trustfully patient, and be quite sure that for you also the inspiring promises are pledged in the “immutability of God’s counsel.”

I. The sin of slothfulness in the Christian life.—The word does not mean mere “slowness of movement.” That may be a characteristic of the natural disposition; it may belong to the firm, strong, but slow pulse, and may be quite compatible with a true energy. It is opposed to “diligence,” so we may say that it is the taking up of a Christian profession weakly, manifesting in the Christian life no earnestness, easily permitting the claims it makes on us to be relaxed or denied for the sake of our self-indulgences. We know the sin and its ruinous consequences well enough in business life. We have often been wearied out with the kid-gloved young man, who counts business a bore, dawdles about, puts no soul into anything, drags through his day’s work, and tries the patience of everybody that has to do with him. Can it possibly be that he represents the way in which, by our Christian slothfulness, we are wearying God and all good men? It must be a sin to live a listless, easyful Christian life: a sin like that of the soldier who hides among the stuff, or feigns a sickness, when the trumpet-blast is summoning all heroic souls to the front. It must be sin in view of those all-absorbing claims of King Jesus under which we come. He demands body, soul, and spirit, life, time, powers, all. No man can be truly His without being wholly His. It must be sin in view of the consecration vow which we have made, yielding ourselves up as living sacrifices, like the whole burnt-offering, given over, body, and fat, and skin, and blood, and life, for a whole consuming on the Lord’s altar. It must be sin in view of that great work in the world which has yet to be done ere Christ shall “see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied.” It must be the sin of the most shameful ingratitude when we remember how He bought us with His precious blood, giving Himself unto the death for us. Think, I beseech you, what manner of persons we ought to be who profess to live with the “love of Christ constraining us.” And yet what a frequent sin it is! Mark is slothful, shrinks from fatiguing, dangerous journeys in the cause of Christ; as Matthew Henry so quaintly puts it, “He wanted to go home and see his mother.” Demas fails, even in the hour of the apostle’s need: he could not put any energy into his Christian life, through the love of this present world. Even Timothy must be reproved for yielding to his retiring, studious disposition, and shrinking back from the active features of ministerial duty. And with withering severities the angel of the Churches pleads with the Laodiceans, “Thou art neither cold nor hot.… I would thou wert cold or hot.” The stability, the usefulness, the joy, and the ultimate triumph of the Christian life absolutely depend on our taking it up with energy. It is miserable to think of Christian people that, some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship, they shall all escape safe to land. What noble soul will care to drift into the harbour of God like that? Let us be in earnest, and win an “abundant entrance.” As we pass round over the bar, let every flag be flying, every man be at his post; a battered hull, but sound; rent but mended canvas filling with the heavenward breeze, and round the crowded harbour the thousand white-robed shouting our glad welcome, and saying,—

“Come in, come in; eternal glory thou shalt win.”

That is the way to go to heaven and God from an earnest Christian life. A little hut, built of half-burnt logs and boards, was raised amid the smouldering fire-ruins of Chicago, the first sign of the restoration of that desolated city, and on the front was placed this inscription:—

“WILLIAM D. KERFOOT;

All gone except wife, children, and energy.”

With energy all could be retrieved. With energy a noble Christian life can be lived. Work for Christ is worth doing “with both hands earnestly.” “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” “Do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.” “Curse ye, Meroz, saith the Lord; for they came not unto the help of the Lord against the mighty.” Beware of this subtle, seductive, ruinous Christian sin of slothfulness!

II. The temptations to the sin of Christian slothfulness in modern life.—Certainly there is no temptation to slothfulness in modern business life. Intensity, haste, keenness, over-grasping, are the modern business sins. But this business life of ours in many ways brings temptation to a weak Christian living. Observe how it tends to exhaust energy, expending all the gathered stores of physical and mental strength, and leaving none to be given to Christian uses. What sort of men are you when the day’s work is done? It can be put in a few words: fit only for the social dinner-table and the easy-chair. All else but actual business hours must be devoted to recruiting strength for the coming business hours. Christ and His claims are simply crowded out. Sounding almost unheard in every office and warehouse and shop are words of Christ’s with which He fain would still the fevers, and calm the hurrying waves, of modern life. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” Then, too, it brings wealth, and the enervating influence of luxury. Precisely the sin of old Sodom, old Jerusalem, and old Tyre, against which a prophet’s voice is ever needed. “Pride, fulness of bread, and idleness” were in them and their daughters, telling fatally upon the national energy. We know how our very food affects us, and we only care to rest. Once at home we can find plentiful excuse for shrinking from Christian worship or work. Other things besides business are seriously telling on the energy of religious life. I do but suggest them to your thought, that you may ponder over them seriously. To what an alarming extent personal Christian effort is excused by an arrangement for money payment; as if cold cash could ever do in the world for Christ what living souls can! The extravagant pursuit of mere pleasure, and interest in the excitingly sensational, and weakly sentimental, in literature. Intelligent Christian evenings are out of fashion, and our houses are flooded with tale-books, until we can get our children to read nothing that is solid and instructive. And then in other departments of life we have the open enthronement of intellect as the deity for modern worship. Men have not yet dared to call her “Minerva” or “Athene,” and claim for her a temple and an altar; but the goddess of wisdom is fast pushing Jehovah, the God of righteousness and love, out of His claim to men’s thoughts. Now can you seriously weigh the influence of all these things on Christian energy, on religious life? Can you see how these things account for the religious easyfulness that is all around us—an easyfulness that makes all Christian work drag heavily? Can you, by the help of these things, explain the pleasant way in which you are being borne along to heaven, as if in some delightful gondola, on a still and flowing stream—your boat fitted up with exquisite taste, pleasant companions around you, delightful music to soothe you into a dreamy half-sleep, rowers to dip their oars in the sparkling waters and relieve you of all the toil, and a strange delusion possessing you that in this way you may sail on, and never know a windy, stormy ocean, and never feel one tossing wave until the boat rounds in to the heavenly landing-stage? Awake, O sleeper! Arise from the death of such delusions! Let Christ give you light; let Christ inspire you to higher things with His constraining love. Christian life is conflict; Christian life is pilgrimage; Christian life is toil. No rowers can ever row for you while you recline on soft pillows of ease. The Christian boat is no fancy-painted gondola. It is a stout fisherman’s boat; and there is nothing for thee but thine own hand to the oars, and a life of hard pulling against the down-rushing stream. Christian work demands your help. A heaven that could be any real joy to you is to be won. Your crown is to be gained through a present victory over self and circumstance and sin! “Be not slothful.” Too surely all nerveless living induces disease. Slothfulness is a plague-spot; soon it spreads into unbelief, grows into indifference, eats inward until it become apostasy, and at last, reaching the vitals, it becomes spiritual and eternal death. Well indeed may the Son of man say, “I would thou wert cold or hot.”

“Who would share Abraham’s blessing

Must Abraham’s path pursue;

A stranger and a pilgrim,

Like him, must journey through.

The foes must be encountered,

The dangers must be passed;

Only a faithful soldier

Receives the crown at last.”

III. The dishonour which Christian slothfulness puts upon those saints and heroes who have gone before us, and who seek to live again in us.—“Them who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises.” We are not sure that hero-worship, or the inspiration of heroic examples, is as mighty in our day as in some past times. Pride in one’s own age was perhaps never carried to such an extreme as it is now. Men can speak lightly and even disdainfully of the grandest men that have ever lived, and we think ourselves quite competent to criticise the greatest productions of human genius. We often notice a failing reverence for God; there runs along with it a failing reverence for good and great men, and these are surely bad signs of the times. This age deals more with things than with persons, and it is as an antidote to this tendency that we persist in setting forth the person of the Son of God: not first His doctrine, not first His work, but first Himself. True greatness in every age is a response to the influence of sublime human examples. “The real interest of the Scripture books centres about persons, who reproduce and exhibit in their human lives the purposes of the Father of all.… The lives of the saints are always in some form a chief part of the spiritual food of every generation. Their experiences are assimilated by us, and enter into our own lives. The pious propagate their piety, the brave man propagates his courage, there is a spiritual descent and inheritance more sure than that of the race” (Ll. Davies, “Gosp. Mod. Life,” p. 173). The power of heroic examples has perhaps never been so forcibly illustrated as in the case of the great French Revolution. Men were, indeed, terribly mistaken in their modes of action, and borne beyond all sobriety in the enthusiasm of a great national hope; but the leaders were for the most part grand men, men of heroic soul, and it is instructive to observe that their heroism was fed by reading Plutarch’s Lives of the Great Romans. Luther cultured his brave, courageous spirit by constant fellowship with the great Israelite prophets, reading them till their ardour burned in his own breast. But there is also an unsurpassed humbling in the influence of heroic and saintly examples. They will cure us, as nothing else will, of our self-confidence and self-sufficiency. That which is true of the ministers is true of the people. If we find conceit growing, and we are beginning to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, we take down the Life of John Howe, who pressed near to the fountains of God’s truth till he felt that he drank right from the fresh spring. Or of Edward Payson, or R. M. McCheyne, men who lived in the secret place of the Most High. Or of Norman McLeod, broad as the world in heavenly, Divine charity, but gentle, humble, simple, playful as a child, and knowing on earth no joy but serving—serving God and his fellow-men. It is one of the characteristics of our religion that it presents to us, and keeps ever before us, a galaxy of heroes, of noble men and women, like a great sky full of various stars, circling about that wondrous light, that central pole-star, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible and the Christian ages do not give us so much a record of achievements as a record of men. And no man can know the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, by any critical estimate of His works; He must be apprehended in His person; He must make the impression of a living man. Think of that roll of heroes given by the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews with an eloquence that makes it come to us like the swell of some grand organ-note, pealing forth, until it fills the whole place with its thrilling tones. What is the thing which we especially observe in that great cloud of witnesses? They lived their lives in the world with energy. Their religion was their glory. They were godly “men in earnest.” Watch them as they pass in panoramic order before you—Abel, and Enoch, and Noah, and Abraham, and Jacob, and Joseph, and Moses, and Gideon, and Barak, and Samson, and Jephthah, and Samuel, and David, and Elijah, and Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and Daniel. Nay, this is but the beginning of the splendid muster-roll of the godly; add the “glorious company of the apostles,” and the “noble army of martyrs,” and the foremost men of the Christian ages—Augustine, and Bernard, and Luther, and Calvin, and Latimer, and Cranmer, and Loyola, and Knox, and Baxter, and a host of others. Come down into our own passing years, and add the names of such as have come within our own spheres of thought—Wilberforce, and Martyn, and Lincoln, and Hedley Vicars, and Havelock, and Arnold, and Robertson, and Chalmers, and Guthrie, and many more. Add, still again, those whom we have known and loved, with intensity because with reverence, in personal relationship and friendship. Think of those “holy souls and meekly who the cross of suffering bore.” Think of the noble souls who stood well in the front of God’s great war—earnest souls whose life-joy was the service they rendered to the Master whom they loved. What a splendid crowd of witnesses! Oh the glorious vision of the saints of God! Sainted fathers, sainted mothers, sainted pastors, sainted heroes. They have inherited the promises, and now they rest. But how? Through “faith,” which is but another name for energy—energy seen on another side; and through “patience,” which enabled them, amid all their toils and discouragements and failures, to keep up their energy. They live again in us. What dishonour do we put upon such men, then, if our Christian living is faithless and weak, self-indulgent and restless and fretful! How we disgrace our fathers and our grandfathers, our sainted mothers and grandmothers, and all the Christian dead, if we sink down so low as to make our lives a mere response to the questions: “What shall we eat? What shall we drink? And wherewithal shall we be clothed?” Brethren, surely this ought not so to be! They live again in us. They were the Church of Christ for their time, and we are for ours. Would to God that in earnest, energetic Christian lives we could be worthy of them! Nay, would to God that we might be worthy of Him whom they and we alike should imitate, who hath called us by His grace unto His kingdom and glory. I know of no promises to cheer the self-indulgent. I know of no high words of hope to speak to those who are at ease in Zion. But there are words of thrilling inspiration for those who will fight and toil. Do you say, “No cross”? Then the King will surely say, “No crown.” If you will but take up that cross brightly, cheerfully, lift it on your shoulder, go forth to life with it a brave, earnest man, full of energy for Christ, then He shall speak a “Well done, good and faithful servant,” and crown you with the crown of “full, and everlasting, and passionless renown.” Be earnest. Be earnest for Christ. Be earnest for holiness. Be earnest for souls. “To him that overcometh” ease, and sloth, and disposition, and pleasure, and the age, and circumstances, winning them all for Christ—“to him,” saith the Master, “will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.” “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God … and I will write upon him My new name.” Would it surprise you to find that name just meant this: the Unslothful—a man earnest unto death?

The Lives of the Saints.—“All saints” are the great cloud of witnesses by whom we find ourselves compassed about when we move backwards in thought through the ages of Church history. To remember those who have gone before us, who have trodden to the end the path we are treading, who have fought in the honourable conflict in which we also are fighters, seems a kind of spiritual obligation; but it is also one of the best exercises for spiritual training. The crown of all that the Bible has to reveal to us is the life of the Son of God in our flesh. In every age of the Church attention has been paid to the lives of good men. There has been no difference in this respect between Roman Catholics and Protestants. All sects and schools have had their lives of the saints. In the New Testament “the saints” are all the members of the Church, and their sanctity or holiness was regarded as depending not on their personal character, but on their calling. The ecclesiastical use of the word is not precisely the same as this. The saints we are to follow were men of faith and of patience. By faith they overcame the world; by patience they stood fast under the trials of their conflict. Whatever their opinions may have been, whatever their imperfections and lapses even may have been, men of eminent faith and of eminent patience are witnesses of the best things to us, and worthy leaders in the onward march of humanity. Such men have been the living heart of the Church, the salt of the earth. They have not always been honoured and promoted in their lifetime. The true saints have encountered difficulties which were mountains requiring all their faith to remove; they have undergone tribulations, such as neglect, persecution, contempt, which proved their Divine gift of patience to the uttermost. It is a good thing that we should try to obtain a closer acquaintance with the good Christians who have been in some way nearer to ourselves—with those, for example, of our own race and country, whose circumstances and trials and achievements we may be better able to understand. There is a continuous national life which is enriched by every faithful life that is thrown into it, and the contribution is more valuable when such a life is made the subject of an interesting record. Instances: W. Wilberforce, Ab. Lincoln, Hedley Vicars, Arnold of Rugby, Robertson of Brighton. These are lives that have become public property, by being led in conspicuous stations. But there have been lives of faith and patience known to us individually which never drew the eyes of the public upon them. There is always “the world” to be overcome; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Every example of persevering loyalty to the will of God, and of confidence in the ultimate dominion of that will, is an addition to the blessed company of the saints. In every life there are frequent calls for exercising patience. There has been no high Christian virtue, no eminent nobility of life, without patience. Where patience of the true quality has been shown, a patience sustained by hope, a sweet and kindly patience, there we ought to recognise the true saintship. The innumerable company of the saints is not a distant body of another nature than ours; it includes those who, whether they be still with us or have gone before us, have displayed the like faith and patience. These beckon to us to follow them in hope. When we commune with ourselves most sincerely, which kind of life seems really the noblest and most to be preferred, that of men who strove and suffered in faith and patience, whether they were happy in this world or not, or that of those who have selfishly steered their course so as always to get the most pleasure, and to avoid the most pain?—J. Llewellyn Davies, M.A.

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.

IV

But the readers are still in a condition which, by the grace of God, renders possible the attainment of the goal, for which they are earnestly to strive

Heb_6:9-12

9But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, 10though we thus speak. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of [om. labor of]3 love, which ye have [om. have] shewed toward his name, in that ye have [om. have] ministered to the saints, and do minister [are ministering]. 11And [But] we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to [in respect to] the full assurance of hope unto the end: 12That ye be [become=prove yourselves] not slothful, but followers [imitators] of them, who through faith and patience [long-suffering] inherit the promises.

[Heb_6:9.—τὰ κρείσσονα καὶ ἐχ., the things which are better, and are connected with salvation. The article not repeated.—εἴ καί, if also, or even=although.

Heb_6:11.—ἐπιθυμοῦμεν δέ, But (better than and here as adversative) we desire.—τὴν αὐτὴν σπουδήν, the same zeal, πρός, with reference to, in respect to, Eng. ver. inadequately simply to, and mars the sense by putting a comma after diligence.

Heb_6:12.—ἵνα μὴ γένησθε, that ye may not became, or prove yourselves—μιμηταί, imitators.—μακροθυμία, long-suffering—K.].

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Heb_6:9. But we are persuaded better things, etc.—The epithet ἀγαπητοί (beloved), so frequent with Paul, is found in our epistle only in this place, where the author, by the verb πεπείσμεθα, emphatically expresses his conviction that the terrible results which he has depicted will not be realized in the case of his readers. Τὰ κρείσσονα is referred by some to a better destiny, by others to a better condition. The former, then, regard ἐχόμενα σωτηρίας chiefly as a periphrasis for σωτηρία itself; while the latter refer this expression to that which tends to salvation. More exactly ἐχόμενόν τινος denotes that which stands connected with an object (whether outwardly or inwardly, locally or temporally), and belongs to it. The words are thus to be taken in a comprehensive sense, and stand parallel to the κατάρας ἐγγύς.

Heb_6:10. For God is not unrighteous, etc.—This verse contains the ground on which the author bases his persuasion. That ground is not properly the judicial and retributive justice of God, nor the anticipation of the reward which God, according to the Romish doctrine de merito condigno, might bestow on such good works as man is enabled to perform by the aid of Divine grace. It is rather that consistency and uniformity in God’s dealings, inseparable from His fidelity (1Jn_1:9), which would render it seemingly impossible for Him to withdraw His gracious assistance from those who in their life, walk, and conduct display the truth and power of their faith, and the genuineness and depth of their conversion. Τὸ ἔργον denotes the moral conduct as a whole (1Th_1:3, Gal_6:4), in distinction from τὰ ἔργα, which denotes its manifold attestations (comp. Rom_2:6 with Heb_2:15). Εἰς τὸ ὅνομα Chrysostom regards as indicating purpose = for the glorifying of His name, so that it might also be taken = διὰ τὸ ὄνομα, for the sake of the name of God. The majority, however, with Theophyl., take it as the object of τῆς ἀγάπης = love toward His name. The Aor. Inf. ἐπιλαθέσθαι expresses neither past time (Seb. Schmidt) nor future (Bisp.); but the mere action of the verb, without reference to the relation of time [thus not to have forgotten, nor to be going to forget, but simply to forget]. (Kühn., II. § 445, 2).

To the saints.—Köstlin (Tüb. Theol. Jahrb., 1854, Heft. 3, p. 373) maintains, after Credner, that the expression τοῖς ἁγίοις indicates that the “Hebrews,” to whom our epistle is directed, must be regarded as a non-Palestinian church which had rendered succor to the Christians of Palestine. But the words τῶν ἐν Ἱερουσαλήμ, which the apostle deemed it necessary to add, Rom_15:26, to τῶν ἁγίων, refutes his hypothesis, based on the opinion that the Christians of Palestine, and particularly those of Jerusalem, were regarded as ἅγιοι κατ’ ἐξοχήν (saints par excellence), and passages like Rom_16:2, 1Co_6:1-2, in connection with the salutations in the epistles of Paul, show the groundlessness of the assumption that none other than the original Church could have been designated simply as οἱ ἄγιοι. Moreover, Del. calls attention to the fact that this manifestation of love may very well have taken place within the limits of the readers’ own country, Heb_10:34; Heb_13:24; Act_4:32; Act_11:29.

Heb_6:11. The same zeal.—The author does not mean to say that all the members of the Church have a like loving zeal, nor that they must still not fail to evince the same loving zeal which they have hitherto manifested (Chrys., Grot., etc.), but rather that the like zeal which they have manifested in respect to love they must in future evince in regard to the πληροφορία of Christian hope (so the majority since Beng.). The want of a “full assurance of faith” or of an assured conviction of the truth of the specifically Christian hope, is precisely the reason of the doubtful and unstable condition of the readers, who stand in peril of a defection from Christianity.

Heb_6:12. That ye do not prove sluggish, etc.—Here the author is speaking of growth in Christian hope, in a believing and assured hope; at Heb_5:11, on the contrary, he speaks of a like growth in the understanding of Christian truth. There is thus no contradiction in his using here γένησθε, may (not) become, and there γέγονατε, have become; and we need not, with Heinrichs, instead of νωθροί conjecture according to Heb_12:8 νόθοι. [I doubt much if the author’s consistency requires precisely such a defence, substantially that of Lün., viz., that in the former case the author speaks of “sluggishness of Christian hearing, here of Christian practice.” It is scarcely possible that the hearers had fallen so low in spiritual understanding and brought themselves to the verge of apostasy without having become already liable to the charge of sluggishness in Christian practice. But in addressing a Christian body the author is not necessarily confined to a stereotyped style of expression. He may at one time charge them with actual backsliding, and at another, in a strain of tender exhortation, guard them against the danger of it, especially as what was true of some might not be true of all, and even of some only in a degree.—K.]. The inheriting the promises (κληρονομεῖν τὰς ἐπαγγελίας) is designated as a consequence of faith (πίστις) and long-suffering (μακροθυμία). It can thus not refer to receiving the words of promise (Bl.), but to the obtaining of its substance. The Pres. Part τῶν κληρονομούντων who are inheriting, implies a continuous and abiding act, so that the reference can scarcely be exclusively to the Patriarchs (Bl., De W., Thol., Bisp., etc.). It is not until the following verse that the sentiment, here stated in general terms, is illustrated for the readers by the concrete example of Abraham.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

The personal conviction that the members of the Church have their desires still fixed on things which lie within the sphere of salvation, and have in them their supreme interest, does not release the teacher from the duty of emphatically warning against unfaithfulness and apostasy; from laying open truthfully its causes and consequences, and so depicting the magnitude and imminence of the danger as to penetrate and affect the conscience. But, on the other hand, also, even in the case of those who hold a questionable position in the Church, he is not to forget that God himself has pleasure in remembering that which deserves recognition, and will call it forth and render it productive of blessing. Such means of influence are least of all to be overlooked in the case of those who are in conditions of assault and peril; and the manifestation of personal sympathy along with an affectionate recognition of the attestations and works of Christian feeling and conduct which they have displayed are entirely in place after they have been previously rebuked from the Word of God, and been convinced of their wrong.

2. There is found not unfrequently a zealous and enduring manifestation of love not merely in general toward those who are in need, but in particular toward their oppressed and afflicted companions in faith, shown by those Christians who are partly insecure and weak in their recognition of Christian truth; partly wavering and feeble in the assurance of their Christian hope; partly neglectful and indolent in their striving specifically after a full assurance of faith. We are in this matter to insist that the one be done without the neglect of the other; and we are carefully to avail ourselves of the encouragement which lies in the fact that living service toward the members of the Church of Jesus Christ is regarded by God as a testifying of their love toward His own nature, Mat_25:31 ff.

3. From the holy nature of God there follows such a system of divine action as to insure that no attestation of love to Him shall remain unrewarded, but rather shall bring a blessing in return in our spiritual advancement. Under this state of the case, we may regard such a blessing also under the point of view of righteousness and of reward, as in fact the Scripture speaks even of a recompensing of the good. But we are not warranted in demanding this recompense on the basis of our claim to a reward for services rendered, nor in basing on it any alleged title to salvation; for every performance on the part of man of that which is acceptable to God, and which He has commanded, is only rendering the service which is due (Luk_17:10). Bernh. Weiss, in his stirring Treatise on Christ’s Doctrine of Reward (Deutsche Zeitsch. für christl. Wiss. und christl. Leben, 1853, Nr. 40–42), very significantly styles the relation of reward between God and man “an economical one, a matter of economy or arrangement, instituted by God for the realizing of His plan of salvation.”

4. The moral condition of the world and the state of the Christian Church may greatly contribute to the apparent impossibility of reaching the goal of perfection and of attaining the promised inheritance, or may at least render their attainment so difficult that many Christians become sluggish and grow cold in that zeal and fervor of faith which has approved itself in their previous walk, and which is still evinced in other spheres of action. In this case the example of those who by faith and enduring patience have reached the goal may prove greatly stimulating.

5. But it belongs essentially to the influence of examples that they be not merely held up to view, contemplated, and admired, but that they be imitated; and in this lies the difficulty and consequent rareness of genuine disciples’ life. For faith has to do with the invisible, heavenly, and future, which it is to apprehend and hold fast as the most absolutely certain and reliable of all things; and long-suffering patience, “without falling into despondency and despair, must await with cheerfulness and with equable, abiding courage, the yet lingering salvation.”

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Love must not cease to warn, to serve, and to hope.—We are not the first on the way to perfection; let us look well to it that we do not remain behind among the last.—Where there are still points of character that link us to salvation, God has long since had them in mind, and would fain make use of them.—Love seeks no reward; yet it finds it.—Services rendered to our companions in the faith are a work of faith with which God is well pleased, and a labor of love which God will reward.—The love that labors and sacrifices for the good of our neighbor is also a service rendered to God, but this only in connection with love to the name of God and with the faith of the saints.—How the striving after the anticipated inheritance of the promise is hindered in the world, but in the Church of God is at once demanded and promoted.

Starke: We must hope good of every one, and not easily despair of the salvation of any; for God is wont to go forth even “about the eleventh hour.”—Rebuke thy neighbor, if there is great need, at the right time and in the right place, with compassion, without too severe words, and without the spirit of detraction. Perchance thou gainest him.—A believing Christian may be indeed certain of his own felicity, but still not without a holy solicitude for his perseverance and steadfastness in what is good.—God rewards the good works which He demands of us from grace.—It is not merely in heaven that the saints are to be sought and found: they are to prove themselves saints on earth.—Our strengthening and support come indeed from the Lord; but we must industriously employ the means which strengthen and keep us unto eternal life.—Nothing so much favors backsliding as negligence and sloth.—Faith and Christian patience belong together; the former produces the latter, and the latter is a genuine test of faith.—Blessed is he who fails not of the eternal inheritance: he may have much, little, or nothing of temporal things: to have God is to have all.

Rieger: Though we may have good hope in regard to the majority, we should still give zealous attention to individuals, Act_20:31.—One may frequently be more ready to suffer for a good cause, and to perish with it, than to persevere in the hope of a victorious issue. Hence exhortation to equal diligence in hope is very needful; for unless hope were renewed the sparks of love would be entirely extinguished.—To mark the footsteps of those that have preceded us is on the race-course of faith a great advantage.—Faith first apprehends and seizes the promise; patience and long-suffering await it to the end.

Heubner: The picture of the wretchedness and ruin of apostates tends strongly to arouse the faithful and to guard them against security and remissness.—The thought of Divine aid should spur on and arouse us also to diligence, zeal, and perseverance.—So far from faith tending to check activity, it rather preserves us against sloth and gives us power for action.

Footnotes:

[3]Heb_6:10.—The words τοῦ κόπου before τῆς ἀγάπης, noted by Beza, Mill, Bengel, and others, as spurious, have, since Griesbach, been properly cancelled as a gloss from 1Th_1:3.

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

THE QUEEN AND THE VIRGINS THAT FOLLOW HER

Heb 6:9.

THE writer has been describing, in very stern and solemn words, the fate of apostates, and illustrating it by the awful metaphor of’ the earth which…’beareth thorns and briars,’ and which is, therefore, ‘rejected, and is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned.’ Then he softens, and knowing that rebukes are never so pointed as when the arrow is feathered by love, he changes his voice. ‘But, beloved’ - they needed to be assured that all the thundering and lightning did not mean anger, but affection - ‘we are persuaded better things of you, and those things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.’ Wherever, then, salvation is, certain other things will also be.

Now, of course, it is clear that the word salvation is not here used to mean the ultimate, complete deliverance from all evil of sorrow or sin, and the ultimate, complete endowment with all good of joy and holiness, but for that earlier stage of itself - which unfortunately, too often is supposed to be all that is needed, and to be sure to last, if once possessed, whether diligently tended or left neglected - the initial gifts which are received by a convert in the very beginning of his Christian career, viz., the assurance of divine forgiveness, and the establishment of a new relation between him and God. It is that initial and incomplete salvation of which the writer is here thinking. And, he says, it does not come alone. Like a planet set in the heavens, with moons that circle round it; like a diamond set in a cluster of precious stones; like some queen with her train of attendants, when that incipient salvation comes into a soul, it comes companioned by other blessings that are its natural and necessary attendants and accompaniments. And what are these? The whole context is full of instruction as to what they are. We can gather them all up into the one metaphor fruitfulness; or to put away the metaphor, we can gather them all up into the one phrase, ‘a holy life.’ That, or these - for the one phrase, ‘a holy life,’ will break up and effloresce into all manner of beautifulnesses and goodnesses - are ‘the things that accompany salvation.’

It is plain that the possession of ‘salvation’ is sure to lead to that result. For it is something more than a judge’s pardon; it is a Father’s forgiveness, and even if it were nothing more than forgiveness, it would, as such, set in operation new emotions and aims in the child’s heart and will. God’s forgiveness does not only take away guilt, but breaks the power of sin. But surely the faintest dawn of salvation brings a new life which has affinities for all righteousness and every form of goodness, and brings the forgiven man under the influence of new motives, drawn from his blessed new experience of the ‘mercies of God,’ and strongly impelling him to that grateful, happy yielding of himself as a living sacrifice, from which whatsoever things are lovely and of good report are sure to spring, as naturally as rare exotics will, even in our northern cold, when the right temperature is maintained in the conservatory. The initial salvation sets us in new relations with God; it puts into us a new life, infantile and needing much care in its feebleness, no doubt, but still capable of growth to power and maturity, and even in infancy like the new-born Hercules, able to strangle the serpents. The initial salvation turns us in a new direction, changes our estimate of things to be pursued and avoided, gives new standards, new aims, new desires, new power to reach these aims, to satisfy these desires. ‘If any man be in Christ’ - even if he has but this moment entered, and has gone but a step or two in - ‘he is a new creature; old things are passed away, all things have become new.’ Simultaneous with the rapturous new assurance that God loves and forgives, come the inclination towards, and possibility of, a new life of holiness. It is for the most part an undeveloped possibility, and will need much careful tending, and much fencing off of infantile diseases, and much discipline, before it comes to a ‘perfect man’ after the pattern of Jesus; but the life is there, and, with fair play, will come to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. ‘Salvation’ never enters alone, but ever is attended by a train of fair virgins.

Now, from this thought of the primacy of salvation and the subordinate place of its certain accompaniments, important practical results follow. One of these is what we Christians need to have perpetually recalled to our minds, namely, that the way to increase our possession of the accompaniments is to increase our possession of the central blessing which they accompany, and therefore that the true course for us to pursue, if we would live that. holy life which accompanies salvation, is to seek to increase, first, our possession of those primary experiences that constitute salvation the sense of the divine favour, the consciousness of the forgiving and reconciling love of God, and to strive to increase that faith, by which a fuller tide of salvation will flow into our more widely opened hearts. Begin with that with which God begins; seek to have more of the divine salvation; that is the best way to get more of the graces that accompany it. Welcome the entrance of the queen, and her train of attendants, in all the variety of their sweet loveliness and feminine graces, will follow her. ‘The things that accompany salvation’ are best secured by making sure, and increasing our conscious possession of, the salvation which they accompany. To aim at possessing the graces of character which are the results of conscious enjoyment of salvation, without that enjoyment, is like the folly that would begin building a house at the rooftree. Such graces may be partially produced without ‘salvation,’ but they are but like artificial flowers in comparison with the sweet children of the dew and sun, and have no fragrance and no life.

But another needful lesson is that the best test and evidence of our being saved, men and women, is our manifesting in our lives these certain attendants on salvation. We should be very sceptical of the genuineness of any profession of being ‘saved,’ whether made by ourselves or by others, which is not manifestly accompanied by these, its inevitable consequences and attendants. The pure heart, the clean hands, the truth-speaking tongue, the loving disposition, the integrity in business, the control of one’s own dispositions and tempers and tastes and appetites, and all these other fair traits of character which are the constituents of a holy life, the manifold rays which melt into the one white light of holiness - these things are the only tokens for the world, and the principal tests for myself, of the reality of my salvation. They are not the only tests for us. Thank God, Christian men do not need to take only the indirect method of determining the genuineness of their faith and love by examining their outward lives. They can say, ‘I have felt, I know and Thou knowest, that I love Thee.’ As to others, our only way of knowing whether the watch is going, is to note whether the hands are travelling round the dial, but for ourselves, we may have direct consciousness of our emotions, being, as it were, inside the watch ease and aware of its working. Yet, since we can hoodwink ourselves about our inward state, and inspection of ourselves is always difficult, and its results apt to be biased by what we wish to find within, we have all much need to check our judgments of ourselves, especially in regard to our faith and love, which are the conditions of our possessing salvation, by the test of our actions, which we are less liable to misconstrue, and which will often tell us unwelcome, but wholesome truth.

We shall be wise if we habitually test our Christian emotion by our conduct in the rough road of daily life, and if we gravely suspect the depth and genuineness of all feeling, however sweet and lofty it seems, which does not come out into action. If our Christian experience is worth anything, it will drive the wheels of self-sacrificing duty. It takes tons of pitchblende to make a drachm of radium, and it needs much experience of the possession of salvation, and many precious and secret inward emotions in order to produce the life of self-sacrifice which is the ultimate test of the worth of our religion. If these certain accompaniments are wanting, or are sparse and lacking in radiance in our lives, it is high time that we asked ourselves very seriously what the worth to us is of a salvation that does not produce in us ‘the things that accompany salvation.’

But the text suggests another thought to which we may now turn. It is that where these accompaniments of initial salvation are present, further salvation will follow. The whole of the context, including my text itself, goes upon the principle that whilst a holy life, or, to put it into other words, ‘good works,’ is, or are, the accompaniments of the initial salvation, they are the causes of a fuller salvation. For look what follows, and look what preceded our text. ‘The earth which drinketh in the rain’ - that is step number one and that drinking in of the rain is the initial act of faith which opens thirstily for the entrance of the initial salvation. Then follows - ‘and bringeth forth herbs’ - that is the second step, and corresponds to the holy life of which I have been speaking; and finally comes ‘receiveth a blessing from God,’ which corresponds to a fuller salvation. After the text we read: ‘God is not unrighteous to forget your work of faith and labour of love’ which implies a promise of rich reward. That is to say, if we have these accompaniments, and do our very best to make them conspicuous and continuous and more thoroughly the mainsprings of our actions, then we shall receive a fuller salvation, just because we have thus sought to appropriate and re develop the consequences in our conduct of the partial salvation with which we were started at first. Salvation is a great word which in Scripture is presented in many aspects. Sometimes it is spoken of as a thing in the past experience of the Christian; sometimes it is spoken of as a thing which he is progressively realising throughout his life: ‘The Lord added to the Church daily such as were being saved’; sometimes it is spoken of as an experience which is reserved for the future, ‘receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls,’ in that life beyond.

Now, this experience or possession, call it which you like, or state of spirit and heart, which has its roots in the past, and is being developed all through the Christian life, and is to be perfected in the future world, has for one chief cause of its progressive increase in our own consciousness, a holy life. And if we, as good ground, are trying ‘to bring forth herbs meet for Him by whom it is dressed,’ we shall be like the earth softened by the rain, and smiling with harvest, on which God smiles down in the sunshine of His approval, and which He visits with His benediction. We shall possess a fuller salvation. A firmer grasp of the great truths which bring salvation when received, and of all their consequences of peace and joy, and spiritual elevation and calm, a closer union with Jesus, a larger endowment of the Spirit, will ‘follow our faithful attempts to ‘perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord,’ and so to possess, and to present, more of ‘the things that accompany salvation.’ Good works are a cause of a fuller salvation.

The most fruitful Christians need to be warned against possible barrenness and apostasy.

‘We are persuaded better things of you, beloved’ - but yet, though persuaded, the writer felt that he must ‘thus speak.’ For we never get beyond the risk of fruitlessness. We never get beyond the need of effort to resist the tendencies that draw us away. We never get beyond the need of warnings. It is always safe for us to look at the field that is bristling ‘with briars and thorns, and is nigh unto cursing.’ Therefore the warning note is sounded, and it is sounded, thank God! in order that what it points to as possible, may never be actual for any of us.

We all need warning, but those of us who, like myself, are set to give it sometimes, have to remember that it loses all its force unless it is manifestly the warning of love. ‘Beloved I persuaded,’ as we are, ‘of better things of you,’ it yet is our solemn duty thus to speak, that thus it may never be with any of you. And it is the less likely to be the case with any of us that we shall bear but ‘thorns and briars,’ the more we remember that it is possible for us all, and will be possible until the very end.

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

6:9-12 Having confronted his readers with a stern warning (6:4-8), the author now softens that warning by greeting them as dear friends, expressing confidence in them, and giving them further encouragement.

6:9 We are confident: Skilled speakers and writers express confidence in those they address to motivate them (cp. Rom 15:14). • The author is confident that his hearers’ lives give evidence of a true relationship with God, including salvation. In the New Testament, salvation primarily refers to Christ’s work on the cross (Heb 5:9-10; see also study note on 2:3); Hebrews places emphasis on the consummation of salvation at the end of the age (9:28).

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

Heb 6:9. Πεπείσμεθα—ἀγαπητοὶ, we are persuaded—beloved) 1Co 13:7. In this one place he calls them beloved, namely, for the sake of exhortation. For Paul often gives exhortations without this title, but he never uses it except for the purpose of exhortation. So in the epistle to the Romans, in like manner once, viz. ch. Heb 12:19, but oftener to the Corinthians and Philippians.—δὲ, but) A remarkable Epitherapia[41] and softening of what might have appeared harsh.—περὶ ὑμῶν, of you) An antithesis, in the hypothesis, to those, who are stigmatized in the thesis, Heb 6:6-8.—τὰ κρείσσονα, better things) more consistent with godliness, Heb 6:10.—ἐχόμενα σωτηρίας, which [accompany] are near to salvation) An admirable expression. GOD, conferring upon us salvation, ἔχει, holds us: we, leaning upon Him by faith, are held, ἐχόμεθα; in which way we say ἜΧΕΣΘΑΙ ἈΓΚΎΡΑς, to hold one’s self resting on the anchor: comp. Heb 6:19. Salvation itself will retain [hold safe] good men.

[41] See App. An after mitigation of what has been said.

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

Heb_6:9. Softening of the foregoing warning representation by attestation of the confidence, that this description will not be applicable to the readers.

Πεπείσμεθα δὲ περὶ ὑμῶν] But we are convinced in regard to you. Comp. Rom_15:14.

πεπείσμεθα] stronger than πεποίθαμεν.

περὶ ὑμῶν] has the emphasis. It is therefore already placed here, not first after σωτηρίας.

The appellation ἀγαπητοί only here in the epistle. Schlichting: Apposite eos sic vocat, ne putarent, eum aliquo ipsorum odio laborare, sed ut scirent, eum amore Christiano erga ipsos flagrare, qui amor facit, ut semper meliora ominemur iis, quos amamus, et, si quid severius dicimus, animo corrigendi non nocendi cupido dicamus.

τὰ κρείσσονα] of that which is better. This may refer to the subjective side, but it may also refer to the objective side of the foregoing comparison. In the first case the sense is: that your condition is a better one, than that you should be compared to a land bringing forth thorns and thistles; in the latter case: that your fate will be a better one than curse and perdition. On account of the plural τὰ κρείσσονα we shall do best to combine both factors together, as, indeed, the last is but the consequence of the first. When, however, Hofmann thinks that τὰ κρείσσονα does not at all point to the foregoing comparison, but stands by itself without any reference, in that it denotes only the good in opposition to the bad, this is not only opposed to the context, but also grammatically false, since the comparative is never placed for the positive. See Winer, Gramm., 7 Aufl. p. 227 f.

καὶ ἐχόμενα σωτηρίας] and of that which stands in contact with salvation, i.e. that you will attain to salvation. ἐχόμενον, with the genitive, denotes that which is closely joined to an object, that which is either outwardly (logically or temporally) or inwardly bound up with it. Instances in Bleek, II. 2, p. 220 ff.

εἰ καὶ οὕτως λαλοῦμεν] Chrysostom: βέλτιον γὰρ ὑμᾶς τοῖς ῥήμασι φοβῆσαι, ἵνα μὴ τοῖς πράγμασιν ἀλγήσητε.

οὕτως] sc. as was done Heb_6:4-8.

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 6:9 . πεπείσμεθα δὲ .… “But of you, beloved, we are persuaded things that are better and associated with salvation, though we thus speak.” “Alarm at the awful suggestion of his own picture (Heb 6:4-8 ) causes a rush of affection into his heart” (Davidson). He hastens to assure them that he does not consider them apostates, although he has described the apostate condition and doom. “This is very like St. Paul’s way of closing and softening anything he had said that sounded terrible and dreadful” (Pierce). Cf. 2Th 2:13 ; Eph 4:20 ; Gal 5:10 . “The form [ πεπείσμεθα ] implies that the writer had felt misgivings and overcome them” (Westcott). περὶ ὑμῶν is emphasised, and the unique (in this Epistle) ἀγαπητοί is introduced to reassure them and as the natural expression of his own reaction in their favour. τὰ κρείττονα “things better” than those he has been describing (neither limiting the reference to the condition, although necessarily it is mainly in view, nor to the doom, although the σωτηρίας indicates that it also is in view); and things indeed that so far from being κατάρας ἐγγύς are ἐχόμενα σωτηρίας closely allied to salvation. [ Cf. Hamlet’s “no relish of salvation in it.”] ἐχόμενα = next, from ἔχομαι . I hold myself to, adhere. So locally Mar 1:38 , εἰς τὰς ἐχομένας κωμοπόλεις : temporally, Act 21:26 , τῇ ἐχομένῃ ἡμερᾷ , here, as in Herodotus, Plato, and Lucian, “pertaining to,” so Herod., i. 120, τὰ τῶν ὀνειράτων ἐχόμενα . εἰ καὶ and καὶ εἰ generally retain in N.T. their distinctive meanings.

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

He mitigateth and assuageth all that sharpness, hoping better of them to whom he writeth.

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

beloved--appositely here introduced; LOVE to you prompts me in the strong warnings I have just given, not that I entertain unfavorable thoughts of you; nay, I anticipate better things of you; Greek "the things which are better"; that ye are not thorn-bearing, or nigh unto cursing, and doomed unto burning, but heirs of salvation in accordance with God's faithfulness (Heb 6:10).

we are persuaded--on good grounds; the result of proof. Compare Rom 15:14, "I myself am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye are full of goodness." A confirmation of the Pauline authorship of this Epistle.

things that accompany--Greek, "things that hold by," that is, are close unto "salvation." Things that are linked unto salvation (compare Heb 6:19). In opposition to "nigh unto cursing."

though--Greek, "if even we thus speak." "For it is better to make you afraid with words, that ye may not suffer in fact."

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

Verse 9. But, beloved] Here he softens what he had before said; having given them the most solemn warning against apostasy, he now encourages them to persevere, commends the good that is in them, and excites them to watchfulness and activity.

Better things of you] Than that you shall resemble that unfruitful ground that can be improved by no tillage, and is thrown into waste, and is fit only for the beasts of the forests to roam in.

Things that accompany salvation] τα εχομενα σωτηριας. Things that are suitable to a state of salvation; you give proofs still that you have not, whatever others have done, departed from the living God. Several of your brethren have already apostatized, and the whole nation is in a state of rebellion against God; and, in consequence of their final rejection of Christ and his Gospel, are about to be finally rejected by God. They must meet with destruction; they have the things that are suitable to, and indicative of, a state of reprobation; the wrath of God will come upon them to the uttermost; but, while they meet with destruction, you shall meet with salvation. It is worthy of remark, that no genuine Christian perished in the destruction of Jerusalem; they all, previously to the siege by Titus, escaped to Pella, in Coelosyria; and it is as remarkable that not one Jew escaped! all either fell by the sword, perished by famine, or were led into captivity! According to their own imprecation, His blood be upon us and our children, God visited and avenged the innocent blood of Christ upon them and upon their posterity; and they continue to be monuments of his displeasure to the present day.

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

9. But we are persuaded, etc. As the preceding sentences were like thunderbolts, by which readers might have been struck dead, it was needful to mitigate this severity. He therefore says now, that he did not speak in this strain, as though he entertained such an opinion of them. And doubtless whosoever wishes to do good by teaching, ought so to treat his disciples as ever to add encouragement to them rather than to diminish it, for there is nothing that can alienate us more from attending to the truth than to see that we are deemed to be past hope. The Apostle then testifies that he thus warned the Jews, because he had a good hope of them, and was anxious to lead them to salvation. We hence conclude, that not only the reprobate ought to be reproved severely and with sharp earnestness, but also the elect themselves, even those whom we deem to be the children of God.

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.

(9) Better things.—Literally, the better things; that is, the alternative spoken of in Heb_6:7. He has not written in despair, but for warning only; believing that to them belongs, not the state which is “nigh unto a curse,” but that which borders on salvation (Heb_5:9).

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

9–12. Words of encouragement and hope

9. beloved] The warm expression is introduced to shew that his stern teaching is only inspired by love.

we are persuaded] Lit., “We have been (and are) convinced of.” Comp. Rom_15:14.

better things] Lit., “the better things.” I am convinced that the better alternative holds true of you; that your condition is, and your fate will be, better than what I have described.

that accompany salvation] Rather, “akin to salvation,” the antithesis to “near a curse.” What leads to salvation is obedience (Heb_5:9).

though we thus speak] in spite of the severe words of warning which I have just used. Comp. Heb_10:39.

thus] As in Heb_6:4-8.

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

For God is not unrighteous,.... He is just and true, righteous in all his ways and works; there is no unrighteousness nor unfaithfulness in him; and this the apostle makes a reason of his strong persuasion of better things concerning the believing Hebrews; because he was well satisfied of the good work upon them, and he was assured that God was not unrighteous and unfaithful:

to forget your work: which is not to be understood of any good work done by them, for these are generally expressed in the plural number; and besides, these, if at all, are designed in the next clause; moreover, external good works, or such as appear to men to be so, are performed by hypocrites; nor can they be said to be better things, at least, not such as men are saved by: men may fall from these; and supposing them intended, the merit of works cannot be established, as is attempted from hence by the Papists; for the apostle could only consider them as fruits, not as causes of salvation; they are imperfect, and cannot justify, and therefore cannot save; they do not go before to procure salvation, but follow after, and, at most, but accompany; and though God does remember and not forget them, this is owing to his grace, and not to their merit; God's righteousness in remembering them regards not a debt of justice, but a point of faithfulness: but this is to be understood of the work of God upon them, called in Scripture a good work, and the work of faith; and is elsewhere joined, as here, with the labour of love; see Th1 1:3 and this might be called their work, not because wrought by them, but because it was wrought in them; and the grace that came along with it was exercised by them: now from hence the apostle might be persuaded of better things of them, even such as accompany salvation; since this work is a fruit of everlasting and unchangeable love, and is itself immortal, and the beginning of eternal life; and particularly faith is the effect of electing grace; shall never fail; is the means of the saints' preservation; and is connected with everlasting salvation: it follows,

and labour of love, which ye have showed toward his name; the word "labour" is omitted in the Alexandrian copy, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions: this may be understood either of love to God, the name of God being put for himself; who is to be loved for his own sake, on account of the perfections of his nature, as well as for the works of his hands; and which is to be showed for the sake of glorifying him: and this love is laborious; it sets a man to work for God; nor are any works to be regarded but what spring from love to God, and to his name; and from hence the apostle might entertain a good hope of these persons, since their love to God was an effect of God's love to them, is a part of the work of grace, and cannot be lost; all things work together for good to such as love God; and these have a crown of life promised unto them: or else it may be understood of love to the saints, as follows,

in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister; in seeking both their temporal and spiritual good; and though all men in general are to be loved, yet especially the saints, who are set apart by God, whose sins are expiated by Christ, and who are sanctified by the Spirit; and love to them being laborious, and appearing in many instances, and this shown for the Lord's sake, for his name's sake, might lead the apostle more strongly to conclude better things of them, even things of a saving nature; since charity or love to the saints is better than gifts, and is the evidence of grace, of passing from death to life, and of being the disciples of Christ; see Co1 13:1.

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

9 But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.

Ver. 9. But, beloved, we are persuaded] He would not be mistaken. Zuinglius, when he had inveighed against vice, would usually close up his discourse with Probe vir, haec nihil ad te. All this is nothing to thee, thou honest man. (Scult. Annul.) We can hardly beat the dogs out of doors but the children will cry.

Things that accompany salvation] Gr. εχομενα, i.e. κατεχομενα, that have salvation, that comprehend it, are contiguous to it, and touch upon it. Grace and glory differ not but in degree.

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.

But, beloved, we are persuaded better things - We confidently hope for better things respecting you. We trust that you are true Christians; that you will produce the proper fruits of holiness; that you will be saved. “Things that accompany salvation.” Things that pertain to salvation. The Greek phrase here means, “near to salvation,” or things that are conjoined with salvation. So Coverdale renders it, “and that salvation is nigher.” The form of expression seems to refer to what was said in Heb 6:8. The land overrun with briars was “nigh” to cursing; the things which Paul saw in them were “nigh” to salvation. From this verse it is evident:

(1)That the apostle regarded them as sincere Christians; and,

(2)That he believed they would not fall away.

Though he had stated what must be the inevitable consequence if Christians “should” apostatize, yet he says that in their case he had a firm conviction that it would not occur. There is no inconsistency in this. We may be certain that if a man should take arsenic it would kill him; and yet we may have the fullest conviction that he will not do it. Is not this verse a clear proof that Paul felt that it was certain that true Christians would never fall away and be lost? If he supposed that they might, how could he be persuaded that it would not happen to them? Why not to them as well as to others? Hence, learn that while we assure people that if they should fall away they would certainly perish we may nevertheless address them with the full persuasion that they will be saved.

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

We trust better things of you, &c. That is, though I have admonished you in this manner, I hope the best, especially knowing how charitable may of you have been to your Christian brethren. (Witham) --- Faith begins the work of salvation; good works from a principle of charity continue it; perseverance in virtue, and patience under afflictions complete it. To assert the contrary is not to derogate so much from the work of man, as from the grace of God, which is the cause and ground of all that is good in man. “Mark,” says St. Augustine, “that he to whom our Lord gave grace, hath our Lord, also his debtor. He found him a giver in the time of mercy: he that him his debtor in the time of judgment.” (In Psalm vi.) --- It is certain God, who is not unjust, will reward these good works, if you continue in the same, to the accomplishing of hope even to the end.[2] for the obtaining the happiness you hope for. Be not therefore slothful, and negligent; it is by faith, patience, and perseverance, that you will inherit God’s promises. (Witham)

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).

For preventing of the application of this discourse unto themselves, the apostle subjoins his judgment concerning these Hebrews in this verse, and his reason for it in the next.

But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you; although we have spoken of the attainments, states, and ends of apostates, we reflect not on you by it; but, or notwithstanding, we are persuaded; which word imports not a simple conjecture, for he had the gift of discerning of spirits, and the Holy Ghost, who indites it, did very well know them, so as he was confident of their good state and condition in Christianity, and the Spirit testified so of them by the Epistles of the other apostles directed to them; they were well assured of this, and certain, not only because they were such whom he dearly loved, as if it were only a good or charitable opinion in him, but because of their relation to him as true Christians, and members of the one body of Christ; and so they were very dear to him, whatever they might fear, because of what he wrote before of apostates, for they had better things in them than enlightenings, &c. which he said were in apostates before, Heb 6:4,5, even the saving work of the Spirit on their souls, not by giving them light only, or raising their affections, but by giving them a new eye of understanding, as well as new light, and with it a renewed heart; Christ having by the exceeding greatness of his power made them new creatures, as well as professing Christians; their minds, wills, and affections being all changed, and made truly spiritual by the Spirit of Christ; and which they manifest by the exercise of real graces, and that their light, state, and end is better, more excellent, and of another kind, than that of apostates, evinced Heb 6:10.

And things that accompany salvation; such things as have salvation in them, even the spiritual mind, which hath eternal life in the root of it, Rom 8:6,10,11,16,17. That Divine nature, which the apostle saith was in the same persons, 1Pe 1:1-5; 2Pe 1:1-4; which shows the state of their spirits to be a state of grace, which had salvation in it, secured by promises to it, so as they are inseparable, and their union not to be dissolved.

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

9. But—Passing to commendation and encouragement. At this point commences a gradual return, and, we might say, cheering ascent to Melchizedek, (Heb_6:20,) from whom we abruptly parted at Heb_5:10. You is here emphatic. Though there is a class of apostates, (as Heb_6:4-8,) you are not embraced within it.

Better things—Rather, the better of the two things contrasted in Heb_6:7-8; namely, the perseverers and the apostates.

Thus speak—In terms of almost contempt, in Heb_5:1 to Heb_6:2, and in terrible warnings, in Heb_6:3-8. This rebuke and this warning are not the result of malign feeling, but of solicitude for those I love, and earnest hope that they will persevere to the end. But this is no assurance that others are not apostates, nor an infallible assurance that Paul’s readers will not become so.

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

But, beloved, we are persuaded, etc. Here, as in Heb_4:14, warning is succeeded by words of encouragement and hope. The reason for not only a hope, but even a persuasion, that God will keep them from apostasy, is given in the following verse.

Vers. 9-20. Another exhortation to steadfastness.

Each stage in the argument of the Epistle is relieved by a hortatory passage intended to confirm and cheer the Hebrews in their Christian faith. Indeed, the one duty upon Which the whole book lays stress is that of believing steadfastness.

I THE EXHORTATION. It assumes various forms.

1. Be not sluggish. " (Ver. 12) The Hebrews, in the perplexity of their situation by reason of the temptations of Judaism, had begun to sink into spiritual listlessness. We, too, are extremely prone to carry our Christian profession without earnestness, and to do our Christian work without energy.

2. Show the same diligence. " (Ver. 11) The Hebrews had bestirred themselves in bestowing sympathy and succor upon their afflicted brethren, and the apostle longs to see them equally energetic in other departments of Christian duty. Success in spiritual life, as in any other sphere, can only be attained in connec tion with diligence.

3. Seek the full assurance of hope. " (Ver. 11) They must not waver between Christianity and Judaism, but cherish an unfaltering persuasion of the reality of gospel blessings, notwithstanding that the full fruition of these is reserved for the future life.

II SOME ENCOURAGEMENTS. In this paragraph the apostle does not prolong the terrific strain of the preceding verses. To continue it longer would have but depressed the hearts of his readers, and defeated his own benignant purpose towards them. So, after we have, as it were, trodden (vers. 4-8) upon the hot lava of a volcano, we now enter (ver. 9) upon a smiling and beautiful landscape, all carpeted with green and blossoming with flowers. "A bruised reed shall he not break," expresses the spirit of the passage now before us. We have here a variety of encouragements.

1. The fruit which their faith had borne already. (Vers. 9, 10) Brotherly love is a principal trait of the Christian character; and the Hebrews had been kind to their afflicted fellow-believers, for Jesus" sake. God had not forgotten their liberality; and to the apostle it had seemed as an evidence of the reality of their conversion. The spiritual attainments which a believer has already reached should encourage him to perseverance.

2. The example of their sainted ancestors. (Ver. 12) Imitation occupies a principal place in our life, and is an important factor in the development of character. It wields immense power in the domain of morals and religion. So, the Bible is very largely a Book of biographies; and these are given us to incite us to follow the footsteps of the good and true. We, as well as these Hebrew converts, should be "imitators" of the peerage of Old Testament heroes (Hebrews 11). And we of this century should imitate, besides, the great soul-stars of Christendom, the fathers of our own Church, the sainted men of our town, the departed of our own sanctuary, and of our own fireside.

3. God"s faithfulness to his word and oath. (Vers. 13-18) Having singled out particularly the steadfastness of Abraham, and quoted God"s oath to, (Gen_22:16-18) the author shows that this oath is still a strong encouragement to Abraham"s children who have embraced Christianity. For the Divine promise and oath to Abraham were spiritual rather than temporal; they have been continued to us; and they have been confirmed by the cross of Christ, and sealed by his resurrection and ascension. (2Co_1:20)

4. The greatness of the Christian"s hope. (Vers. 19, 20) The Jewish temple and the institutions of the theocracy were very soon to pass away forever; so that it was unreasonable to place reliance upon them. The one sure anchorage of spiritual hope is in that heavenly sanctuary which Jesus has entered for us as our everlasting High Priest.

Vers. 9-12Confident expectation.

I THE PERSUASION AND PROOF OF THEIR HOPEFUL CONDITION. After the solemn and alarming appeals to their conscience, the inspired writer addresses them with brotherly affection, and, having styled them "beloved," expresses his persuasion that there was in them things that accompanied salvation. They gave clear evidence that they were in Christ, and therefore far from that state of profane contempt which exposed to such fearful retribution. This persuasion was founded upon their persevering love to believers; for they had ministered to them, and continued to express their kindness to the poor of the household of faith. They rendered gracious service to distressed Christians who, in times of persecution and amid the pressure of poverty, needed their help, which was doubtless tendered with sympathy and benignity of manner. Hereafter they would hear the voice of their Lord saying unto them, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto me." Such conduct showed faith, courage, and kindness, and redounded to the honor of the Name of God, and glorified him in the presence of the children of men. Mutual love among Christians was noticed as a peculiarity and distinction by Lucian and the Emperor Julian. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another". (Joh_13:35) In the spirit of Christ, who would not "break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax," the author of the Epistle notices the signs of their spiritual life, and instructs them to look forward to the time when they who cast their bread on the waters shall find it after many days; for God is not only not unrighteous to forget, but delighted to honor and recompense all service rendered to his people and for the glory of his Name.

II THE EARNEST EXHORTATION TO THE REALIZATION OF THE PRIVILEGE OF CHRISTIAN HOPE. The scope of the appeal reminds us of the words of Paul, who said that he had not attained; but, leaving the things that were behind, he was pressing forward to those that were before. The ideal Christian, in the parable of our Lord, represents unbroken progress from blade to ear, and from the ear to full corn in the ear. Believers are to seek the full assurance of hope, which has a mighty and purifying power; for "we are saved by hope;" and if it is like a ship with outspread sails under a vigorous breeze, the vessel moves with speed to the desired haven. To enjoy this hope there must be a resistance to that torpor and drowsiness which lead us to say, "A little more sleep, a little more slumber, and a little more folding of the hands to sleep." The voice of inspiration is, "Be vigilant;" "Let us not sleep, as do others;" "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise, and Christ shall give thee light." Encouragement is supplied to perseverance from the success which others have attained. "The spirits of just men made perfect" are already reaping the blessed results of their earnest pursuit and unwearied diligence. Faith prompted them to begin and continue the career, and gave them patience to endure the contrast between present trial and future glory. To stimulate in this course, believers are urged to imitate their example, that they may share in the blessedness which they now enjoy. B.

Vers. 9-12. Great attention needed to maintain the Christian"s hope.

I THE WRITER"S TONE OF AFFECTIONATE SOLICITUDE. He who has twice addressed his readers as brethren, now calls them beloved. His affection is hitherto implied; now it needs for a moment to be asserted; and the brotherhood must also be borne in mind, though not asserted. The readers of the Epistle might ask, "Why does this man lecture us so, calling us nwyroi , and exhibiting to us such dreadful possibilities of disaster?" The answer is that he does it all in true brotherly affection. The word pointing to safety and completeness must be spoken in time. Faithful are the wounds of a friend.

II HIS WORDS OF HOPE AND CONFIDENCE. These people are in a state by no means satisfactory so far as Christian hope and aspiration are concerned, lingering among the beginnings instead of growing in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. But such people ought always to be approached in a conciliatory and encouraging spirit. The writer feels he has good ground for saying that the doom of the land bringing forth thorns and briers will not be theirs, He can see in them better things things that belong to safety, not to destruction. Mark how the spirit of Christianity is never a fault-finding spirit. This has to be noticed all the more because the Spirit of God has to find so many faults in men in the Christian, as a rule, more than others. But wherever there is good it is recognized and appreciated. Thus Paul, who had. so many hard things to say to the Church at Corinth, begins by thanking God that this same Church came behind in no gift. The bright, the creditable, the hopeful side must always be looked at. Then rebukes and warnings from an evidently pure motive will come with increased force. Notice, too, the ground for this hope. These people are genuine enough so far as the spirit of practical beneficence is concerned. There is love in their hearts towards God and Christian people. They have ministered, not without toil, to the wants of the saints; nor are they weary in well-doing, for they are ministering still. How could a Christian brother speak to any such save in a large-hearted spirit of hope?

III THE NEED OF A DILIGENT REGARD TO THE CHRISTIAN"S DESTINY. We may minister to saints and yet not be in full sympathy with them. He who ministers to the saints does a good thing as far as he goes; but the pity is that very often he is ministering to those who have a far brighter hope than any he has. There are many loving-hearted, generous people in the world who are not Christians, who do not profess to know the Christian"s repentance, the Christian"s faith, the Christian"s hope; and in the particular case here dealt with there is the curious contradiction of a Christian life existing as far as beneficence is concerned, but paralyzed as it were in the element of hope. Now, here is one sign of a normal, healthy Christian life, namely, that it is moving under the full assurance of hope. We should be looking forward, with a constant certainty of feeling, to the glories, the blessedness, and the perfection which await us. And this hope is only to come by activity of heart according to the will of God. If there is interest in Divine truth, increasing spiritual-mindedness, more power to discriminate between the temporal and eternal, the seen and the unseen, the outward man and the inward man, then hope will grow. A reasonably hopeful spirit is the sure result of fidelity, prayerfulness, insight into the purpose of the work of Christ; and the writer of this Epistle evidently felt that to be without this special Christian hopefulness was to be in a position, not only of loss and suffering, but even of peril unspeakable. Y.

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

But, beloved - in this one place he calls them so. he never uses this appellation, but in exhorting. We are persuaded of you things that accompany salvation - We are persuaded you are now saved from your sins; and that ye have that faith, love, and holiness, which lead to final salvation. Though we thus speak - To warn you, lest you should fall from your present steadfastness.

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.

Progress in sanctification:

v. 9. But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.

v. 10. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which ye have showed toward His name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister

v. 11. And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end;

v. 12. that ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Here the inspired author expressly states that he does not mean to imply that any of his readers are in the condition of self-hardening. He merely wishes to make his warning against denial of the faith very impressive, urging at the same time all progress in sanctification: But we are convinced concerning you, beloved, of things that are better and conducive to salvation, even if we speak thus. The very fact that he addresses his readers as "beloved" shows that he does not apply the picture which he has just drawn to them in their present condition. The inspired author is fully persuaded and convinced of the fact that a lot altogether unlike the one just described by him and immeasurably better will be theirs, one associated with, and tending toward, their soul’s salvation, allied with the everlasting bliss of heaven.

The reason why any misgivings which the author may have had have entirely disappeared, he now states: For God is not unjust to forget your work and the love which you have shown to His name, in that you have ministered to the saints and are ministering. The writer cannot look into the hearts of his readers and thus state his convictions, but he can infer the presence of faith in the hearts from the existence of truly good works. They had not grieved the Holy Spirit of God to the extent of driving Him from their hearts; there was still abundant evidence of the new spiritual life as begun by faith. Good works were undeniably in evidence, good works of love whereby they served the saints, their brethren in the faith. This condition, as a matter of fact, was known to God. And of injustice there is nothing in God, it is not even to be thought of. He is faithful, He is just, He does not overlook or forget that the entire life of the Jewish Christians who are here addressed is one long chain of evidence proving the existence of faith in their hearts, of love for the proper hallowing of His name.

It is not enough, however, that this much may be said in praise of the readers, but they must make progress as well: But we expect every one of you to show the same zeal toward the fulfillment of the hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitators of those who, through faith and patience, are now inheritors of the promise. The sacred writer still had some misgivings with regard to the patient perseverance of his readers, for he emphasizes that he desires and earnestly expects every individual in their midst to bestir himself. Instead of the lukewarmness and half-heartedness which had been shown by them on the whole, he wanted everyone to exhibit an earnest diligence and zeal, in order that they might have the full certainty of their Christian hope, a perfectness which left nothing to be desired. They must have the full certainty of conviction that the consummation of their redemption in Christ would come to pass. If they should lack this certainty for any length of time, the danger was that they would become sluggish, sleepy in their Christian life and thus also in their faith, that they would be wanting in the energy and cheerful confidence which God expects from His Christians. Instead of yielding to such an influence, therefore, they should take such people as an example, become imitators of such as had by faith and endurance to the end obtained the promised inheritance. The success of those whose perseverance they had witnessed was to be a constant spur to their faith. It means, of course, a daily renewal of faith, a patient waiting for the final revelation of the glory of the Lord. What the believers of old have attained to, what the Christians since the coming of Christ in the flesh have enjoyed as the fruit and reward of their faith, that we also may and should expect with firm confidence; for the promises of God are sure, as the writer shows in the next paragraph.

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

Observe here, 1. The holy widom of our apostle, in mollifying the severity of the foregoing commination and prediction; and the good hope, and firm persuasion he had of the Hebrews’ perseverance in grace unto salvation, notwithstanding all the cautions and warnings he gave them of apostasy and apostates: I am persuaded better things of you, though I thus speak. We may represent the ugly and filthy face of sin to our best friends, to the end that they may hate it, and, as occasion requires, publicity testify that confidence to themselves; We are persuaded better things of you.

Observe, 2. The ground of this confidence declared, and that is two fold:

1. The graces of God’s Spirit found operative to them; their faith in Christ, and love to all his members; it was a working faith, and laborious love that was found with them, they have administered to the saints, and do minister. Behold the nature of Christian love, it is an immortal fire, ever burning, never dying.

2. Another ground of this persuasion, was the knowledge of God’s faithfulness in remembering and rewarding this their labour of love: God is not unrighteous to forget your work, and labour of love; that is, God is righteous, and will certainly remember and reward your faith, your charity, and good works; for he has promised so to do, and he is faithful that has promised.

Learn hence, 1. That faith, if it be a living faith, will be a working faith. Obedience is the fruit of faith, and we ought to look on obedience as our work.

Learn, 2. That it is the will and pleasure of God, that many of the saints and servants in this world be in such a condition, wherein they stand in need of being ministered unto.

Learn, 3. That the best evidence we can have of the sincerity of our love, is its readiness to minister to the saints in all distresses.

Learn, 4. That both the labour of our sufferings, and the labour of our services shall be remembered, and rewarded by a righteous God: God is not unrighteous to forget your work, and labour of love, in that ye have ministerd to the saints, and do minister.

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

9–12. We are persuaded better things of. That you will not bear thorns and briers.

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.

we are convinced

Even though the author uses the plural pronoun "we," he is most likely referring only to himself. AT: "I am convinced" or "I am certain" (See: Pronouns)

about better things concerning you

This means they are doing better than those who have rejected God, disobeyed him, and now can no longer repent so that God will forgive them (See: Hebrews 6:4-6). AT: "that you are doing better things than what I have mentioned"

things that concern salvation

The abstract noun "salvation" can be stated as a verb. AT: "things that concern God saving you" (See: Abstract Nouns)

For God is not so unjust that he would forget

This double negative can mean that God in his justice will remember what good things his people have done. AT: "For God is just and therefore will certainly remember" (See: Double Negatives)

for his name

God's "name" is a metonym that stands for God himself. AT: "for him" (See: Metonymy)

translationWords

beloved

save

just

love

servant

believe

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

9–12. WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT AND HOPE

9. Πεπείσμεθα. Lit., “We have been (and are) convinced of.” Comp. Rom 15:14.

ἀγαπητοί. The warm expression is introduced to shew that his stern teaching is only inspired by love. This word and ἀδελφοί are often introduced to temper the severity of the sterner passages in the Epistles.

τὰ κρείσσονα. Lit., “the better things.” I am convinced that the better alternative holds true of you; that your condition is, and your fate will be, better than what I have described.

ἐχόμενα σωτηρίας. “Akin to salvation,” the antithesis to “near a curse.” What leads to salvation is obedience (Heb 5:9).

εἰ καὶ οὕτως λαλοῦμεν. In spite of the severe words of warning which I have just used. Comp. Heb 10:39.

οὕτως. As in Heb 6:4-8.

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.

9-20.] Encouragement to perseverance: and first (9-12), from God’s faithfulness: see summary at ch. 5:11. καθαψάμενος τοίνυν αὐτῶν ἱκανῶς κ. φοβήσας κ. πλῆξας, θεραπεύει πάλιν, ὥστε μὴ πλέον καταβαλεῖν, κ. ὑπτίους ἐργάσασθαι· τὸν γὰρ νωθρὸν ὁ πλήττων νωθρότερον ἐργάζεται. οὔτε οὖν πάντῃ κολακεύει ὥστε μὴ ἐπᾶραι, οὔτε πάντῃ πλήττει, ὥστε μὴ ὑπτιωτέρους ποιῆσαι· ἀλλʼ ὀλίγον ἐμβαλὼν τὸ πληκτικόν, πολὺ τὸ θεραπευτικὸν προσφέρει διὰ τῶν ἐπαγομένων, ὥστε ὃ βούλεται κατορθῶσαι. Chrys.

9.] But we are persuaded (stronger than πεποίθαμεν, which would express only a subjective confidence, whereas πεπείσμεθα gives the result of actual conviction by proof. Notice the almost verbal correspondence of ref. Rom.) concerning you, beloved (“Apposite eos sic vocat (see reff.) ne putarent eum aliquo ipsorum odio laborare, sed ut scirent eum amore Christiano erga ipsos flagrare: quiamor facit ut semper meliora ominemur iis quos amamus, et si quid severius dicimus, animo corrigendi, non nocendi cupido, dicamus.” Schlichting), the things which are better (the better course as regards your moral state: or, the better fate, as regards your ultimate end. So Chrys., drawing the same distinction, ἤτοι περὶ πολιτείας (ὅτι οὐκ ἐστὲ ὑμεῖς τοιοῦτοι ἀκανθώδεις, added by Thl.) ἢ περὶ ἀντιδόσεως (ὅτι οὐκ ἐστὲ κατάρας ἐγγύς, οὔτε πρὸς καῦσιν, ἀλλά τις ἄλλη ἀντιμισθία ὑμῖν ἀπόκειται, added by Thl.) ταῦτά φησιν The latter is most probably the reference, seeing that what follows rests on God’s ultimate faithfulness and justice in the day of retribution. The former is of course involved in it, as conditioning it.

The art. is used, because it is not merely ‘better things,’ of some sort, that he is persuaded, but, of two opposite courses, that one which is the more excellent), and (things) akin to salvation (the formula ἔχεσθαί τινος, ‘to be next to,’ ‘bordering on,’ has occasioned the participle ἐχόμενος to be used in the sense of akin to, partaking of the nature of. This use is frequent in Herodotus, e. g. v. 49, τοῖσι οὔτε χρυσοῦ ἐχόμενόν ἐστιν οὐδὲν οὔτε ἀργύρου: i. 120, τὰ τῶν ὀνειράτων ἐχόμενα: cf. also ii. 77; iii. 25, 66; viii. 142. So that Augustine’s, Erasmus’s, and Beza’s rendering, “saluti adhærentia,” is better than vulg., “viciniora saluti,” or D-lat., “proximiora saluti.” There may certainly be a reminiscence, in the expression, of κατάρας ἐγγύς above, as Schlichting, “saluti non maledictioni vicina:” but it seems hardly probable, for as Bleek remarks, had this been meant, the Writer would, considering his love for παρονομασία, have used some more cognate expression. On σωτηρία, in the highest sense, eternal salvation, see note, ch. 1:14), if even we do thus speak (εἰ καί differs from καὶ εἰ, in that the force of the εἰ extends over the whole of the addition or climax expressed by the καί, ‘if even:’ whereas in καὶ εἰ, the hypothesis itself is included in the climax, ‘even if.’ See Hartung, Partikellehre i. 139 f. The present enlarges the speaking, so that it refers not merely to what has just been said, but to a habit of thus speaking: βέλτιον γὰρ ὑμᾶς ῥήμασι φοβῆσαι, ἵνα μὴ τοῖς πράγμασιν ἀλγήσητε. Chrys.).

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

But the writer refuses to believe that his readers will incur such a fate. Beloved [αγαπητοι] . Only here in the epistle. It often suggests an argument. See 1Co 10:14; 1Co 14:58; 2Co 7:1.

We are persuaded [πεπεισμεθα] . We are firmly convinced. The verb indicates a past hesitation overcome.

Better things [τα κρεισσονα] . The article gives a collective force, the better state of things, the going on unto perfection (ver. 1). For kreissona better, see on ch. Heb 1:4.

That accompany salvation [εχομενα σωτηριας] . Ecesqai with a genitive is a common Greek idiom meaning to hold one's self to a person or thing; hence to be closely joined to it. So in a local sense, Mr 1:38; in a temporal sense, Luk 13:33, next. He is persuaded that they will give heed to all things which attend the work of salvation and will enjoy all that attaches to a saved condition.

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

9. πεπείσμεθα 8¢...cernpias] But we are persuaded of you, beloved.... The order of the words is most significant. First comes πεπείσμεθα, which suggesta a past conflict of feeling issuing in a settled judgment. Then follows the pronoun (περὶ ὑμῶν), which at onco soparates tho Hobrows from the apostates who had been just described. Thon a unique titlo of deep affection.

πεπείσμεθα) Compare Rom. xv. implies that the writer had felt misgivings and had overcome them. Chrysostom notices both the word and the ζόμεθα, οὐδὲ προσδοκῶμεν, οὐδὲ ἔλπίζοdavrot τοῦτο μόνον φησὶν ἀλλὰ περὶ πάντων, od γὰρ εἶπε πέπεισμαι ἀλλὰ πεπείσμεθα.

ἀγαπητοί] Vulg. dilectissimé (d carissimi), The word occurs nowhere else in the Epistle. The use of it in this connexion emphasises the affeotion which the stern language of the former paragraphs might scem to have obscured or uogatived. The title goncrally suggests an argumont: 1 Oor. x. 14; xv. 58; 2 Cor. vii. 1; xii. 19. Compare 1 John ii. 7 note.

τὰ κρείσσονα καὶ ¢y. ger.) Thore are but two issues: a better and a worse. The comparative is not used for the positive, but plainly suggests the contrast (cf. c. vii. 7; xi. 40). For the word (κρείσσονα), which is characteristic of the Epistle, sov i. 4 note.

The exact meaning of ἐχόμενα σω-

τηρίας (Vulg. viciniora(d prozimiora. Aug. adv. Cres. iii. 74 harentia] saluli) is somewhat uncertain. The phraso is parallel with and yet distinct from (κατάρας) ἐγγύς (v. 8. The construction ἔχεσθαί τινος is used of local coutiguity (Mk. i. 38), and also of temporal connexion (Lk. xiii. 33; Acts xx. here mean either ‘which issue in salvation as immediately following,’ or ‘which issue from salvution as immediately preceding.’ Probably there is no oxact dofinition of the rolation : which accompany salcation, which aro closcly connected with it, and so, in somo sense, bring it with thom. Oomp. Luc. Hermog. 69 Aridot οὐ μικρᾶς ἐχόμενα.

εἰ καί] though, Vulg. tametsi (ἃ © Luko xi. 8; xviii. 4; 2 Cor. xii 11; vii. 8; 1 Pot. iii. 14.

The circumstance thus introduced may be either distinctly acknowledged or simply admitted for the sake of argument. In each case the καί emphasises the word which it procedes by suggesting some limit which is over-passed, Oomp. Winer, p. 544.

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.