#18 The Discipline of God

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(Hebrews 12:5-13 NIV) And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, {6} because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son." {7} Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? {8} If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. {9} Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! {10} Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. {11} No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. {12} Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. {13} "Make level paths for your feet," so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

Can you possibly explain to me why the Everlasting Logos chose to enter life on Planet Earth by a nine-month gestational period that ended in a bloody, dirty birth event — that left him screaming and crying? Can you tell me why he would subject himself to obeying ordinary mortals such as Joseph and Mary? Can you make sense of the time he spent working in a carpenter shop shaving boards, hammering nails, and smashing his fingers? And why in the world did he wait until he was more than 30 to start his teaching ministry — in the company of exasperating disciples and against the opposition of powerful enemies?

Here is the biblical answer to these puzzlements of mine: "Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him" (Heb. 5:8-9).

When the text says that Jesus "learned obedience" through his human growth, frustrations, and sufferings, it doesn't mean that he was having to unlearn or be purged from a disobedient heart. It simply likens his experience to the customary training of children who need to receive instruction that teaches them obedience.

What is going on in our lives when it takes so much time and anguish to grow through frustrating puberty and adolescent bewilderment in company with parents who've forgotten what it's like and just don't seem to understand? Why is school so boring with its requirement that I take subjects that don't relate to my true interests — yet still so expensive? Why is it so hard to manage money without getting too deep in debt and frustrated? And why do company layoffs happen at the worst possible times? Can you make sense of birth defects, brain tumors, or strokes? Why is it that the harder you try to do right and honor God the more obstacles you seem to face?

Allow me to answer these questions by adapting the text I cited earlier about Jesus. Although we are children of God, we are learning obedience through events that cause us great pain and sorrow; and once that process is complete, we will know how to trust God as Jesus did and be participants with him in the sort of obedience that distinguishes only those who have eternal life.

God is doing in our lives what he did in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. He is allowing some and providing other experiences that challenge us to our very depths. Yes, there are abundant good and positive things in this world — crisp fall air and breathtaking sunsets, a mother's unselfish love and a child's unabashed joy, prosperity and family life.

But there is also pain and sorrow. They hurt us. They limit us. They dishearten us and wound us deep within our personalities. There is nothing good about these things — except for the fact that we can react to them in faith, learn to snuggle in closer to the heart of God, and sometimes know that it is all right to wait for things to be made right beyond this world.

So the challenge in all this is to see that we are no different from the Son of God in this very fundamental way. It is the common lot of all God's children. If Jesus had to learn obedience and grow in faith, we shouldn't be surprised at the same thing in our lives. So I need to get over my habit of complaining about things and people that frustrate me. I need to grow up enough to learn that praying about them doesn't typically make them go away so much as tap into a divine resource for dealing with them. It is hardship.

But it is also discipline. And it is God's way of teaching me to depend more on him and less on myself, to obey rather than to be self-willed, to learn how to be patient and humble rather than intolerant and rude. It's a process of formation over time that requires discipline and endurance.

I'm discovering that the very same adversities that cause me so much distress are often the same events that school me in the virtues that matter most to God, that the things I dread most and whine loudest about are the very ones I eventually look back on as my best teachers.

Do I want to experience the discipline of God? No, because it is painful and unpleasant to endure. But do I want the outcomes that require his discipline? Yes, for I am his son and want to give him pleasure. Discipline is the formative process by which raw talent becomes expert ability; it is the refining fire through which possibilities become realities, children become adults, sinners become saints.

It was the late Coach Tom Landry who used to say, "The job of a football coach is to make men do what they don't want to do in order to achieve what they've always wanted to be." Why, that's a task that reflects what God is doing with us!

Paul thought we would:

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God (Rom. 8:18-21).

In the meanwhile, though, we still get frustrated with what has to be endured. We still resent the laps, sprints, and drills of spiritual life.

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. "Make level paths for your feet," so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed (Heb. 12:11- 13).

Sometimes we have enough experiences to realize even in this life — not having to wait until we can look back from heaven — that a particular hardship was actually discipline, a time of incredible frustration was actually the prelude to triumph. Take the language of Psalm 119 as a case in point. This acrostic poem is an extended meditation on the instruction or Torah of Yahweh.

Do good to your servant according to your word, O LORD.
Teach me knowledge and good judgment, for I believe in your commands.
Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word.
You are good, and what you do is good; teach me your decrees. . .
It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.
The law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold (Psa. 119:65-72).

How did this writer come to his view of how precious instruction from God's mouth is? What had taught him the value of obedience to Yahweh? His faith had been forged in the fires of testing. He had been "afflicted" — and that affliction had brought him back from forbidden paths. His anguish had grabbed him by the collar and hauled a rebel back to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

How many faithful believers do I know who have come to Christ in a life crisis! Life's lies made them seek the truth. Its false-and-failed promises sent them to seek the One who is reliable. Their shame sent them to the God of grace and forgiveness.

No wonder the first steps in recovery for people who go to Alcoholics Anonymous are these:

Step One: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable.
Step Two: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Step Three: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him.

I can't count the times I have heard the equivalent of these words from people who have been in recovery from alcohol, drugs, or sexual addiction for a while: "It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn God's ways." For anyone who hasn't yet had an experience that makes those words meaningful, I can't explain them. For anyone who has, nobody needs to make the effort.

Christianity is a realistic, serious, and demanding faith. To represent it as simply good social fellowship and the challenge to live up to one's full human potential is "false advertising" — and maybe even heresy. That is why God has to teach, coach, and discipline us. Don't resent it. Be thankful. "A righteous man may have many troubles," wrote David, "but the LORD delivers him from them all" (Psa. 34:19).

The key word in this section is chastening. It is a Greek word that means "child training, instruction, discipline." A Greek boy was expected to "work out" in the gymnasium until he reached his maturity. It was a part of his preparation for adult life. The writer viewed the trials of the Christian life as spiritual discipline that could help a believer mature. Instead of trying to escape the difficulties of life, we should rather be "exercised" by them so that we might grow (Heb. 12:11).

When we are suffering, it is easy to think that God does not love us. So the writer gave proofs that chastening comes from the Father’s heart of love.

The writer to the Hebrews sets out still another reason why men should cheerfully bear affliction when it comes to them. He has urged them to bear it because the great saints of the past have borne it. He has urged them to bear it because anything they may have to bear is a little thing compared with what Jesus Christ had to bear. Now he says that they must bear hardship because it is sent as a discipline from God and no life can have any value apart from discipline.

A father always disciplines his child. It would not be a mark of love to let a son do what he likes and have nothing but an easy way; it would show that the father regarded the son as no better than an illegitimate child to whom he felt neither love nor responsibility. We submit to an earthly father's discipline which is imposed only for a short time, until we reach years of maturity, and which at best always contains an element of arbitrariness. The earthly father is he to whom we owe our bodily life; how much more should we submit to the discipline of God to whom we owe our immortal spirits and who, in his wisdom, seeks for nothing but our highest good.

There is a curious passage in Xenophon's Cyropaedia. There is an argument about whether the man who makes men laugh or makes them weep is of most use in the world. Aglaitidas says: "He that makes his friends laugh seems to me to do them much less service than he who makes them weep; and if you will look at it rightly, you, too, will find that I speak the truth. At any rate, fathers develop self-control in their sons by making them weep and teachers impress good lessons on their pupils in the same way, and laws, too, turn the citizens to justice by making them weep. But could you say that those who make us laugh either do good to our bodies or make our minds any more fitted for the management of our private business or the affairs of state?" It was the view of Aglaitidas that it was the man who exerted discipline who really did good to his fellow-men.

So, then, the writer insists that we must look on all the hardships of life as the discipline of God and as sent to work, not for our harm but for our ultimate and highest good. To prove his point he makes a quotation from Proverbs 3:11, 12. There are many ways in which a man may look at the discipline which God sends him.

(i) He may resignedly accept it. That is what the Stoics did. They held that nothing in this world happens outside the will of God; therefore, they argued, there is nothing to do but to accept it. To do anything else is simply to batter one's head against the walls of the universe. That is possibly the acceptance of supreme wisdom; but none the less it is the acceptance not of a father's love but of a father's power. It is not a willing but a defeated acceptance.

(ii) A man may accept discipline with the grim sense of getting it over as soon as possible. A certain famous Roman said: "I will let nothing interrupt my life." If a man accepts discipline like that he regards it as an infliction to be struggled through with defiance and certainly not with gratitude.

(iii) A man may accept discipline with the self-pity which leads in the end to collapse. Some people, when they are caught up in some difficult situation, give the impression that they are the only people in the world whom life ever hurt. They are lost in their self-pity.

(iv) A man may accept discipline as a punishment which he resents. It is strange that at this time the Romans saw in national and personal disasters nothing but the vengeance of the gods. Lucan wrote: "Happy were Rome indeed, and blessed citizens would she have, if the gods were as much concerned with caring for men as they are with exacting vengeance from them." Tacitus held that the disasters of the nation were proof that not men's safety but men's punishment was the interest of the gods. There are still people who regard God as vindictive. When something happens to them or to those whom they love their question is: "What did I do to deserve this?" And the question is asked in such a tone as to make it clear that they regard the whole matter as an unjust punishment from God. It never dawns upon them to ask: "What is God trying to teach me and to do with me through this experience?"

(v) So we come to the last attitude. A man may accept discipline as coming from a loving father. Jerome said a paradoxical but true thing: "The greatest anger of all is when God is no longer angry with us when we sin." He meant that the supreme punishment is when God lets us alone as unteachable. The Christian knows that "a father's hand will never cause his child a needless tear" and that everything can be utilised to make him a wiser and a better man. We shall cease from self-pity, from resentment and from rebellious complaint if we remember that there is no discipline of God which does not take its source in love and is not aimed at good.

(12:5-11) Introduction—Discipline, of God—Chastisement: God disciplines believers. He chastens, corrects, and rebukes believers. But we must always remember this: "God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man" (James 1:13). God does not cause temptation, sin, devastation, destruction, accident, sickness, death, sufferings, trials, trouble, and problems in people’s lives. These things are caused by man’s own sinful and selfish lusts and the corruptible world in which he lives, and by that arch-enemy of the spiritual world, Satan. God does not cause bad and evil in life. God loves man and loves this world. Therefore, God’s concern is not to cause problems and pain for us; His concern is to deliver us through all the trouble and pain on earth and to save us for heaven and eternity. How does God do this? By chastising us. What does chastising (paideias) mean? When we think of chastisement, we usually think of discipline and correction and it does mean this. But it also means to train and teach and instruct a person. Both meanings are included in the Biblical word chastisement (cp. A.T. Robertson. Word Pictures In The New Testament, Vol. 5, p.435).

1. First, when we face some trial and sin in life, God stirs us to stand fast and to conquer the trial or to turn away from the sin. He guides, directs, teaches, trains, and instructs us all along the way, making us stronger and stronger in life and drawing us closer and closer to Him. God does not want the trials and sins of life to defeat and engulf us; He wants them to strengthen us. He wants to use them to discipline and teach us more and more endurance, and wants to teach us to trust and depend upon Him more and more. But note this: we have to let God work in our hearts and use the trials to strengthen us. We cannot wallow around in self-pity or react against the trials and problems that attack us. We must turn to God—truly turn to God—and ask Him for help and strength and let Him help us.

An illustration is this. A small innocent baby who is crippled in an automobile accident by a drunkard is not being chastised or corrected by God. The child has done nothing for which to be chastised. The child is crippled because of a sinful man who followed the path of Satan. He is crippled because he lives in a corruptible world. God loves the child, and God will look after the child as the child grows if the child will look to God for help. God will use the child’s sufferings...

· God will teach and discipline the growing child to endure more and more, making him stronger and stronger.

· God will teach and discipline the growing child to trust and depend upon Christ more and more and to fellowship and commune with Christ more and more.

· God will use the endurance and faith of the growing child as a testimony to the love and care of God—as a testimony to the living reality and delivering power of God that can conquer all the trials and sorrows of life, even that of death.

2. Second, when we fail and cave in to the trial and sin, God lets us reap what we have sown. We bear the results of our sin, but even during sin and failure, God loves us. He loves and works with us, convicting us by His Spirit to repent. He then uses the suffering of the sin to stir us to think of Him and our failure. God takes the sufferings that are caused by trials and sins and uses them to correct and discipline us. This is the key statement, and it is what we must always remember when dealing with all the bad and evil things upon earth. God does not cause them; we cause them, and the corruptible world in which we live causes them, and the arch-enemy Satan causes them. God loves us and has nothing in mind for us except love and the very best of everything. Therefore, God takes all the bad and evil—all the suffering of bad and evil—and He uses it all to make us think about Him and our failure. He uses the suffering caused by sin and trials to correct and discipline us, to stir us to draw near Him in trust, dependence, and love, and to live like we should.

This is what chastisement is and this is why God disciplines us. This is the great subject of this passage: the great discipline of God.

(12:5-7) Discipline, Of God—Chastisement: the exhortation concerning discipline is a threefold exhortation (cp. Proverbs 3:11-12; Proverbs 13:24).

1. First, do not despise (meoligorei) discipline (Hebrews 12:5). The word means to scorn; to make little of; to treat lightly. When we are being taught, disciplined, or corrected, there is always the danger of...

Too often, we pay little attention to the discipline and correction of God: to the tug and pull of the Spirit of God, to the little consequences and sufferings of our hearts, to the little things that happen to us. As a result we continue right on in our little irresponsible behaviors and sins. The little flaws and sins get bigger and bigger until finally the roof caves in and the consequences involve so much destruction and suffering that we can no longer ignore them.

Why do we suffer so much in this life? Because of our irresponsibilities and sins—because we do not heed the discipline and correction of God when we first begin to act irresponsibly. If we heeded the discipline of God, then we could correct our small misbehavior and no big sin would happen. This would mean that much of the great sufferings in the world would never happen.

The point is this: we are not to despise the discipline of God—not to scorn it nor take and treat it lightly. We are to heed it. As we do, life will be much easier and stronger and much more triumphant and victorious.

2. Second, do not faint or give up when disciplined (Hebrews 12:5). The word "faint" (ekluou) means to give up; to lose heart; to buckle under; to lose courage; to weaken. The trials and sufferings of this world can become extremely heavy and painful—sometimes almost too much to bear.

Þ The rebuking hand of God that convicts us to repent and to correct our behavior becomes almost unbearable.

In either case, we are not to faint or give up. We are to turn totally to God in trust and dependence, asking for His help and strength. We have the glorious assurance that He will deliver us victoriously through all. He will make us stronger and make us a much greater witness for Him. God will save us and live within our hearts and lives—save us both now and eternally—save us even through death itself so that we may live with Him forever and ever in the new heavens and earth (1 Peter 3:10-13; Rev. 21:1f).

3. Third, endure the discipline of God (Hebrews 12:6-7). Note these verses closely: when God receives us as children of His, He disciplines and even scourges or spanks us. Why? Because He loves us. God chastens us because we are His sons, that is, His children. We have faults and weaknesses, and we go astray, disobeying and rebelling and acting selfishly. We often hurt and cause pain both for ourselves and for others. But God loves us and wants to stop us from hurting ourselves and from hurting others. He wants us to grow and move through life with as little pain and hurt as possible, and He wants us to become stronger and stronger within our inner person. Therefore, every time we go astray or begin to faint under trials, God corrects us.

The point is this: we are to endure the discipline of God. We are to stand fast against all trials and sufferings. We are to become soft to the guidance and urgings of the Spirit of God. We are to follow the Word of God and His Spirit, the urgings and convictions within our hearts when they are of God. God is disciplining us, teaching and correcting us because He loves us as our Father. He is disciplining us just as a loving father upon earth disciplines his child.

(12:8-11) Discipline, Of God—Chastisement: the purposes for discipline are fourfold.

1. God disciplines us to assure us that we are His children (Hebrews 12:8). If a person is not disciplined by God, then he knows something: he is not a son of God. He is an illegitimate child; he is only a person who professes to be God’s but who is not.

Þ Unless a person is taught, instructed, disciplined, and corrected by the Spirit of God, he is not a son of God.

"Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty" (2 Cor. 6:17-18).

"But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father" (Galatians 4:4-6).

As this verse says (note it carefully), God takes all who are partakers of His nature—who are children of His—and teaches, instructs, disciplines, and corrects them. God disciplines His children, and the fact that we are disciplined by Him shows and assures us that we are not illegitimate children, but true children of God.

2. God disciplines us to save us and to stir us to truly live (Hebrews 12:9). Imagine a world without any discipline, training, instruction, and correction. It would be a world of lawlessness, corruption, evil, devastation, destruction, ruin, and death. Life within such a world would not be life; in fact, life could not even survive upon earth. It is discipline, training, instruction, and correction that gives order and protection to life upon earth. This is the reason earthly fathers who love their children discipline them.

The point is this: God’s discipline brings more life to man, an abundance of life in this world and an eternal life in the next world. A person who will heed the discipline of God...

· will escape much of the suffering and pain of this life and become a much stronger person as he walks through the trials and temptations of life.

· will be delivered from death the moment he leaves this world and enters the next world.

3. God disciplines us for our good, to make us partakers of His holiness (Hebrews 12:10). Remember: holiness means to be different; to be completely and wholly set apart and separated from imperfection and impurity. God is holy, righteous, and pure—perfectly so. Note this:

Therefore, God is bound to discipline us when we begin to faint under trials and sufferings and when we begin to move toward sin. God wants us to become more and more like Him. When we first believed and became children of God, God put His divine nature—His Spirit—within us. His Holy Spirit indwells us to make us more like God. As long as we are on this earth, we shall never become perfectly holy, never be perfectly set apart unto God. But we are to grow more and more like Him. Day by day we are to let His holiness and purity shine through us. The more His holiness shines in our lives, the stronger His witness is and the easier it is for people to believe and surrender themselves to God.

4. God disciplines us so that we can bear the fruit of peace and righteousness (Hebrews 12:11). This is clearly seen. The less sin and evil there is, the more peace and righteousness there is. If the sin and evil of anger and division do not exist, then peace and righteousness prevail. Therefore, when sin and evil stick their ugly heads up in our lives, God disciplines us. Why? So that we will correct ourselves and do all we can for the sake of peace and righteousness.

The discipline and correction may be grievous and painful to bear at first, but it will bring peace and righteousness if we will only bear it.

With this passage the writer to the Hebrews comes to the problems of everyday Christian life and living. He knew that sometimes it is given to a man to mount up with wings as an eagle; he knew that sometimes a man is enabled to run and not be weary in the pursuit of some great moment of endeavour; but he also knew that of all things it is hardest to walk every day and not to faint. Here he is thinking of the daily struggle of the Christian way.

(i) He begins by reminding them of their duties. In every congregation and in every Christian society there are those who are weaker and more likely to go astray and to abandon the struggle. It is the duty of those who are stronger to put fresh vigour into listless hands and fresh strength into failing feet. The phrase used for slack hands is the same as is used to describe the children of Israel in the days when they wished to abandon the rigours of the journey across the wilderness and to return to the ease and the fleshpots of Egypt.

One of life's greatest glories is to be an encourager of the man who is near to despair and a strengthener of the man whose strength is failing. To help these people we have to make their ways straight. A Christian has a double duty; he has a duty to God and a duty to his fellow men. The Testimony of Simeon (5:2, 3) has an illuminating description of the duty of the good man. "Make your heart good in the sight of the Lord; and make your ways straight in the sight of men; so you will find favour in the sight of the Lord and of men."

To God a man must present a clean heart; to men he must present an upright life. To show a man the right way to walk, by personal example to keep him on the right road, to remove from the path something that would make him stumble, to make the journey easier for faltering and lagging feet, is a Christian duty. A man must offer his heart to God and his service and example to his fellow-men.

(ii) The writer to the Hebrews turns to the aims which must ever be before the Christian.

(a) He must aim at peace. In Hebrew thought and language peace was no negative thing; it was intensely positive. It was not simply freedom from trouble; it was two things.

First, it was everything which makes for a man's highest good. As the Hebrews saw it, that highest good was to be found in obedience to God. Proverbs says: "My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: for length of days and long life and peace shall they add unto thee." The Christian must aim at that complete obedience to God in which life finds its highest happiness, its greatest good, its perfect consummation, its peace. Second, peace meant right relationships between man and man. It meant a state when hatred was banished and each man sought nothing but his neighbour's good. Hebrews says: "Seek to live together as Christian men ought to live, in the real unity which comes from living in Christ."

The peace to be sought is that coming from obedience to God's will, which raises a man's life to its highest realization and enables him to live in and to produce right relationships between his fellow-men.

One thing remains to be noted-that kind of peace is to be pursued. It requires an effort; it is not something which just happens. It is the product of mental and spiritual toil and sweat. Rudyard Kipling wrote:

The gifts of God are given, but they are not given away; they have to be won, for they can be received only on God's conditions-and the supreme condition is obedience to himself.

(b) He must aim at holiness (hagiasmos). Hagiasmos has in it the same root as the adjective hagios, which is usually translated holy. The root meaning is always difference and separation. Although he lives in the world, the man who is hagios must always in one sense be different from it and separate from it. His standards are not the world's standards, nor his conduct the world's conduct. His aim is not to stand well with men but to stand well with God. Hagiasmos, as Westcott finely put it, is "the preparation for the presence of God." The life of the Christian is dominated by the constant memory that its greatest aim is to enter into the presence of God.

(iii) The writer to the Hebrews goes on to point the dangers which threaten the Christian life.

(a) There is the danger of missing the grace of God. The word he uses might be paraphrased failing to keep up with the grace of God. The early Greek commentator Theophylact interprets this in terms of a journey of a band of travellers who every now and again check up, "Has anyone fallen out? Has anyone been left behind while the others have pressed on?" In Micah there is a vivid text (4:6), "I will assemble the lame." Moffatt translates it: "I will collect the stragglers." It is easy to straggle away, to linger behind, to drift instead of to march, and so to miss the grace of God. There is no opportunity in this life which cannot be missed. The grace of God brings to us the opportunity to make ourselves and to make life what they are meant to be. A man may, in his lethargy, his thoughtlessness, his unawareness, his procrastination, miss the chances which grace brings to him. Against that we must ever be upon the watch.

(b) There is the danger of what the Revised Standard Version calls "a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit." The phrase comes from Deuteronomy 29:18; and there it describes the man who goes after strange gods and encourages others to do so, and who thereby becomes a pernicious influence on the life of the community. The writer to the Hebrews is warning against those who are a corrupting influence. There are always those who think the Christian standards unnecessarily strict and punctilious; there are always those who do not see why they should not accept the world's standards of life and conduct. This was specially so in the early Church. It was a little island of Christianity surrounded by a sea of paganism; its members were, at the most, only one generation away from heathenism. It was easy to relapse into the old standards. This is a warning against the infection of the world, sometimes deliberately, sometimes unconsciously, spread within the Christian society.

(c) There is the danger of falling into immorality or relapsing into an unhallowed life. The word used for unhallowed is bebelos. It has an illuminating background. It was used for ground that was profane in contradistinction to ground that was consecrated. The ancient world had its religions into which only the initiated could come. Bebelos was used for the person who was uninitiated and uninterested in contradistinction to the man who was devout. It was applied to such men as Antiochus Epiphanes who was pledged to wipe out all true religion; it was applied to Jews who had become apostates and had forsaken God. Westcott sums up this word by saying that it describes the man whose mind recognizes nothing higher than earth, for whom there is nothing sacred, who has no reverence for the unseen. An unhallowed life is a life without any awareness of or interest in God. In its thoughts, aims, pleasures, it is completely earthbound. We have to have a care lest we drift into a frame of mind and heart which has no horizon beyond this world, for that way inevitably lie the failure of chastity and the loss of honour.

To sum it all up, the writer to the Hebrews cites the example of Esau. He really puts two stories together-Genesis 25:28-34 and Genesis 27:1-39. In the first Esau came in from the field ravenously hungry and sold his birthright to Jacob for a share of the food which he was preparing. The second story tells how Jacob subtly robbed Esau of his birthright by impersonating him when Isaac was old and blind and so gaining the blessing which belonged to Esau as the elder of the two sons. It was when Esau sought the blessing that Jacob had shrewdly obtained and learned he could not get it that he lifted up his voice and wept (Genesis 27:38).

There is more to this than lies upon the surface. In Hebrew legend and in rabbinic elaboration Esau had come to be looked upon as the entirely sensual man, the man who put the needs of his body first. Hebrew legend says that while Jacob and Esau-they were twins-were still in their mother's womb, Jacob said to Esau: "My brother, there are two worlds before us, this world and the world to come. In this world men eat and drink and traffic and marry and bring up sons and daughters; but all this does not take place in the world to come. If you like, take this world and I will take the other." And Esau was well content to take this world, because he did not believe that there was any other. On that very day when Jacob's subterfuge gained him Isaac's blessing, legend said that Esau already had committed five sins-"he had worshipped with strange worship, he had shed innocent blood, he had pursued a betrothed damsel, he had denied the life of the world to come, and he had despised his birthright."

Hebrew interpretation saw Esau as the sensual man, the man who saw no pleasures beyond the crude pleasures of this world. Any man life that sells his birthright; for a man throws away his inheritance when he throws away eternity.

The writer to the Hebrews says, according to the Authorized Version, that Esau found no place for repentance. The Greek for repentance is metanoia, which literally means a change of mind. It is better to say that it was now impossible for Esau to change his mind. It is not that he was barred from the forgiveness of God. It is just the grim fact that there are certain choices which cannot be unmade and certain consequences which not even God can take away. To take a very simple example-if a young man loses his purity or a girl her virginity, nothing can ever bring it back. The choice has been made and it stands. God can and will forgive but he cannot turn back the clock.

We do well to remember that there is a certain finality in life. If, like Esau, we take the way of this world and make bodily things our final good, if we choose the pleasures of time in preference to the joys of eternity, God can and will still forgive but something has happened that can never be undone. There are certain things in which a man cannot change his mind but must abide for ever by the choice that he has made.

(12:12-13) Discipline, Of God—Chastisement: the believer’s duty is threefold.

1. The believer is to lift up his hands and strengthen his buckling knees. This is the picture of a man discouraged and defeated because of the sufferings of trial or sin. Instead of listening to the voice of God’s discipline, he has let his shoulders and hands hang low and his knees buckle. This is not to be so with the Christian believer. The believer is to listen to God and His discipline: lift up his hands, strengthen his weak grip and buckling knees.

2. The believer is to make straight paths for his feet. He is to follow the straight course of God’s discipline. He is to do exactly what God’s Spirit is saying to do, and do nothing that the Spirit is not instructing him to do.

3. The believer must heal whatever is lame. This charge can be saying one of two things: that the believer is to heal any lame part of his own behavior, or that the behavior is to strengthen his weak grip and buckling knees and make straight paths so that he can heal and help other believers who are lame.

Þ The believer is to receive the discipline of God so that he can be a dynamic witness for God.

"I said, lord, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee" (Psalm 41:4).

"My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh" (Proverbs 4:20-22).

(12:14) Believer, Duty—Peace—Holiness: the great duty of the believer is to follow after peace and holiness. The word "follow" (diokete) means to run after, chase after, press after, and to pursue. It has the idea of swiftness and endurance—of hotly pursuing and staying after peace and holiness. We live in a world that is full of corruptible and evil people who could care less about peace and holiness just so they get what they want. However, the believer must not give up, for both peace and holiness are the very reason he is on earth.

1. The believer is to follow after peace (eirenen) with all men. The fact that he has to follow after peace means that peace is not always possible.

Þ Some persons within the church are troublemakers: grumblers, complainers, gossipers, criticizers; some are self-centered leaders full of pride; some people within the church are just selfish and self-centered and care more about pushing themselves forward and getting their own way than they do about peace. Self is put before Christ and the church and its mission.

Þ Some persons within the world are troublemakers and they cause great trouble for the believer. They oppose the believer: ridicule, mock, poke fun at, curse, abuse, persecute, ignore, and isolate him.

Þ Some persons within the world are troublemakers for the world at large: dissenters, dividers, fighters, ego-hunters, power-builders, and warmongers. Some people have no interest in peace whatsoever unless they can have their own way.

The point is this: the believer is to follow after peace with all men—no matter who they are. The very purpose for the believer being on earth is to bring peace between men and God and between men and all other men. Therefore, the believer is to do all he can to live at peace with everyone and to lead others to live in peace.

The believer is to live at peace with all men. The believer is to work for as much peace as possible. Some level of harmony and concord can be achieved at least some of the time. The believer is never to give up, not as long as there is hope for some degree of peace. He is to achieve as much peace as possible. However remember, peace is not always possible—not with everyone.

Now note two significant points that need to be carefully considered by every believer.

a. The cause of conflict must not arise from a believer. He is to try everything possible to bring about peace and to keep peace (Romans 12:20; cp. Matthew 5:39-41). However, this may be impossible because of the wickedness of others or because the control of peace is not within his hands. It is possible that some will not live peaceably. They continue to indulge every whim and live a life of repugnant license. Such living often threatens the peace and security, preservation and life of oneself and one’s family and friends.

b. What is it that determines whether a believer is to turn the "other cheek" or to defend himself? For example, Jesus spent His life combating evil and wrong, but He did not always turn the other cheek (John 18:22-23); neither did Paul (Acts 23:2-3). Paul encouraged the believer not to give license to anyone, and he was strict in the command. For example, he said that if a man did not work because of laziness, he should not eat (2 Thes. 3:7, 10).

The governing principle for the believer is clear: "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good" (Romans 12:21). There are times when an attacker, if allowed to continue in his attack, is encouraged in his evil nature of indulgence and license. If allowed to continue, his evil overcomes the believer—either within through bitterness and revenge, or without through domination. Thus, a believer is not to sacrifice truth in order to preserve peace. Evil is not to be allowed to overcome truth.

2. The believer is to follow after "holiness" (hagiasmon). The word means sanctification, consecration, and separation. It means to be set apart and different. The root meaning of holiness is to be different. The believer is to be different from the unbelievers of the world in that he...

The believer, of course, lives in the world. He walks and moves within the world; buys, eats, and sleeps in the world; works, plays, and is housed in the world; relates, associates, and fellowships in the world. However the believer is not to be of the world. He is not to be possessed by the world, enslaved to its pleasures and possessions. What does this mean? In very simple terms, the believer is not to indulge and give license to his flesh:

Þ He is not to have house after house; he is not to hoard riches in a world of desperate needs.

The believer is to be separated from the world and its pleasures and possessions. He is to be set apart unto God, living for God and serving Him in His great mission. The believer is to meet the needs of a desperate world that is dying from sin, disease, hunger, and war. The believer is to be different from the rest of the world; he is to follow after holiness.

(12:15-17) Neglect—Warning: the great dangers threatening believers. There are some great dangers that threaten the faith of believers. Therefore, believers must look diligently after themselves and after others. The words "looking diligently" (episkopountes) mean to be on the watch; to look carefully; to take the oversight of; to see to it. It is of utmost importance, of a critical nature, for there are dangers. Therefore, be on the lookout and search diligently lest one fall into one of these dangers.

1. There is the danger of falling short of the grace of God (A.T. Robertson. Word Pictures In The New Testament, Vol. 5, p.437). What is the grace of God? It is the favor and kindness of God that saves man. Grace means the favor and kindness of God, but there is a uniqueness about God’s favor and kindness. His favor and kindness are given despite the fact that they are undeserved and unmerited. God has done a thing unheard of among men: God has given His grace to men...

Grace is giving, but it is giving to people who do not deserve the gift. What is the gift that God has given? Jesus Christ. God has given His Son, Jesus Christ, to save men. He did not have to give His Son. God could have wiped man from the face of the earth and condemned him forever to judgment. Man deserved it, but this is God’s grace. God is full of mercy and love and kindness—by His very nature He is full of these glorious qualities. Therefore, God was bound to shower His grace upon man. God was bound to send His Son to save man.

God is not off someplace in the distance, far removed from man, disinterested and unconcerned with man’s sufferings and death. God is gracious, full of mercy, love, and kindness for man; therefore, He has reached out through His Son Jesus Christ to help man. How?

Þ By giving His Son to die for man. When Jesus Christ hung upon the cross, He was taking our sins upon Himself and bearing the punishment for our sins. We had committed high treason against God: rejected and rebelled against Him. The penalty for high treason is death; we are condemned to die, that is, to be exiled and cut off from God forever and ever. But Christ took our penalty and condemnation upon Himself. He died for us—in our place, in our sted, as our substitute. He suffered separation from God for us. This is what Scripture means when it says that Christ died for us.

Note that the people for whom Christ died did not deserve His sacrificial love. They were men who were...

This is the grace of God—God’s grace that showered itself upon sinful men who were lost and condemned—God’s grace that gave the greatest gift possible to men—the gift of His Son to save the world.

The grace of God is the most wonderful gift in all the world. It is the glorious opportunity to be saved from sin, death, and condemnation—saved to live forever with God throughout all eternity. But note the critical danger: God’s grace is only an opportunity to be saved. God does not force a person to be saved. God does not want robots living with Him, men who have been forced to live with Him. God wants men to grab hold of the opportunity by their own free will and choice. But again the great danger is that men will not grab the opportunity.

...but he will fail to grab hold of the grace of God that changes his heart and life. The believer must watch, look diligently, oversee his life ever so carefully, lest he fall back from the grace of God.

2. There is the danger of "any root of bitterness." Note the word any. The writer is speaking about any root, any cause that might stir a person to become bitter:

Bitterness can be caused by any thing or any person who has failed us or brought disappointment and trouble to us in some way. The person who is bitter is often...

Any expression of these is sin to God. God desires people to live in love, joy, peace, and holiness, not in bitterness. Therefore, the believer must look diligently, must guard against the great danger of bitterness.

3. There is the danger of becoming a fornicator (pornos). The word is a broad word including all forms of immoral and sexual acts. It is premarital sex and adultery; it is homosexuality and abnormal sex; it is all kinds of sexual vice, whether married or unmarried.

Note another fact as well: immorality is not only committed by the act. A person is guilty of immorality when he looks in order to lust. Looking at and lusting after the opposite sex—whether in person, in magazines, in books, on beaches, or anywhere else—is committing fornication. Imagining and lusting within the mind is the very same as committing the act in the eyes of God.

"But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart" (Matthew 5:28).

"Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body" (1 Cor. 6:18).

"But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints" (Ephes. 5:3).

"Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry" (Col. 3:5).

"For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication" (1 Thes. 4:3).

4. There is the great danger of becoming a profane person. The word "profane" (bebelos) means to be unhallowed and sensual; to be neglectful of spiritual things and a lover of the world and its things. Just what is meant is illustrated by Esau in the Old Testament (cp. Genesis 25:28-34; Genesis 27:1-39). Esau had been hunting, apparently for a long time. When he returned, he found that his brother Jacob had already prepared some food for himself. Therefore, he began to bargain with Jacob for the food instead of taking time to cook his own. Jacob, being a shrewd young man, said that the only thing that could make him give up his meal would be the birthright of the eldest son. (It belonged to Esau.) In a rash statement, Esau said that he was so hungry that he would swap his birthright for some food. No doubt, Esau never thought he would be taken seriously. He was probably just teasing and manipulating his younger brother. He made the statement that his physical appetite was more important than his birthright. But his behavior showed something about his nature and spoke loudly and clearly to God: he was a profane man, a man who cared little for spiritual things, for the spiritual right to God’s promises that went to the oldest son. Esau should have jumped back and fled from such a suggestion, no matter how unlikely it was. But he failed to do so. In fact, no matter how serious he was or what he thought in his mind about the suggestion of the birthright, he took the food from Jacob: he took the food on the basis of what was probably a young man’s prank, that of giving up his birthright in order to satisfy his physical appetite. There was another instance that also exposed his sensual nature which has already been covered in Hebrews.

The point is this: Esau lost his birthright. He was to be the primary person through whom the great spiritual blessings of God were to come, the promised seed and the promised land. But he was profane: he cared more for his body and flesh, for the desires and lusts, for the pleasures and possessions of this world than he did for the spiritual things of God. Therefore, he lost what was rightfully his, his birthright to the glorious promises of God. And note: he never repented. When he cried before his father, he was crying for the blessing, not for his father and God to forgive him. He was crying in sorrow for his carnal, fleshly nature, not crying because he was making a commitment to follow God and to become spiritually minded. He was crying because of his loss and because he wanted a blessing.

Thought 1. When a person is born into the world, he has the birthright to the promises of God, the right...

But how many sell their birthright? How many sell their blessing for the satisfaction of their body and flesh, for their desires and lusts, for the pleasures and possessions of this world? This is one of the great dangers that the believer must guard against.

(Plantation is a suburb of Fort Lauderdale...just 10 minutes from Miami-Dade County, in the middle of college and pro football country and 20 minutes from the Atlantic Ocean). Last modified: April 18, 2006 Hit Counter