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Context No. 2846 of 4322 · Hebrews

Context · Reflection

Hebrews 10:32-39: in context

32But remember the former days, in which, after you were enlightened, you endured a great struggle with sufferings: 33partly, being exposed to both reproaches and oppressions, and partly, becoming partakers with those who were treated so. 34For you both had compassion on me in my chains and joyfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an enduring one in the heavens. 35Therefore don’t throw away your boldness, which has a great reward. 36For you need endurance so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise. 37“In a very little while, he who comes will come and will not wait. 38But the righteous one will live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” 39But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the saving of the soul.

The writer to the Hebrews asks his readers to look backward for courage. Remember the early days, he says, when after you were first enlightened you endured a hard struggle: public insult, prison, the plundering of your property, which you actually accepted with joy, because you knew you had a better and lasting possession in heaven.

So, he urges, do not now throw away that confidence, which carries a great reward. What you need is endurance, so that after doing God's will you may receive what he promised. In a little while the One who is coming will come. The righteous will live by faith, and God takes no pleasure in the one who shrinks back. The appeal is to memory as fuel. You once suffered gladly for Christ; do not, when it grows costly again, abandon the very confidence that carried you through before.

When faith gets costly again, do I draw courage from remembering how God carried me through before, or do I quietly shrink back?

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