Hebrews 13.3
October 19th 2014
Meat
Welcome let’s pray, sing, sit, and come back to Hebrews chapter 13.
Okay, we have just left one of the most imposing chapters in scripture – a word we might liken to overwhelmingly strong – and in the case of Hebrews 11 it is . . . in its relentless examples of faith, people of faith, and trials of faith.
We studied the examples, learned of their human lives, and witnessed through scripture how amidst trials and difficulty they chose to live by faith.
Hand in hand with living by and walking by and choosing faith is the P word – patience.
Can faith truly abide without patience? I don’t think so.
We are given promises by God and we have to wait on Him to see them fulfilled. The waiting requires patience.
The Greek word is “whoo om onay” and it is tied to words like endurance, waiting, and cheerfulness.
We might suppose that if our patience is not accompanied by cheerfulness in world view faith may stand in jeopardy as cynicism is right around the corner.
The word patience is not found in the Old Testament, interestingly enough because all of those mentioned in chapter 11, who operated by faith must have possessed it and in great abundance.
If true faith is best defined as trusting in God’s promises and His total ability to accomplish them, then patience must be an associated attitude that is present when true faith exists.
For example, someone may claim to trust in the promises of God (TO REALLY HAVE FAITH IN Him) but if genuine patience is not present with the claim (cheerful endurance, optimistic waiting) then maybe the said faith is called into question???
I bring patience up because it is mentioned prior to the writer delivering chapter 11 and then it is mentioned again here in chapter 12 thereafter.
This is the context – these Hebrew converts to Christianity were struggling in their faith, in their trust in the Good News, in endurance through persecution, in waiting on the arrival of the Lord.
And the writer has been pulling out all stops to get them to carry on till the end, to fight, to maintain the party line, so to speak.
He was coming, as promised, to save them. He, who authored this beautiful gospel of Grace.
At the end of chapter 10, right before bursting into the contents of Chapter 11 the writer says very clearly to them physically (and to us spiritually):
36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.
37 For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
38 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.”
That line, “for you have need of patience,” is a precursor to all he says in chapter 11 when he cites those who patiently lived by faith.
After the exposition on faith, the writer comes back and in the first verses of chapter 12 says:
Hebrews 12:1 “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,”
I suppose, in light of the fact that the book is written to people who are already believers that we might even be tempted to say that after chapter 10 verse 18 this is the writers point to his readers – “walk patiently by faith.”
I would suggest that these words are of the highest import to us today as well.
“Where true faith thrive patience is always abundant.
Where patience is absent bad faith presides.”
And of course without faith it is nearly impossible to love with agape love (an entirely different topic).
Walking through the New Testament we get some insights into the Biblical presentations surrounding patience.
Beginning in the gospels, it seems Luke has the most poignant things to say.
Luke 8:15 is the last verse on Lukes version of the Sower.
It is tremendous because in it Luke reports the Lord, in His final description of the seed that fell on good ground saying:
“But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.”
Throughout scripture we see that the fruit Christians bear, the fruit that pleases the Father, is plainly the fruit of agape love.
Anyone who attempts to travel the rocky road of agape love knows that patience is a required constant.
Later in Luke 21 Jesus says (beginning at verse 16-19) to the twelve:
16 And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death.
17 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.
18 But there shall not an hair of your head perish.
19 In your patience possess ye your souls.
Think about this last line for a minute.
The word possess in the Greek means “to keep or maintain.” So what Jesus tells them that by and through their patience (in the face of being hated of all men, and being betrayed and abandoned by family) they will KEEP their souls.
Put this line
“In patience you keep your soul”
up against another where Jesus says:
“What does it profit a man if He gains the whole world and loses His soul?”
And we are indirectly presented with a marvelous truth – when the world (in whatever shape or form turns on us) be patient for by it we KEEP our souls.
But those who are part of and embrace the world (to me this describes those who have grown impatient with the future promises of God and instead plant and harvest in the things of the world) run the risk of losing their soul.
I think the clarity of this truth is manifest when we sort of step back and look at the options we all have living in this world and those that pave the way to the Kingdom above.
We have God’s promises on the one hand – which typically require long suffering, patience, faith and if done well, agape love – which is a love of God and others and not of self.
And we have the allurements and award of the present, focused on self-satisfaction – the antithesis to agape love.
To me, it sometimes seems like we either survive in this place by grasping for the temporary instead waiting on the eternal to reveal itself – and in the end this really amounts to nothing but impatience, of being tired of relying on Him and His promises and replacing that tension with the immediacies of the world.
Patience, scripture says, retains the soul whereas the results of gaining the whole world is the loss of it.
Of course Paul informs us that patience plays a key role not only in our faith and our love but also the presence of hope.
Romans 5:3-4 says the all familiar:
3 But we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope.”
Later Paul ties this obtaining of hope to the lessons we read and learn from scripture. Listen to this (Romans 15:4)
“For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”
“Through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” This is one reason we consult and read from this book of antiquity – through reading the things that were written aforetime we learn, and from these readings of these people who came and went before us, we “through patience and comfort (of the scripture) gain hope.”
Eleven verses later Paul goes so far as to call God, “the God of patience and consolation.”
In addition to this title, and aside from being called, in the New Testament, “the God of Israel, and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the God of our Fathers, God is also called . . .
“The God of Glory”
“The God of the Living”
(Romans 15:13) “the God of hope”
(Romans 15:33) “the God of peace”
(2nd Corinthians 13:11) “the God of love and peace”
(Ephesians 1:17) “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,”
(1st Peter 5:10) “the God of all grace,”
(Revelation 11:4) “the God of the earth.” and
(Revelation 11:13) “the God of heaven.”
With Jesus saying in John 17:3 “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”
I would suggest that it is vitally important to really understand (to know) that the God we worship is THE GOD OF
“Glory,” “living,” “hope,” “peace,” “love,” “grace,” and “of the heavens” and “the earth.”
Going back to Romans 15:5-6 Paul says it best:
“Now the God of patience and consolation” grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus that ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The Greek word for consolation here in the King James is paraklesis. It means comforter, and it’s not a coincidence the Catholics refer to the Holy Spirit as the Paraklete – the comforter.
When people who (presumably pass) from this life and (presumably) return, many of them – if not most – describe an utterly incomprehensible love and warmth, like nothing on earth, that surrounds and comforts them in light and love.
An extension or the person of the God of patience and consolation? Perhaps.
Throughout the writings of Paul he encourages the early Saints toward patience in Christ and the promises of God.
1st Thessalonians 1:3
2nd Thessalonians 1:4
1st Timothy 6:11
2nd Thessalonians 3:5, which says, “And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.”
Whether a second coming or our respective death that loom – patience, trust and clinging to the promises of God, and not the world.
To some of the seven churches mentioned in Revelation, Jesus mentions patience, saying first to the church at Ephesus:
(Revelation 2:2-3) “I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: and hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast labored, and hast not fainted.”
Later, to the church at Thyatyra Jesus said:
(Revelation 2:19) “I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first.”
I’m beginning to see a pattern of what God appreciates, loves, and seeks in those who follow Him and reflect His character.
To the church at Philadelphia the Lord said the following:
Revelation 3:7 And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;
8 I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.
9 Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.
10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.
(by the way, just as a side note, where Jesus says to those at the church of Philadelphia, “which shall come upon the world,” the Greek word for world is not kosmos but OI KU MENE – which better describes the geographical area) and the Lord ends by saying to that Church there in Philadephia:
11 Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.”
James wrote something interesting about patience, which allows us to understand it better, saying:
James 1:4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
Reading this I came to see patience as sort of a trainer that is always cracking the whip in the presence of Christian faith, love, and hope.
It’s NOT love but is a part or description of love, it’s not hope but contributes to the possession of hope, it’s not faith, but faith is not good faith without it.
Moving into our own focus study book, Hebrew 6:12 says:
“be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”
James speaks of the import of patience, saying:
James 5:7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.
8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
9 Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.
10 Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.
11 Behold, we count them happy (blessed, fortunate) which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.”
Then, or course, in that last passage before launching into his exhortation of in Hebrews 11, the writer, once again, said to those believers at that time:
“For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.”
(beat)
Then we were given a whole bunch of examples of people who walked by faith in Hebrews 11 and in every situation there was the obvious need and presence of patience.
And after sharing all these stories he says in the first verse of chapter 12:
Hebrews 12:1 “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”
(beat)
Is it safe to say that accompanying every act of righteousness is patience? Since we can only please God by faith and since the Royal Law is to love I would have to say, “yes,” we are safe in this assumption.
Likewise, I would strong suggest that in the presence of every sin and fault impatience is likewise manifest – along with failure to love and the lacking of faith.
I will prove the relationship to sin and impatience, and overcoming sin and patience in a moment.
(reflection)
It’s really interesting and apparent how far we fall from the mark (and in so many areas) when we allow ourselves to really examine it).
So the writer here, having illustrated the nature and power of faith in the previous chapter, proceeds in chapter 12 to exhort those to whom he wrote to apply the same principles to their own situation and walk and urges them (and us in our own way) to manifest the same steady confidence in God as they (and we) suffer and wait – them for His coming, us for our coming to Him in death.
In this vein he advances the following arguments which are really quite profound.
First, obviously, He represented the ancient “worthies” who had so faithfully persevered, and by faith and patience, triumphed.
Next, the writer is going to appeal the ultimate example upon which believers can look – Jesus. We see this allusion in verses 2-4.
And we will discuss the issues Jesus faced by and through patient faith next week.
Then he encourages them (and us) by making a case for the fact that our trials are for our own good and growth, a message made in a number of other places in scripture. These passages are found essentially in verses 5-13.
For those who tout once saved always saved, the writer makes a point in verses 14-17 that are hard to refute. It’s a plain and clear warning – persevere or be lost.
We will talk about what perseverance in the Lord looks like when we get to these verses (and what its not).
Finally, in verses 18-29 the writer returns to his former topic and urges us to persevere under the dispensation of grace, as compared to the former Hebrew methods.
And we will cover those comparisons in a few weeks.
So, reasoning from all that he wrote in chapter 11, the writer says (verse 1)
Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Now, before touching on the verse as a whole there is one more thing I’d like to point out relative to our topic of patience.
We get insight to the topic by how verse one is constructed. Listen to the exhortation again:
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us
(READY)
“lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us,”
(and, then, or in opposition to letting every weight and sin beset us)
“let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”
From the construction of this passage we see a contrast between “sin” and “running with patience,” or as the author puts it, “every weight and sin” (which easily besets us) and the opposite picture, running with patience.
(beat)
Here, due to the words chosen and their historical place in ancient Greece, it seems the writer is appealing (or using) an athletic competition – better put a running race – as an illustration.
Paraphrasing we might think of him saying:
“in the face of all who have raced before us and won, let us, in this Christian competition of endurance and skill and temerity, one where we are competitively waiting on the Lord to return and save us from the surrounding oppression, “lets lay aside every weight.”
“Ap ot eeth a mee” – is the Greek for “laying aside” and it is frequently used in ancient Greek to describe athletes removing their clothing so as to be totally free from all encumbrances during competition.
Every weight (ong-kos) is perhaps best defined as any bulge, protuberance or offsetting bundle that makes mobility and agility difficult. Especially one that causes the bearer to bend or hunch due to the weight.
Imagine running a marathon in a suit or armor. Performing ballet while dressed in construction boots and a trench-coat.
The writer is striving to get these saints to endure to the end, and he wisely suggests that stripping themselves of all hindrances would encourage success.
No different than an athlete in training except entirely spiritual.
When we think about it, these believers were considering re-embracing the law, an act that would hinder a true Christian walk almost more than anything else.
The writer is telling them to set such things (such weights) aside.
Apologies for the somewhat trite illustration but it makes so much sense I have to re-appeal to it.
A group of mountain climbers who were going to try and champion an ominous peak met the day before in a hotel conference room not far from the site where they would gather the next day.
A seasoned guide who had made the ascent nearly a hundred times instructed the climbers what they would need for their day hike – a canteen of water, a rope, and pic-axe.
From the back of the room a man stood and challenged this advice. He suggested that much much more was needed for a safe ascent including blankets, food, small heating elements, a tent, and the like.
After voicing his fears of being unprepared the guide reassured the group and reiterated that all that was needed was a rope, a bottle of water, and a small pic-axe.
The following morning the unconvinced challenger arrived at the start point of the mountain and chose to make the climb alone by getting an early start.
He was loaded for bear, bringing with him ten times the number of items the guide recommended.
Three hours later the group convened and began to make the ascent in his wake.
As they climbed they noticed some items strewn along the side of the path.
At first they saw a bulky green heater. Then some boots, socks, raingear, a rifle.
The higher they climbed the more items they discovered – a bag of dehydrated food, etc etc.
At midday they reached the summit as planned and there sat the questioning hiker, sitting alone (and exhausted) with a pic-axe, some rope, and a canteen at his feet.
We not that the writer of Hebrews does not tell the readers to take more on but to deconstruct and set aside whatever weight that will hinder them.
A very fitting message to a bunch of Jews converted to Christ.
The writer does not just recommend getting rid of “every weight” but, also, he adds, “and sin.”
To the Jews here the sin being address was faithlessness – and as a result they were considering returning to elements of the Law.
“As a result of your faithless impatience which works against your conscience, your faith, and your ability to endure – you stand in danger. So set it aside like a filthy cloak.”
Of course the same advice applies to gentile converts today. The sins we bear as believers today are the sins of failing in faith and failing to love – the two Christian commands.
Of course these failures are reflected in all the “sins” we commit individually but the means to overcome them – to set them aside – as believers (in my humble opinion) is to address “failing faith and failing love (which is the result of failing faith) rather than trying to manage sin on a case by case analysis.
“Which doth so easily beset us.”
This entire line comes from ONE GREEK COMPOUND WORD which is not USED ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE NEW TESTAMENT – “YOO-PER-A-STAT-US.
Do you know what the author is inferring when he used this compound word?
He is referring to a sin that has been “well” (epi) “situated” or a sin that has encircled us effectively.
I would suggest that he is speaking of those specific sins all of us have that are really well tuned and embedded in our person.
We have “well-crafted” them to the point that they are our “go-to” when things get challenging or tough or boring or when things upset us.
The scripture calls for patience, not sin. But these sins take a sledge-hammer to patience, and easily beset our race.
This is why the writer tells us to run with patience. And to do so effectively we have to embrace and learn the beneficial effects of patience.
Without it, we will almost always reach to those sins that are “well-crafted” within our person.
Let’s take a minute and reflect on this.
There are certain sins or inclinations that have very little place in my person – I think its partly the result of how God made me, what I experienced as a child, and the presence of the Holy Spirit.
For example, I do not have too much a problem with looking on successful people with envy or jealousy.
It’s just not in me very much. This is just a fact – not one of superiority or inferiority. Just a fact.
But there are sins that reside right at the surface level of my flesh that have been there since I can remember – specifically anger and inordinate lust for women – like it or not.
When patience is waning or lacking in my walk, I am quick to anger – see how they work in direct opposition to one another?
When patience is lacking and life gets tough, even when I am challenged but completely unrelated events, or experience an unwanted change – even something simple as a winter storm – I will automatically consider appealing to the sexual attentions from women – why? Because that is the foundation – it’s the well set or well founded sin that has been in me since I was but a child.
These are the sins the writer is telling his reader to abandon, to put off, and to instead choose to run with patience.
Look in your heart. It doesn’t matter what sin you have cultivated in your lives – whether its saying mean things to other people, stealing candy from the store, or engaging with farm life (I’ve actually heard that one from a real guy up here) the writer says, run with patience.
In the waiting, we grow in hope, we grow in His glory, we become more like Him, we overcome the weights and sins that inhibit our walk, we strengthen (rather than weaken) our faith, and our love for God and Man will only be made more manifest.
“and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”
For them, the contextual race was picking up the baton called Christ and fearlessly running to His eminent return.
For Christian’s today, the race is living the new life we have in Christ that He has set before us – until we pass – having had victory (in and through Him) or failure (in and through ourselves).
Q and A
