After the strong and sincere warning of Hebrews 6:4-8, Paul expresses confidence that the readers have neither fallen away from the Son, nor will they in the future. He believes that his audience will receive the warning and produce the appropriate fruits. They are like the “earth,” which is cultivated by God and produces the fruits He expects. These people will receive the blessing from God (Hebrews 6:7), which is “salvation” (Hebrews 6:9).
Read Hebrews 6:9-12. List the good things that the audience has done and continues to do and explain what they mean.
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Believers show their love toward God’s “name,” that is, toward God Himself, by their service to the saints. These were not isolated actions in the past, but sustained actions that have extended into the present. Exceptional acts do not reveal the true character of a person. The weightiest evidence of love toward God is not “religious” acts per say, but acts of love toward fellow human beings, especially those who are disadvantaged (Matthew 10:42, Matthew 25:31-46). Thus, Paul exhorts believers not to “forget” to do good (Hebrews 13:2, Hebrews 13:16).
Look at Hebrews 6:12. It warns against their becoming “dull” or “sluggish” (ESV), which characterizes those who fail to mature and who are in danger of falling away (Hebrews 5:11, Hebrews 6:12). Hope is not kept alive by intellectual exercises of faith, but by faith expressed in acts of love (Romans 13:8-10).
Paul wants the readers to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. He has already presented the wilderness generation as a negative example of those who, through lack of faith and perseverance, failed to inherit what was promised. He then presents Abraham (Hebrews 6:13-15) as an example of one who through “faith and patience” inherited the promises. The list of positive exemplars is lengthened with the people of faith in Hebrews 11, and it climaxes with Jesus in Hebrews 12 as the greatest example of faith and patience (Hebrews 12:1-4). In Revelation 14:12, faith, patience, and commandment keeping are characteristics of the saints in the last days.
| Sometimes we have to give words of warning to those people whom we love. What can we learn from the apostle regarding warning and encouraging others? |
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