Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.
Hebrews 10:32-35
We continue now with the warnings in chapter 10. Remember the context! Hebrews 10:19-39 is the section context in this letter written to Jewish Christians in Rome during the persecution of Nero to encourage them to hold on to their faith in severe trial, and following right after a section on the superiority of the New Covenant. In the previous post, we looked at vv. 26-31 and clearly saw that these warnings are intended for Christians, and included consequences of an unpleasant nature. Now, we continue…
The author refers to an earlier persecution, a time of trial almost as difficult as the present one, when these Christians had come through with their faith intact, and then he urges them to continue to hold on through the present crisis promising them a rich reward. We might ask ourselves what this reward is to be, is he referring to a temporal reward or an eternal one? In context, it must be an eternal one! Why? Because that is the reward that has been under discussion leading up to this section; there has been nothing in the text to tell us differently, thus that context remains in place. If we attempt to impose a different meaning here, then we might satisfy our doctrinal need to reinterpret this section, but we will have the wrong application for the text.
You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For,
“In just a little while,
he who is coming will come
and will not delay.”
And,
“But my righteous one will live by faith.
And I take no pleasure
in the one who shrinks back.”
But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.
Hebrews 10:36-39
Verse 36 keeps the last three verses of the chapter in context as an exhortation; this is critical to our understanding of 37-39. Verse 37 tells us that Jesus is surely coming soon (so hang in there, hold on to your faith). Verse 38 tells us that the righteous will hold on to their faith, and yet some will shrink back and lose out, and verse 39 encourages us all to continue in our faith and not shrink back, for to shrink back will result in our destruction. Notice that “destruction” is contrasted with “saved.” We are only left with one last question: What is destruction? I’ll take a stab at that in the next and final post on the warnings of Hebrews 10. See you there!
Life Project Blog 
More good stuff, Don. Thanks.
Thanks!
It is such a blessing to read scripture within its context. It takes the mystery out of the meaning of verses. I’m glad to hear that somebody is paying attention to the cultural background and the recipients of this letter.
Thanks Pam!
Thank you for this also; very wise observation on your part!
This is a good reading; but somehow I get the sense that you aren’t delving and divulging as much as you got from the reading because you don’t want to open a hornet’s nest in your readers. My take, share what God has placed on your heart in explicating 🙂 We can take it. vw
You’re right that I’m not charging head long into the fray in some of these posts, preferring to be a little diplomatic instead, and here’s why: There are 2 really good reasons to just being blunt and brutally frank. First is that I am a natural debater, highly combative and highly trained in the art. I can pretty much “win” the argument even if I’m wrong. Second, and the reason that would justify using the first, is that in doing research of effective blogging and building an audience, controversy is the single most effective strategy in building readership… at least according to many of the “experts” I’ve read lately. This resonates with me because it is true in most other areas of communication in my experience.
Maybe if I were doing this to sell something, I’d go that route…
But I’m not selling anything; I don’t even have anything to sell.
My mission here is different, and besides, I don’t debate any more, I’m a “recovering debater.” My mission here is to help people as best I can in this rather odd medium to grow in their walk with Jesus Christ. What God has put on my heart in this little work is love, community and unity of believers. This is not as easy a strategy as conflict would be, I’m afraid. So, I approach the texts that I know contain the points over which churches split with more care, and so far I’ve made a poor attempt to express the truth that challenges the readers to think and reflect, without pushing them into battle mode. Hopefully God can use this to His purpose…
Be led by Him and you can’t go wrong. vw
Amen
Hey Don, any chance of (when you have worked all the way through Hebrews) you putting all of these posts together as a kind of commentary on the book? Would love to have this all together as a pdf or something….. Or maybe even publish it…?
Funny you should ask that… I’m currently working on doing that with the books I’ve covered this year: Colossians, 1,2,3 John, 1,2 Peter and Galatians with Hebrews to follow. Not sure what I’ll do with them after that, but I’ll at least put a pdf on my website and link them here as well. Thanks for asking, by the way, that’s encouraging.
That is fantastic and I will look forward to having them in that format 🙂