Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done.
Hebrews 12:14-17
This is a particularly interesting little paragraph! Look at it carefully, and let’s see what riches are in store for us…
First, the author exhorts us to live in peace with everyone, and to strive to be holy, set apart, for without that, no one will see God. Living at peace with everyone seems to be referring to a lifestyle that is not engaging in controversy and discord; things that the New Testament teaches in many places, as we have seen. Living holy lives is also a common theme in the New Testament, and keeping in mind that holy means “set apart” it isn’t too difficult to follow what that means. We are to be set apart from the world we live in, set apart for God and not partakers in every crazy thing that comes along. We are to be willing to undergo God’s discipline and to stand for the Truth of His Word; these things would be very consistent with the 11 chapters of Hebrews that we have been though so far, and would make sense considering the historical context that we have seen so many times.
We’ve been told before in this letter to help and encourage one another to hold on to our faith, and so to be told here not to let anyone “fall short of the grace of God” and to allow no “bitter root” in our midst to defile others would also seem to make sense. That sexual immorality is mentioned right after this is interesting… but the most interesting little piece of the entire paragraph comes right after that. “Godless like Esau” is a very interesting thing! The author goes on to remind his readers that Esau sold his birthright for a dinner, and could not get it back.
His birthright, or inheritance is a covenant reference, for he was to inherit his right as a patriarch of old, as a direct descendant of Abraham. Remember that Esau didn’t really take that inheritance as seriously as he should have, and traded it to his younger brother Jacob for a bowl of stew, and thus Jacob inherited upon Isaac’s death. So, what will we take away from this?
What has Hebrews been all about so far? It was written to the Jewish Christians in Rome in a time of severe persecution, to urge them not to give up their faith under severe trial. The message has been that in the New Covenant relationship with Christ, we have a superior high priest who brought a superior sacrifice to establish a superior covenant based upon superior promises. We have just been warned not to be like Esau who lost his place in Abraham’s covenant when he valued a bowl of stew more that his birthright. Once again, in a slightly different way than before, the author is telling his readers, including you and I, to place our highest priority on our New Covenant birthright as co-heirs with Christ to everything, lest we should lose our birthright.
Interesting, isn’t it? So, I must ask…
Is God speaking to us in this passage? I sure “hear” Him. What’s He saying?
As for me, I think He’s telling me to be careful that my priorities are in the right place, and not to let down my guard. I’d love to hear your thoughts…
Life Project Blog 
Totally agree, God wants us to put Him first and so our inheritance is valuable. It should not be lost for the wanting of some quick fill to a hunger, often we see something and then we hunger for it. Then we grab for it thinking it is the most important thing we need, forgetting our inheritance from Jesus.
Thank you for this.
Thanks Chris, I appreciate the comment!
Lots of great thoughts here. Again, like you say, another exhortation to live peaceably with one another (and then a discussion about sexual immorality). But your thoughts on Esau were insightful to me. I always wondered about that. Why did God seem to choose Jacob, who always seemed sneaky and deceitful to me. But the fact that Esau was completely irreverent about God’s vow to make them a mighty nation brings more sense to the picture for me. Thanks for the insight!
Glad it helped!
Considering that the importance of holiness is what is being presented here, I’d definitely say that those ‘properly placed priorities’ in regards to holiness are to be of a higher value than simply living ‘at peace’ with everyone.
Compromising what we know God has called to being in us through His Son simply isn’t an option. It’s that fine line between being all things for all people and still maintaining the standard of holiness that God requires (and supplies) in our everyday lives.
If everyone loves me, and I have resigned my heart from speaking and living in the truth, then my life is just noise, the same way it would be if I beat everyone over the head with the Gospel without showing them love.
Daily, personal holiness matters. It’s what we’ve been called to in Christ. But we also haven’t been called to asceticism and the neglect of our commission for the sake of appearing and feeling holier. That removes grace and makes our holiness a work. The work of holiness in us by God is what even gives us the ability to be holy, set apart.
When Jesus is pronouncing the woes on the religious leaders of His day, He had to remind them (the holy guys) that it was the altar that made the gift holy. “You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?” Matthew 23:19
Absolutely, keep priorities straight in regards to holiness, but also keeping our hearts and egos in check in regards to how that holiness in us comes to be must also be a daily practice.
Humility in holiness and boldness with the truth in love.
– thanks for the reminder this morning.
Amen, thanks for a great comment!
“See to it that …” and “See (to it) that …”
Faith. action, togetherness, love, fellowship, making disciples … the whole big kitbag wrapped up in that one phrase. This is not a solo hobby. It is not even a team game. This is applied God. Together for a reason. Each of us joint heirs. Each of us in the family business. Each of us for each other. Always.
It’s another love letter!
It is at that!
This is really interesting, thank you. I hadn’t thought about the “holy/set apart” thing before. To me, it has always sounded “prideful” to be set apart. So if it doesn’t mean necessarily “set apart because we are better than you” but “set apart because we put God first” that actually might make pride take a beating, yes? It would not be easy.
I think you’re on the right track. No, this isn’t always easy, but it is always simple!
I agree with you Don. God wants us to have our priorities in the right place, sometimes a struggle, but also something worthwhile to keep plugging away at!
Right on the money Elaine!
Ok I get your last couple statements: we can lose our salvation is what the Hebrew writer is telling us? Action is needed on our part to walk “holy” and not rely on the extreme grace which tells us once we say “I do” its easy street from there? Is that what this verse is telling me?
PS: I think you can’t move on from this verse now; go over it in deeper reflection. I see revelation coming off the pages. 🙂
I’m not sure that anything I say really matters very much; the Hebrews author has said it over and over. Who was he talking about in Heb. 6:4 ff.? Did Esau get his birthright after he turned his back on it? Did Abraham, Isaac and Jacob receive their birthright in spite of checkered careers because they remained faithful to the covenant? Did the Israelites who left Egypt enter the promised land after rebelling time and again? If we’re on easy street, why all the warnings, if nothing is at stake? Why all of this call to action in the NT? The record is there right in front of our eyes, the question is what we’re going to do with it. It all comes down to this: If our doctrinal perspective is from one particular family of doctrines, we will say these passages refer to people who aren’t “real” Christians and who never were. If not, then we will take them to heart. Hebrews was written before that particular family of teaching was invented; how do we think its author saw this issue?
Fun to reflect upon is it not? 🙂
amen. vw
learned something, again. I like that. Thanks!
Good! Thanks for saying so!
Hi Don. I enjoying reading your teachings, I find them quite enlightening. I sympathize with Esau not because of his greed and impatience, which caused him to trade in his birthright, (in all readily He still shared in the blessings, at the end we see that He had just as much wealth as Jacob / Israel), but what he really missed out on was the title “Abraham, Isaac and Esau.” Although the story was never written in heaven as such. I love this entire story because it took a lot of growing and learning in order for Jacob to inherited his new name, Israel. Great lesson, thank you Don.
Thank you!