One of my favorite things about studying through a book of the Bible is noticing patterns. So far in studying Hebrews I've noticed the "Jesus is better than..." pattern, which is pretty awesome. Jesus is superior than the angels, He is greater than Moses, etc. Pretty sweet.
But another thing I've started noticing is that the author of Hebrews seems to be emphasizing the idea of doing in order to not do.
One place I see it is in 2:1: "Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it." The author is urging the readers to give special attention and concern to the gospel message that they have heard, more than simply acknowledging this. Otherwise, they will drift away from the gospel. They cannot be passive; they must do something ["pay much closer attention"] in order to not do something ["drift away from (the gospel)"].
And again, in 3:12-14: "Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin."
Reading the author's train of thought, I picture this in my head:
sin --> hardened believer --> evil, unbelieving heart --> fall away from God
But he offers exhorting one another every day as the preventative for being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin... it cuts this whole thing off at the start. Exhorting one another daily seems to only happen in fellowship and community with other believers, an open and honest kind of community. So in this instruction, the author is urging his readers to be in fellowship with and exhort one another (do) in order to not get deceived by sin which (in time) leads to falling away from God (not do).
So often I'm tempted to think that it's to just not do things. "Well of course I'm not going to forget the gospel." "Fall away from God? That won't happen." I take a passive approach. But it's exactly that passive approach that is the danger. It's by getting lazy in our Christian walks that will lead us down the wrong path. The author of Hebrews sets up as an active, offensive approach that we must take. By being passive, these things [sin, forgetting the gospel, hardened hearts, etc.] will happen, so we must be on the offense... we must be actively pursuing the opposite of these things, in order to not do them. We must pursue fellowship, we must be in community and be exhorting one another, we must be paying close attention--studying the message, understanding the message, letting it change us.
We must do in order to not do.
i like it.
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