Hebrews Chapter 3
The main thrust of this chapter is to exhort the readers to hear the voice of Jesus with a tender and soft heart (and not harden our hearts like those who fell in the wilderness).
Within this chapter, one thing that strikes me is the advice given to “exhort one another daily”, lest there be in any of us an evil heart of unbelief. Foreseeing the spiritual challenges we would face today, the Holy Spirit inspired the author to write this admonishment to us.
Reflecting on this, I think it is really sound advice. In our daily lives, there are many things that can cause us to stumble and fall into temptation. One day I might think my faith is alright, and the next day one thing or another I encounter could cause me to lose my faith. And so there is an important need to constantly renew ourselves on a daily basis.
Sometimes I think that I go to church many times during a week, and that should be enough to sustain my faith. After all, I go on weekday nights, on weekends, and all in all, I am in church more days of the week than I am not in church.
But this bible verse tells us that beyond just attending services, we have to make the effort to exhort each other daily, lest we develop an evil heart of unbelief. I think it is really the frequency of the exhortation that strikes me most as I read this passage.
What is something that we can do on a daily basis to exhort one another?
Well for starters, that would mean coming in contact daily with God’s word. For if we do not know what the will of God is, how are we to exhort one another?
Another thing that strikes me about this chapter is how we are “there”, but “not yet”. For example, this chapter says that we are “partakers of the heavenly calling” (verse 1), but yet we are Christ’s house only if “we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end”. Clearly the end is not yet and this means that while we are not quite yet the house of Christ yet.
We can compare this with Ephesians 2:19-22 which tells us that we are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you are also being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Putting these two passages of scripture together what does it mean? To me it means that we “are” but “not yet”. We are in this state where Jesus has inaugurated (begun) His kingdom, but the kingdom is not yet consummated (fully realized).
And so while we are in this transitory state, what we need to do is what the author of Hebrews exhorts us in Chapter 3 – we need to hold fast the confidence of the hope firm to the end.