Do you consider yourself to be a Christian? Do you really like being a Christian? Have you ever thought about maybe just not going to church anymore or maybe just dropping out of Christianity altogether? Some people are not going to church anymore or maybe just dropping out of Christianity altogether?
Well, this is a situation that the author of the New Testament book of Hebrews faced as he wrote to what appears to have been a group of Jewish Christians in the first century AD who were facing severe persecution and that was causing some of them to give up the faith.
We read in Hebrews chap 10 verse 25 that they are admonished not to neglect the meeting together of themselves as is the manner of some. In other words, they've stopped going to church. And the author of Hebrews says, don't neglect going to church. And some of them, he fears are going to give up their faith. They just don't have the faith and the endurance that they need. Now, how is he going to help them? How's he going to exhault them? Well, he does this by telling of examples from the Hebrew scriptures and writings of those who did have faith in Israel's history and who endured. And he concludes then with the ultimate example of faith and endurance, and that is Jesus Christ.
Now, just as this applied to the original audience of the book of Hebrews, it very much applies to us as Christians in our world today
Hebrews 11:29-12:2 NIV
29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned. 30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days.31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient. [a] 32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning;[b] they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground. 39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Footnotes
- Hebrews 11:31 Or unbelieving
- Hebrews 11:37 Some early manuscripts stoning; they were put to the test;
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