_CONFLICT._
"Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great
a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth
so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is
set before us, looking unto Jesus the Author and Perfecter of _our_
faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross,
despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne
of God. For consider Him that hath endured such gainsaying of
sinners against themselves, that ye wax not weary, fainting in your
souls. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin:
and ye have forgotten the exhortation, which reasoneth with you as
with sons,
My son, regard not lightly the chastening of the Lord,
Nor faint when thou art reproved of Him;
For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth,
And scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.
It is for chastening that ye endure; God dealeth with you as with
sons; for what son is there whom _his_ father chasteneth not? But if
ye are without chastening, whereof all have been made partakers,
then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore, we had the fathers
of our flesh to chasten us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not
much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
For they verily for a few days chastened _us_ as seemed good to
them; but He for _our_ profit, that _we_ may be partakers of His
holiness. All chastening seemeth for the present to be not joyous,
but grievous: yet afterward it yieldeth peaceable fruit unto them
that have been exercised thereby, _even the fruit_ of righteousness.
Wherefore lift up the hands that hang down, and the palsied knees;
and make straight paths for your feet, that that which is lame be
not turned out of the way, but rather be healed. Follow after peace
with all men, and the sanctification without which no man shall see
the Lord: looking carefully lest _there be_ any man that falleth
short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up
trouble _you_, and thereby the many be defiled; lest _there be_ any
fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one mess of meat
sold his own birthright. For ye know that even when he afterward
desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected (for he found no
place of repentance), though he sought it diligently with
tears."--HEB. xii. 1-17 (R.V.).
The author has told his readers that they have need of endurance;[329]
but when he connects this endurance with faith, he describes faith, not
as an enduring of present evils, but as an assurance of things hoped for
in the future. His meaning undoubtedly is that assurance of the future
gives strength to endure the present. These are two distinct aspects of
faith. In the eleventh chapter both sides of faith are illustrated in
the long catalogue of believers under the Old Testament. Examples of men
waiting for the promise and having an assurance of things hoped for come
first. They are Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. In
some measure these witnesses of God suffered; but the more prominent
feature of their faith was expectation of a future blessing. Moses is
next mentioned. He marks a transition. In him the two qualities of faith
appear to strive for the pre-eminence. He chooses to be evil entreated
with the people of God, because he knows that the enjoyment of sin is
short-lived; he suffers the reproach of Christ, and looks away from it
to the recompense of reward. After him conflict and endurance are more
prominent in the history of believers than assurance of the future. Many
of these later heroes of faith had a more or less dim vision of the
unseen; and in the case of those of whose faith nothing is said in the
Old Testament except that they endured, the other phase of this
spiritual power is not wanting. For the Church is one through the ages,
and the clear eye of an earlier period cannot be disconnected from the
strong arm of a later time.
In the twelfth chapter the two aspects of faith exemplified in the
saints of the Old Testament are urged on the Hebrew Christians. Now
practically for the first time in the Epistle the writer addresses
himself to the difficulties and discouragements of a state of conflict.
In the earlier chapters he exhorted his readers to hold fast their own
individual confession of Christ. In the later portions he exhorted them
to quicken the faith of their brethren in the Church assemblies. But his
account of the worthies of the Old Testament in the previous chapter has
revealed a special adaptedness in faith to meet the actual condition of
his readers. We gather from the tenor of the passage that the Church had
to contend against evil men. Who they were we do not know. They were
"the sinners." Our author is claiming for the Christian Church the right
to speak of the men outside in the language used by Jews concerning the
heathen; and it is not at all unlikely that the unbelieving Jews
themselves are here meant. His readers had to endure the gainsaying of
sinners, who poured contempt on Christianity, as they had also covered
Christ Himself with shame. The Church might have to resist unto blood in
striving against the encompassing sin. Peace is to be sought and
followed after with all men, but not to the injury of that
sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord.[330] The true
people of God must go forth unto Jesus without the camp of Judaism,
bearing His reproach.[331]
This is an advance in the thought. Our author does not exhort his
readers individually to steadfastness, nor the Church collectively to
mutual oversight. He has before his eyes the conflict of the Church
against wicked men, whether in sheep's clothing or without the fold. The
purport of the passage may be thus stated: Faith as a hope of the future
is a faith to endure in the present conflict against men. The reverse of
this is equally true and important: that faith as a strength to endure
the gainsaying of men is the faith that presses on toward the goal unto
the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
The connecting link between these two representations of faith is to be
found in the illustration with which the chapter opens. A race implies
both a hope and a contest.
The hope of faith is simple and well understood. It has been made
abundantly clear in the Epistle. It is to obtain the fulfilment of the
promise made to Abraham and renewed to other believers time after time
under the old covenant. "For we who believe do enter into God's
rest."[332] "They that have been called receive the promise of the
eternal inheritance."[333] "We have boldness to enter into the holiest
by the blood of Jesus."[334] In the latter part of the chapter the
writer speaks of his readers as having already attained. They have come
to God, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the
Mediator of the new covenant. In the first verse he urges them to run
the race, so as to secure for themselves the blessing. He points them to
Jesus, Who has run the race before them and won the crown, Who sits on
the right hand of God, with authority to reward all who reach the goal.
Both representations are perfectly consistent. Men do enter into
immediate communion with God on earth; but they attain it by effort of
faith.
Such is the aim of faith. The conflict is more complex and difficult to
explain. There is, first of all, a conflict in the preparatory training,
and this is twofold. We have to strive against ourselves and against the
world. We must put away our own grossness,[335] as athletes rid
themselves by severe training of all superfluous flesh. Then we must
also put away from us the sin that surrounds us, that quite besets us,
on all sides,[336] whether in the world or in the Church, as runners
must have the course cleared and the crowd of onlookers that press
around removed far enough to give them the sense of breathing freely and
running unimpeded in a large space. The word "besetting" does not refer
to the special sin to which every individual is most prone. No
thoughtful man but has felt himself encompassed by sin, not merely as a
temptation, but much more as an overpowering force, silent, passive,
closing in upon him on all sides,--a constant pressure from which there
is no escape. The sin and misery of the world has staggered reason and
left men utterly powerless to resist or to alleviate the infinite evil.
Faith alone surmounts these preliminary difficulties of the Christian
life. Faith delivers us from grossness of spirit, from lethargy,
earthliness, stupor. Faith will also lift us above the terrible
pressure of the world's sin. Faith has the heart that still hopes, and
the hand that still saves. Faith resolutely puts away from her whatever
threatens to overwhelm and impede, and makes for herself a large room to
move freely in.
Then comes the actual contest. Our author says "contest."[337] For the
conflict is against evil men. Yet it is, in a true and vital sense, not
a contest of the kind which the word naturally suggests. Here the effort
is not to be first at the goal. We run the race "through endurance."
Mental suffering is of the essence of the conflict. Our success in
winning the prize does not mean the failure of others. The failure of
our rivals does not imply that we attain the mark. In fact, the
Christian life is not the competition of rivals, but the enduring of
shame at the hands of evil men, which endurance is a discipline. Maybe
we do not sufficiently lay to heart that the discipline of life consists
mainly in overcoming rightly and well the antagonism of men. The one
bitterness in the life of our Lord Himself was the malice of the wicked.
Apart from that unrelenting hatred we may regard His short life as
serenely happy. The warning which He addressed to His disciples was that
they should beware of men. But, though wisdom is necessary, the
conflict must not be shunned. When it is over, nothing will more
astonish the man of faith than that he should have been afraid, so weak
did malice prove to be.
To run our course successfully, we must keep our eyes steadily fixed on
Jesus.[338] It is true we are compassed about with a cloud of God's
faithful witnesses. But they are a cloud. The word signifies not merely
that they are a large multitude, but also that we cannot distinguish
individuals in the immense gathering of those who have gone before. The
Church has always cherished a hope that the saints of heaven are near
us, perhaps seeing our efforts to follow their glorious example. Beyond
this we dare not go. Personal communion is possible to the believer on
earth with One only of the inhabitants of the spiritual world. That One
is Jesus Christ. Even faith cannot discern the individual saints that
compose the cloud. But it can look away from all of them to Jesus. It
looks unto Jesus as He is and as He was: as He is for help; as He was
for a perfect example.
1. Faith regards Jesus as He is,--the "Leader and Perfecter." The words
are an allusion to what the writer has already told us in the Epistle
concerning Jesus. He is "the Captain or Leader of our salvation,"[339]
and "by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are
sanctified."[340] He leads onward our faith till we attain the goal, and
for every advance we make in the course He strengthens, sustains, and in
the end completes our faith. The runner, when he seizes the crown, will
not be found to have been exhausted by his efforts. High attainments
demand a correspondingly great faith.
Many expositors think the words which we have rendered "Leader" and
"Perfecter" refer to Christ's own faith. But the words will hardly admit
of this meaning. Others think they are intended to convey the notion
that Christ is the Author of our faith in its weak beginnings and the
Finisher of it when it attains perfection. But the use which the Apostle
has made of the words "Leader of salvation" in chap. ii. seems to prove
that here also he understands by "Leader" One Who will bring our faith
onward safely to the end of the course. The distinction is rather
between rendering us certain of winning the crown and making our faith
large and noble enough to be worthy of wearing it.
2. Faith regards Jesus as He was on earth, the perfect example of
victory through endurance. He has acquired His power to lead onward and
to make perfect our faith by His own exercise of faith. He is "Leader"
because He is "Forerunner;"[341] He is "Perfecter" because He Himself
has been perfected.[342] He endured a cross. The author leaves it to his
readers to imagine all that is implied in the awful word. More is
involved in the Cross than shame. For the shame of the Cross He could
afford to despise. But there was in the Cross what He did not despise;
yea, what drew tears and strong cries from Him in the agony of His soul.
Concerning _this_, whatever it was, the author is here silent, because
it was peculiar to Christ, and could never become an example to others,
except indeed in the faith that enabled Him to endure it.
Even in the gainsaying of men there was an element which He did not
despise, but endured. He understood that their gainsaying was against
themselves.[343] It would end, not merely in putting Him to an open
shame, but in their own destruction. This caused keen suffering to His
holy and loving spirit. But He endured it, as He endured the Cross
itself in all its mysterious import. He did not permit the sin and
perdition of the world to overwhelm Him. His faith resolutely put away
from Him the deadly pressure. On the one hand, He did not despise sin;
on the other, He was not crushed by its weight. He calmly endured.
But He endured through faith, as an assurance of things hoped for and
the proving of things not seen. He hoped to attain the joy which was set
before Him as the prize to be won. The connection of the thought with
the general subject of the whole passage satisfies us that the words
translated "for the joy set before Him" are correctly so rendered, and
do not mean that Christ chose the suffering and shame of the Cross in
preference to the enjoyment of sin. This also is perfectly true, and
more true of Christ than it was even of Moses. But the Apostle's main
idea throughout is that faith in the form of assurance and faith in the
form of enduring go together. Jesus endured because He looked for a
future joy as His recompense of reward; He attained the joy through His
endurance.
But, as more than shame was involved in His Cross, more also than joy
was reserved for Him in reward. Through His Cross He became "the Leader
and Perfecter" of our faith. He was exalted to be the Sanctifier of His
people. "He has sat down on the right hand of God."
Our author proceeds: Weigh this in the balance.[344] Compare this
quality of faith with your own. Consider who He was and what you are.
When you have well understood the difference, remember that He endured,
as you endure, by faith. He put His trust in God.[345] He was faithful
to Him Who had constituted Him what He became through His assumption of
flesh and blood.[346] He offered prayers and supplications to Him Who
was able to save Him out of death, yet piously committed Himself to the
hands of God. The gainsaying of men brought Him to the bloody death of
the Cross. You also are marshalled in battle array, in the conflict
against the sin of the world. But the Leader only has shed His blood--as
yet. Your hour may be drawing nigh! Therefore be not weary in striving
to reach the goal! Faint not in enduring the conflict! The two sides of
faith are still in the author's thoughts.
It would naturally occur to the readers of the Epistle to ask why they
might not end their difficulties by shunning the conflict. Why might
they not enter into fellowship with God without coming into conflict
with men? But this cannot be. Communion with God requires personal
fitness of character, and manifests itself in inward peace. This
fitness, again, is the result of discipline, and the discipline implies
endurance. "It is for discipline that ye endure."[347]
The word translated "discipline" suggests the notion of a child with
his father. But it is noteworthy that the Apostle does not use the word
"children" in his illustration, but the word "sons." This was occasioned
partly by the fact that the citation from the Book of Proverbs speaks of
"sons." But, in addition to this, the author's mind seems to be still
lingering with the remembrance of Him Who was Son of God. For discipline
is the lot and privilege of all sons. Who is a son whom his father does
not discipline? There might have been One. But even He humbled Himself
to learn obedience through sufferings. Absolutely every son undergoes
discipline.
Furthermore, the fathers of our bodies kept us under discipline, and we
not only submitted, but even gave them reverence, though their
discipline was not intended to have effect for more than the few days of
our pupilage, and though in that short time they were liable to error in
their treatment of us. How much more shall we subject ourselves to the
discipline of God! He is not only the God of all spirits and of all
flesh,[348] but also the Father of our spirits; that is, He has created
our spirit after His own likeness, and made it capable, through
discipline, of partaking in His own holiness, which will be our true and
everlasting life. The gardener breaks the hard ground, uproots weeds,
lops off branches; but the consequence of his rough treatment is that
the fruit at last hangs on the bough. We are God's tillage. Our conflict
with men and their sin is watched and guided by a Father, The fruit
consists in the calm after the storm, the peace of a good conscience,
the silencing of accusers, the putting wicked men to shame, the
reverence which righteousness extorts even from enemies. In the same
book from which our author has cited far-reaching instruction, we are
told that "when a man's ways please the Lord, He maketh even his enemies
to be at peace with him."[349]
Here, again, the Apostle addresses his readers as members of the Church
in its conflict with men. He tells them that, in doing what is incumbent
upon them as a Church towards different classes of men, they secure for
themselves individually the discipline of sons and may hope to reap the
fruit of that discipline in peace and righteousness. The Church has a
duty to perform towards the weaker brethren, towards the enemy at the
gate, and towards the Esaus whose worldliness imperils the purity of
others.
1. There were among them weaker brethren, the nerves of whose hands and
knees were unstrung. They could neither combat a foe nor run the race.
It was for the Church to smooth the ruggedness of the road before its
feet, that the lame things[350] (for so, with something of contempt, he
names the waverers) might not be turned out of the course by the
pressure of the other runners. Rather than permit this, let the Church
lift up their drooping hands and sustain their palsied knees, that they
may be healed of their lameness.
2. As to enemies and persecutors, it is the duty of the Church to follow
after peace with all men, as much as in her lies. Christians may
sacrifice almost anything for peace, but not their own priestly
consecration, without which no man shall see the Lord Jesus at His
appearing. He will be seen only by those who eagerly expect Him unto
salvation.[351]
3. The consecration of the Church is maintained by watchfulness[352]
against every tendency to alienation from the grace of God, to
bitterness against God and the brethren, to sensuality and profane
worldliness. All must watch over themselves and over all the brethren.
The danger, too, increases if it is neglected. It begins in withdrawing
from[353] the Church assemblies, where the influences of grace are
manifested. It grows into the poisonous plant of a bitter spirit, which,
"like a root that beareth gall and wormwood," spreads through "a family
or tribe,"[354] and turns away their heart from the Lord to go and serve
the gods of the nations. "The many are defiled." The Church as a whole
becomes infected. But bitterness of spirit is not the only fruit of
selfishness. On the same tree sensuality grows, which God will punish
when the Church cannot detect its presence.[355]
From the stem of selfishness, which will not brook the restraints of
Church communion, springs, last and most dangerous of all, the profane,
worldly spirit, which denies and mocks the very idea of consecration. It
is the spirit of Esau, who bartered the right of the first-born to the
promise of the covenant for one mess of pottage. The author calls
attention to the incident, as it displays Esau's contempt of the promise
made to Abraham and his own father Isaac. His thoughts never rose above
the earth. "What profit shall this birthright do to me?"[356] We must
distinguish between the birthright and the blessing. The former carried
with it the great promise given to Abraham with an oath on Moriah: "In
thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed."[357] Possession
of it did not depend on Isaac's fond blessing. It belonged to Esau by
right of birth till he sold it to Jacob. But Isaac's blessing, which he
intended for Esau because he loved him, meant more especially lordship
over his brethren. Esau plainly distinguishes the two things: "Is not he
rightly named Jacob? For he hath supplanted me these two times: he took
away my birthright, and behold, now he hath taken away my
blessing."[358] When he found that Jacob had supplanted him a second
time, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and sought
diligently, not the birthright, which was of a religious nature, but the
dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and
wine, and the homage of his mother's sons. But he had sold the greater
good and, by doing so, forfeited the lesser. The Apostle recognises,
beyond the subtilty of Jacob and behind the blessing of Isaac, the
Divine retribution. His selling the birthright was not the merely rash
act of a sorely tempted youth. He continued to despise the covenant.
When he was forty years old, he took wives of the daughters of the
Canaanites. Abraham had made his servant swear that he would go to the
city of Nahor to take a wife unto Isaac; and Rebekah, true to the
instinct of faith, was weary of her life because of the daughters of
Heth. But Esau cared for none of these things. The day on which Jacob
took away the blessing marks the crisis in Esau's life. He still
despised the covenant and sought only worldly lordship and plenty. For
this profane scorn of the spiritual promise made to Abraham and Isaac,
Esau not only lost the blessing which he sought, but was himself
rejected. The Apostle reminds his readers that they know it to have been
so from Esau's subsequent history. They would not fail to see in him an
example of the terrible doom described by the Apostle himself in a
previous chapter. Esau was like the earth that brings forth thorns and
thistles and is "rejected."[359] The grace of repentance was denied
him.[360]
FOOTNOTES:
[329] =hypomonê= (x. 36).
[330] Chap. xii. 14.
[331] Chap. xiii. 13.
[332] Chap. iv. 3.
[333] Chap. ix. 15.
[334] Chap. x. 19.
[335] =onkon= (xii. 1).
[336] =euperistaton=.
[337] =agôna=.
[338] Chap. xii. 2.
[339] =archêgon= (ii. 10).
[340] =teteleiôken= (x. 14).
[341] =prodromos= (vi. 20).
[342] =teteleiômenon= (vii. 28).
[343] Reading =eis heautous= (xii. 3).
[344] =analogisasthe= (xii. 3).
[345] Chap. ii. 13.
[346] Chap. iii. 2.
[347] =eis paideian hypomenete= (xii. 7, where the verb is indicative,
not imperative).
[348] Num. xvi. 22.
[349] Prov. xvi. 7.
[350] =to chôlon= (xii. 13).
[351] Chap. ix. 28.
[352] =epispkopountes= (xii. 15).
[353] =hysterôn apo=.
[354] Deut. xxix. 18.
[355] Chap. xiii. 4. Cf. Rom. i. 18 sqq.
[356] Gen. xxv. 32.
[357] Gen. xxii. 18.
[358] Gen. xxvii. 36.
[359] =adokimos= (vi. 8).
[360] Chap. vi. 6.