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."-- Hebrews 12:1-17 (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 Hebrews 2: 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]
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