Hebrews
11:17-12:2 - We read about
many people who trusted the Lord. Their faith was real. It changed their
lives. As you read of so many people who lived ‘by faith’, let God’s
Word challenge you. Bring your own weak faith to Him and ask Him to give
you a stronger faith: ‘I believe; help my unbelief!’ (Mark 9:24). We
learn from so many different people. We read about their faith. We are
inspired by their faith. We do not, however, make too much of them. We
must always be ‘looking to Jesus’ (2). We must learn the lesson of the
transfiguration. We look at Moses. We look at Elijah. We learn from
them. There comes a point where they – together with all God’s faithful
people – must step aside, leaving us to look up and see ‘Jesus only’
(Mark 9:2-8).
12:3-29 - We are to seek ‘the holiness
without which no one will see the Lord’ (14). This is not the ‘holiness’
of the Pharisee: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men…’ (Luke
18:11-12). It is the holiness that grows in the hearts and lives of
those who have received ‘the grace of God’, those who have prayed, ‘God,
be merciful to me, a sinner’ (15; Luke 18:13). We do not earn ‘the
grace of God’ as a reward for our ‘holiness’. Salvation is ‘not our
doing, it is the gift of God – not because of works, so that no one can
boast’. There is a call to holiness. We are saved ‘for good works’.
Before we think about holiness, we must get first things first: ‘By
grace you have been saved through faith… for good works’ (Ephesians
2:8-10). We must answer the call to salvation before we can answer the
call to holiness.
13:1-25 - ‘Do not neglect to show
hospitality to strangers’ (1). If the love of Christ is to flow freely
among us, there can be no place for ‘us and them’ thinking – ‘He’s not
one of us. They’re not our kind of people. They’re strangers – they
don’t belong here’. This kind of attitude is a contradiction of the love
of Christ. We must remember: ‘Strangers are only friends we’ve never
met’. We sing, ‘What a Friend we have in Jesus’ (Mission Praise, 746).
Do we show His friendship to strangers? We must never underestimate the
importance of a ‘friendly welcome’ (11:31). If there is no ‘friendly
welcome’, word will soon get around – ‘They’re not very friendly’! This
is not just a matter of saying the ‘right words’. It’s about being the
right kind of people – people who care enough to be friendly!
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