October 20 – Hebrews 6:9-12. Don’t Become Lazy.

October 20 – Hebrews 6:9-12. Don’t Become Lazy.

Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are convinced of better things in your case—the things that have to do with salvation. God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.

Move from milk to solid food, learn to mature in your faith, allow the Holy Spirit to water your soul and bring new strength to your journey.  Throughout Chapter Six, the author has been encouraging us to be more than we are right now, to grow up and live as full members of Christ’s church.

While these first chapters of Hebrews might have seemed as if the author was disturbed at some poor behavior by his readers, these verses tell us just how much good he recognizes in them.  This is the same good that God recognizes in us.

God will remember the good things we have done.  Unlike us, His memory for these things is long and He deliberately forgets the bad things we have asked forgiveness for.

Hebrews wants us to continue our lives with the same amount of strength that we have shown in the past.  It seemed so easy when we first became Christians, or first became involved with a church we love.  But, the longer we stayed, the more things became mundane and we lost the thrill of the new.

Don’t become lazy, watch how those who have strong faith and patience live their lives and imitate them.

One of the fun things to do when studying the Bible in the original language is to see how the authors put together their thoughts.  A favorite type of form is what you might call bookending.  They present a word or a thought at the beginning of the passage and then end with the same word or thought.

In this case, we see the Greek word ‘nothros.’  It means slothful, sluggish, lazy.  The author also used that word at the beginning of this passage in Hebrews 5:11.  He calls the readers slow to learn – nothros.  Then, he expresses concern that they haven’t progressed far enough in their faith at the beginning of the passage … almost as if he is impatient with them.

Notice the words at the end of the passage.  Don’t become lazy (nothros), imitate those who have faith and patience.  I love it when I find how authors play with words.  We miss a lot of that in translation, so it is cool to uncover it whenever I can!