Hebrews Chapter Four, Commending Diligence

 

Hebrews 4:11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.

 

The word diligent can be defined in a number of ways, but context tends to dictate proper translation. In this instance, a fitting synonym to provide elucidation would be conscientious. In fact, Oxford defines “diligent” as, “careful or conscientious in carrying out a task or duties.”

Caution is commended to the end of entering God’s rest. Unless anyone in the church fall according to the example cited in Moses’ time. The word “fall” in the Greek is, “pipto,” and means to alight or descend. It is rendered “fail” once, “light on” once, “fall down” 19 times, and simply “fall” 69 times. In Hebrews 3:17 we find the same word when we read, “Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell (pipto) in the wilderness?”

 

In Hebrews 3:17 we see the faithless Israelites “falling” under divine judgment, an aspect of the word’s definition. In our current verse the word seems to be falling into moral or spiritual torpor, as happened to the Ephesian church when Christ warned them, “Remember therefore from where you have fallen,” Revelation 2:5. A derivative of “pipto” is used in Galatians 5:4 where we read, “you have fallen from grace.” The Greek is “ekpipto,” and conducts much of the same meaning. It is defined as, “to drop away, to be driven out of one’s course, to lose or become inefficient.” Revelation 2:5 invokes a stern warning about the believer’s position. The Ephesian church’s love waxed cold so their works were not being done in Christ but in the austerity of the flesh. Galatians 5:4 likewise cautions the Galatian church that having begun with grace through faith in Christ alone, their position shifted to works through the duplicity of false teachers. To that end they had fallen from grace, or been driven out of their course, or become inefficient. Works done in the flesh will not substitute for the hearing of faith.

 

Carefully note however, that in all three instances no mention is made of the believer’s security or salvation being forfeit. If anything, the warning in Hebrews is a cautionary tale of ensuring that the Hebrew Christians have genuinely believed to the saving of the soul, while Revelation 2:5 and Galatians 5:4 are positional issues; the saints were confused or carnal, shifting their focus from the Lord Jesus Christ to human merit and effort, and reaping a spiritual falling that rendered their corporate and individual witness impotent. Spiritual virility was absent; hence the warning from our Lord to the Ephesians that they needed to return to their first love, “for without Me you can do nothing,” John 15:5. Jesus does not say, “Without Me you can do very little.” No, He is crystal clear that if Christians depart from our first love and do not abide in the true vine we can do nothing of spiritual value. It is the Holy Spirit in us, working through us, that accomplishes God’s purposes for His glory and man’s welfare.

 

The same falling witnessed in Hebrews 3:17 may occur to the believer who does not conduct himself according to God’s will, according to this verse. Further in Hebrews the author tells us that God chastens His children, Hebrews 12:7. Every legitimate child partakes of this divine chastening as God trains us by it, verse 11. Furthermore, anyone who does not receive this chastening is not truly one of God’s children through faith in Christ, but illegitimate, verse 8. Paul wrote to the erring Corinthian church about the Lord’s Supper, informing them that because they treated the Lord’s instituted memorial as a feast or banquet or holiday, “many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep,” 1 Corinthians 11:30. Paul commends introspection; to judge ourselves so that God would not need to do so, verse 31. Yet even then, should we treat our fellowship with God contemptuously and His judgment fall on us, it is His chastening hand so we are not condemned like the unbelieving world, verse 32, see also John 3:18.

 

In his second epistle Paul lectures the church of Corinth again, now misled by false teachers, about God’s authority. “I have told you before, and foretell as if I were present the second time, and now being absent I write to those who have sinned before, and to all the rest, that if I come again I will not spare—since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, who is not weak toward you but mighty in you,” 2 Corinthians 13:2, 3. He simultaneously laments that God will humble the apostle among them, causing him to mourn for those who have not repented of their misdeeds (2 Corinthians 12:21) while reminding them that his authority was meant for edification, not sharpness and destruction, 2 Corinthians 13:10.

 

The author of Hebrews offers the same counsel to the Jewish Christians he writes to. Introspection in determining the nature of one’s faith and in whom they trust for the salvation of their soul is a good thing. Hearing the gospel must be mixed with faith in those who do so, or else it profits nothing. When new life begins in us, when the second birth brings spiritual vitality, good works and a moral alignment to God’s revealed will is now ingrained into our adoptive nature. Like a child can’t help but depend hopelessly on his parent for all things because they are so small and helpless, so it must be (and in reality truly is) for the saint. We cry to be fed, to be clothed, to be cared for, to be mended when we’re hurt; in all things we are dependent upon our parent as a child. There is a reason Christ likened a little child to those who will be great in God’s kingdom. A child’s naiveté and utter reliance on his parent comes naturally; he leans heavily on them and without hesitation. The parent is the child’s first and typically only recourse when in need of anything. The writer begs caution, and to practice diligence so that we may enter such a rest, finding peace in the God of all comfort and ceasing from our works because God already accomplished all of His. If He finished His own works, what can you or I contribute?