Christ's Commandments

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Heb 10:24 . . And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

Man is a species of life that is quite naturally, and comfortably, inclined to provoke and annoy each other and bring out the worst in their fellow men. It is Christ's wishes that his own make an effort to do just the opposite; viz: bring out the best in each other.
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Heb 10:25 . . Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-- and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

When my brother and I were growing up, we shared the same bedroom. Well, one day our parents decided to separate us, so they moved my brother to another room. When I asked them why; they said it was because we egg each other on. (I guess it was okay for my parents to egg themselves on but not okay for us.)

Anyway, point being, the old strategy of divide and conquer still works even to this day. It's much easier to be strong in a group of supportive friends and allies than it is all alone when the only resources available are your own. It's still true that two heads are better than one; plus, in a group, the right kind of peer pressure can work to everyone's advantage.

For example, there was a time in America when it was mocked as hippy-ish to subsist on organic food. But lately, organic has become so popular that nobody feels weird anymore when they shop for it. That's what I mean by the right kind of peer pressure.

Anyway; when people are isolated, they're much easier to suppress, and prevent from conspiring against a common foe; which is why unions are called "organized" labor. One or two workers alone against the front office are probably going to get themselves crushed but when the entire workforce is united in a common cause, it's not so easy for corporate bulldozers to abuse human rights.

NOTE: The "day" the author spoke of is the Day Of The Lord, in which several judgments are scheduled to take place. The one most pertinent to Christ's people is their performance evaluation as per 1Cor 3:5-15, and the one most pertinent to the world is the Tribulation depicted in the book of Revelation, and the one most pertinent to the lost is their day in court as per Rev 20:11-15; and the one most pertinent to Moses' people is a sort of Ellis Island as per Ezek 20:33-44.
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Heb 10:32-34 . . Remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly, by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated . . knowing in yourselves that you have for yourselves a better possession: one that abides

I think one of the worst injuries to my feelings I had to endure when I was an up-and-coming Bible believer was to be called a Jesus Freak; which is a denigrating label once pinned on those involved in the Jesus movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

It was quickly embraced by some, and soon broadened to describe a Christian subculture throughout the hippie and back-to-the-land movements that focused on universal love and pacifism, and relished the supposed "radical" nature of Jesus' message.

Well, I was neither a hippie nor an organic gardener; I was just a simple guy very interested in Christianity. The heck of it was that the people who called me that name were (I thought) my friends.

Another term I was labeled was Mr. Clean; and that was by a girl I had known in high school as (I thought) a close personal friend. Well, later in life, after she divorced and began sleeping around, my "friend" got ticked off at me because I had no intention of getting in her pants so she called me that name. There I was the best friend and role model she knew of for her four fatherless children and she ridiculed me for being a decent man. (I can't help but wonder if a life of promiscuity was the goal she had in mind for her little ones.)
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Heb 10:35-36 . .Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of perseverance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.

The kind of perseverance the author is talking about is not the dogged determination of US Navy SEALS; which are a group of military guys who absolutely refuse to be beaten at anything you might name. If SEALS were to play hop-scotch it would turn violent.

I would liken the kind of perseverance in mind here as that of a farmer. The hard rock band ACDC says it's a long ways to the top if you wanna rock and roll. Well, farmers have a long ways to harvest if they wanna make it to market. First they have to till the soil, then rake it, then plant seeds, then wait on mother nature to irrigate them with rain, then they have to wait more yet for their crops to grow to maturity before harvesting.

Farmers look forward to their harvests; they anticipate them otherwise who would plow, rake, and plant if there were nothing to expect later on down the road?

That kind of perseverance anticipates a benefit. Webster's defines anticipate as: to look forward to as certain; viz: to expect. As a rule, farmers don't begin the planting season expecting their fields to produce nothing. No, they plan on going to market because they expect to see crops in the fields at harvest time. It would be a very strange farmer indeed who looked forward to the ravages of drought, disease, and insect plagues every year.
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Heb 12:1 . .Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses all around us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

The comparison is made to sporting events-- e.g. baseball, football, track and field, hockey, basketball, etc --where the audience is basically seated in a circle or an oval watching the games.

I don't think the audience in this instance pertains to the spirits of deceased saints, rather, the people all around us in our daily lives.

"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do men light a candle, and put it under a bowl, but on a lampstand; and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." (Matt 5:14-16)

I don't know exactly how the world glorifies God when it sees Christians putting their religion into practice; but I'm pretty sure the world has nothing but disgust for a hypocrite's religion. (cf. 2Sam 2:14)
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Heb 12:3-4 . . For consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin

I'm pretty sure the "sin' spoken of in that passage encompasses a whole lot more than merely something of your own; it's the entire sphere of evil in this world.

The Jews to whom the author wrote must have had it pretty good because it was only a matter of time before Christians were targets for arrows, swords, lances, pyres, and the teeth of beasts in the coliseum at Rome. Even today, it is very dangerous to be a Christian in Muslim countries.

Saturday, August 03, 2009, a frenzied mob of 3,000 Muslims stormed the tiny Pakistani Christian village of Gojra. Enflamed by (unconfirmed) charges that a Christian had incinerated pages of the Koran, the mob burned down fifty homes, cremated eight Christians alive, and wounded twenty others. Thousands of Christians fled the area.
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Heb 12:5-6 . . My son, do not despise The Lord's chastening, nor detest His correction; for whom The Lord loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights.

Correcting a son that a father loves is quite a bit different than correcting a son that a father despises.

Father's correct the sons they love to make better people out of them. Father's correct the sons they despise to dominate them and get them to mind; which often results in those unloved sons becoming resentful and rebellious; if they weren't already that way to begin with.
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Heb 12:7-11 . . If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.

. . . Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.

. . . Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Child training is quite a bit different than child abuse; training builds character, while abuse breaks the spirit.

NOTE: Seeing as how most of us lack a red phone line to Heaven's front desk; there's really no way to know for sure when God is chastening us or if life in general is just being its usual unpleasant self. That being the case I suggest we reckon all unpleasantness to be providential in one way or another; and follow job's example.

"In all this Job did not sin, nor charge God with wrong." (Job 1:22)
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Heb 12:12-13 . . Strengthen the hands that are weak, and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.

That almost sounds like physical therapy; which of course it is. When I had one of my knees replaced, the therapist had to teach me how to walk all over again-- how to walk properly because with the bad knee, I couldn't; and that had gone on for more than a decade. And not only that, but the leg with the bad knee had become feeble because I favored it and wasn't using it properly. So a large percentage of my therapy involved getting that game leg strong again by means of an exercise regimen.

The Greek word for "straight" is orthos (or-thos') which doesn't necessarily define the shortest distance between two points. It can also mean smooth and level; in other words: free of tripping hazards; which someone undergoing treatment for a joint problem (e.g. hips, knees, and ankles) has to really watch out for. In other words: an orthos path is a therapeutic path-- in this case in respect of one's spiritual conditioning rather than their physical conditioning.

Compare Heb 5:14 where it says: "Solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil."
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Heb 12:14a . . Pursue peace with all men,

The word for "peace" is eirene (i-ray'-nay) and means not only a lack of strife, but also the presence of prosperity; which implies always seeking the good of others rather than only your own.

People of peace are in an advantageous category.

"Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." (Matt 5:9)
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Heb 12:14b . . Pursue holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.

The Greek word translated "pursue" is sometimes translated persecute; which implies persistence, doggedness, and/or stalking.

Holiness-- a.k.a. piety --is really not all that difficult to obtain. It's just a matter of complying with Christ's wishes; which we've been listing right here day by day on this very thread.

The word "see" is somewhat ambiguous. It can relate to physical eyesight and it can also relate to mental perception. I'm inclined to believe it's related to mental perception in this case.

As an allegory: at one time I had cataracts in both eyes. As a result, my vision was really blurry because the cataracts scattered light, thus preventing the natural lenses in my eyes from bringing things into sharp focus. After surgery to replace the natural lenses with artificial lenses, I can now see sharply; i.e. my vision's clarity was greatly improved and I'm able to notice details that were virtually invisible before.

In other words; people with no interest in complying with Christ's wishes lack clarity; i.e. their perception of The Lord is fuzzy at best because there are details in view that they are unable to make out due to their mind's mental cataracts, so to speak.

"Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him." (John 14:21)
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Heb 12:15a . . See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God

The Greek word for "comes short" also means destitute; defined by Webster's as lacking possessions and resources; especially suffering extreme poverty.

I think it's pretty much a given that there are always going to be members in every congregation that are spiritually destitute. The idea here is that their spiritual destitution not be due to negligence.

In other words, the spiritual element in congregations should take it upon themselves to make an effort to be sure that the non spiritual element at least knows how to obtain the grace of God, i.e. congregations are responsible to police themselves, so to speak, rather than leave this aspect of church life entirely up to ministers.

The answer to Cain's question "Am I my brother's keeper?" was NO to his way of thinking, but it's supposed to be YES to the spiritual Christian's way of thinking.
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Heb 12:15b . . that no root of a bitter plant, sprouting up, causes trouble, and by it many be defiled;

It's interesting the author didn't say "seed" rather than root. The seeds of noxious plants are prevalent: they're everywhere at all times; like cold germs. Farmers, gardeners, and landscape maintenance personnel have to stay alert for those that germinate and hit them with a shot of herbicide to keep them under control. Left unchecked, those noxious plants will dominate the surface of the soil and muscle out the plants you want to keep.

One example of a "root of bitterness" is heresy; which is defined as a belief or opinion that does not agree with the official dogma of a particular religion; viz: an heretic is a dissident. They don't defect and go outside; no, they remain inside and stir up discontent with the hierarchy and campaign for reform. Those kinds of church members are invasive species that have to be dealt with in a summary manner lest they succeed in destroying a church's unity.

A toxic root that's far more common is tolerance. For example: it's very easy to get used to someone's profanity, vulgar language and/or off-color humor to the point where we think it's acceptable Christian behavior and start doing it ourselves because there's no one to say otherwise.

Another toxic root is political activism; for example civil rights and/or Native American affairs. If somebody wants to get involved in that sort of thing, more power to them as long as they do it on their own dime, on their own time, and within the confines of the law. But God forbid they use their church as a soap box for political activism because according to Eph 4:11-16, that is definitely inappropriate.
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Heb 12:16-17 . . See to it that there be no immoral or secular person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.

Webster's defines "secular" as not overtly or specifically religious, viz: irreverent, which can be roughly defined as having little or no respect for sacred things.

Esau is a good example of the limits of God's patience. Another example is located at 1Cor 11:27-30

I think it's nigh unto impossible to fix all the secular people attending churches, but at least they can be warned of the consequences so they don't go around with the false assumption that God is flexible with their behavior. Same goes for the immoral people.

A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong;
Gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
(Thomas Paine)
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Heb 12:25-29 . . See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on Mt. Sinai, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying: Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.

Jehovah is sometimes called the god of the second chance. Well; this epistle is basically an open letter to the Jews so it's appropriate to remind them that their ancestors, as a corporate body, failed to take advantage of their advantages and ended staring down the wrong end of a rifle barrel, so to speak. The Jews of today are in the very same danger.

"Yet once more" indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire. (Heb 12:27-29)
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Heb 13:1 . . Let brotherly love continue.

Brotherly love is way different than neighborly love. Brothers are kin, while neighbors are outsiders; ergo: one's kin in Christ should always have the priority when forced to make a choice between a brother and a neighbor.

The directives are different too. Christians love their neighbors as they love themselves (Matt 19:19) while loving their brothers as Christ loves them (John 13:34).
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Heb 13:2 . . Do not neglect to be hospitable with strangers; for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.

Webster's defines "hospitable" as: given to generous and cordial reception of guests, promising or suggesting generous and friendly welcome, offering a pleasant or sustaining environment.

Inviting strangers into one's own home could easily result in the murder of your entire family, along with the theft of your belongings. So, I'm thinking Heb 13:2 is not saying that; rather, it's talking about congregations; viz: churches.

I think it's very important to make non members-- visitors --feel at home in church: make them feel welcome to return. Not only is that the neighborly thing to do, but you just never know if that next stranger through the door was guided there by providence and has the potential to increase your church's spiritual value to God. I say that because the Greek word for angels doesn't necessarily indicate celestial beings.
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Heb 13:3 . . Remember prisoners, as though in prison with them; and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body.

"the body" isn't referring to the overall, worldwide Christian fraternity. No, it's a specific human body: the one in which Christ was crucified.

"We are members of his body. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." This is a profound mystery-- but I am talking about Christ and the church." (Eph 5:30-32)

The prisoners mentioned are not just any jailbird in lock-up; but rather, it's limited to those who are "in the body" viz: in Christ.

"For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body" (1Cor 12:12-13)

The tenor of the command is, I think, restricted to Christians mistreated and/or confined for their religious beliefs and practices rather than actual crimes. There's lot of that sort of thing going on today in Muslim countries. America is well-known for its religious tolerance; other countries, not so much.
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Heb 13:4 . . Let marriages be respected: and the bed kept unsoiled; for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.

A number of despicable behaviors are listed in the 18th chapter of Leviticus; and one of them-- listed right along with incest and LGBT --is adultery.

Rom 1:18 says that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, and goes on to list not only LGBT as one of those ungodly, unrighteous behaviors worthy of the wrath of God, but also sexual impurity and the degrading of people's bodies with one another. Sexual impurity and degradation includes not only sleeping around and/or cohabitating, but also adultery.

Some Christians don't know the meaning of "respect" when it comes to marriage. It means to treat someone else's spouse as a sacred object. I've seen for myself how some Christians think it's terrible to trespass on private property and/or steal the silverware when they're invited over for dinner; but at the same time get just a bit too chummy with their host's spouse.

There's a popular song going around with these words:

You don't own me
I'm not just one of your many toys
You don't own me
Don't say I can't go with other boys.

The lyrics of that song-- originally recorded by Lesley Gore in 1963 --depict a defiant girl standing up to a possessive boyfriend. Well; those lyrics may be true for temporary lovers; but are very contrary to God's thinking when it comes to marriage.

There is no Hebrew word for either husband or wife in the Old Testament. No, the English words for husband and wife are derived from the presence of gender-sensitive possessive pronouns; viz: her and his.

"Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." (Gen 2:24)

The Hebrew word for "wife" in that passage is 'ishshah (ish-shaw') which just simply indicates a female; regardless of age. The possessive pronoun "his" makes the 'ishshah somebody's wife, i.e. his woman.

"And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat." (Gen 3:6)

The Hebrew word for "husband" in that verse is 'enowsh (en-oshe') which just simply indicates a mortal; viz: a guy, a male; regardless of age. The possessive pronoun "her" makes the 'enowsh somebody's husband, i.e. her man.

So the aspect of possession is a key element in marriage; and adulterers are nothing in the world but thieves. In point of fact, in 2007, when a suburban Chicago man, Arthur Friedman, found out his wife was cheating on him with another man named German Blinov, he was heartbroken. But unlike many other people, Friedman didn't "get over" it. Instead, he filed a lawsuit against Mr. Blinov for stealing the love and affections of his wife. A Cook County jury ordered Blinov to pay a total $4,802 to Mr. Friedman for stealing his wife.

While the idea of suing your wife's or husband's lover for stealing their affections might sound ridiculous, it is indeed quite legal to do so. Mr. Friedman used a lesser-known state law to attack and sue his wife's lover. The law is called the "alienation of affection" law. In fact, there are eight of these types of laws across the United States. It allows violated spouses to seek damages for the loss of love to a wife or husband's lover.

"The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife." (1Cor 7:4)

A wedding vow then, could be said to be a transfer of ownership just like signing over the pink slip to a car or the deed to real estate. So then, always keep those possessive pronouns in mind when associating with somebody else's spouse; and keep your pea-pickin' hands off the merchandise!
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Heb 13:5a . . Let your conduct be without covetousness;

Not all covetousness is prohibited; for example 1Cor 12:31 where Christians are exhorted to eagerly desire certain spiritual gifts.

The Greek word in this instance refers to avarice; defined by Webster's as excessive, or insatiable, desire for wealth or gain; viz: greediness and cupidity.

Were an avaricious person asked how much and/or how many it would take to satisfy them; their answer would no doubt be "more" because it's in their nature to grasp.
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