Cure for Spiritual Laziness

We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. – Hebrews 6:12

Hebrews 6:9-12 gives us a pastor’s prescription for spiritual laziness. The house church of the Hebrews had serious problems, including spiritual sluggishness and retardation, a desire to become children again, and an aversion to persecution for the sake of Christ.

The Lord of the church is well aware of the condition of his people. Remember how he told the church of Ephesus: “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first” (Rev. 2:4-5).

This was exactly the situation of the Hebrew church. The good news, however, is that there is a cure for this condition. We want to examine, first, the pastor’s confidence in the members of his church; second, the cause for the pastor’s confidence; and, third, the pastor’s counsel.

A Pastor’s Confidence

Despite the problems of the Hebrew church, they had not yet become apostates. Some were in danger of falling away unless they heeded counsel, others had grown cold toward God, but many were still following Jesus Christ faithfully. So the pastor/author speaks with great confidence about the people of this church. He is convinced they will not become apostate, though he has already severely rebuked and warned them of the possibility.

The writer first emphasizes his personal confidence in them by using the wordpepeismetha, meaning to come to a state of persuasion and conviction based on reasons. We can translate Hebrews 6:9: “Convinced are we concerning you, beloved, of better things-things that accompany salvation, even though we are speaking in this severe manner.”

This pastor is fully convinced that the Hebrews will be finally saved, and he has reasons for his conviction. He uses the word agapêtoi, “beloved.” It is the same word God the Father uses in reference to Jesus Christ: “You are my beloved Son.” A word of great intimacy and affection, it is used only once in this epistle. The pastor is saying that all believers in his church are beloved to him because they are beloved to God. They are accepted by the Father in his beloved Son on the basis of Christ’s suffering and death for them.

Having become convinced of their eternal security, the pastor writes, “Convinced are we, beloved, concerning you, of better things-things accompanying salvation.” Better things! That word kreissona appears in this letter thirteen times. In other words, these people are not the land that produces thorns and thistles, the land soon to be cursed and burned that he spoke of earlier (Heb. 6:7-8). The pastor is sure of better things in their case, things that issue in final, eternal salvation.

He had earlier warned them severely of the danger of apostasy. We see such warnings throughout the Bible. In Galatians 5 Paul warns:

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. ‘A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough” (vv. 1-9, italics added).

But Paul also concludes:

I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be” (v. 10, italics added).

Paul speaks about such confidence also in Romans 15:14: “I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another.”

Cause for Confidence

1. God Is Just

What were the reasons for this pastor’s confidence? First, the very nature of God: “God is not unjust” (v. 10). God is righteousness. He is not light and darkness; he is light, truth, and justice. Titus 1:2 speaks of “God who cannot lie.” Malachi 3:6 describes him as “God who cannot change.” Our God cannot become unrighteous or unreliable.

God is just; therefore, he cannot forgive our sins without reason. He justifies sinners while upholding his law because he sent his Son, the sinless Jesus, to hell on the cross in their place: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). This demonstrates the nature of God. He sent his Son to the cross to prove his justice, “so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus Christ” (Rom. 3:26). That is why Paul could declare, “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6).

The God who saves us will also equip us and work in us. The Hebrews pastor concludes his epistle: “May the God of peace who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will. May he work in us what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen” (Heb. 13:20-21). Elsewhere Paul exhorts, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Phil. 2:12-13). And John tells us, “If we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). God asks us to repent and believe. When we do so, he will save us, for he is just to do what he has promised. If we meet his conditions, he will save us, forgive us, and cleanse us. The just nature of God is the first reason for the pastor’s confidence.

2. God Remembers His People

Second, God does not forget his people. Yes, God does deliberately forgive and forget our sins. Isaiah declares, “Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish. In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins behind your back” (Is. 38:17). The Lord says, “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more” (Is. 43:25). The prophet Micah declares, “You will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19).

Thank God, he forgets our sins! In Hebrews 11 we find a list of the heroes of faith, but not even one sin of these people is recorded there. Elsewhere we read that Abraham sinned several times, but his sins are not mentioned in this chapter; they are forgotten by God. Thank God for this deliberate divine amnesia! But we also thank God that he remembers his children and what we do for him out of love, as evidence of our salvation.

How many times have we complained that God has forgotten us! “Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, ‘My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God?'” (Is. 40:27). In Isaiah 49 Zion says, “The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me” (v. 14). But note God’s response: “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me” (vv. 15-16). Jesus asked, “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” (Luke 12:6-7). God is just and is committed to our full and complete salvation. He will neither forget nor forsake his people.

3. God Considers Our Love and Work

The third reason for the pastor’s confidence in the eternal salvation of his people was their history of loving service. God does not forget our work and the love we do in his name: “If anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward” (Matt. 10:42). Because we love God, we love our brothers and sisters and minister to their needs. God is aware of what we do in his name and rewards us.

God does not want us to be solo Christians, wandering from church to church. We are not to be rolling stones, detached from all relationships to God’s people. The church is likened to a body, a building, and a vine-many members but one body, many living stones built into one building, many branches vitally united to one vine, the Lord Jesus Christ.

We demonstrate our love for God by loving and helping his beloved children, our fellow believers in Christ. The church of the Hebrews had regularly performed such ministry to the saints in the past: “Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions” (Heb. 10:32-34).

Despite their present troubles, these people had a history of good works. They experienced severe persecution because of their faith, suffered public abuse and slander, and endured the loss of their properties. Yet they did not fall away but kept on believing in Jesus Christ, standing with those who were being persecuted and helping those who were in prison by visiting them and ministering to their needs. All these things proved that these people were truly born of God. The pastor is saying that God would not forget their past love and deeds shown to the saints in God’s name.

Not only did these people love God and serve his people in the past, but they also were still doing it. In the Greek it says they were functioning as deacons as they helped their fellow believers. It is true that not all were doing these things, but many were. In spite of their troubles, they loved God and his people, and they worked hard serving God’s people in their serious need. Their present obedience and love convinced their pastor that they were truly born of God and would persevere to the very end.

Our good works done in the name of the Lord to the people of God are evidence that we have the life of God in us. James asks, “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?” (Jas. 2:14-16). Such a man is a false Christian, an apostate, whose faith is dead. John speaks of the same idea: “This is how we know what love is; Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence . . .We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 3:16; 4:19-21).

Jesus also spoke of this: “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. . .’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?. . .’ ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me'” (Matt. 25:34-35, 37, 40).

Some of the people in the Hebrew church were retreating. The pastor exhorted them not to give up: “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as the custom of some is, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Heb. 10:24-25).

When Paul was imprisoned in Rome, many of his former associates abandoned him. But one did not. Paul writes, “May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me. May the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day! You know very well in how many ways he helped me in Ephesus” (2 Tim. 1:16-18). God does not forget the work and love we show in his name to his people.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:10, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or evil.” There is a reward for everything we do, even giving a cup of cold water in his name to others.

How do we know that we are truly saved? We love God and act on behalf of his people. If we love God, we must love his people and serve them sacrificially. (PGM) That is how the early church lived: “All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need . . . All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had . . . There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need” (Acts 2:44-45; 4:32, 34-35). We need not depend on government help. What we need is the church to do the work it is called to do.

A Pastor’s Counsel

The Hebrews’ pastor was convinced that his congregation was not apostate, based on solid reasons. But now he wants to counsel them about their spiritual sluggishness and retardation. He shakes them up so they may shake off their laziness.

Not all of these people were expressing their love for God by helping their fellow saints. Some had fallen into the habit of neglecting the assembling together with their fellow saints. Others had grown cold toward God and his church. They were tired of being persecuted, slandered, having their properties confiscated and being imprisoned for the gospel.

Some of these people were considering forsaking Christ, but this pastor was the pastor of each saint. Everyone was dear to him; he could not be satisfied with only some loving God. Therefore, he exhorts: “We want each of you to show the same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure” (v. 11). Each one! If you have five children, do you love each one, or just two or three? That is what this pastor is saying: “We earnestly yearn for each one of you to show the same diligence. We want each one of you, inspired by the love of God, to work hard in helping the saints. We want each one of you to burn with intense love and work with great industry to demonstrate that you are on your way to heaven and will persevere to the very end.”

These people had fallen from their first love. So they had to come back to their first love, first zeal, and first vigorous activity. Paul says, “For Christ’s love compels me, impels me, motivates me to do everything I am doing” (2 Cor. 5:14, author’s paraphrase). Where there is love, there is labor; where there is faith, there is work; where there is hope, there is patient endurance. This is the triad of virtue. Faith, love, and hope result in intense spiritual and sacrificial activity in God’s church, proving we are truly born of God and will persevere to the very end.

So the pastor’s counsel is, “Each one of you, shake off your sluggishness and selfishness! Show the same diligence that you showed when you first loved God. Come back to your first love! Stir it up! Make every effort to do so! Move out of danger zone of apostasy! Show evidence of vigorous spiritual life! Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead! Be set ablaze by the love of God and the cross of Christ. Fight the good fight of faith, each one of you!” As Peter would say, “Make your calling and election sure by adding goodness to faith, knowledge to goodness, self-control to knowledge, perseverance to self-control, godliness to perseverance, brotherly kindness to godliness, and love to brotherly kindness” (cf. 2 Pet. 1:5-11).

These Hebrews had demonstrated these things before. Now their pastor was exhorting them to shake themselves up and begin to vigorously produce the activities of love: “Remember those earlier days after you had been enlightened” (Heb. 10:32). This was their history, but it was, in a measure, now past. They now somehow had become sluggish. So he exhorts, “See to it, brothers, that no one of you has a sinful and unbelieving heart . . . Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that no one of you be found to have fallen short of it” (Heb. 3:12; 4:1).

This pastor was counseling so that the people could arrive at full assurance of salvation. If we are not obedient, we cannot enjoy such assurance. He was saying, in effect, “I intensely desire that each one of you demonstrates the same diligence you showed at first while suffering persecution, while suffering loss of property, while standing with the persecuted, while helping those in prison, while coming together to worship God and fellowship with God’s people, while earnestly witnessing to Christ, and while living a holy life.” He is counseling each one “in order to make your hope sure” (v. 11). When people obey God by doing his will, they will experience full assurance of salvation. They shall be filled to overflowing with the hope of the glory of God as they look forward to the coming of Christ and their being changed from glory to glory.

Those who do not live an obedient life are hoping only in this world. Deceived by the deceitfulness of riches and the pleasures of this life, such people will have no assurance of the blessed life awaiting them in the glory land. But they are in danger of becoming truly hopeless. So this pastor counsels each one: Wake up! Shake off your spiritual slumber, laziness, and retardation. Labor for God fearlessly, that you will be filled with the fullness of hope. The idea was that now they lack this assurance of hope, but they could have it by loving God and doing his work. Then they could experience this great hope, this full assurance, until Christ comes again. Then they could say with Paul, “To me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. . . To me, to depart from this life is to be present with Christ” (cf. Phil. 1:21, 23).

Every obedient Christian enjoys assurance of eternal salvation. When we are filled with such assurance and the hope of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, we will purify our lives. This hope will keep us from putting down roots in this world as we understand that we are sojourners, like Abraham. When we are filled with such hope and assurance, we will rejoice in suffering and fight the good fight as we eagerly await the crown of life.

The Lord is our hope. Paul writes, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 15:13). An unbeliever is without God and without hope in the world (Eph. 2:12). But a Christian is filled to overflowing in the hope of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, that we may live with him forever. This pastor intensely desired each one to show his first love through obedience, that they would attain assurance of hope and enjoy that assurance. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (cf. John 14:21, 23).

Our blessed hope is not in political leaders nor in our country nor in amassing wealth and possessions. Our hope is in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and being caught up together with him to live with him forever.

The final counsel the pastor gave to cure the people’s disease of laziness was to imitate those “who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised” (v. 12).

We need heroes to imitate, and we do not have many in today’s world. But we have heroes in the Bible, and a list of them is given in Hebrews 11. There is Abraham, who believed God and persevered through all troubles until he arrived at the city of God. There are Moses, Elijah, Elisha, and so many others. Above all, we have the Lord Jesus Christ: “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children” (Eph. 5:1).

I encourage you to find some living heroes, such as your pastors, teachers, and parents, if they stand for truth: “Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith” (Heb. 13:7). We need heroes to imitate and follow so that finally we also may experience the promises of God. Do not think we can wait until we get to heaven. Yes, we will experience the fullness of salvation there, but even now those who are persevering in obedient love for God can experience joy unspeakable and full of glory.