PERFECTION

PERDITION

OR

Let us ... let us ... let us. Three times over comes the beseeching command, let us draw near, let us hold fast, let

us consider one another. The first is God-ward, the second is personal, the third is for others.

Let us hold fast the profession of our hope without wavering. The word here (elpis) is hope, not faith, and refers

to `that better hope whereby we draw near to God' (7:19). This must be held at all costs `without wavering'. This

firm hold of the hope and its profession is in view in Hebrews 3:6 and 14, and to this all the exhortations to endure

are directed. Without wavering (aklimes) may be translated `without bending'. It is the exact opposite of klino

`turned to flight' (Heb. 11:34).

For He is faithful that promised. Much is made of the promises in this epistle, indeed epaggelia occurs therein

fourteen times. Much is made too of the faithfulness of the Promiser, especially in Hebrews 6:13-19.

Let us consider one another. There is a false piety that believes that God is well pleased with a monastic

isolation, that God only wrote four commandments and not ten, and that has no room for the love of neighbour, as a

corollary to the love of God. This is a travesty of truth. `He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can

he love God Whom he hath not seen?' (1 John 4:20). The special `provoking' here is to `love and to good works'.

The word `good' here is not agathos, but kalos as in Hebrews 5:14; 6:5.

Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is. The usual interpretation of this

passage associates it with attendance at a Christian place of worship.

The word `assembling' (episunagoge), and its cognate (episunago), are never used of an `assembling' in the

sense of attending service at church. Epislmago is used in Matthew 23:37 and its parallel passage for the Lord's

desire to gather the children of Jerusalem to Himself as a hen does her chickens. It is used in Matthew 24:31 and its

parallel passage of the gathering together of the elect by the angels. It is used in Mark 1:33 and Luke 12:1, for the

crowd who gathered for healing or interest. The only other place where episunagoge occurs is 2 Thessalonians 2:1,

`The coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto Him'. The apostle by the use of the word

`forsaking' evidently glances back to such passages as 2 Chronicles 24:18, where the `forsaking' of the house of the

Lord meant apostasy, and was visited with wrath, and also to Nehemiah 10:39 and 13:11, where adherence to the

house of God indicated loyalty. The `gathering together of ourselves' has value only as it foreshadows the hope of

`our gathering together unto Him'. At the present time faithfulness to truth and to the blessed hope sometimes cuts

us off from Christian assemblies, and this passage must never be used to justify compromise. The present

dispensation knows no `place of worship' except where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God, for God dwelleth not

in temples made with hands. Churches and chapels are conveniences, not essentials.

The added words, `so much the more, as ye see the day approaching', confirms the thought that the hope and its

gathering together is all the while in view.

A further confirmation of this higher and fuller meaning is found in the argument that immediately follows. The

forsaking of the assembly is called a `wilful sin after the reception of the truth', and for such `there remaineth no

more sacrifice for sins'. Under the law sins were placed under two heads:

(1) Sins of omission, ignorance, and inadvertence (Lev. 4:2, etc.).

(2) Sins of presumption, high hand, malice aforethought (Num. 15:30,31).

Apostasy from the profession of the hope had the character of presumptuous sin, for which the law made no

provision. That David (as in Psa. 51), for example, could be forgiven, shows that a fuller Sacrifice is found under

the gospel than under the law, but the apostle does not bring this forward, neither does he mitigate the severity of the

judgment that is pronounced against such. `Fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries', `died without

mercy', `of how much sorer punishment', `vengeance is Mine', `it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the

living God', all stress the extreme severity of the penalty. `Trodden under foot the Son of God', `counting the blood

of the Covenant unholy', `doing despite to the Spirit of grace', these terms reveal the enormity of the sin of turning

back to Judaism. In this light, Hebrews 6:1-8 is to be read, to which the word `illuminated' of 10:32 evidently

refers. These are the only occurrences of photizo in Hebrews.