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stoned. . . . were tempted" (11: 37). Thus it is that Christ is set forth in Hebrews as one
to whom those suffering or tempted ones could go for help:--
"For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with (sumpatheõ, our word
`sympathy', literally `to suffer together with') the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all
points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."
The words, "like as we are", are a free rendering of kathhomoioteta ("according to a
likeness"). Heb. 2: 17 tells us that it was necessary for Him to be made like unto
(homoiothenia) His brethren; while Phil. 2: 7 puts the being made in the likeness of men
(homoiomati) as a part of the great humiliation that preceded His exaltation. The
suffering of Christ also was that of the world's repudiation:--
"Jesus. . . . suffered without the gate; let us go forth therefore unto Him without the
camp, bearing His reproach, for here we have no continuing city but we seek one to
come" (Heb. 13: 12-14).
Here is fellowship with His sufferings, and one directly linked with the attitude of
faithful Abraham, who
"By faith sojourned in a strange land dwelling in tents. . . . for he looked for a city
which hath the foundations whose builder and maker is God. . . . God hath prepared for
them a city" (Heb. 11: 9-16).
Moses is given as an illustration of bearing reproach for Christ and suffering together
with Him; he refused such a high dignity seems to involve the fact of having had the offer
presented. Moses "chose rather" to suffer evil together with the people of God, than to
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of, and for, Christ greater
riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward
(Heb. 11: 24-26). Egypt is a type of the world, and the believer who seeks the prize of
Phil. 3: must make up his mind regarding the world, or he will fail. Within the
circumference of the "world" some things are better than others, just as the flesh can
produce many things that are lovely and beautiful, yet are they flesh still. The believer
does not say that one kind of government may not be better than another, or one nation
better than another, what he does learn from Scripture is that the world with its good and
its bad is the world still. It is the world that hated and still hates Christ, and still hates all
those who bear witness that its virtues as well as its vices have no acceptance with God.
It is the world, the fashion of which passeth away, and which is not of the Father. We
may look upon the marvellous mechanism of an engine of destruction, we may readily
acknowledge the beauty of its design, the exhibition of patience and skill in its
construction, but that does not prevent an argument that when that marvellous machine
invades our land, leaving in its train suffering and death, it should not be destroyed. So
with the world, admit all you may regarding the good things of civilization, they are all
within the world's circumference and stand or fall together. Fellowship with His
sufferings will involve reproach from the world.
"Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be
called the sons of God; therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him
not. . . . marvel not my brethren if the world hate you" (I John 3: 1, 13).
"Love not the world neither the things that are in the world" (2: 15).