Reflections on the Book of Hebrews

Got a Gym Membership?

Ask any pilot and they will tell you that the instrument panel in an airplane is first order business.  What is true of airplanes is true of human beings, too.  We lose our way without a spiritual compass.  Jeremiah was right.  It is not within us to direct our own steps. 

This week we have focused on the book of Hebrews.  It is a magnificent book.  The writer exalts the supremacy of the gospel and exhorts struggling believers to hang on to their confession of faith.  Consequently, hearing and drift are important rhetorical devices in the Book of Hebrews.

Responsible hearing keeps us sharp and focused.  Without it we can easily become disoriented and lose our way.  In 2:1 he urges the readers to “pay attention to what they have heard, lest they drift away from it.”  His words assume at least two things:  1.)  There is teaching we should pay attention to and, 2.)  Spiritual focus and strength take effort on our part. In 3:12 he tells them to watch for signs of an unbelieving heart that has the potential of turning them away from the living God.  Earlier, he cites part of Psalm95 which says, “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts…”  He then takes a page from Israelite history.  The Israelites were turned away from the promise land to languish in the wilderness because “the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united with faith in those who heard” (4:2). 

Perhaps you have heard the ole cliché “If you don’t use it you’ll lose it?”  Good discernment is at the mercy of the discipline of reflection.  In 5:12-14 the writer delivers a strong exhortation because of their lack of disciplined reflection and the threat of spiritual drift.  He says:

11About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 12For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

His point?  They had gotten sluggish in their ability to discern the will of God.  Just as there is a difference between milk and meat in the natural world, there is a difference between snacking and real eating in the Spirit world.  In verse 14 he urges them to renew their membership at the spiritual gym.  The word for “practice” is a Greek word from which we get the English word “gymnasium”.  Just as we put our physical bodies back into shape by working out, we refine and strengthen our spiritual selves to discern good and evil by reflecting on the meat of the Word.  Trying to live without consistent reflection on the Word makes about as much sense as getting into an airplane that has no instrument panel.

Someone remarked the other day, “I sometimes feel like a spiritual salmon swimming upstream against the current of cultural messages that discount God’s word, the notion of truth and our calling to be light in a dark world.”  So true.  Who among us doesn’t know what that resistance feels like? 

That’s why we need discernment.  And, more importantly, it’s why we need to engage the Word with our minds and hearts.  Jesus said we should love the Lord with our heart, soul, strength….and mind.  We demonstrate our love for the Lord by immersing ourselves in the Word.  It is an act of discipleship. 

So grab your bible and renew your membership in the gym of consistent reflection.  It’s the best sweating you will ever do.

Holy Father, awaken us to the power and necessity of your Word for our wellbeing.  It is living and active and sharper than a two-edged sword.  It can reveal insight and truth to our minds and counsel for our wayward hearts.  We mess up our lives when we try to call the shots by our own understanding.  Help us to read your Word, think about it and surrender our lives to its teaching.  Thank you for the Word that became flesh for our sakes.  Amen.

Randy Daugherty

Stephenville, Texas