Now let’s move on to chapter four.
1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. 2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shallenter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. 5 And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest. 6 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief: 7 Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. 8 For if Jesus has given them rest, then would henot afterward have spoken of another day. 9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. 10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. 11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. 12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
This is a big chunk of meat to chew on, but we’ll do it anyway. Verses one and two are the conclusion from chapter three. The word for fear here is the same as the word for respect. There is a Greek word for terror, I don’t know it, but this is not it. What the preacher is trying to get across is that we must be reverent about our salvation, and not take it for granted. True, it is granted to all who continue in the way. But Jesus always stressed the continue part and not the done-deal thing. The word translated faith doesn’t simply mean a mental acknowledgment of the veracity of the doctrine, but a fidelity to the Person that gave it.
Verse three would be better rendered, We who are faithful do enter into rest,… Because of the difficulty of translating from one language into another, and because the translators relied upon the Latin translation of Jerome, the Vulgate, there are many passages that are rendered in an unsatisfactory way. I urge as many as are able to learn the Koine Greek language of the New Testament. But putting that aside, the preacher is pointing out in these verses that there is a rest that God has planned for believers in the future. He compared it to the Sabbath rest that God instituted in memory of His creation work. But the seventh day of every week is not the rest to which He refers in the passages quoted by the preacher above.
Notice that the preacher says we don’t get to rest unless we do something to rest from. We have work to do. And that work revolves around love. We must exhibit our love for God and our fellow beings by our actions. I will get to the Epistle of James in a later series, but the pastor of the Jerusalem Church was adamant that we must demonstrate our faith by the work we do. Not all are required by God to live in poverty. But the people who claim God appointed them to live in luxury so they can help others are just making excuses for their profligate lifestyle. The worst offenders are those who live beyond their means. We can’t demonstrate our love for those who need by living on borrowed money. Nor can we show our love of God by depleting the available credit. To be faithful is to follow the example of Christ and to do what good we find before us.
Verse twelve is one of the most often quoted and least understood passages of the Bible. Here is the earliest reference to Jesus Christ as the Logos. But even Saint Paul was unaware of the full implications of the application of the word Logos to Christ. It wasn’t until Saint John wrote his Gospel much later that the full meaning of this revelation becomes known to us. (See my article A Word Study on the Word Word.) Jesus lives. Jesus separates the good from the evil. Jesus knows what is in our hearts, even if we delude ourselves into thinking it’s not there. And Jesus is coming soon to judge based on that. Nothing gets by Christ. He sees the invisible and hears the unspoken. Jesus is able to see the spirits around us even when we deny their existence.
As Saint Paul said elsewhere, don’t kid yourself, you’re not fooling God, whatever you do to others will come back on you. So let us do the work before us in a faithful manor so that we may enter into the rest that God has planned for us.
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