Encouragement to Steadfastness from God’s Faithfulness to His Word and Oath CONTINUES. Heb. 6:12-15.
“That ye be not slothful, but followers…” v. 12. There are multitudes of professing Christians that cherish a hope of heaven, who nevertheless continue in a course of self-will and self-pleasing. “There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness” Prov. 30:12. Christ came here to save His people “from their sins” Matt. 1:21. No presumption is worse than entertaining the idea that I am bound for Heaven while I live like a child of Hell. The apostle here warns against any evil, indolence, and inertia, which stands opposed to giving “diligence”. “That ye be not slothful.” Pr. 12:24; 13:4; 15:19; 24:30–34. Matt. 25:26, 2Pe. 1:10. “Slothfulness will clothe a man with rags: they must not love their ease, nor lose their opportunities” M. Henry. The slothfulness against which the apostle warns, is in each of us by nature. The desires of the “old man” are not toward, but away from the things of God. It is the “new man” which is alone capacitated to love and serve the Lord. We are warned “make no provision for the flesh” Rom. 13:14 on the one hand, and to “desire” the sincere milk of the Word that he may grow thereby” 1Pet. 2:2 on the other. The hunger for practical holiness, which causes the real saint to cry out, “Draw me, we will run after Thee” Song 1:4; “Make me to go in the path of thy commandments, for therein do I delight”; “Order my steps in thy word and let not any iniquity have dominion over me” Ps. 119:35, 133. It is this which distinguishes the true child of God from the empty professor—his wrestling with God in secret for grace to enable him to press forward in the highway of holiness.” Pink Arthur W.
“But followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promise. 12:1; 13:7, Jer. 6:16, Jas. 5:10, 11, 1Pet. 3:5, 6, who through faith and patience 10:36; 11:8–16, Rom. 2:7; 8:25, 26, 1Thess. 1:3, Rev. 14:12, inherit the promise, 10:36; 11:9, 17, 33, Lk. 16:22; 20:37, 38, 1Jn. 2:25. Rev. 14:13. The reference here is to the believing forefathers of the Hebrews, who, by continuing steadfast in faith and persevering in hope amidst all the trenteredth they were exposed, had now entered into the promised blessings—Heaven. Two things: the happy goal reached by the patriarchs and the path of testing which led thereto. Two things were required of them: faith and patience. Their faith was something more than a general faith in God Jas 2:19; not bare mental assent to the Truth, it was a special faith which laid hold of the Divine promises concerning the covenant of grace in Christ Jesus. It was a practical acknowledgement that they were “strangers and pilgrims on the earth” Heb. 11:13. Such is the faith which God requires of us today. The second grace ascribed unto the patriarchs is their “patience” or “longsuffering” Look at Heb. 10:36 and Heb. 12:1, where an active grace, more of a passive virtue. “It is a gracious sedate frame of soul, a tranquility of mind on holy grounds with faith, not subject to take provocation, not to be wearied with opposition” Dr. John Owen. It is a spirit which refuses to be daunted by the difficulties of the way, which is not exasperated by trials and oppositions encountered, so as to desert the course or flee from the path of duty.
