The third warning found in Hebrews part 5

This is the final two sentences of the third warning in the letter and we discover the purpose of it. The Pastor wants them to survive and get to the end.

“We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realised. ¹² We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.” (Hebrews 6 v 11-12)

To the very end.

The end of their life.

The end of their course, their race, all that they have believed has been fully realised and they then step into their inheritance.

Sunday 22^nd January 2017 I stood with a married couple with 2 small children for a photograph. This was their farewell from the church as they were being sent as church planters to an area where there was absolutely no Christian witness. It was for me a most poignant moment for I knew the struggle that they would face. I was in the region of the world where the Church is continually persecuted. Christians carried injuries to their bodies because they were Christ followers. I was told of how their houses got burnt down, their children set upon and their entire family despised as worthless. I asked the question, “What happens when it all gets too much?” The answer that came shocked me. “We stay.”

You may enter your day struggling to get through it. You face internal pressures from external circumstances that are causing you to wonder if you will ever be free. Physical problems, loneliness, financial instability, loss of work and broken relationships are making you feel like you are swimming against the tide. Let the persecuted Christians help you today. They have found something that is priceless. If we do what they do then we will be saved in our circumstance. They have discovered perseverance, endurance and they are diligent.

The Pastor does not want this first century community to turn back to a Jesus-less Judaism. The third warning ends and we need to hear it. Be diligent, keep hoping, don’t be lazy, have faith and have patience.