Do not Drift Away!

Followers of Jesus must hold stubbornly to the Word spoken in the Son or they will drift away from God’s gracious salvation. The first literary section of Hebrews concludes with a warning. If we fail to heed the “better word” that God is speaking in His Son, we will suffer an even “sorer punishment” than the rebellious Israelites did when they disobeyed the Mosaic Law. The Torah was God’s word, and therefore, lawbreakers received severe punishments – (Hebrews 2:1-4).

God now speaks His word directly to His people through His Son. If we disobey or simply neglect this “word” we commit a transgression of the worst kind. The severity of the resulting punishment will be unimaginable.

[Scripture - Photo by wisconsinpictures on Unsplash]

The Letter warns us not to allow ourselves to “drift away” from the definitive “word” provided by God through His Son.

• “For this cause, we must more abundantly be giving heed to the things that have been heard, lest at any time we drift away. For if the word through angels spoken became firm and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense, how shall we escape if so great a salvation as this we have neglected, which, indeed, having received a beginning of being spoken through the Lord, by them who heard to us was confirmed, God jointly witnessing also both with signs and wonders and manifold mighty works, and with distributions of Holy Spirit, according to his own will?” - (Hebrews 2:1-4).

The Greek verb translated as “drift away” indicates a gradual process of departing from the “word,” not a sudden decision to abandon Jesus, perhaps as the result of the “deceitfulness of sin.” It is a nautical term, and the image is that of a ship that begins to float away after being loosed from its anchor.

Fortunately, the Letter to the Hebrews tells us how to avoid this situation – By “more abundantly giving heed to the things that have been heard.” Here, the Greek verb translated as “giving heed” is in the present tense. It represents an action in progress. This is something that we as believers must do daily.

In the context of the Letter, the Word that was first “heard” is the “word” spoken by God “in a Son.” We must cling to this word of “salvation.” It was then proclaimed by “those who heard,” namely, the Apostles, and God Himself confirmed its validity with “signs and wonders,” and gifts of the Holy Spirit.

The purpose of these supernatural acts is not to overawe us or to become the foundation of our faith, but to “confirm” that the teachings of Jesus and his Apostles represent the true words of God. Indeed, the Spirit continues to speak to us through the Hebrew Scriptures:

• “Wherefore, according as the Holy Spirit is saying, Today, if you would hearken, do not harden your hearts as in the Embitterment in the Day of Testing in the Wilderness” – (Hebrews 3:7).

ONGOING EXHORTATION

This same exhortation occurs several times in the Letter. For example, we should fear lest we fail to “enter into his rest.” We have no excuse since we heard “the Gospel preached to us.” Israel failed because, though the nation heard the word, it did not “profit them since the things heard were not blended with faith” – (Hebrews 4:1-2).

We must not “excuse ourselves from him who is speaking,” and here, “speaking” represents another Greek verb in the present tense. God has spoken this word “in a Son,” and He is still speaking it whenever the Apostolic Traditions are taught.

If the Israelites who heard the word mediated through angels “escaped not” for their failure to heed God’s Word, how will we avoid punishment if we “turn ourselves away from Him who is speaking from the Heavens”? Instead, let us be thankful and serve God “with reverence and awe”- (Hebrews 12:25-28).

The Apostle Paul made a similar declaration in 2 Thessalonians. After warning of the coming “Apostasy” and the “Man of lawlessness,” he expressed his confidence that the Thessalonians would not be deceived by coming events since they were “holding fast to the traditions you were taught, whether by word or by an epistle of ours” - (2 Thessalonians 2:15).

We persevere through trials and tribulations by cleaving to the teachings of the Apostles, the unshakable foundation on which the Body of Christ must stand firm, even when God once again causes not only the Earth to tremble, but also the Heavens:

• “This word signifies the removal of those things that can be shaken <…> so that only those things which are not shaken remain. Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace by which we may offer service pleasing to God with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” – (Hebrews 12:25-29).

The Apostolic Tradition has been preserved for us in the pages of the Greek New Testament, and that explains why so often deceivers and false prophets point believers away from learning and relying on the Scriptures for their daily sustenance and guidance.

Not only will the Word of the Son sustain and preserve us, but it will also expose, challenge, and inevitably destroy the lies and deceptions of the ministers of Satan who “masquerade as angels of light” and preach another gospel and a very different Jesus - (2 Corinthians 11:4-13).

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SEE ALSO:

• True Spirituality - (The spiritually-minded man understands that the Gospel of Christ Crucified is God’s true power and wisdom - 1 Corinthians 2:14)

• His Habitation in the Spirit - (The New Testament applies Temple language and imagery from the Hebrew Bible to the Body of Christ, the Habitation of the Living God)

• The Evidence of the Spirit - (The Gift of the Spirit among the Galatians demonstrates they are the sons of God and the heirs of the Covenant promises)

• His Superior Covenant - (Jesus inaugurated the superior New Covenant through his Death and Resurrection, rendering the old covenant obsolete – Hebrews 8:6-13)