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For you both had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an enduring one in the heavens. Therefore don’t throw away your boldness, which has a great reward.
For you need endurance so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise.
Hebrews 10:34-36 sits inside this longer paragraph.
But remember the former days, in which, after you were enlightened, you endured a great struggle with sufferings; partly, being exposed to both reproaches and oppressions; and partly, becoming partakers with those who were treated so. For you both had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an enduring one in the heavens. Therefore don’t throw away your boldness, which has a great reward.
For you need endurance so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise.
For you both had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an enduring one in the heavens.
Therefore don’t throw away your boldness, which has a great reward.
For you need endurance so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise.
For ye suffered also with my bondes and toke a worth the spoylynge of youre goodes and that with gladnes knowynge in youre selves how that ye had in heven a better and an endurynge substaunce
Cast not awaye therfore youre confidence which hath great rewarde to recompence.
For ye have nede of paciece that after ye have done the will of god ye myght receave the promes.
For both ye sorowed with mee for my bonds, and suffered with ioy the spoyling of your goods, knowing in your selues howe that ye haue in heauen a better, and an enduring substance.
Cast not away therefore your confidence which hath great recompense of reward.
For ye haue neede of patience, that after ye haue done the will of God, ye might receiue the promise.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv34–36 34. And took joyfully, etc. There is no doubt…
34. And took joyfully, etc. There is no doubt but as they were men who had feelings, the loss of their goods caused them grief; but yet their sorrow was such as did not prevent the joy of which the Apostle speaks. As poverty is deemed an evil, the plunder of their goods considered in itself touched them with grief; but as they looked higher, they found a cause for joy, which allayed whatever grief they felt. It is indeed thus necessary that our thoughts should be drawn away from the world, by looking at the heavenly recompense; nor do I say any other thing but what all the godly find to be the case by experience. And no doubt we joyfully embrace what we are persuaded will end in our salvation; and this persuasion the children of God doubtless have respecting the conflicts which they undertake for the glory of Christ. Hence carnal feelings never so prevail in overwhelming them with grief, but that with their minds raised up to heaven they emerge into spiritual joy.
And this is proved by what he subjoins, knowing that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Joyfully then did they endure the plundering of their goods, not because they were glad to find themselves plundered; but as their minds were fixed on the recompense, they easily forgot the grief occasioned by their present calamity. And indeed wherever there is a lively perception of heavenly things, the world with all its allurements is not so relished, that either poverty or shame can overwhelm our minds with grief. If then we wish to bear anything for Christ with patience and resigned minds, let us accustom ourselves to a frequent meditation on that felicity, in comparison with which all the good things of the world are nothing but refuse. Nor are we to pass by these words, “knowing that ye have”; for except one be fully persuaded that the inheritance which God has promised to his children belongs to him, all his knowledge will be cold and useless.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v34 Goods and riches.
Goods and riches.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv34–36 34 For ye had compassion of me in my…
34 For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.
Ver. 34. For ye had compassion] Gr. Ye sympathized. {See Trapp on "Heb 10:33"}
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And took joyfully] The joy of the Lord was their strength, as it was theirs, Act 5:41, who took it for a grace to be disgraced for Christ.
The spoiling of their goods] If a heathen could say when he saw a sudden shipwreck of all his wealth, Well, Fortune, I see thou wouldest not have me to be a philosopher; should not we, when called to give up our treasures, say, Well, I see that God would have me to lay up treasure in heaven, that is subject neither to vanity nor violence
Knowing in yourselves] Not in others, in books, &c., but in your own experience and apprehension, in the workings of your own hearts.
That ye have in heaven] When we lose anything for God, he seals us a bill of exchange of better things, or a double return. He will recompense our losses, as the king of Poland did his noble servant Zelislaus; having lost his hand in his wars, he sent him a golden hand. These Hebrews had lost their goods, but not their God. Here is the dry rod blossoming.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv34–36 For ye had compassion of me in my bonds;…
For ye had compassion of me in my bonds; for ye sympathized in my bonds, &c., is a proof of both kinds of their sufferings forementioned. As to their suffering with others, he instanceth in himself, as a witness of it; for when he was in bonds for preaching the gospel, both at Jerusalem, Act 21:33,37; 22:24,25, at Cesarea, Act 23:1-24:27, at Rome, Act 28:1-31, they forewarned him of his danger, bore his burden with him, supplied, relieved him, and endeavoured, what in them lay, his release.
And took joyfully the spoiling of your goods; and in their own sufferings, by being rifled for the gospel; their goods, estates, and means of subsistence, were either by fines, confiscations, or violence, ravished from them; their enemies, like so many harpies, preying on them, 1Th 2:14. So as these Christian Hebrews at this time had their respective properties, and all was not levelled among them. Though they were so impoverished to make them comply with the Gentile superstition and idolatry, yet they cheerfully bore it, esteeming it their honour and privilege thus to suffer for Christ, and herein obeyed him, as Mat 5:11,12, and as the apostles did before them, in Act 5:41.
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Knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance; they were fully assured of this by faith in God’s promise, and by God’s work on their own hearts, qualifying and fitting them for it, Rom 8:15-17. That they have by promise given them as theirs, as fitted for them, a spiritual substance, an estate beyond what this world could afford them; riches, honours, and pleasures, better for their quality than all terrene ones; spiritual ones, proper for their souls, 1Pe 1:3,4. The sum of which is God in Christ, their exceeding great reward, Gen 15:1, and all he can be to or do for them. He is their portion and their inheritance, the most excellent in itself, and the most enduring, out of the reach of men or devils, who can neither take it from them, nor them from it, it is safe enough in the heavens, Mat 6:19,20; 19:28,29; Psa 16:5; 2Co 5:1; 2Th 1:4,5.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv34–36 The first words of this verse, Ye had compassion…
The first words of this verse, Ye had compassion on me in my bonds, prove St. Paul to be the author of this epistle; for who else could there be, whose bonds for the gospel were so known, and so famous among the believing Jews?
His bonds were first at Jerusalem, afterwards at Rome, the two capital cities of the Jews and Gentiles. And St. Paul declares here what a tender sympathy and fellow feeling with him in his suffering they did express: ye had compassion on me in my bonds, that is, ye owned me in my sufferings, ye sympathized with me under my sufferings, ye administered to my succour and relief when burthened with my sufferings.
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Observe next, he reminds them of their deportment under their own sufferings; Ye took joyfully by the spoilers, than it was by the spoiled.
Learn, It is the peculiar glory and excellency of the gospel, that is gives insuperable joy unto the Christian’s mind, under the greatest outword sufferings: They endured joyfully the spoiling of their goods.
Observe lastly, THe reason of this their Christian patience under sufferings; they had a substance; they had a substance in heaven; and they had a better substance in heaven that they lost upon earth; and they knew they had it, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and more enduring substance.
Learn hence, That faith by giving and incomparable preference to the things of heaven, above all perishing things on earth, affords abundant joy and full satisfaction in the loss of them all, upon the account of an assured interest in better things.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv34–36 For yet a little while, and he that shall…
For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come,.... That the person spoken of is the Lord Jesus Christ, is evident from the prophecy in Hab 2:3 here referred to, and from the character of him that is to come, Mat 11:3 and from parallel places, Jam 5:7 and this is to be understood, not of his coming in the flesh, for he was come in the flesh already; though Habakkuk indeed refers to his first coming, yet not to that only, but including his second coming also; but of his coming in his kingdom and power to destroy Jerusalem, and take vengeance on the Jews, for their rejection of him: the kingdom of Christ was at hand, when he began to preach; upon his ascension to heaven, it began to appear more visible; but still the temple was standing, and that worship continued, which stood in the way of the glory of his kingdom; during which time the saints suffered much: but in a little while from the writing of this epistle, he, who was to come, did come, even within about ten years after this, and showed his power and his glory, in delivering his people, and destroying his enemies; see Mat 16:28. It may be applied to his coming to help his people in time of need; the afflictions of the saints are many; they are all for an appointed time, and but for a while; and Christ has promised to come, and visit them; and which he does often, and speedily, and seasonably: it may also be accommodated to Christ coming to take his people to himself by death; Christ may be said to come in this sense, and he will certainly come; and this will be in a little while; man is but of few days; death is certain, and should be patiently expected: and it may likewise be suitably improved, with respect to Christ's coming to judgment; that he will come is certain, from prophecies, particularly from the prophecy of Enoch, from his own words, from the testimony of angels, from the institution of the Lord's supper, till he comes, and from the general expectation of the saints; and this coming of his is desirable, because it will be the marriage of the Lamb, and the redemption of the saints, and because of the grace and glory that will be brought unto them, and because they shall then be for ever with him; and this will be quickly, in a little time, in comparison of the time that went before his first coming, and of the eternity that will follow after this; and though it may seem long, yet with God it is but a little while, with whom a thousand years are as one day; and however, since it is certain that he will come,
and will not tarry, beyond the appointed time, patience should be exercised.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv34–36 For ye sympathized with all your suffering brethren, and…
For ye sympathized with all your suffering brethren, and with me in particular; and received joyfully the loss of your own goods.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv34–36 Verse 34. Ye had compassion of me in my…
Verse 34. Ye had compassion of me in my bonds] συνεπαθησατε. Ye suffered with me, ye sympathized with me, when bound for the testimony of Jesus. This probably refers to the sympathy they showed towards him, and the help they afforded him, during his long imprisonment in Caesarea and Jerusalem. But instead of τοις δεσμοιςμου, my bonds, τοιςδεσμιοις, the prisoners, is the reading of AD, and several others, both the Syriac, the Arabic of Erpen, the Coptic, Armenian, Vulgate, some of the Itala, and several of the Greek fathers. This reading appears to be so well supported, that Griesbach has admitted it into the text. If it be genuine, it shows that there had been, and perhaps were then, several bound for the testimony of Jesus, and that the Church in Judea had shown its attachment to Christ by openly acknowledging these prisoners, and ministering to them.
Took joyfully the spoiling of your goods] They were deprived of their inheritances, turned out of their houses, and plundered of their goods; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented. To suffer such persecution patiently was great; to endure it without a murmur was greater; to rejoice in it was greatest of all. But how could they do all this? The next clause informs us.
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Knowing in yourselves] They had the fullest evidence that they were the children of God, the Spirit itself bearing this witness to their spirits; and if children than heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. They knew that heaven was their portion, and that to it they had a sure right and indefeasible title by Christ Jesus. This accounts, and this alone can account, for their taking joyfully the spoiling of their goods: they had Christ in their hearts; they knew that they were his children, and that they had a kingdom, but that kingdom was not of this world. They had the support they needed, and they had it in the time in which they needed it most.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v35 Heb 10:35-37. Therefore, having formerly behaved with such fortitude,…
Heb 10:35-37. Therefore, having formerly behaved with such fortitude, cast not away your confidence — As cowardly soldiers cast away their shields, and flee in the day of battle; but since God has supported you under, and brought you through all your sufferings hitherto, with much patience and joy maintain and improve your confidence and courage against all difficulties and dangers; which hath — That is, will receive; great recompense of reward — That is, a great reward, (namely, eternal glory,) by way of recompense for your obedience. For ye have need of patience — Or, of perseverance, as υπομονης may be properly rendered; that is, ye have need of the continual exercise thereof in well-doing, and waiting for the accomplishment of the promises; that after ye have done the will of God — Have conducted yourselves as it is God’s will you should, by enduring whatsoever he is pleased to lay upon you; ye might receive the promise — The promised reward of glory. For yet a little while — Μικρον οσον οσον, a little, a very little time. And he that shall come — Ο ερχομενος, he who is coming; the appellation given by the Jews to Messiah, Mat 11:3, Art thou he, ο ερχομενος, who should come? will come — As if he had said, Be patient, for it will not be long before he will take you hence by death, and release you from all your trials. Or rather, It will not be long before Christ will come to take vengeance on your persecutors, the unbelieving and obdurate Jews, and deliver you from all the sufferings to which you are exposed from them; and will not tarry — Beyond the appointed time. It must be observed, though the apostle in this verse uses some words of the Prophet Habakkuk, (Hab 2:3,) he doth not introduce them as a quotation from him, containing a prophecy of any coming of Christ. There is therefore no necessity of endeavouring to show that, as they stand in Habakkuk, they may be interpreted of Christ’s coming to destroy Jerusalem. In the passage where they are found, the prophet exhorted the Jews to trust in God for deliverance from the Chaldeans, by putting them in mind of the faithfulness of God in performing his promises. Wherefore, as the faithfulness and power of God are a source of consolation to which good men, at all times, may have recourse in their distresses, the apostle might, with great propriety, apply Habakkuk’s words, by way of accommodation, to Christ’s coming to destroy Jerusalem and the Jewish state. Christ had promised to come for that purpose before the generation then living went off the stage; and as the believing Hebrews could entertain no doubt of his being faithful to his promise, the apostle, to encourage them to bear their afflictions with patience, very fifty put them in mind of that event in the words of this prophet, because it assured them that the power of their persecutors would soon be at an end.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv34–36 For ye had compassion of me in my bonds…
For ye had compassion of me in my bonds - You sympathized with me when a prisoner, and sent to my relief. It is not known to what particular instance of imprisonment the apostle here refers. It is probable, however, that it was on some occasion when he was a prisoner in Judea, for the persons to whom this Epistle was sent most probably resided there. Paul was at one time a prisoner more than two years at Cesarea Act 24:27, and during this time he was kept in the charge of a centurion, and his friends had free access to him; Act 24:23. It would seem not improbable that this was the occasion to which he here refers.
And took joyfully the spoiling of your goods - The plunder of your property. It was not an uncommon thing for the early Christians to be plundered. This was doubtless a part of the “afflictions” to which the apostle refers in this case. The meaning is, that they yielded their property not only without resistance, but with joy. They, in common with all the early Christians, counted it a privilege and honor to suffer in the cause of their Master; see the notes on Phi 3:10; compare Rom 5:3. Men may be brought to such a state of mind as to part with their property with joy. It is not usually the case; but religion will enable a man to do it.
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Knowing in yourselves - Marg “or, that ye have in yourselves; or, for yourselves.” The true rendering is, “knowing that ye have for yourselves.” It does not refer to any internal knowledge which they had of this, but to the fact that they were assured that they had laid up for themselves a better inheritance in heaven.
That ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance - Better than any earthly possession, and more permanent. It is:
(1) Better; it is worth more; it gives more comfort; it makes a man really richer. The treasure laid up in heaven is worth more to a man than all the wealth of Croesus. It will give him more solid peace and comfort; will better serve his turn in the various situations in which he may be placed in life, and will do more on the whole to make him happy. It is not said here that property is worth nothing to a man - which is not true, if he uses it well - but that the treasures of heaven are worth more.
(2) It is more enduring. Property here soon vanishes. Riches take to themselves wings and fly away, or at any rate all that we possess must soon be left. But in heaven all is permanent and secure. No calamity of war, pestilence, or famine; no change of times; no commercial embarrassments; no failure of a crop, or a bank; no fraud of sharpers and swindlers, and no act of a pick-pocket or highwayman can take it away; nor does death ever come there to remove the inhabitants of heaven from their “mansions.” With this hope, therefore, Christians may cheerfully see their earthly wealth vanish, for they can look forward to their enduring and their better inheritance.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v36 He encourages them to patience in the short time…
He encourages them to patience in the short time of this mortal life. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv34–36 ye had compassion on me in my bonds--The oldest…
ye had compassion on me in my bonds--The oldest manuscripts and versions omit "me," and read, "Ye both sympathized with those in bonds (answering to the last clause of Heb 10:33; compare Heb 13:3, Heb 13:23; Heb 6:10), and accepted (so the Greek is translated in Heb 11:35) with joy (Jam 1:2; joy in tribulations, as exercising faith and other graces, Rom 5:3; and the pledge of the coming glory, Mat 5:12) the plundering of your (own) goods (answering to the first clause of Heb 10:33)."
in yourselves--The oldest manuscripts omit "in": translate, "knowing that ye have for (or 'to') yourselves."
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better--a heavenly (Heb 11:16).
enduring--not liable to spoiling.
substance--possession: peculiarly our own, if we will not cast away our birthright.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv34–36 34. Me in my bonds—The more authoritative reading is,…
34. Me in my bonds—The more authoritative reading is, Ye had compassion on the imprisoned Christians.
Spoiling of your goods— Ebrard applies the words to that disinheriting which even now takes place when a Jew becomes a Christian.
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Ye have—Ye even now have in reversion the better substance.
Enduring—Not transient, like the earthly goods and the earthly city.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv34–36 34. ye had compassion of me in my bonds]…
34. ye had compassion of me in my bonds] This reading had more to do than anything else with the common assumption that this Epistle was written by St Paul. The true reading however undoubtedly is not τοῖς δεσμοῖς μου, but τοῖς δεσμίοις, “ye sympathised with the prisoners.” The reading of our text was probably introduced from Col_4:18; Php_1:7, &c. In the first persecutions many confessors were thrown into prison (Act_26:10), and from the earliest days Christians were famed for their kindness to their brethren who were thus confined. See too Heb_13:3. The verb συμπαθεῖν occurs only here and in Heb_4:15. St Paul uses συμπάσχειν “to suffer with” in Rom_8:17.
took joyfully the spoiling of your goods] Christians were liable to be thus plundered by lawless mobs. Epictetus, by whose time Stoicism had become unconsciously impregnated with Christian feeling, says, “I became poor at thy will, yea and gladly.” On the supposition that the letter was addressed to Rome, “the spoiling of goods” has been referred to the edict of Claudius which expelled the Jews (and with them the Christian Jews) from Rome; or to the Neronian persecution. But the supposition is improbable.
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knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven] The “in heaven” is almost certainly a spurious gloss, and the “in” before “yourselves” should be unquestionably omitted. If the true reading be ἐαυτοῖς, the meaning is “recognising that ye have for yourselves,” but if we may accept ἑαυτούς, the reading of א, we have the very beautiful and striking thought, “recognising that ye have yourselves as a better possession and an abiding.” He points them to the tranquil self-possession of a holy heart (Luk_9:25; Luk_21:19), the acquisition of our own souls, as a sufficient present consolation for the loss of earthly goods (Heb_11:26), independently of the illimitable future hope (Mat_6:20; Rom_8:18; 1Pe_1:4-8).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv34–36 (34) For ye had compassion of me in my…
(34) For ye had compassion of me in my bonds.—Rather (according to the true reading of the Greek), for ye had sympathy with them that were in bonds (comp. Heb_13:3, “Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them”). The change of reading is very important in connection] with the question of authorship. (See the Introduction.)
And took joyfully.—Better, and accepted with joy the spoiling of your possessions. In the spirit of Mat_5:12 (Act_5:41; 2Co_12:10), they accepted persecution not with “patience and long suffering” only, but “with joy” (Col_1:11). The rendering “possessions” is necessary because a similar word (“substance” in the Authorised version) will immediately occur. In the last clause two remarkable changes in the Greek text are made necessary by the testimony of our best authorities. The words “in heaven” must certainly be removed; they are omitted in the oldest MSS., and are evidently an explanatory comment which has found its way into the text. For the reading, “in yourselves,” there is hardly any evidence whatever. The MSS. are divided between two readings, “yourselves” and “for yourselves;” the former having also the support of the Latin and Coptic versions. There is little doubt that we must read “yourselves;” and the most probable translation will now be, perceiving that ye have your own selves for a better possession and one that abideth. They had been taught the meaning of the words spoken by Jesus of the man who gains the world and loses himself (Luk_9:25), and of those who win their souls by their endurance (Luk_21:19); so in Heb_10:39 the writer speaks of “the gaining of the soul.” Thus trained, they could accept with joy the loss of possessions for the sake of Christ, perceiving that in Him they had received themselves as a possession, a better and a lasting possession. (It would be possible to render the clause, “knowing that ye yourselves have a better possession,” &c.; but the parallelism of Heb_10:39 renders it almost certain that the former view of the words is correct.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv34–36 For ye had compassion on those who were in…
For ye had compassion on those who were in bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing that ye have for yourselves a better possession, and an abiding one. For toiv desmioiv , the Receptus has toiv desmoiv mou , which the A.V, so as to avoid the impropriety of expressing sympathy with the bonds themselves, renders "me in my bonds." Even apart from manuscript authority, desmioiv is evidently to be preferred, both as suiting the verb sunepayhsate and as being more likely to have been altered to the common Pauline expression, desmoiv mou , than vice versa, especially on the supposition of the writer being St. Paul himself. Thus no evidence as to the authorship of the Epistle is hence deducible. The allusion is to persecutions of Christians, under which the Hebrews addressed had been plundered, and had succored others who were prisoners for the faith, as is intimated also in Heb_6:10. More than one such persecution might be in the writer"s view, including, perhaps, that after the stoning of Stephen; (Act_8:1 Act_11:19) that instituted by Herod Agrippa, under which James the elder suffered; (Ac 12) that which led to the martyrdom of James the Just (Josephus, "Ant.," 20:9. 1) and others.
The right estimate of temporal possession.
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I THE RIGHT ESTIMATE ITSELF. This is a mean between extremes. To despise worldly possessions, to speak of them as if they were to be trampled underfoot as always worthless, is not a Christian state of mind. The worldly man overvalues and the ascetic undervalues. The Christian, taught by his Master, learns to use the world as not abusing. It is not well in ordinary circumstances to make comparisons; a wise and devout man will use everything for God according to its nature and its scope. But there may come a time when the man has to make his election between the temporal and the eternal, between what the world has to give and what Christ has to give. Then it will be seen where the affections are. A treasure is rot a treasure in itself; it is a treasure relatively to its possessor. Where the heart is, there the treasure is. One may see the pearl of great price where another sees a trifle, as it were a mere nothing. No one estimates temporal possessions rightly unless he is willing to sacrifice them for eternal interests. There is only one answer to the question, "What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" A man will surrender all his wealth to keep his life. How much more, then, should he be willing to surrender his wealth to keep his spiritual hope, his vital connection with the boundless spiritual wealth resident in Christ? This is not a question for the few rich men only; it is for every one who has possessions to lose. They may not have to be given up outright; they may not be in danger of loss through persecution; but they may have to be risked through adopting truly Christian principles of life.
II THOSE WHO ARE TO GAIN THE RIGHT ESTIMATE. In making the estimate, everything depends on the life and character of him who has to make it. The estimate is made, if one may say so, in an unconscious kind of way. It is a personal, practical decision, not a mere speculative one with little or no influence on the life. The decision is made, and some of the consequences of it attained, before the critical character of those consequences is discerned. In great moments of life we may have to decide on the spur of the moment; and the only man who can decide rightly is the spiritual man he whose inner eye is open to see things as they really are. The pearl of great price is to be seen intuitively or not at all. There must be a firm resolution fixed in the heart to gain and to keep this pearl at whatever cost. Once we have got into right relations with Christ, comparisons between his claims and the claims of other beings are not hard to make. In making comparisons between one temporal possession and another, the character of those who make the comparison may or may not be a matter of importance. But in distinguishing between the temporal and the eternal, character is everything. We must have the Spirit of Christ working in us most energetically if we would be lifted above all danger of sacrificing the eternal to the temporal. Y.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv35–36 Cast not away, therefore, your confidence
Heb_10:35
Cast not away, therefore, your confidence
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Spiritual confidence
I.
WHAT THIS SPIRITUAL CONFIDENCE IS.
1. Confidence in Christ.
(1) In His inherent goodness.
(2) In His power and will to save.
2. Confidence in the riches which Christ will give.
II. SPIRITUAL CONFIDENCE IS TO BE FIRMLY HELD. For the better understanding of this, it is well to bear in mind the difference there is between confidence and faith. They are much the same in their exercise; still they are different. Confidence is the outcome of faith. Confidence is stronger than faith, and leads the soul onward to be bold and daring. Faith is as the root; confidence the branch springing out of the root. Confidence grows on faith, and cannot live without it; but faith may exist without confidence, though there can be no doubt that the one is affected by the other, and that as the one strengthens the other strengthens, or that as the one wanes the other also wanes. We see, therefore, that we may cast away our confidence by unbelief. Once begin to doubt the power and will of Christ to bless us, and our confidence is gone. The faith may not altogether have departed, but confidence is thrown away. In fact, it seems to be possible for one to have all the evidences of Christs character and goodness set before him, so that he cannot doubt, but must believe in Christs divinity and salvation; and yet to have no real confidence in Him, no confidence which leads one to trust Him fully, and to go forth in His name in all boldness and with Christian courage. If, then, you are a possessor of this confidence, hold it fast. It is a step in advance of the ordinary Christian plan. It leads to something more, something higher, bolder, and grinder, for Christ and for His cause. Hold it fast, and exercise it. The more it is cultivated and exercised, the more it will grow and the stronger it will become.
III. SPIRITUAL CONFIDENCE BRINGS ITS OWN REWARD.
1. We have it here upon earth. You cannot confide in Christ one single hour without receiving some blessing. If you have this confidence, it matters but little what may befall you here. There may be war, or jealousies, or collapses in business, or bodily suffering, or temptation, or any other kind of trial as sharp as death itself, yet your mind is calm amidst it all; and, like the bird which sits on some secluded twig and sings sweetly while the thunder roars and the lightning flashes, so you are joyful in the Lord, and amidst every storm can sing to the praise of your Saviour.
2. We shall have a further reward hereafter. Self-devoting unselfishness for Christs sake will be its own reward in heaven. Can any soul absolutely confide in Christ and not be made holier in heaven than he is here? He will also be rewarded with the rest of heaven--blessed, peaceful rest, after his toils and sufferings here. He will have the glories of heaven poured upon him in such a measure as he never anticipated, and of a kind of which he had not conceived. (H. F. Walker.)
The Christians confidence
The confidence here mentioned is not merely that trust in the personal sacrifice of Christ whence springs pardon of sin. It is the filial trust of a believing heart, washed from guilt in the redeeming blood, already an heir of God, and joint-heir with Christ. And in what is this confidence placed? In self-goodness, or self-power? No; but in God, through Jesus Christ alone. The more of this confidence the Christian possesses, the more humble will he be; for it makes Christ supreme in the heart. And on what is it immediately grounded? This rejoicing confidence is not founded on dim speculations, on vague hopes, on boasted deeds, but on the clear testimony of the Divine Spirit. In this must be the basis of all the enjoyment in the blessings of the kingdom of grace here, and all for which we may look in the glory hereafter. In hours of distress it ministers consolation. In danger it brings preservation and rescue. In trouble it gives support and relief. It realises not only a deliverance from all evil, but a communication of all that is good. Who can tell how rich in delight earth may be, with this confidence in God keeping the soul; with the kingdom of righteousness, and peace, and joy as its government; with the sure promise that the maintenance of this confidence is constantly adding to the lustre of our heavenly crown! But its highest, its supremely great recompense of reward is beyond the grave. With expanding and quickened facilities, with ever-opening objects for thought and feeling, with closer approach to the infinite, and changing into the Divine likeness, the faithful saints shall reap the eternity of their reward. The apostle here alludes to the conduct of the ancient warrior. The Lacedaemonians were celebrated for a valour which chose death before an ignominious defeat; therefore they threw their lives away rather than shrink from the foe. The mothers of their young men often gave them, as they departed for the fight, the shield of the father, and commanded them to bring it back, or be brought back upon it--that is, to return victorious or slain. So the loyal, valiant Paul bids the soldier of the cross never to give up his shield, never cast it away in foul retreat. Ours is a mighty moral conflict. If we Can cast this away, we can have no hope of succour and deliverance from Him. We must fall a prey to the devourer. Let us, then, resist the various devices to ensnare us. Cast not away your confidence in any sore temptation. Cast it not away should the prosperity and flattery of the world try to attract you from it. Perhaps this is the least dreaded, but it is the most dangerous combatant; for, like Judas, it first kisses, then betrays. (S. B. Bangs.)
Hold fast your shield
I. WHAT ARE THE ELEMENTS OF THIS CONFIDENCE of which the apostle speaks? It is not very easy to explain this word in one English word. It means that freedom, that peace, that at-homeness which makes a man feel bold, free, confident. The elements of it seem to me to be these.
1. Confidence in the principles which you have espoused. There must be certain undoubted truths about which you can sing, O God, my heart is fixed, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise--things which you perceive to be plainly taught in the Scriptures--things brought home by the power of the Holy Spirit.
2. This is the groundwork of true confidence but to make it complete there must be an open avowal of our belief in our Lord Jesus.
3. To do all this you must know your own interest in those truths man will readily let go a truth which may condemn him. Who will die for a truth in which he has no share? The man who can live and die for Christ is the man who believes that Christ has lived and died for him.
4. This means, besides, a full and firm reliance upon the faithfulness of God, so that we are free from all mistrusts and fears, and simply rest in God.
5. Where this confidence really reigns in the soul, it takes the form of full acceptance before God.
6. Upon this there follows that further confidence, of which John says, This is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He heareth us--confidence that when we pray we shall be heard.
7. Over and above that, how delightful to feel that even what we do not pray for, by reason of our ignorance or forgetfulness, our gracious God will bestow.
8. You may add to all this the confidence that He is able to keep that which you have committed to Him; for we have this confidence--that whether we sleep or wake we shall be together with Him.
II. How THIS CONFIDENCE MAY BE CAST AWAY.
1. By changing it for self-confidence. Be empty, and Christ will be your fulness, but if you become full in yourself you have done with Christ. Cast not away your confidence by leaving your simple reliance upon Jesus Christ.
2. Some, however, cast away their confidence by giving way to sin. Old Master Brooks says, Assurance will make us leave off sinning, or sinning will make us leave off assurance. You cannot grieve your Heavenly Father and yet feel the same confidence towards Him.
3. Another way of losing our confidence is by getting into worldly company and mixing up with the gay and frivolous. A child would soon lose his loving, confident feeling towards his father if his father had an enemy opposite, and he constantly went into that enemys house, and heard all the language that was used there.
4. You can very easily lose your confidence by changing your aim in life. While your object is God you will be bold as a lion, but a sordid motive is the mother of cowardice.
5. Some unhappy professors have apparently cast away their confidence in utter unbelief.
III. THE REASONS GIVEN FOR HOLDING FAST OUR CONFIDENCE.
1. Cast not away therefore you confidence. What does this therefore mean? Why, it means this--because you have already endured so much. Do not lose the victories which you have already gained. If it was wise to go so far, it will be wise to go on to the end. I recollect going over the Col DObbia on the Alps, and when I got a little way down I found myself on a steep mountain side upon a mass of loose earth and slates. There seemed to me to be some miles of almost perpendicular descent and no road. My head began to swim. I set my feet fast down in the loose soil, turned my back to the scene below me, and my face to the hill-side, and stuck my hands into the earth to hold as best I could. I cried to my friend, I shall never go down there: I will go back. He coolly replied, Just look where you have come from. When I looked up it appeared to be much worse to try and clamber up than it could possibly be to go down, and so he remarked, I think you had better go on, for it is worse going back. So we must go on, for it will be worse going back. Let us gird up the loins of our mind, and push onward with firm resolution, by the help of the Spirit of God.
2. Do not cast away your confidence, for it has great recompense of reward. There is a reward in it now: for it makes us happy. Do not cast away your confidence, since it yields you such pure delight. But it makes you strong both to bear and labour. When you are like a child in confidence before God, you can endure pain and reproach right bravely. And, moreover, it makes you victorious. And, best of all, there is a recompense of reward to come. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Discouragements and comforts in Christian life
1. There are many discouragements which follow false conceptions of life, and which result from the practical rectification of those conceptions. There are those who enter upon a Christian life expecting to be borne, as it were, by the Divine afflatus, straight through their course. When they find, on the other hand, that God only works in them to will and to do, and that the effect of the Divine influence upon them is to make the necessity of work in them still more emphatic, they are disappointed. There are those who have supposed a religious life to be a tide of joyful emotion. They thought religion was some Cleopatras barge of ivory and gold, with purple sails, and with music and joyfulness within; and though there would be savage barbarians along either shore, that would shoot arrows at them, they meant to fire out of the barge a great deal better than was sent at them; and when they find that instead of being a Cleopatras barge, it is a galley, as it were, and that they are galley-slaves, they are despondent. The dispersion of these illusions destroys all that they stood on; and yet, at that, it is far better. There is many a man who is much nearer the kingdom of
God at the point of discouragement than he was at the point of hope. The point of hope was the point of misconception; this discouragement is more wholesome than was their hopefulness, because it is nearer to the truth.
2. There are those who begin a religious life upon the nourishment abundantly supplied to them in the peculiar circumstances in which they are born, but who have a slender capacity for supplying themselves with nourishment. They lack that motive force which makes religion, and that inspiration which gives them vital courage. Those who are slenderly endowed in this respect, find, as soon as they begin to live a Christian life for themselves, that it is very dull. It is for such persons that the external routine of church duties is peculiarly useful. If they could be held to some set, stated exercises allied to religion, they would find themselves, both by the regularity of these exercises and by their routine nature, to be greatly sustained and helped. For they are persons that are living upon a low plane.
3. Men suffer discouragements arising from the misconception of the relations of joy to the Christian life. They think while they are joyful that they are growing, and when they are not joyful, then they are going behind-hand. But pain is a far more growing element than joy. Sunshine is not more indispensable to harvests than rains and cloudy days. And in the Christian life the yoke and the burden are eminently profitable to men. There are many men who think that religion is an invitation to go into the house and sit before a great fire that has been built for them. Religion is an invitation to more than that. It is also an invitation to the felling, hauling, and preparing of the fuel. And is not this rational? Is not this the way to make true and wholesome natures?
4. There are discouragements arising from conflicts and rivalries between lawful secular occupations and religious emotions. Our whole life is a religious life. The experiences of inspiration may be spiritual in the closet; but the real life of every man is that into which he puts his energy, his strength, his vitality, his power. Wherever men are, there they ought to put their power of understanding, their power of sentiment, their power of feeling, their power of planning and execution. That is the thing for a Christian man to do. And the kind of power which he has, and the moral quality of it, depend upon the influence of the interior and invisible life.
5. A large element of discouragement arises in minds of fine temper, on account of the discrepancy which must always exist between ideality and practical reality. There will always be a chasm between duty and performance. The higher our conception of justice is, the harder it will be to reach it. The fact is, a person of a vivid imagination will conceive of an amount of duty and a fineness of experience which it would be impossible, except by a tutoring of years and years, to meet. Do not you suppose that Raphaels mind, before his hand was trained to paint, painted pictures that were infinitely more beautiful than any that his hand painted? No men are so apt to be discouraged as those who are living far up along the scale. They judge themselves by a high ideal of life. I would not have them discouraged finally; but it does not do any hurt for a man to be enough discouraged to keep down pride and vanity. Men are discouraged, frequently, from a perception of the weakness and unfruitfulness of their will-power--their power of executing what they mean to do. Men resolve, and do not accomplish. The relation between the power of the will and the thing to be executed is different in different people. I have often said that moral stamina lay in the will more than anywhere else. The will is like a rudder. Some ships are very hard to steer, and some are very easy. Some you can hardly turn from their course, and some you can set about by the least touch of the wheel. So it is with men. And they are discouraged, usually, if they find it hard to direct their course aright, because they think it is owing to some wickedness in them. Persevere, and work manfully, with weakness and temptation, in darkness and light, and you will reach your Heavenly Father soon. No father on earth was ever so lenient with the faults of his boy who wanted to do right, as God is with your faults if you want to do right, and will try to do right. In a little time you will know that this is so. Not to mention the other classes of discouragement, I remark, in closing, that behind and within all our personal labour is our God. No man will ever reach heaven that does not himself strive; but no man will ever reach heaven simply through his own striving. There are two co-ordinate lives; there is power within a power; there is God in us; and that is the secret of the power by which we are saved. It looks as though the pointers of a watch kept time; but is it the strength of the pointers that carries them round? No. Down deep below there is the coiled spring that moves the wheel, and, in obedience, the pointers move and register the time. But suppose the pointers were taken off? Then all the springs in the world, though they might set the wheels playing round, would not indicate the time. The measuring power would be gone. Both of them, the spring and the pointers, must be concurrently adjusted in order to keep time. It is God that is the mighty spring within us; and it is we that on the great dial of time are moving round in obedience to this interior force. There is, behind our own will and within our own purposes, the Divine influence; and this truth affords a ground whereon we may comfort ourselves in discouragement. (H. W. Beecher.)
Carrying the sword a little further
I recollect a brother minister saying to me when I was a very young man, I remember being sent for, and going to see a very blessed old man. I had never seen a dying Christian; and as I had read a lot of poetry about the deathbeds of the Lords people, I had got the notion that they all died very quietly. As I drew near to his bedside, I said, Oh, sir I it is all peace now. It took the old man a little while to get breath enough to speak; and when be did, the sound of his voice seemed to come from beneath the bed-clothes, and chilled me. I could almost have fallen, but I waited a minute, and I then heard what he said. He said, No, it is not all peace yet. I must wear the halbert a little longer, and I must carry the sword a little further. It is a hard fight; but I shall get the white robe and the crown by-and-by. It is a hard fight; but it is worth it. I have never forgotten the lesson I learned at that death-bed. (S. Coley.)
Christian confidence
The celebrated Philip de Morney, Prime Minister of Henry IV. of France, one of the greatest statesmen, and the most exemplary Christian of his age, being asked, a little before his death, if he still retained the same assured hope of future bliss which he had so comfortably enjoyed during his illness, he made this memorable reply: I am as confident of it from the incontestable evidence of the Spirit of God, as I ever was of any mathematical truth from all the demonstrations of Euclid.
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv34–36 34. For ye had compassion on them in bonds…
34. For ye had compassion on them in bonds (Revision). And actively showed their sympathy. Took joyfully the spoiling of your goods. The losses made necessary by becoming Christians. Knowing. Knowing that if they lost on earth they would gain in heaven.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv34–36 34. “For truly you suffered along with the prisoners…
34. “For truly you suffered along with the prisoners and received with joy the confiscation of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an abiding possession.” Not only did the Jews turn on the poor Nazarenes a most implacable persecution into bonds, imprisonment and martyrdom, but they drove them from their homes, confiscating their property because of their religion. Here we see how they shouted over their persecutors when they drove them away from their homes, because their spiritual eyes were on their heavenly home, which will never grow old, he sold, nor burned down.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v34
Hebrews
A BETTER AND AN ENDURING SUBSTANCE
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Heb 10:34
THE words ‘in heaven’ are probably no part of the original text, but have somehow or other crept in, in order to make more plain what some one supposed to be the reference of these words to the future inheritance of the saints. They, however, rather disturb than help the writer’s thought. He is speaking of a present and not of a future possession. ‘Ye have,’ and not ‘ye shall have,’ a better and an ‘enduring possession,’ not in heaven, but here and now.
But even if these words be expelled from the text as disturbing the writer’s thought, there still remains a variation in the reading of some importance. It is a very slight difference of form in the original, but the two meanings between which we have to choose are these: ‘Knowing that ye have yourselves as a better and an enduring possession’; or, ‘a better and an enduring possession for yourselves.’ I am inclined rather to the former of the two, both from external authority and internal congruity, though the choice between them is difficult. But, if we accept this as the meaning of these words, we can gather from them important lessons, of which I ask your consideration.
I. The true possession.
If we adopt the other reading, and take the words to mean that, in so far as we are truly resting on Jesus, we have for ourselves an inheritance or possession better than all external ones, the text will then be pointing to the old thought that God is the true joy and treasure of a man’s soul. If, on the other hand, we may venture to adopt the other meaning, there is great depth and beauty in it, representing, as it does, the Christian as having himself as a treasure. It may strike one as strange, but a little consideration will show its truth and perfect harmony with the other thought, that God is the treasure of every soul which is not poor and in need of all things. ‘A good man shall be satisfied from himself, says the Book of Proverbs, and that is no arrogant denial of the need for God, but completely accords with the devout acknowledgment, ‘All my springs are in Thee.’ In the very same chapter as our text we read: ‘We are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of their souls,’ which might be more accurately rendered, ‘to the acquisition as their own of their souls.’ Remember, too, our Lord’s words: ‘In your patience ye shall acquire possession of your souls.’ If we take these sayings into account, we need not hesitate to admit that, at all events, there is a great deal to be said for the somewhat remarkable expression in the text.
It just comes to this. No man possesses himself until he has given up himself. We only own ourselves when we have parted with ourselves. Until we have yielded ourselves in acts of dependent faith and rejoicing love and docile obedience unto God, we have no real possession of ourselves. He, and only he, who says, ‘I give myself away to Thee,’ gets himself back again sanctified, gladdened, ennobled, and on the way to be perfected by his surrender and God’s reception.
We own ourselves only on condition of being Christian men. For, under all other circumstances and forms of life, the true self is domineered over and brought into slavery and dragged away from its proper bearings by storms and swarms of lusts and passions and inclinations and ambitions and senses. A man’s flesh is his master, or his pride is his master, or some fraction of his nature is his master, and he himself is an oppressed slave, tyrannised over by rebellious powers. The only way to get the mastery of yourselves, to be able to keep a tight hand upon all inferior parts of your nature, and to have that self-command and self-possession without which there is nothing noble in life, is to go to God and say, ‘Oh, Lord! I cannot rule this anarchic being of mine. Do Thou take it into Thine hands. Here are the reins: do with me what Thou wilt.’ Then you will be your own masters, not till then. Then you will own yourselves; till then, the devil and the world and the flesh, and the pomps and prides and passions and lusts and lazinesses that are in your nature will own you. But if we have exercised the faith which casts itself wholly upon God, we therein and thereby win God and our own selves also, and that is one of the meanings of ‘saving our own souls.’
Or, to put it in another light, the only things worth calling treasures and possessions are true thoughts that we have learned from God; pure affections that go out to Him; yearning desires after Him, which, in their very yearning, bear the prophecy, and are to a large extent the foretaste, of their own fruition.
These are the things that make a man’s treasure. The inner life of obedience, of love, of trust, the conscience cleansed, the will made plastic and docile, the heart filled with all pure and heavenward affections, aspirations that lift us above self and time, and bring us into the sweet and calm light of the Eternal Love whose name is God - these are the possessions which are worth possessing. And he, and only he, has such who has found them in lowly submission of his sinful self to Christ who has died that our spirits might be cleansed and given back unto us.
Brethren, the realisation of this possession of ourselves depends on our faith. Stoics and moralists and lofty souled men in all ages have talked about the true possession of oneself, which comes by self-surrender and annihilation, but Christian faith realises the dream, and they only find the reality who pass towards it through the gate of trust in Jesus Christ. Then, and only then, will the old English poet’s lovely picture be fulfilled, and the man’s soul
Made free from slavish bands, Of hope to rise, or fear to fall;
Lord of himself, though not of lands; And having nothing, yet hath all.’
II. Note, again, how here we hear asserted the superiority of this possession.
It is ‘better’ in its essential quality. That does not need many words. Surely these possessions of heart and mind and will and desires all brought into fellowship with and filled by God are things more correspondent with the nature of man and his needs than any accumulation of outward possessions can ever be. And surely it is a plain piece of prose, and no exaggerated religious enthusiasm, which says, ‘Whom have I in heaven but Thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire besides Thee.’ Men call it mysticism. It is the very foundation of all true religion. The apprehension of union with God is the one thing that will satisfy the sold; the one thing that we need, width having, we cannot be wholly desolate, however dark may be our path, nor wholly solitary, however lonely may be our lot, nor utterly bereaved, however Blessings may be dragged from our hands; and without which we cannot be at rest, however compassed with stays and succours and treasures and friends; nor rich, however we may have Bursting coffers and all things to enjoy.
The possession which we tarry within us is better than any which we can gather round us. ‘Surely he is disquieted in vain, he heapeth up treasures’- and the very fact that they need to be ‘heaped,’ and that that is all that he can do with them, shows the vanity of the disquiet that raked them together. Not what a man has, but what a man is, is his wealth.
And the better treasure is an enduring possession. That is the second element of its excellence. These things, the calm joys, the pure delights of still fellowship with God in heart and mind and will - these things have in them no seed of decay. These cannot be separated from their possessor by anything but his own unfaithfulness. There will never come the time when they shall have to be left behind. Use does not wear these out, but strengthens and increases them. The things which are destined ‘to perish with the using’ belong to an inferior category. All the best things are intended and destined to increase with the using, and this treasure, the more it is expended the fuller is the coffer, and the more we exercise the love, the communion, the obedience which make our true riches, the more do the riches increase. And then, when all other things drop from their nerveless hands; and ‘His glory’ - whose glory was in outward things -’shall not descend after him,’ we shall carry these treasures with us wherever we go, and find that they were the pledge of immortality.
III. My text, lastly, suggests to us the quiet superiority to earthly loss and change which the possession of this treasure involves.
The writer is speaking to Christian men who have endured a great fight of afflictions, and he says of them, ‘Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, because you knew that you had this Better and enduring substance.’ Joyfully! When you strike away the false props the strength of the real ones becomes more conspicuous. And many and many a time we may experience, unless we waste our discipline and our sorrows, that the surest way to become richer towards God is to lose the earthly stays and supports. But whether that be so or no, he who sits in the centre, and has the light round him, need not mind much what storms are raging without, and he whose inexpugnable fortress is within the depths of God may smile at all the hubbub and confusion down in the valley. If we possess this true treasure which lies at our doors, and may be had for the taking, we shall be like men in some strong fortress, with firm walls, abundant provisions, and a well in the courtyard, and we can laugh at besiegers ‘His abiding place shall be the munitions of rooks; his bread shall be given him and his water shall be made sure.’ We may be quiet and lofty, infinitely above the fear of chance and change, if we keep the firm hold which we may keep of the enduring riches which God brings with Him into our souls.
Some of you may be in circumstances which make such thoughts as these specially applicable, either because dark days may be threatening, or because the sunshine of prosperity may be dazzling some eyes and making them lose sight of their true wealth. To the one class the thought of my text is gathered up in the warning, ‘Charge them that they trust not in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God.’ And, to the other class, the text should quicken and consolidate the resolve, ‘What time I am afraid I will trust in Thee. Thou art the strength of my heart, and mine inheritance for ever.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v35 The need of steadfastness:
The need of steadfastness:
v. 35. Cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.
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v. 36. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.
v. 37. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
v. 38. Now the just shall live by faith; but if any man draw back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him.
v. 39. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.
With all these facts to stimulate them in their Christian life, the writer may well add the concluding exhortation: Do not cast away, then, your confidence, for it has a rich hope of reward; for you have need of patience, in order that, after having done the will of God, you might receive the promise. The remembrance of what they had already endured and the consciousness of their lasting possession in heaven are the best and most urgent motives to keep the Christians firmly and cheerfully confident. For this hope will most assuredly not make ashamed, since it has the promise of the most wonderful reward of grace, namely, that of eternal salvation through the merits of Jesus Christ. Thus the result and reward following their steadfast confidence is in itself a reason which should incite them to the greatest fervor and the highest efforts. At the same time they have need of this patient endurance, for circumstances and conditions certainly do not favor the Christians in their position in the midst of a world that is inimical to the cause of Christ. But it is only by enduring to the end, by holding fast to the faith in Christ and doing the will of God as long as life lasts, that the promised reward will be forthcoming, Rev 2:10.
That this prospect, which holds out the idea of the cross, which is the lot of the Christians, might not discourage them, the author adds: For yet a little, a very little while, and He that is coming will have come and will not delay. See Hos 2:3-4: Isa 26:20. It may often seem to the believers as though they were about to be crushed under over whelming odds; but their final deliverance is near. It is only a little, a very little while, and the Lord will come for His second great advent, to judge the quick and the dead, to bring the enjoyment of everlasting salvation to His people. It may seem to some that He is delaying, that His promise will not come true; however, His day is coming just as sure as His word is the truth, 2Pe 3:8-9. Keeping this in mind, the Christian will be upheld in his faith by the words of the Lord, Hab 2:4: Rom 1:17; Gal 3:11: But My just one shall live by faith, and if he draw back, My soul has no pleasure in him. Only he that to the end remains in the faith in Jesus Christ, that clings without wavering to the consolation of Christ’s perfect merit, and does not permit himself to be turned aside by any consideration from within nor by any attack from without, shall live. Faithfulness and loyalty are the two virtues which must stand out in every believer.
Very diplomatically and tactfully the sacred writer concludes his admonition: But as for us, we are not of those that shrink to perdition, but of faith to the gaining of the soul. By including himself with his readers, the author makes his appeal all the more effective. The true believers are not characterized by such timid shrinking which results in giving up the confession of faith. Their faith may sometimes grow weak under the constant battering to which it is subjected, and may have anything but a heroic aspect. Men of faith the Christians must be in spite of all attacks; for it is only thus that they acquire and hold their soul’s salvation, that they obtain the deliverance of their souls, to be held as the most precious possession throughout eternity.
Summary
The inspired author compares the insufficiency of the Old Testament cult with the one willing and perfect offering of Christ, adding an urgent admonition to be firm and patient in faith and thus to obtain the salvation of souls.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v35 General Information:
General Information:
In Heb 10:37 is a quotation from the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament.
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do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward
A person no longer having confidence is spoken of as if the person were to throw confidence away, like a person would discard something worthless. The abstract noun "confidence" can be translated with the adjective "confident" or the adverb "confidently." AT: "do not stop being confident, because you will receive a great reward for being confident" or "do not stop confidently trusting in God, who will reward you greatly" (See: Metaphor and Abstract Nouns)
For in a very little while
You can make this explicit. AT: "As God said in the scriptures, 'For in a very little while" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
in a very little while
"very soon"
translationWords
confidence
reward
patient
promise
will of God
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv34–35 10:34 those who were thrown into jail: Prisoners were…
10:34 those who were thrown into jail: Prisoners were dependent on friends and family for the most basic daily needs (cp. 13:3). • when all you owned was taken from you: At times, the Roman government evicted groups of people from their homes and forced them to leave a city (see Acts 18:2-3). These Christians had faced this kind of persecution in the past and accepted it with joy (cp. Rom 5:3; Jas 1:2-4; 1 Pet 1:6). They anticipated better things . . . that will last forever (see Heb 11:35). God promises rewards to those who persevere faithfully.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.