The Pulpit Commentary — Hebrews — Section 392

II. Trrn Arn PROPOSED TO us. The struggle is the thing mentioned, but behind tho stru~g_le _stands that for which the struizgle is engaged in. Each man, looking at poss1lnht1cs through bis natural eyes, has his own ideal of how to reward the exercised faculties of life. :So many kinds of men, so many ideals. But God our Maker has also his ideal for the universal man. His purpose is that the whole man should win a victory. Not that the intellect should be victorious whilo the spiritual nature lies crushe~ and dishonoured. Jesus bad a joy set before him; so also have we. And even as the Joy of this world's successes lies at the end of a loug and toilsome struggle, su it must he in the joy of spiritual success. We put struggles before ourselves in order to i;atisfy ambition; God 1mts a. struggle before us to comply with a senso of duty. Here is the proposition of this arduous career put right before us in our onward path. Shall we accept it or shall we evade it? We cannot very well ignore it. III. PRELIMINARY CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS. We are to lay aside every weicrbt. Wherein a weight consists is to be determined by its character in relation to the re~nlt of the struggle. The moment anything hinders progress in spirituality it is to be for- saken. As to the easily besetting sin, perhaps that is best taken not as indicating som~ thing different from the weight, but in apposition to it. The variety of expression enforces the one paramount duty of putting aside everything, external and internal, which would tend to failure. The easily besetting sin is generally spoken of as being unbelief. But it is not enough to look at unbelief on its negative side; we must look at it positively as a state of the heart wherever it goes out after things that are seen, mere appearances, satisfactions of the fleshly appetite. Then, when obstacles are thrown off, we can patiently pursue our path. W o shall need patience because there will be external obstacles-a world not sympathizing with us, and indeed crossed and thwarted by us in our steady adherence to the course God has marked out. But the patience must be that quality which in the New Testament is specially dignified by the name " the patience of hope." The toil, the strain, the seasons of weariness and of special difficulty, must all be cheered by the well-grounded hope of ultimate victory. 'l'ha dreadful thing in all struggles is when they end in failure. In the race run by the Christian all succeed.-Y. Ver. 2.-Lookir,g to Jesus. L WHAT WE LOOK AWAY FROM. For the idea in the verb is that of looking away from one thing to some other thing. We must always have some object before the eyes of our mind, and very often it is an object that will cause the natural man discomposure, doubt, vacillation in his practice. Looking round on your companions professedly in the path of faith, you may feel that they are doing anything but live the life of faith. You may see some backsliding, Demas-like, through their love of the present evil world. And even the best of brother believers have their moments of failure and misapprehension. Then, moreover, as we look round us, we see not only the cloud of testifying believers, we see a cloud given over to the things of this world. To mingle with them in many relations is a necessity of life. Insensibly they affect that standard of excellence at which we ought to aim. We see something which is not God's standard, but in our self-deception, honestly enough, weJake it to be so. And so we must look away from the ordinary surroundings of life, and even from the achievements of ordinary believers, to one in whom we shall find every good we find in man, without alloy, without contradiction, and with special power in us to produce perseverance and aspiration. JL WBoM WE LOOK TO. What a great matter it is to have an Object so satisfactory, so inspiring, on which our eyes may rest, on which our thoughts may dwell I But we mllilt look at that Object in a certain way. As we have looked for faith in Abraham, in Moses, in the prophets, and found it,so we must look for faith in Jesus. It is of the greatest importance for us to see that the life which Jesus lived in the flesh was a life of faith-faith in his Father in heaven, faith in his brethren upon the earth. And what is to be noticed most of all is this combination of Author and Finisher. We see Jesus beginning his course of faith, we also see him finishing it. With regard to othe1· believers, it is by an act of faith on our part that we comprehend a reward to be in store for them. But the reward of Jesus is before our eyes. That reward is to be clearly &een by us if we have any power of spiritual perception at all. We see the faith of one who submits to death with the certainty that he will rise again, and in due time he OH, XII, 1-20.] THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 387