According to God’s Word, true saints do not always take God’s chastening with the right attitude. In the physical realm, parents and others will remind children to have good posture. They should not be slouching in their chairs or when they are walking. In the spiritual realm, the flesh is always trying to interfere with the spirit. The “old man” does not want the “new man” to grow.
God does not apologize for His righteous standards. He encourages the saints to get a right attitude to life. We need to be thankful for God’s chastening. We can grow when we are made aware of what is hindering our growth. We can grow stronger in the Lord when we address the weights and sins that are keeping us from growing.
In verse 13 we see the importance of straight paths. A runner must stay on the right path. He cannot run well if the path has potholes or uneven surfaces. I saw a headline of a runner at the olympics who apparently tripped and fell during his run. The opening statement stated that there were too many runners crowded close together and they were vying for a better position. It seems strange that runners would crowd together in such a manner that they can get tripped by another runner. I would assume the track is wide enough for them to spread out and give each other room. The olympics is a waste of time and energy and this illustration shows the spiritual danger of crowding for position, rather than separating unto God.
In the Christian realm, there will never be a danger of crowding for those who are seeking to know the Lord and follow Him faithfully. There are not that many people who are truly interested in a faithful walk with God. Most want a compromised walk and they want at least some friendship with the world.
God warned of the danger of becoming lame and turning out of the way. When a saint makes a foolish choice and gets smeared with the stain of sin, he needs to get right with God again. He needs to confess the sin and get his “feet” under him again. He needs to be healed, spiritually.
The Bible warns that there are certain choices that saints can make that have eternal consequences. God sets high standards for pastors and deacons. They are to be respected individuals in the local church and the community. They cannot give the impression that sin is acceptable to God. If a pastor cannot get along with his wife and is not faithful to her, he disqualifies himself for the pastorate.
In verse 14 we see the importance of living at peace with others. Peace comes from knowing God and following Him faithfully. We need to keep that in mind. God never teaches His people to compromise truth for “peace”. That is not true peace. We can see in both the Old Testament and the New Testament that those who served God faithfully had enemies. The enemies were those who hated God. The faithful men were not told to speak lies to achieve peace. Jeremiah is an example of a faithful man of God who was hated by false prophets. King Zedekiah pandered to the false prophets and he did not know what to do with Jeremiah. At one point, he agreed to have him thrown into a dungeon where he almost died. Jeremiah was not sinning against God. His enemies were those who did not want to know the truth.
Jesus Christ was hated by the religious elite of His time on earth. He warned His disciples that the world would hate them. He did not tell them to find a way to work with God-haters. Following peace with all men does not require compromise. True saints need to show the world how to have peace.
Notice that peace and holiness go together. This again proves that God is not telling His saints to compromise. He requires holiness of His children. He stated that we cannot see the Lord if peace and holiness are not our trademark.
In verse 15 we are reminded again of what we, those who are saved, are to be looking for. We need to guard against failing of the grace of God. We have already seen in chapter 4 that we need the grace of God to help us in time of need. God’s grace is not the false teaching that God overlooks our sin because He is gracious. God never overlooks our sin. He knows His child will sin. He tells us that when we sin, we need to confess the sin to Him and be forgiven. We need to be restored to right fellowship with Him.
Christians need to guard against the root of bitterness. That is a very real problem that Christians need to guard against. Bitterness will destroy you physically and it will also destroy you spiritually. God tells us that we will be defiled by that root.
In verse 16 God pointed to the sin of Esau. He is called a fornicator and a profane person. We are told that his fornication and profanity were related to his wrong attitude toward his status in life. We do not read that he was a physical fornicator. We read that he despised his birthright. God did not force this attitude upon him, but God knew this would be the case. Our finite minds cannot understand the foreknowledge of God properly. We, those who are saved, know that God sees all things. We will understand Him better when we are in glory with Him. In this life we need to accept His greatness and as we do so, He will enlighten us further to His character. We will never understand Him properly until we are in Heaven with Him.
The apostle Paul stated that we see through a glass darkly now. The writer of Hebrews reminds us of the importance of walking by faith. We trust God, even though we do not fully understand Him. He is far greater than we are.
It is a blessing to know the true God and to walk with Him. There is no substitute for His blessings. He wants to bless us. We need to be willing and ready to receive His blessings. We need to let Him define His blessings.
The Christian life is not difficult when we submit to God as we ought to. When we fight against Him, we make life difficult. The solution is to get back on track, not to dig in our heels in our own way.
Pastor Bartel