The anonymous writer to the Hebrews writes to keep Jewish Christians from lapsing back into the Jewish faith out of which they came. In the early chapters, he says that Jesus is God. He’s greater than Moses, angels, the priests, and the high priest. Therefore, he is God with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He is worthy of leading us on our journey; we are like the fellow at the top of each webpage on our website and the people on this page. The mountain peak of heavenly perfection at the end our lives is our goal on our trip with Jesus.
In chapters ten and eleven, the writer says that we must attend church with other Christians to be able to grow in our progress of knowing God better through biblical teaching and preaching on our tremendous trip. Our examples of faith on our journey are the people of faith in Hebrews 11 from the Old Testament.
Then, in chapters 12 and 13, the writer applies those precious truths about Jesus’ divine greatness to our lives with 36 commandments for our continuing journey to know Jesus better as our divine/human Trail-Guide.
Here are some requirements, many of which every Christian needs to pray for Jesus’ victory for improvement.
- Throw off every sin that hinders your racing toward the goal.
- Run your race with perseverance.
- Fix your eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of your faith, who experienced joy in his suffering and resurrection victory that resulted in his return to heaven.
- Consider him who endured human scorn so that you won’t grow weary and lose heart.
- As God’s children, your Father disciplines you through difficult experiences and teaches you to grow in knowing him on your journey.
- Endure hardship as discipline.
- Submit to him by accepting his power for you to grow through the experiences he permits in your lives. His results will be your right and peaceful lives.
- Strengthen your lives.
- Make level paths for your feet in order to be healing agents for others.
- Make every effort to live at peace with everyone.
- Make every effort to be holy; without holiness, you won’t see the Lord.
- See that no one misses the grace of God.
- See that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and poison many.
- See that no one is sexually immoral or godless.
I will continue the Hebrews list of commandments in Part Two, which is coming soon. What comments or questions do you have about the commands so far? (I delete all comments that aren’t directly about the posts’ subject matter.)