To Encourage You

Hebrews 3:1 “Consider Jesus”

If the book of Hebrews and in fact the entire Bible could be summed up in two words, I suppose those two words would be those above: consider Jesus.  The word “consider” here means “to observe fully; to fix one’s eyes or mind upon.”  So, have you done that today? 

As I think about this, I think about all the things we can consider on any given day.  Perhaps you are suffering from an illness or some other problem with your health.  If so, it’s likely that you’ve thought about that today.  Maybe you’ve been thinking about what you are going to do today – be it in the workplace or at home. Perhaps you’ve been thinking about an upcoming vacation – or the lack of one for one reason or other. If you’ve had the TV on already, are the things you’ve seen and heard there – be it the news, the jokes of a comedian, a game show, or who knows what else – the things you’ve been thinking about?  Maybe it’s some concern about a loved one who’s facing difficulties of some type.  Is that what you’ve been thinking about?  But have you made the main thing the main thing today? Have you considered Jesus? 

You see, the command above is given to Christians, and the preceding words describe Christians in these terms: “holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling.”  Those words are a brief summary of what makes believers different from other people in the world.  They are called holy, i.e., set apart, sanctified, consecrated to God for His purposes.  They are called “brothers (and sisters)” in that designation.  It’s as the apostle John exclaimed in 1 John 3:1, (I really like how the NIV version translates it) “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”  It’s such an incredible truth, that we’ve been born again into the family of God. 

And then we are told that we have a “heavenly calling,” i.e., we’ve all been invited to share in the inexpressible, incomprehensible, immeasurable, infinite, eternal joys and privileges of a home in heaven – it’s a reality that is so certain that we have been told that we are already “raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6). 

Then as you think about these things, do you realize that none of it would be possible apart from Jesus?  Do you realize that without Jesus you would be forever separated from the holiness of God, a slave to sin, with a future shut up away from His presence? Do you realize that without Jesus you would be alienated forever from the family of God and that you would be irredeemably doomed to the same future as that of your father the devil (John 8:44) who will be cast into the lake of fire, forever (Revelation 20:10)?  But for Jesus, that would be each and every person’s fate.

Without Jesus, we were all “aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12).  But, because of Jesus we are not like those who have no hope, not even in the valley of shadow of death, and not even when we grieve (1 Thessalonians 4:13). 

So, again, have you considered Jesus today? Have you thought about Him? Have you told Him how thankful you are for Him and what He has done for you?  Have you meditated on His greatness, on this One Who has met all your needs in the past and promised to supply all your needs in the future (Philippians 4:19)?  And have you peered deeply into His Word, the very Word of Christ, the words that reveal Who He is, what He has done, what He has promised to those who trust Him, how infinite His love is for us, and how He would have us live in response? 

Have you considered Jesus today?  If so, you just might find, as the old hymn says so well, that “the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”