To Encourage You

Hebrews 12:14 “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.”

One of the things that has marked Christianity since the time of Christ is persecution.  Of course, Jesus himself was horribly persecuted.  Day after day, His opponents “were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and kill him” (Mark 14:1). The same holds true for the apostles, most of whom were persecuted to the death. We are told about Saul (who would later become the apostle Paul) who “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem” (Acts 9:1-2).  And the same holds true today, as those who are currently suffering for their faith in the prisons of North Korea can attest.  Throughout history, the opponents of Christianity, motivated by Satan, have generally not been satisfied to have a “que sera sera” attitude toward them. Rather, they have made every effort to pursue them and rid the earth of their influence.   Additional examples include the atheistic regimes of the Soviet Union and Communist China, and the Islamic regimes throughout the Middle East and northern Africa. 

Interestingly, Christians are to have their own pursuits of other people in mind as they live their lives, but it’s not the pursuit of persecution or revenge against their enemies. In the verse above from Hebrews 12 the word “strive” is the very same word that is translated “persecute” in other places in the Bible. The word carries with it the idea of “following” another person for one reason or another. In the negative sense, the Greek word is translated “persecute.” But there is a positive use of this word, as well, in the Scriptures. And that’s the sense in which it is used in Hebrews 12.  Here it tells believers that they are to “strive” for two things; one of which is “peace with all men,” and the second is “holiness,” which means to be set apart to God.  We are to have our eyes open for ways in which we can bless others. It should be one of the greatest pursuits of our lives.

Listen to the change that the gospel brought into Paul’s life, this one who at one time was “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.” In Colossians 1:2 we have these words about the believers at Colosse, which, incredibly, came from the lips of the same man: “To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.” Every one of Paul’s letters to the churches that are recorded in the New Testament begin in this way. He longed for their blessing. He longed for their well-being and peace. It’s something he pursued and strove for, and something we should strive for as well.  We aren’t to be negligent in this matter. It should be a prevailing focus of our lives.

And the same holds true for all other aspects of our life as believers. Whereas before we were Christians, we were enemies of God (Romans 5:10), “alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds” (Colossians 1:21), now we are to “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:10). We are to follow Paul’s example, who said he was “straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14). 

So, if you are a Christian, do these things describe your life? Are you striving, working, making every effort to bless those around you with your life? And can your love for God be described as something you are doing with “all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). If you and I are not, we should be, for it is for these reasons that Jesus saved us.  Indeed, the Bible tells us that He “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” (Titus 2:14).

May that be the very thing that describes us. May we be those who “strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” Notice the warning that no one will see the Lord without such things, for if this is not a description of our life, there is a question as to whether we are really Christians and whether we are following the Lord at all.