To Encourage You

Hebrews 13:22 “I appeal to you, brothers, bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly.”

One of the characteristics about spiritual truth is that it can be hard to hear.  Often, it rubs against the grain.  We think we’re doing just well, thank you, and then we hear something from the Scriptures that lets us know that we aren’t doing nearly as well as we think.   An example is the following words of Jesus to the church at Laodicea in Revelation 3:17-19: “You say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.” Ouch!!  That’s the nature of the Bible, you see. It exposes the inner condition of the heart.  It helps us to see things like God does. It holds us up to the example of Jesus Christ when our tendency is to measure ourselves with one another – or against our own scale of right and wrong, “but when (we) measure (our)selves by one another and compare (our)selves with one another, (we) are without understanding” (2 Corinthians 10:12). 

And so we have the Holy Spirit’s guidance through the author of Hebrews in his closing words of that letter above. He uses two very closely related words as he addresses his hearers; the words “appeal” and “exhortation.” They’re from the same root which means “to admonish, exhort, (or even to beg).”  He couples these words with a word translated “bear with.”  He knows that he’s said some difficult things to them. He’d both warned and rebuked them regarding spiritual error and the dangers associated with it, and he’d taught them many truths that would incredibly bless their lives if they would but listen and obey.  But he knows the tendency of us all is to have our egos stroked by hearing wonderful things about ourselves.  He is well aware that “the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-4). He knows that a life committed to Jesus Christ will often result in suffering.  In fact, in the verse immediately following the one above, believers are told that “our brother Timothy has been released,” from prison, that is.  But in the end, the Holy Spirit is urging both them and us to endure sound teaching, to take time to study and meditate on God’s word. 

Note how he encourages them with “I’ve written to you briefly.” It’s as if he’s saying to them, “don’t neglect these words. Don’t go off and do something else.  There’s time enough in your day to read this – and if you’re too busy to do so, then you are too busy with whatever else your life is about.” 

May God help us to take this admonition to heart, and to spend time listening to the eternal wisdom that God wants to pour into our lives. I’m reminded of Jesus’ words to the Pharisees who had no time for Him. He reminded them of the wisdom of Solomon, someone with whom they were very familiar, for he was one of Israel’s greatest kings. He reminded them that the queen of Sheba, also known as the queen of the south, “came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon” (Matthew 12:42).   Scholars believe that Sheba was either in today’s Yemen or Ethiopia and the trip to Jerusalem would have been approximately 1,500 miles!  But then Jesus tells them, “behold, something greater than Solomon is here.” Obviously, He was talking about Himself.  Incredibly, we have the opportunity today to just pick up the Bible and read it any time we want. We don’t have to travel 1,500 miles to hear Jesus’ words.  But do we make that effort? Do we take time to sit at his feet? It’s as Jesus told Martha who was busy with all kinds of other things while her sister Mary sat at Jesus’ feet: “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:41-42).  And Jesus would say the very same thing to us.  Of all the things that we think are so important in life, of all the things to which we give our time, there is only one thing that is absolutely necessary, for like Jesus told Martha, He has also told us, “the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (John 6:63).