Passage Read: Hebrews 5-6
Meditation Verses: 6:9-12
Thought
The writer has expressed some disappointment with his audience. They should by now be teachers, clear and confident in the basics of Christ and faith in Him, able to help others, but he finds them still needing milk. He fears he needs to lay again the foundation of the elementary teachings about Christ, repentance, heaven and hell, faith, baptisms and gifts. He wants to take them further, to teach them grownup things, and perhaps God will allow it by waking them up, reminding them of the elementary things and moving them on towards greater love and obedience. He gives a warning that those who once enjoyed the fellowship in the Spirit and in God's Truth, if they fade away or turn away, they will be condemned, without hope of repentance. But here he gives some encouragement. All is not lost. He trusts that they are those who will respond, who will wake up, who will get serious about walking with Christ again. They have served God well, and he wants them to remain faithful, to keep serving God well, to hold to the same diligence as they had when they first understood the truth in all their joy and delight and gratitude. It is growing cold that causes laziness. It is the cares of this world, this temporary life, that cause distraction and forgetfulness and a gradual or eventually a deliberate turning away from Christ and His ways. In the confidence of better things regarding them, there is still the warning and the urging to hold fast and even go further than before.
Application
Again, salvation belongs to those who are diligent to know God and His desires, and to serve Him well, according to His desires. It requires faith, trust, belief in the truths of God's Gospel and salvation and eternal purposes. It requires continued and even increasing diligence to grow in understanding God's heart and ways, and walking in them. Becoming tired of reading and understanding God's Word, becoming lazy in conforming my life to God's ways, becoming overconfident in my understanding of God so that I think I've arrived and can relax, becoming more concerned about the things of this life and world rather than the mission of God and the advancement of His Kingdom, these are the things that lead me away from Christ and towards the broad road that leads to destruction. The faith I had at first is saving faith if it drives me to know the Lord better and walk more and more perfectly in His ways, spuring me on and growing through all my days. Faith that fades or faith that doesn't move me to know God better and imitate His ways is no saving faith at all, and needs to be replaced with the real thing.