“Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest” (Hebrews 4:1–3a ESV).
It is striking to me that faith is seen in Hebrews 1-4 as a community faith; it is something the community shares and encourages. When we part from faith we become a non-listener in the community of the listening. We are to inspire faith in each other. The church is to “exhort one another every day” to avoid the ‘deceitfulness of sin” and “hold our original confidence firm to the end” (Hebrews 3:13-14). We are in it together. The community of faith can be poisoned by the surrounding culture’s consumerism, materialism, hedonism, and nationalism. We have to remind each other to keep Jesus as the focal point of our faith.
{From “Sonlight for the Soul”, by H. Lamar Smith)
