Main news for 4 October 2025

German Luther Translation (de)

Послание к Евреям, Глава 10, стих 35

³⁵Werfet euer Vertrauen nicht weg, welches eine große Belohnung hat.

NOTES

"...For yet a very little while..." Sometimes we do not want to believe this, and we say: you are only comforting us, Apostle Paul. But before this Paul says: "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God!" In the Greek text...

Continuing the conversation about Christian life, the author of the letter calls his readers not to turn aside from the path on which they have set out and along which they have already managed to travel some distance. As can be seen, the author, being a disciple of the apostle, together with him and with some others experienced persecution for Christ, which he mentions in general terms but quite clearly. Unlike his teacher, the author of the letter was not executed, but at some point the threat to his life was real.

Others were in a similar position. The fate of Paul and of other Christians may have been different if the anti-Roman uprising in Palestine, which began at about this time and proceeded under religious and, in particular, messianic slogans, had not started. The Romans then apparently began to look at the followers of Jesus in the same way as at all messianists in general: as rebels actively opposing Roman authority.

In such a situation, persecution naturally could not help intensifying, at least until the uprising was completely suppressed. And judging by the testimony of the author of the Letter to the Hebrews, many of his addressees showed themselves to be faithful disciples of Christ. But now, after hopes for Christ's imminent return had dissipated, they were evidently in some confusion, not understanding what to wait for next and, one can think, looking closely at various messianic groups and sects of a gnostic kind; gnosis in those times was no less characteristic of the Jewish environment than of the pagan one. It is in just such a situation that the author writes his letter to some Christian Jewish community, possibly a community of Roman Jewish Christians.

There could have been many such people: the Jewish community of Rome was one of the largest in antiquity, and there were many there who had turned to Christ, in particular under the influence of Paul's preaching. Of course, these people experienced everything connected with the catastrophe of AD 70 as deeply as the whole Jewish community did, whether one speaks of orthodox Jews or of messianist Christians. And the author of the letter, remaining faithful to the teaching both of the Savior Himself and of his teacher Paul, calls them not to despair and to remain faithful to what had been revealed to them at their conversion and to the faithfulness they had witnessed during persecution.

Over the long history of humanity, much has been said and written about courage. But what is courage from a spiritual point of view? And why is it so important? To answer this question, it is important to remember something else, the foundation of spiritual life: faithfulness. It is no accident that the Bible connects faithfulness with the relationship between God and the human person, and between God and the people of God. In Russian translation, faithfulness is sometimes called faith, but in most cases the corresponding Greek or Hebrew word means faithfulness, as well as trust.

But if faithfulness plays a key role in the relationship between God and the human person, then the same can be said of steadfastness, without which there can be no talk of faithfulness. And steadfastness, in turn, is unthinkable without courage. Of course, if we were to live in a world that knew no evil, everything might be different. It is quite possible that such a world would not know a concept like courage at all. But we, unfortunately, live in a world wounded by sin and lying in evil. And such a world, or rather the forces of evil at work in it, has no need for steadfastness. None at all, in anything.

The expression "steadfastness in evil" is, in essence, only a pretty but meaningless phrase. It means no more than, for example, the expression "he rolled down the slope with all his might." To do evil, one needs neither spiritual collectedness nor perseverance. Of course, anyone could point to great people who possessed strong will and other qualities, and who displayed them even when they did evil deeds. But they did not receive these qualities from the devil or from dark forces. They were placed in them by God, who gave them freedom, as He gives it to everyone else. And they abused that freedom, so that God's gift became a dark, evil force in them. Strength comes from God; evil comes from the refusal to direct it toward God's work.

In essence, to do evil it is enough to do nothing and to let others use one's talents and abilities, received from God. But to avoid doing evil, one has to resist and stand against those who would like to make use of gifts that do not belong to them. God's gift in a fallen world has to be defended, just as one's faithfulness to God has to be defended in it. And courage is faithfulness standing against the forces of evil. It is faithfulness that ceases to be itself without such opposition.

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