Take heed, brethren, lest there be … It is evident that deep anxiety mixes with the warning.

in any of you The warning is expressed indefinitely; but if the Epistle was addressed to a small Hebrew community the writer may have had in view some special person who was in danger (comp. Hebrews 10:25; Hebrews 12:15). In any case the use of the singular might lead to individual searching of hearts. He here begins a homily founded on the quotation from the Psalm.

an evil heart of unbelief Unbelief has its deep source in the heart more often perhaps than in the mind.

in departing Lit., in the apostatising from. In that one word Apostasy the moral peril of his Hebrew readers was evidently summed up. To apostatise afterbelieving is more dangerous than not to have believed at all.

from the living God The epithet is not idle. It conveys directlythe warning that God would not overlook the sin of apostasy, and indirectlythe thought that Christ was in heaven at the right hand of God.

Continues after advertising
Continues after advertising