Hebrews 4:11

This promise of rest carries with it a special responsibility for the people of God. Let us labor therefore (σπουδάσωμεν οὖν) For the verb, see on Ephesians 4:3. Give diligence, not hasten, which is the primary meaning. That rest (ἐκείνην τὴν κατάπαυσιν) The Sabbath-rest of God, instituted at creation, promised to the fathers, forfeited by their unbelief, remaining to us on the condition of faith. Lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief (ἵνα μὴ ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ τις ὑποδείγματι πέσῃ τῆς ἀπειθείας) Πέσῃ fall is to be taken absolutely; not, fall into the same example. Υ̓πόδειγμα example, mostly in Hebrews. Rejected as unclassical by the Attic rhetoricians. Originally a sign which suggests something: a partial suggestion as distinct from a complete expression. See Hebrews 8:5; Hebrews 9:23. Thus Christ's washing of the disciples' feet (John 13:15) was a typical suggestion of the whole field and duty of ministry. See on 1 Peter 2:6. It is not easy to give the exact force of ἐν in. Strictly speaking, the "example of disobedience" is conceived as that in which the falling takes place. The fall is viewed in the sphere of example. Comp. 2 Macc. 4:30; 1 Corinthians 2:7. Rend. that no man fall in the same example of disobedience: the same as that in which they fell.

Hebrews 4:11 . Let us labour therefore, &c. — That is, since the Israelites were so severely punished for their unbelief, let us labour — Greek, σπουδασωμεν , let us be in earnest, use diligence, and make haste, (all which particulars are included in the word,) to enter into that rest — By sincerely believing and steadfastly obeying the gospel, aspiring after and striving to attain every branch of holiness, internal and external; lest any man fall — Into sin and eternal perdition; after the same example of unbelief — By reason of such unbelief as the Israelites gave an example of. The unbelief against which we are here cautioned, as being the cause of men’s falling under the wrath of God, is chiefly that kind of it which respects the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, the reality and greatness of the joys of heaven, and the miseries of hell; the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, men’s sinfulness and guilt, depravity and weakness, and their need of the salvation of the gospel in all its branches, the ability and willingness of Christ to save them from their sins here, and conduct them to the heavenly country hereafter, together with his authority to judge the world, and power to dispense rewards to the righteous, and inflict punishments on the wicked.

The unbelief of these great truths, revealed to us in the gospel, being the source of that wickedness which prevails among those called Christians, as well as among Mohammedans and heathen, we ought carefully to cherish a firm and steady belief of these things, lest by the want of a lively sense of them, we be led to live after the manner of the ungodly, and God he provoked to destroy us by the severity of his judgments.

Hebrews 4:11 . The exhortation follows naturally, “Let us then earnestly strive to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall in the same example of disobedience”. The example of disobedience was that given by the wilderness generation and they are warned not to fall in the same way. πέσῃ ἐν is commonly construed “fall into,” but it seems preferable to render “fall by” or “in”; πέσῃ being used absolutely as in Romans 14:4 , στήκει ἢ πίπτει . Vaughan has “lest anyone fall [by placing his foot] in the mark left by the Exodus generation”. ὑπόδειγμα is condemned by Phrynichus who says: οὐδὲ τοῦτο ὀρθῶς λέγεται · παράδειγμα λέγε . “In Attic ὑποδείκνυμι was never used except in its natural sense of show by implication ; but in Herodotus and Xenophon it signifies to mark out, set a pattern .” Rutherford’s Phryn. , p. 62. Cf. Hebrews 8:5 of this Epistle with John 13:15 for both meanings. It is used in Jam 5:10 with genitive of the thing to be imitated. In Hebrews 4:12-13 another reason is added for dealing sincerely and strenuously with God’s promises and especially with this offer of rest. ζῶν γὰρ ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ , “for the word of God is living,” that word of revelation which from the first verse of the Epistle has been in the writer’s mind and which he has in chaps, 3, 4 exhibited as a word of promise of entrance into God’s rest.

Evidently, therefore, ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ is not, as Origen and other interpreters have supposed, the Personal Word incarnate in Christ, but God’s offers and promises. Not only is the γάρ , linking this clause to the promise of rest, decisive for this interpretation; but the mention of ὁ λόγος τῆς ἀκοῆς in Hebrews 4:2 and the prominence given in the context to God’s promise make it impossible to think of anything else. To enforce the admonition to believe and obey the word of God, five epithets are added, which, says Westcott, “mark with increasing clearness its power to deal with the individual soul. There is a passage step by step from that which is most general to that which is most personal.” It is, first, ζῶν , “living” or, as A.V. has it, “quick”. Cf. 1 Peter 1:23 , ἀναγεγεννημένοι … διὰ λόγου ζῶντος Θεοῦ καὶ μένοντος , and 1 Peter 1:24 τὸ ῥῆμα Κυρίου μένει εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα . The meaning is that the word remains efficacious, valid and operative, as it was when it came from the will of God. “It is living as being instinct with the life of its source” (Delitzsch). It is also ἐνεργὴς , active, effective, still doing the work it was intended to do, cf. Isaiah 55:11 . τομώτερος ὐπὲρ πᾶσαν μάχαιραν δίστομον , “sharper than any two-edged sword”. τομ . ὑπὲρ is a more forcible comparative than the genitive; cf. Luke 16:8 ; 2 Corinthians 12:13 .

Hebrews 4:11 . Ἐκείνην , that ) future, great.— ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ ) in or after the same , as those men of former times.— ὑποδείγματι , example ) The same word is found at Hebrews 8:5 , Hebrews 9:23 . He who falls through unbelief , is an example to others, who then say, Behold, ὁ δεῖνα , that man , has in like manner fallen.— πέσῃ ) fall , with the soul, not merely with the body: ch. Hebrews 3:17 . Moses speaks without reference to the ruin of souls, when he recounts the destruction of the people in the wilderness.