Message from Scripture: 10/05/2020

 

Our message from Scripture today is Heb. 2:1. “For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.”

In the previous chapter of Hebrews, the inspired writer has spoken of the superiority of Christ as the Son of God. Based on this truth of the nature of Christ, he reminds us how important the message of Christ truly is, and what our response to it should be.

First, we must pay much closer attention to this message. The word attention means to apply one’s mind to something, to attend to, give heed. To emphasize just how important what they heard is, he adds the words “much closer” to the term attention. This conveys the meaning exceedingly, or much more, more frequently, more superabundantly. The idea is the message of Christ more important than anything else we can imagine. It deserves, not just a passing glance, but rapt attention, an overflowing amount of attention to what it has to say.

Why devote this much time, this much concentration of effort, on knowing what the message of Scripture says? Because, as the Hebrew writer affirms, we are “not to drift away from it.” The concept of drift literally means to float by or drift past as a ship from its moorings, and as applied here, to slip away, suggesting a gradual and almost unnoticed movement past a certain point. In other words, if we are not consumed with knowing the will of God, we will not be able to apply it to everyday living, as it will slip away from our knowledge. If we don’t know it to apply to life, then something else will occupy our time and attention, and the end result is, we drift past life in Christ to allow the world to supersede it. How tragic to have what enables us to know and live for Christ, and to let it simply slip away from us for the cares of the world.

Peter implores us to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:18). We have the divine tools to do that in Scripture. Spend time in it every day. You’ll  be amazed at what it can do for your soul. God bless.

Robert