Hebrews 12:1–11

12:1 An emphatic “Therefore” shows that the survey of OT people of faith is the basis for the exhortation “Let us run with endurance.” They are “so great a cloud of witnesses [martyrōn]” because they testify from the pages of Scripture that God is faithful (11:11). Abel, Enoch, and others were those on whose behalf God was testifying (martyreō; ESV “commended”) in his Word (11:2, 4, 5, 39). Now our author turns things around: those ancient believers bear witness on God’s behalf, affirming that he can be trusted. Their testimony should give us stamina to endure in our race. They may also be spectators who are observing the hearers’ performance, but the writer’s use of “witness” terminology favors the sense that they are actively testifying: Abel, “though he died, . . . still speaks,” as do others (11:4; cf. 11:13–14).

Our preacher evokes athletic imagery drawn from the ancient Panhellenic games, precursors of our modern Olympics. He previously described Jesus as our “forerunner” (6:20). Now he calls his hearers to strip off every encumbering “weight” and run the “race” on the course set out before them. He will refer to being “trained” by discipline (12:11) and will apply the metaphor of runners’ injuries to spiritual disabilities (vv. 12–13). In this imagery the “weight” to be stripped away could be training weights or encumbering clothing. Perhaps clothing is in view, since “lay aside” (apotithēmi) elsewhere refers to disrobing (Rom. 13:12; Eph. 4:22; Col. 3:8), and “trained” (gymnazō) in Hebrews 12:11 alludes to the Greek athletic practice of competing unclothed (gymnos). The weight to be discarded symbolizes “sin which clings so closely.” The sin to which the original hearers were especially tempted was not only violation of God’s moral commands (12:16; 13:4) but also apostatizing from their allegiance to Christ under the threat of persecution (10:26–39). Their “struggle against sin,” which had not yet escalated to bloodshed, was a struggle to hold fast their faith (12:4).

12:2 Although the voices of OT witnesses should encourage us, the key to endurance in the race is looking to the “founder and perfecter” of faith, Jesus. (The Greek word order here, as in 2:9; 3:1; 4:14; 6:20; and 7:22, builds hearers’ anticipation by first describing the Savior before finally naming him.) “Founder” (archēgos) has a range of meanings (cf. comment on 2:10). Often in the LXX it refers to Israel’s tribal heads and military commanders. Here, as the “founder” of faith as well as its “perfecter (teleiōtēs),” Jesus is not only faith’s preeminent exemplar, overshadowing the OT people of faith, but also the originator and object of our faith. He initiates our faith, runs faith’s race ahead of us, and brings our faith to its goal. In the OT era believers were not yet “made perfect [teleioō]” (11:40), because the system of sacrifices administered by Aaronic priests “made nothing perfect” (7:11, 19). But now Jesus’ sacrifice has “perfected for all time” those who trust him (10:14), opening access into God’s holy presence.

Jesus set the pace of enduring faith. His faith is expressed in his words cited from Isaiah 8:17 in Hebrews 2:13: “I will put my trust in him.” For sinful people, saving faith involves reliance on Jesus’ blood and righteousness as we recognize our own unworthiness. But for Jesus, the sinless priest and unblemished sacrifice, faith was his trust in his Father’s assurance that, after he fulfilled God’s will through death on the cross, his cries for deliverance from death would be “heard” and answered in his resurrection (5:7–10; 7:26–28; 10:10; 13:20). Jesus’ trust in the Father’s promise was thus expressed in his readiness to endure the cross, “despising the shame.” He made that costly choice “for the joy that was set before him.” The Greek preposition rendered “for” (anti) frequently means “instead of” (e.g., Matt. 2:22; 5:38; 20:28), and the verb “set before” (prokeimai) was just used to describe the racetrack immediately ahead of us (cf. 2 Cor. 8:12). So it has been argued that the author means that, instead of a joyful rescue that Jesus could have experienced immediately (Matt. 26:53), he chose instead the reproach of crucifixion. Moses’ reckoning the reproach of Christ as greater wealth than Egypt’s treasures foreshadowed Christ’s own valuation of even more extreme alternatives (Heb. 11:26).

On the other hand, according to the ESV, other versions, and most commentators, Jesus endured the cross and its shame for the sake of the joy awaiting him beyond his suffering—the joy of being “seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” This interpretation fits the only other use in Hebrews of the preposition anti, a few verses later: Esau “sold his birthright for [anti = not “instead of” but “for the sake of obtaining”] a single meal” (12:16). Thus Moses resembled Jesus in a different sense: he was “looking to the reward” (11:26). Our author is about to urge his hearers to endure painful suffering in anticipation of its future fruit (12:11). Jesus shows them how and why.

The shame of execution on a cross was well known across the Greco-Roman world among both pagans and Jews, for whom it bore the added stigma of God’s curse (Deut. 21:22–23; 1 Cor. 1:18–25; Gal. 3:13; cf. Acts 5:30; 10:39; 13:29). Jesus’ suffering on the cross, however, transformed its shame and reproach (Heb. 13:12–13) into an occasion for Christian boasting (Gal. 6:14). Believers can rejoice in their own mistreatment and “dishonor for the name,” realizing that God has counted them “worthy” to be identified with their Lord (Acts 5:41). As increasing intimidation and opposition loomed on their horizon, the hearers of this letter, who had already endured public reproach (Heb. 10:32–33), needed to recall that Jesus had borne shame as he suffered for them.

12:3–4 To look to Jesus is to consider him with focused, thoughtful reflection. The author directs our attention not to the cross’s physical torments but to the “hostility” of “sinners” that assaulted Jesus as he died (Mark 15:18–20, 29–32). His endurance in the face of such spiteful repudiation should hearten believers who are tempted to “grow weary or fainthearted” when ostracized by their families or the wider community. “Grow weary” reflects a Greek term (kamnō) that expresses weakness or sickness (cf. James 5:15). To be “fainthearted” (eklyomai) is to suffer exhaustion. Those who are “fainthearted” physically may fail to reach their destination (Mark 8:3), and those who suffer spiritual exhaustion are prone to discouragement (Gal. 6:9). The term “fainthearted” is the bridge into the encouragement offered in Proverbs 3, which our preacher is about to cite in verses 5b–6 (there translated “be weary”).

The hearers’ necessary “struggle against sin” is specifically their need to resist the sin of apostasy (cf. Heb. 10:26–39). This is why the preacher notes that their struggle has not yet escalated to the “point of shedding your blood.” Our preacher has pointed out that Jesus has rescued us from the fear of death (2:14–15), and he has catalogued the losses endured by OT believers (11:35–38). His hearers were probably being pressured by intimidation, ostracism, and physical threats to renounce their confession of faith in Jesus. So far the persecution had not reached the extreme of martyrdom (though cf. comment on 13:7). In this respect, their sufferings cannot be compared with the ultimate price paid by Jesus, who shed his blood to purify their consciences and draw them near to God (9:14; 10:19, 29). Meditating on his sacrifice would put their own trials into perspective, fortifying their hearts against self-pity and hopelessness.

12:5–6 Contributing to the hearers’ dismay over the opposition they were receiving was their forgetfulness of the “exhortation,” or “encouragement” (paraklēsis), that God spoke to them as sons. Again our preacher assumes that the OT (here, Prov. 3:11–12) is not merely a text inscribed in a bygone generation but also is the Holy Spirit’s speech to us in our “today” (Heb. 3:7, 13; 10:15–17). The paraklēsis/parakaleō word group, prominent throughout Hebrews (cf. 13:22), has a semantic range that includes stern exhortation (admonition) but also warm encouragement (comfort). Here the tone of the Proverbs citation and the author’s application favor the sense of heartening “encouragement.”

Proverbs 3:11 seems to describe different reactions to the Lord’s discipline, on the one hand “regard[ing it] lightly” and on the other “be[ing] weary.” The first response is that of an arrogant son who ignores his father’s discipline; the second is that of an insecure son who construes his father’s reproof as personal rejection. In fact, both reactions demonstrate forgetfulness of the truth of Proverbs 3:12: “The Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises¹ every son whom he receives.” Those who respond to adversities either by challenging God’s authority or by doubting his good purpose have forgotten that such sufferings are tokens of his love and of their legitimacy as his sons. The situation envisioned in Proverbs is fatherly correction when a son misbehaves (cf. Prov. 13:24; 19:18; 22:15; 23:13–14). Our author of Hebrews widens the perspective to include afflictions suffered as the consequence of faithfulness in resisting sin. Those who suffer for righteousness’ sake, no less than those disciplined to wean them from sin, can be assured that their pains serve their Father’s loving purpose for them (Matt. 5:10–12).

12:7–8 Both the noun “discipline” (paideia) and the cognate verb appear in the Proverbs citation, and now “discipline” sums up God’s paternal purpose that makes endurance both possible and obligatory. The form of the Greek verb “endure” (hypomenete) could be in either the indicative mood (“you are enduring”) or the imperative (“you must endure”). The ESV’s “you have to endure” nicely conveys this ambiguity, leaning toward the imperative: hearers must endure because “God is treating you as sons.” In the Greco-Roman world it was not unusual for a nobleman to subject his legitimate son and heir to a rigorous upbringing under the severe tutelage of a guardian, since the future of the father’s name and estate would rest with the son (Gal. 4:1–2). Meanwhile, illegitimate children, since they did not bear their father’s name nor stand to inherit his property, might be left without moral discipline. To be spared God’s painful discipline is indicative not of his favor but of his indifference and rejection.

12:9–10 When we recognize how God’s painful discipline reveals his loving acceptance and our legitimacy as his children and heirs, this perspective will affect our attitude toward him amid our afflictions. The preacher draws an analogy to human family dynamics in another a fortiori (qal v’homer, “light and heavy”) argument (cf. comment on 2:2–4). The point of comparison is clear: when a son recognizes that his father’s discipline, however difficult to bear at the moment, springs from a desire for the son’s well-being, the son respects (that is, humbles himself before; entrepō) such a father. The verb entrepō in the passive voice means to “be humbled” and in the middle voice means to “humble oneself” before another person (Ex. 10:3 LXX; Titus 2:8)—that is, to acknowledge that person’s greater honor (Luke 18:2, 4). That principle is all the more applicable in our response to the discipline God imposes on us, since it is better than that of human fathers in three ways:

1. (1) Human fathers were “fathers of our flesh” (ESV = “earthly fathers”), whereas God is the “Father of spirits” (echoing Num. 16:22; 27:16).
2. (2) Human fathers “disciplined us for a short time,” whereas God works throughout our lives to remold our characters through painful discipline.
3. (3) Human fathers exercised discipline “as it seemed best to them” in their finite and fallen perspective, whereas in his infinite wisdom God infallibly knows what is for our benefit (to sympheron), namely, “that we may share his holiness.”

The more we remember that our painful circumstances are orchestrated by God in his infinite wisdom, sovereign control, and fatherly love, the better we will bear his discipline in hopeful endurance.

12:11 The encouraging assurance God speaks to his sons does not anesthetize us against the pain of present afflictions. Our preacher frankly admits that, when it is happening, discipline “seems painful rather than pleasant”—or, to reflect the strength of the contrast: “not joyful [chara] but grief-filled [lypē].” Paul uses the same contrast to express the hope that, on an impending visit to Corinth, he will not “suffer pain [lypē] from those who should have made me rejoice [chairō]” (2 Cor. 2:3). Enduring faith must look beyond the painful present to the fruitful future, grasping the reality of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen (Heb. 11:1). Our preacher joins his voice to the chorus of NT authors who, inspired by God’s Spirit, assure us that our “light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Cor. 4:17; cf. John 16:33; Rom. 8:17–18; 1 Pet. 1:6–7).

To strengthen hope in the face of present pain, the preacher mixes agricultural and athletic metaphors (cf. 2 Tim. 2:3–6). As farmers till soil and sow seed in anticipation of a future crop, so those undergoing God’s wise and loving discipline should patiently expect a later harvest of the “peaceful fruit of righteousness.” The author of Hebrews, along with James and Paul, all seem to have drawn this farming metaphor from Isaiah 32:16–18 and other OT texts (James 3:18; 5:7–8; Phil. 1:11; cf. Prov. 11:18; Hos. 10:12). Then, shifting back to the athletic imagery with which he opened this exhortation, our preacher speaks of those who “have been trained” (gymnazō) by the Lord’s discipline. Alongside the apparent passivity of farmland he reintroduces the picture of strenuous human exercise in training and then running the race set before us (cf. 1 Tim. 4:7–8). Enduring faith is strenuous effort springing from assurance of God’s fatherly love, and therefore it sprints with the strength he supplies “toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14). Moreover, this is not a solo race but a team sport, in which every member must attend to others’ weak knees and disabled joints (as our preacher will carry the athletic metaphor forward in Heb. 12:12–13).