Apostasy Heb. 10:25–27. (123)
The apostle adds, “as the manner of some is.” The Greek word for “manner” signifies “custom,” and is so translated in Luke 2:42. These supplies additional confirmation that the evil against which the Hebrews were dehorted was no mere occasionally absenting themselves from the Christian churches, but a deliberate, fixed and final departure from them. In John 6:66 we read that “From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him”; John also wrote of those who “went out from us, but they were not of us” 1John 2:19; whilst at the close of his labors Paul had to say “All they which are in Asia be turned away from me” 2Tim. 1:15. So here, some who had made a profession of the Christian faith had now abandoned the same and gone back to Judaism. It was to warn the others against this fatal step that the apostle now wrote as he did—compare 1 Corinthians 10:12, Romans 11:20, Mat. 18:20, Jn. 20:19–29, Act. 1:13, 14; 2:1, 42; 16:16; 20:7, 1Cor. 11:17, 18, 20; 14:23. Jude 19
- But exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” This is another of the means appointed by God to confirm Christians in their holy confession. To “exhort one another” is a duty to which all Christians are called; alas, how rarely is it performed these evil days. Most professing Christians wish to be petted and flattered, rather than exhorted and cautioned. Most of them are so hypersensitive that the slightest criticism offends them. Rom. 12:8, 1Cor. 14:3, 1Th. 4:18; 5:11.
- “And so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” There seems little room for doubt that the first reference here is to the destruction of the Jewish commonwealth, which was now very nigh, for this epistle was written within less than eight years before Jerusalem was captured by Titus. That terrible catastrophe had been foretold, again and again, by Israel’s prophets, and was plainly announced by the Lord Jesus in Luke 21. The approach of that dreadful “day” could be plainly seen or perceived by those possessing spiritual discernment: the continued refusal of the Nation to repent of their murder of Christ, and the abandoning of Christianity for an apostate Judaism by such large numbers, clearly presaged the bursting of the storm of God’s judgment. This very fact supplied an additional motive for genuine Christians to remain faithful. The Lord Jesus promised that His followers should be preserved from the destruction of Jerusalem, but only as they attended to His cautions in Luke 21:8, 19, 34, etc., only as they persevered in faith and holiness, Matthew 24:13. The motive unto diligence here set before the Hebrews is applicable to other Christians just to the extent that they find themselves in similar circumstances. Mat. 24:33, 34, Rom. 13:11–13, Phi. 4:5, Ja. 5:8, 1Pet. 4:7, 2Pet. 3:9, 11, 14. There is a trying day coming on us all, the day of our death, and we should observe all the signs of its approaching and improve them to greater watchfulness and diligence in duty.
- “For if we sin willingly,” that is voluntarily, of our own accord, where no constraint is used. The reference is to a definite decision, where an individual deliberately determines to abandon Christ and turn away from God. “In the Jewish law, as is indeed the case everywhere, a distinction is made between sins of oversight, inadvertence, or ignorance (Lev. 4:2, 13, 22; 5:15; Num. 15:24, 27–29: compare Acts 3:17, 17:30), and sins of presumption, sins that are deliberately and intentionally committed: see Exodus 21:14, Num. 15:30, Deut. 17:12, Psalm 19:13. The apostle here has reference, evidently, to such a distinction, and means to speak of a decided and deliberate purpose to break away from the restraints and obligations of the Christian religion” (A. Barnes).
