This commentary is a work in progress and may be revised as study continues. If you have a question, spot an error, or want to discuss a passage, please reach out.
1Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;
2Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.
3For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.
4For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God.
5And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after;
6But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.
The conditional “if we hold fast”
The writer of Hebrews says we are part of Christ’s house, a body of believers, only if we hold fast to our confidence and hope to the end of our lives. We must remember that New Testament authors cannot see the human heart, nor can hearers always perfectly discern their own. Therefore, conditional “if” warnings function as loving wake-up calls: a lack of continuance makes it manifest that genuine faith was never truly present, as John states (1 John 2:19), and these warnings prompt self-examination (2 Corinthians 13:5).
True believers, however, may temporarily go off course through sin or drifting, but God lovingly chastens/disciplines them as sons to bring them back and produce holiness (Heb 12:5-11; Prov 3:11-12). Perseverance is not soley self-produced; they will hold fast because they are ultimately held fast by God’s power:
2 Thessalonians 3:3 “But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one.”
Philippians 2:12–13 “…for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”
Jude 24 “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy.”
“unto the end”
The continuation of faith to the end shows that the faith present at the beginning was genuine. As Hebrews 3:14 says, we share in Christ “if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end”. This perseverance ”to the end” does not occur by our own strength or will, but by God working in us:
1 Corinthians 1:8–9 “Who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful…”
Hebrews 12:2 “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,”
Philippains 1:6 ““Being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
Jesus also prays for believers, just as He prayed for Peter. If we are promised that prayers offered according to God’s will are answered (1 John 5:14–15), how much more will the Son of God have His prayers answered when He intercedes according to God’s will that our confidence and hope be held fast to the end?
Luke 22:31–32 “ Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not”
John 17:20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word”
Hebrews 7:25 “Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them”
Romans 8:34 “Who is he who condemns? Christ Jesus...who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”
Romans 8:26–27 “Likewise the Spirit also helps our weaknesses...the Spirit Himself intercedes for us...because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”
7Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,
8Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
9When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
10Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.
11So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
12Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
13But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
14For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
The “we are made” is Strong’s G1096 - ginomai and is in the perfect tense in Greek. It describes an action that was completed in the past with ongoing results or continuing state in the present. In other words, the salvation is a done deal and the fruit of this new life continues to show and is guaranteed to continue. Jesus says a good tree will produce good fruit (Matthew 7:16–20), it can’t go back to bad fruit. He tells us the fruit of the Spirit is guaranteed to flow from a believer (John 7:37–39).
Just like 1 John 2:19, if someone is saved they won’t fall away. John says he has no doubt of this:
“They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.”
15While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
16For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
17But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
18And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
19So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
3
Hebrews 3 — Forever Word commentary
King James VersionThis commentary is a work in progress and may be revised as study continues. If you have a question, spot an error, or want to discuss a passage, please reach out.
1Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;
2Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.
3For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.
4For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God.
5And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after;
6But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.
The conditional “if we hold fast”
The writer of Hebrews says we are part of Christ’s house, a body of believers, only if we hold fast to our confidence and hope to the end of our lives. We must remember that New Testament authors cannot see the human heart, nor can hearers always perfectly discern their own. Therefore, conditional “if” warnings function as loving wake-up calls: a lack of continuance makes it manifest that genuine faith was never truly present, as John states (1 John 2:19), and these warnings prompt self-examination (2 Corinthians 13:5).
True believers, however, may temporarily go off course through sin or drifting, but God lovingly chastens/disciplines them as sons to bring them back and produce holiness (Heb 12:5-11; Prov 3:11-12). Perseverance is not soley self-produced; they will hold fast because they are ultimately held fast by God’s power:
2 Thessalonians 3:3 “But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one.”
Philippians 2:12–13 “…for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”
Jude 24 “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy.”
“unto the end”
The continuation of faith to the end shows that the faith present at the beginning was genuine. As Hebrews 3:14 says, we share in Christ “if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end”. This perseverance ”to the end” does not occur by our own strength or will, but by God working in us:
1 Corinthians 1:8–9 “Who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful…”
Hebrews 12:2 “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,”
Philippains 1:6 ““Being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
Jesus also prays for believers, just as He prayed for Peter. If we are promised that prayers offered according to God’s will are answered (1 John 5:14–15), how much more will the Son of God have His prayers answered when He intercedes according to God’s will that our confidence and hope be held fast to the end?
Luke 22:31–32 “ Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not”
John 17:20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word”
Hebrews 7:25 “Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them”
Romans 8:34 “Who is he who condemns? Christ Jesus...who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”
Romans 8:26–27 “Likewise the Spirit also helps our weaknesses...the Spirit Himself intercedes for us...because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”
7Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,
8Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
9When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
10Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.
11So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
12Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
13But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
14For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
The “we are made” is Strong’s G1096 - ginomai and is in the perfect tense in Greek. It describes an action that was completed in the past with ongoing results or continuing state in the present. In other words, the salvation is a done deal and the fruit of this new life continues to show and is guaranteed to continue. Jesus says a good tree will produce good fruit (Matthew 7:16–20), it can’t go back to bad fruit. He tells us the fruit of the Spirit is guaranteed to flow from a believer (John 7:37–39).
Just like 1 John 2:19, if someone is saved they won’t fall away. John says he has no doubt of this:
“They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.”
15While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
16For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
17But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
18And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
19So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.