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Do Not Harden Your Hearts

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            “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:12-13). We enter the world innocent and pure children (Matthew 19:13-15); however, through our choices we may become thoroughly corrupted. God destroyed the entire human population with the exception of Noah’s family because man had become hardened by sin and “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5).

Photo by Denys Nevozhai

            The people of Judah in Jeremiah’s day went into exile in Babylon. God gave them opportunity time and again to repent of their sins but they “made their faces harder than a rock” (Jeremiah 5:3); they were so unashamed they could no longer blush at sin (6:15); they “hardened their neck” (7:26) and were bent on “perpetual backsliding” (8:5). They had so hardened their hearts by sin that repentance became impossible for them as indicated by the question: “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil” (13:23). Sin was indelibly etched on their hearts: “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart” (17:1). Since they rendered themselves incapable of repentance their only option was punishment from God. God told Jeremiah not to pray for them (7:16; 11:14; 14:11). Even if righteous individuals like Moses and Samuel stood among them and pleaded for them to God, His mind would not be changed; they were to be cast off (15:1). Yet, God promised that He would make a new covenant, different from the covenant Israel had transgressed (31:31-34).

            The Lord Jesus Christ fulfills this prophecy and is the mediator of a better covenant based on better promises (Hebrews 8:6-13). However, if a man despises this greater opportunity provided by Jesus and hardens his heart then sorer punishment awaits him (Hebrews 10:26-29). While it is possible for those who fall away to be pardoned if they repent (Acts 8:13-24), if one’s heart reaches such a hardened condition that it is incapable of experiencing godly sorrow then repentance becomes impossible (2 Corinthians 7:10). One’s conscience can become defiled (Titus 1:15), seared with a hot iron so that it is callused and past feeling (1 Timothy 4:2; Ephesians 4:18-19). Such a state is described in Hebrews 6:4-6:

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

These who were once Christians had grown so hardened and hostile to Christianity that they exhibited the same attitude as those who crucified Christ. They had reached the point where repentance was impossible. Let us not head down that road. Beware, brethren, and “harden not your hearts” (Hebrews 3:8, 15).

-Mark Day

Do They See Your Father in You?

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God is our Father (Eph. 4:6). As His children we are to grow to be more like Him, as Paul wrote, “Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children” (Eph. 5:1). Jesus has shown us how to be like our Father: “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (Jn. 1:18). Jesus said to Philip, “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (Jn. 14:9).

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            My children are of the age where they are learning to write letters and numbers. My refrigerator has many of their papers on it with the example of how to write these characters at the top and their scribbles underneath it as they attempt to copy the example above. First Peter 2:21 says Jesus left us an example that we should follow his steps; in this verse “example” is from a Greek word upogrammos­—literally “write under” used to refer to the pattern or the writing copy much like those at the top of my children’s worksheets. In the context of 1 Peter 2:21, Jesus set an example of suffering patiently for God. I do not like suffering. I do not know very many who do. However, the more I follow the perfect pattern of Jesus the closer my life can be conformed to his, and the letters I am writing every day of my life will look more like the writing copy of the Lord Jesus Christ who is placed above me as my example.

            Paul tried to conform His life to Jesus and by example encouraged others to as well. To the Corinthians, he wrote, “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1). Indeed, Paul no longer lived his own life, but endeavored to live as Christ (Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:21). Paul was sending Timothy, his son in the Gospel, to the Corinthians to remind them of his ways which were in Christ which he taught everywhere in every congregation of the Lord’s church (1 Cor. 4:17).

            Paul further encouraged Timothy to be an example to others of the life Christ would have us to live. When he left Timothy in Ephesus he wrote to him this charge: “…be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity” (1 Tim. 4:12). Our example “in word” means the language we use should distinguish us from the world as children of God (cf. Eph. 4:29, 31). Our conversation, i.e. our conduct, must be fitting of one who is a member of the family of God; Timothy was earlier taught in the epistle how he should behave himself in the household of God (1 Tim. 3:15). Charity, i.e. love, is the motivation for a life that reflects our Father; God is love, and those who are His children are loved and love others as He loves (1 Jn. 4:7-21). The spirit, i.e. character, of a Christian ought to involve power to overcome, love toward others, and a disciplined mind (2 Tim. 1:7). The child of God should exhibit faith—fidelity toward God and His truth. And finally, a Christian must have purity of life. To show self-control in all realms including sexual purity was a critical matter for Timothy and is for all Christians, especially the young (cf. 1 Tim. 5:2).

             Our conduct shows who our father is, whether it is the devil or God (Jn. 8:42-44). Are you living in such a way that others know your Father is in heaven and glorify Him because of your conduct (Mt. 5:16)?

 

-Mark Day