Hebrews 12:1-4

Reasons to Endure Suffering

Since there have been so many men of faith before, the writer asked his readers to follow their example. The men and women of the previous chapter are witnesses of the faith and are now watching us to see who will be faithful. They are described as a "cloud of witnesses" because, like a modern stadium, the Hebrew people were familiar with the amphitheater from which spectators watched the athletic games of those days. The people would be like a cloud looking down upon those competing. Much like those competing, the writer called upon his readers to lay aside anything that would slow their progress. He again warned against the sin of unbelief, which would not only slow, but probably stop the Christian runner. Finally, he encouraged all those Christian runners to endure all of the trials and persevere to the end (Hebrews 12:1).

Christians can be encouraged by the faithful of the past, especially Jesus. We should look to Christ as the One who leads the way in faith and brought the faith to its completion. By keeping Jesus ever in our mind's eye, our best example will constantly be before us. Christ is especially a good example since He came to this earth to seek and save the lost and was willing to give up His life to that end. In fact, that is the reason Jesus died a shameful death upon the tree. A death which was set aside for the worst members of society was chosen for Jesus, who was without sin. Jesus bore the contradiction, or opposition, of the very sinners that He came to seek and save. If Jesus could do that, it should be an encouragement to those of us running the Christian race. We can look to Jesus, who has already run a very hard race, and be encouraged to keep on running (Hebrews 12:2-3).

Another sport in the games of the first century was very similar to boxing. However, they used heavy pieces of metal in their gloves to draw blood and kill. The Hebrew Christians had not yet resisted sin, both in others and in self, to the point of a bloody death. Others, such as Stephen, had done so. Likewise, Christ, our supreme example had suffered to the point of a bloody death and was likely still in the author's mind (Hebrews 12:4).