Hebrews 12:4

Hebrews 12:4. Special care is still needed, for there may be severer trials in store. For not yet have ye resisted unto blood in your conflict with sin. Here the image is changed, as in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, from running to boxing; and the meaning is that whatever some of the Hebrew Christians had suffered (chap. Hebrews 13:7), heavier trials might be in reserve for them. Thus the writer is addressing those who, though not without experience of severe persecution in their first love, would have secured themselves against further violence by sinful conformity. How poor our modern self-denial is, compared with what the first Christians suffered, much more when compared with the sufferings of our Lord! Happier times call for the greater voluntary consecration.