Hebrews 4:1

Hebrews 4:1. Let us therefore fear. A stronger expression than the caution of Hebrews 3:12 (‘take heed'), and the fitting preparation for the ‘earnest labour' of chap. Hebrews 4:12. We are not to doubt the truth of the Divine promise, and the more firmly we believe it the more active shall we be in the fulfilment of every duty; but we are to fear the treachery of our own hearts. Continued unbelief will exclude us from God's rest, from the peace and blessedness which the Gospel gives both here and hereafter; and even if we finally repent and reach heaven, unbelief will, in proportion as we indulge it, lessen the enjoyment into which we enter by believing, and which we can enter in no other way. This godly fear, instead of debasing the mind, inspires courage and freedom; it preserves us from vain security, checks self-confidence, and makes us vigilant against everything that may endanger our safety.

Lest, somehow, haply. This last phrase, which it is not easy to express, calls attention to the greatness of the danger and emphasizes the caution.

A promise being left us. A promise remaining over unfulfilled.

Any one of you should seem... It should turn out that any one of you has come short of it; literally, lest any one of you should seem (to himself or to others), when the decisive day comes, to have failed, and to have no part in the promise a warning of a fearful result, given with a delicacy quite usual with the writer; or it may be a statement like that in Matthew 25:40-46, where we are told that many will not know their true character till they hear it described at the bar of God. Their ruin will be as startling to themselves as to others.