I’ve been pondering Hebrews 12:1 & 2:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish. (New Living Translation)

Breaking it down:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith…”

By “huge crowd of witnesses” he is, of course, referring to Hebrews 11, the chapter in which he describes a lot of people who were faithful. Much of Hebrews 11, though, is a description of all the great things these faithful people did. But I think the danger here is that we focus on their deeds. And if we focus on the deeds, we miss the point. If we focus on the deeds—as though doing good things alone is what we should aspire to—we’ll get tripped up.

Each time another faithful person is introduced in Chapter 11, it’s like this: “It was by faith that [insert notable person here] did [insert notable deed here].”

“It was by faith…” In other words, it was the faith inside of them that caused them to do something great. It wasn’t their great deeds that gave them the title “Faithful.” After all, some of (if not all) of the people included in the “Hall of Faith” did some pretty raunchy things too. Like, in Hebrews 11:11 & 12, we hear about Abraham and Sarah and how they believed that God was going to give them a son even though they were old and Sarah was barren. What we don’t read, though (in Hebrews 11:11 & 12 anyway; see Genesis 16), is the whole part of the story when they thought that poor God didn’t quite remember that Sarah was barren and they wanted to help Him along in this process of giving them a son, so they came up with this brilliant plan (NOT!) for Abraham to get Hagar pregnant.

Clearly the whole incident with Hagar was, well, sin. They screwed up (no pun intended). And yet they still secured a place in the “Hall of Faith.” Why? Because what they did wasn’t the measure of faithfulness; it was who they were. They sinned, yes. But then they repented and got back on the right track. Their overarching character was that of seeking after the things of God, trusting in His promises and doing their best to live lives that were obedient to His commands.

So it is with us. I would venture to guess that if Hebrews 11 was being written today, most people would like to be included as an example of faith. But if we’re trying to be faithful by simply doing the right things and not paying attention to the state of our hearts, we’re never going to succeed and we’d never be candidates for a modern version of Hebrews 11.

But, if we’re trying to be faithful by FIRST having a right heart, then we’d be a great candidate for a modern Hebrews 11.

And once our heart is right, guess what?, good deeds will follow because good deeds are a natural outflow of a good heart. (But that’s so beside the point.)

to be continued…