See to it….

Paul says in Hebrews 3:12, “See to it, brothers, that none of you has sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.”

See to it, brothers…I don’t think Paul opened this up as he did by accident. I think he has something in mind here that is very important. First he adds an ‘urgency’ “See to it”, don’t just sit there!, don’t take this lightly!, this is important!, listen up!...it there to get our attention, to get us to focus on the task that is about to be laid out. In the military they would call this a ‘preparatory command’…it might be simple as “Forward”…pause…”March”. Forward tells you to get ready to move, ‘March’ means move.

Next Paul, says “brothers”…together, you need to be together on this, you can’t do this alone, you need each other. Paul is telling these guys, you can’t accomplish what I am about to tell you alone. You are going to need each other. Why would Paul do this? Because Paul is dealing with sin! Sin is not to be taken lightly, even the smallest of sin needs to be addressed, because it leads to more sin…more sin leads to unbelieving heart, that has to turn away from God. God is perfect, he is Holy, he is sinless. Sin cannot be in the presence of a Holy and Righteous being. Thus, sin separates from a Holy God, when that happens our heart can become hardened towards God.

What would that look like in our lives? You compromise with a small sin, let’s say a lie. The phone rings and your wife answers the phone, it’s so-and-so. You don’t want to talk to them, for whatever reason…you say, “Tell them I’m not here”, so your wife lies for you. Now this might seem innocent enough, but you have lied and dragged your wife along with you. You get in the habit of doing this when some calls you don’t want to talk to…and the next thing you know it normal and acceptable to you…you have hardened your heart. So then it’s tax time and you decided the Federal government doesn’t need to know all you taxable income…next you tell your wife your at work, while your out to dinner with your buddies…sin grows, it slow, it hardens our hearts. Before you know it your making excuses to why you can’t attend church or your faith becomes a ‘religion’ and it’s not for me. My relationship is broken with God, and I am lost.

That is why we need to encourage each other, to hold each other accountable, to admonish each other…to keep us on the right path. Let’s face it, the world is against us. It wants us to sin and turn from God and will do anything to get us to be quite, or better yet denounce God with our mouths and life style. We are in a battle; we have to help each other along. So if you’re out there trying to live this faith alone, you will fail. You need to connect yourself with a body of believers and get encouraged. I want to encourage you to stay true to the calling God has place upon you. Remember you are a child of God, precious to him and of great value. Don’t cheapen or sell yourself short for something that doesn’t last.

-ps