Hold Fast, Hold Firm, Hold Tight (Hebrews)

Hebrews prods us to encourage others in Christ who are struggling. Today.

As I read through the book again today, Hebrews 3:13 stands out, as it always does but with a better understanding that doing so also helps to protect me from being hardened (or settling into rebellion, as the AMP version offers) by sin’s deceitfulness. There is the reciprocity of the giving of encouragement as well as the receiving of it from others. I am not to always and only give encouragement (maybe that would mean I have been deceived by sin and hardened to the point of being proud or arrogant); I am not to always and only take it (maybe that would mean I have been deceived by sin and hardened to others’ need for encouragement, selfishly thinking I need it more).

So how do I do this, practically? 

Hebrews 4:14 offers the encouragement to HOLD FAST to my confession, to cling tenaciously to my faith in God’s unique ability to save in Jesus Christ. Hebrews 3:14 tells me to HOLD FIRM to my “newborn confidence” until the end as well as my eager, confident expectation of His returning (9:28). Isn’t that what encouragement does? It helps me in whatever situation I find myself (or temptation) to hold fast and hold firm, to cling to the hope that I have as I walk through difficult things in life, or to offer that same encouragement as I see another believer struggling in a way I understand and can testify to His faithfulness. 

Hebrews 10:23 also tells me to SEIZE and HOLD TIGHTLY to “the confession of our hope without wavering” and 10:24 says to consider “how we may encourage one another to love and to do good deeds.” I am to actively look for ways to encourage and strengthen others. When I think about this verse, I am picturing myself suspended over a great canyon that to fall into would mean certain death and destruction, and I am holding on for dear life to the One who not only keeps me from falling but is able to pull me back up into the safety of His arms. He is my lifeline, my hope. It is not my strength on which I depend but His. 

I dare not let go!

Not only does the author of Hebrews encourage me to hold fast, hold firm, hold tight, and to seize the confession of my hope without any thought of ever letting go, it also tells me not to fling away my “[fearless] confidence, for it has a glorious and great reward” (10:35). My confidence in Christ is not to be taken lightly. I am to cling TO and NOT fling it away. It is my lifeline even as my fingers grow numb waiting for His salvation, His rescue to come.

The admonition of this encouragement (both given and received) because of belief and hope in Christ continues in Hebrews 13:1: “Let love of your fellow believers continue.” Allow. Don’t block it actively. Love others; in so doing “we take comfort and are encouraged and confidently say, ‘The LORD is my helper [in time of need]. I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?’ [Ps. 27:1, 118:7]” (Heb. 13:6). 

Know that Christ will keep holding on and holding up.

As the writer of Hebrews nears the end of the missive, this massive encouragement for believers is this: “JESUS CHRIST IS [eternally changeless, always] THE SAME YESTERDAY AND TODAY AND FOREVER.” 

The encouragement of the writer of Hebrews likewise encourages us to encourage others because Christ never changes. His Word stands eternally, and our hearts are both established and strengthened by His grace, not our actions (Heb. 13:9), but because of Him and the grace he offers freely, we act with grateful, encouraged hearts, freely.

It must be said because Hebrews reminds us that the law can't save; otherwise, why would Christ have needed to come and die? (Heb. 7). My active encouragement of others won’t save me. 

Yours encouragement of others in Christ won’t save you. 

But Christ alone, who has saved all of us who have believed Him through His gift of faith and accepted His precious redemption, will save us, and He never changes, this Rock on which my faith and your faith must rest, and that alone, my friend is all the encouragement I need to encourage others who are struggling today.