Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.
– Hebrews 10:35-36
This chapter of Hebrews describes the outside issues the congregation had to deal with – ridicule, persecution and even theft of personal property, and seeing other fellow members being treated the same way – and also being commended for helping each other through the tough times, even with prison visits, as they lived out their new faith in the Savior, Jesus.
As people today, we tend to read the accounts of life in Biblical days as not at all like our lives. The question is ‘why is our life so different’? Could it be that the early followers of Jesus were more open about their faith, even to the point of being so excited that they could not help but speak about it to everybody? Why were they so enthused about knowing Jesus as Savior that they were willing to suffer because other people could tell they were believers? The early believers saw that their life and eternal future were different than they had been before knowing about the Savior. And that ‘confident expectation’ of God’s love for them changed how they lived, how they talked, how they dealt with everyday issues. The more we know about the early believers, the more we are inspired to act the same way. Jesus makes a real difference in daily life, because we know that we have the security of eternal life by the Spirit-given faith we have in Him. Praise God!
