Hebrews 12:16 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Hebrews 12:16

Comments

The word fornicator covers all forms of sexual impurity and uncleanness. ‘Let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints’, says the apostle Paul (Ephesians 5:3). There are not many sins concerning which the New Testament is this emphatic – ‘Let it not once be named among you.’ It does not say that about telling a lie, even though that too is utterly wrong, and yet, because of our sinfulness and our weakness, some dishonest excuse may slip out. This is not to defend lying: we repent of it and we sorely regret it. But the sin of fornication is handled with much greater firmness; it is so avoidable. There is no excuse whatsoever for a believer falling into this sexual sin.‘Or profane person’ – what is a profaned person? The example is given as Esau. The Greek word indicates a threshold walker, somebody who passes easily across the threshold. Maybe the emergence of the word into profanity works like this: here is somebody who will go rushing across the threshold of the temple in ancient times without a prayer, without a thought, without reverence. This person knows no boundaries, but just works on impulse. So the word comes to mean an irreverent person, a person who treats high and holy things lightly. There is no respect for high and holy things, and yet this is something which God so detests; it is put right next to fornication. There is a failure to make a difference between worldly things and divine thing; This is someone who treats the things of God almost with contempt, treats them lightly. Esau treated his birthright lightly. He was destined from human point of view to be the leader of the family, the guardian, the protector of the family of God in ancient times, yet he thought so lightly of that, he was so shallow, so irreverent. He sold that privilege in a moment for just a morsel of food.

Application

But what about us? There is so much profane conduct today, even in Christian churches where there is no reverence in worship. You are a member of the church of Christ. You belong, you are an insider, you are saved. Is it possible that some of us treat our membership very lightly, that we don't care about the proceedings of the church into which God has brought us and in which he is planted us? It is possible, we take no interest in the conduct of the church, its business meetings, or its prayer meetings? We treat it lightly. We think of Esau and say, ‘I would not have sold my precious office and station for a mouthful of food’, but sometimes we sell our privileges and responsibilities lightly. Much more profane is to come into God’s house and to worship but to have a mind that is focused elsewhere, not to engage in the worship with our whole being. How many people come in well after the beginning of the service? They tell themselves, ‘It doesn't matter; it is only the worship of God. I would never be late to work, but I can be as late as I like into the house of God.’ It is a form of profanity. It isn’t the very worst form of profanity, but it is that and we should think about these things.

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Hebrews 12:16 Commentary and Bible Study