If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

This passage is not one that is taught much anymore in our churches, I am afraid. It is not a very popular one. We don’t leave from its teaching with the warm, fuzzy feeling of passages centered on God’s love and mercy.

But it is a part of the nature of God to judge the righteous from the unrighteous. He is truth, and everything that is just and right. And he designed us to be in a relationship with him.

If I treat the sacrifice of Jesus as if it allows me to be in a special club, without a heart and behavior change, then I am trampling on his sacrifice and dishonoring his name. There is no one scripture in the Bible that says if I say a magic prayer I have an all-time pass for life into the kingdom of heaven, no matter how I live.

If I, in my heart, believe (this word is active, not passive and involves doing the actions that demonstrate belief), then I am saved. The actions of belief in and of themselves do not save us, Jesus does. But they do prove our belief is genuine.

What if a man signed up as a soldier and went to war, and he got the uniform and the firearm and the body armor, everything he needed to go to war; but instead of fighting, he withdrew? We would call this man a coward. Then after a while, what if he decided to enable the enemy, tell them secrets about our plans, and engage in activities against his own people? We would call this man a traitor, and once captured he would die a traitor’s death.

This is what I believe the writer of Hebrews, inspired by God, is saying here: “Either you follow Jesus or you follow this world and its sinful behavior. There is no middle ground. If you try to say you are a follower, but continue to sin, it is like you never knew God at all. Worse, it is like you knew him, but wadded up the death of Jesus on a cross, stomped on it, and threw it away in disgust.

And so, after reading this, I am warned. I am even more resolute in my faith; humble, repentant, steadfast. I do not want to dishonor the name of Christ in my life. I want to be known as faithful.

Lord, work in my heart and rid me of any inkling of sinful desires. Teach me to call these out early and often as the lies that they are. And help me to purify my heart each day, in honor of the one who sacrificed so much to save me.