Month: December 2025

Week 49  Hebrews

Today I read through the whole letter at once. To make things easier I galloped through all the quoted passages (56 of the 303 verses are OT quotes – about 18%. So my reading-time was reduced marginally.) Hebrews  is an OT-dense environment – familiar for a Jewish reader but not so comfortable for everyone else.
One thing I noticed was a repeater-message – stay strong and committed to the Lord:
Pay careful attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away
See to it…that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God
Be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short
Make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience (the reference is to Israel in the wilderness)
Hold firmly to the faith we profess
Show diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess
Persevere so that you will receive what he has promised
We do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.
Hebrews has other things to say but I think almost anyone reading the letter is going to be impressed by this message: Hold Fast!

Note: quotes from Hebrews 2:1 3:12 4:1 4:11 4:14 6:11 10:23 10:36 10:39 (NIV) (I omitted some words but kept the meaning).

Week 49  2 Timothy

Back in 1 Timothy I saw that Paul had warned Timothy about false teaching. So I was wondering if things had changed in the second letter. Apparently they hadn’t.
I found more warnings:
1. don’t quarrel about words
2. avoid irreverent babble
3. have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies.
The problem for me – just like it was in 1 Timothy – is that Paul doesn’t pin-down what exactly the words & babblings & controversies are. Which is unfortunate.
Another thing Paul did – just like back in 1 Timothy – is to point out that fake teaching had negative repercussions:
1. Nit-picking over words does no good, but only ruins the hearers
2. Irreverent babble leads people into more and more ungodliness
3. Ignorant controversies breed quarrels.
Near the end of the letter I see what looks to me like a helpful summary:
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
Adopting nonsensical myths isn’t the starting point. It only comes after a couple of other criteria are in place:
First I’ve decided that sound doctrine is intolerable
Second (or maybe at about the same time) I’ve quit listening to truth
Third I’ve started picking-and-choosing my own preferences
Finally when those are settled I’m in the market for myths.

Note: quotes from 2 Timothy 2:13-17 23 1:13 4:3-4 (ESV)