Constant faith (Hebrews 10:38)
Here is good advice for the person who must live through severe
troubles. He cannot even hope to live by his money, strength or intelligence. He
cannot depend on his family, his friends or his importance. Such things do not
protect a person even when life is easy. They certainly cannot help a person
whose life is hard.
The advice comes from God himself, in Habakkuk 2:4. A person
must live by faith in God. In other words, the person must constantly
trust God.
There are two different ideas here, which the author of Hebrews
combines. The person must be faithful; and the person must have
faith. ‘Faithful’ means that the person must constantly remain loyal
to God. That is what the Book of Habakkuk emphasises (see Habakkuk 3:17-18).
‘Faith’ means that a person must trust God. That is the word that the
ancient Greek Bible translation (called the Septuagint) uses in this
passage.
Those facts teach us something about the nature of faith. Faith in
God is not just a thought that lasts for a moment. It is an attitude that lasts
for the rest of our lives. It is a decision to be constantly loyal to
God, whatever our troubles may be. In every situation, we will trust him.
There are many examples of faith in Hebrews chapter 11. And every example is of
someone who was faithful to God. We cannot have faith unless we are loyal to
God. The person with faith constantly does what God wants him to do.
The second line of Hebrews 10:38 is the Septuagint’s translation
of the beginning of Habakkuk 2:4. To us, it may not seem a good translation. But
the author of Hebrews was advising people who would live through terrible
troubles. He was not trying to prove how much he knew. So he did not argue about
the translation. Such arguments can cause people to lose confidence in the
Bible.
The Septuagint’s statement in that line is correct. A person
should not turn back from God. People must not allow unbelief to rule their
lives. The author of Hebrews has often warned about that (Hebrews 6:4-8; Hebrews
10:29-31). And he gave an example of it in Hebrews 3:7-19. Such actions make God
angry; they certainly do not please him.
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