Hebrews 11 is the great chapter of faith. There we learn how Abraham and Moses and others lived faithful lives. But the Bible was not originally divided into chapters and verses. What was said in Hebrews 11 is closely connected to what was said in Hebrews 10 and what was said in Hebrews 12. Indeed Hebrews 10 and 12 spell out the lessons to be learned from the faith examples in Hebrews 11. The primary lesson is that the Christian life is hard and challenging. If we have the idea that the Christian life is going to be easy, then we will not be prepared for the challenges that come our way and will fail to remain faithful.

Here are specific ways in which we need to remain faithful:

• “Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings” (10:22).

• “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess” (10:23).

• “Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another” (10:25).

• “Remember those earlier days…when you endured” suffering, insult, persecution, and confiscation of property and “stood side by side with those who were so treated” and those in prison (10:32-34). That is, let us remember our past faithfulness and keep doing the same things.

• “Do not throw away your confidence” (10:35).

• “Persevere” and do not “shrink back” (10:36-39).

• “Throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles” (12:1).

• “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (12:1).

• Let us fix “our eyes on Jesus” (12:2).

• “Consider” Jesus, who also remained faithful in suffering “so that you will not grow weary and lose heart” (12:3).

• “Struggle against sin…to the point of shedding your blood” (12:4).

• “Do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you” (12:5).

• “Endure hardship as discipline” (12:7).

• “Strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. ‘Make level paths for your feet,’ so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed” (12:12-13). Like 10:25 and 10:32-34, this assumes that we do not live the Christian life in isolation but that we do it together, supporting one another.

• “Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy” (12:14).

• “See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God” (12:15).

• See to it “that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many” (12:15).

• “See to it that no one is sexually immoral” (12:16).

• See to it that no one “is godless like Esau,” who traded his godly inheritance for something far less valuable and far more temporary (12:16).

There is a lot of repetition here, but that shows how hard it is to remain faithful and also how important it is. These chapters contain warnings that the alternative to remaining faithful is “a fearful expectation of judgment” (10:27) and destruction (10:39). There is a day of judgment coming (10:25). When that day comes, if we have not remained faithful, it will be too late to repent, too late to shed tears, too late to change what we have done. (12:17).