Every Effort Hebrews 12 14-17

 DEVOTION

TO HEBREWS

EVERY EFFORT

Heb 12:14-17

14 Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. 16 See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. 17 Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.

NIV

This is one of those parts of the letter containing a warning to be careful about our lives. First, and foremost we are supposed to make every effort to live in peace with all and to be holy. To live in peace with all men, and that means women too, we have to set aside our selfish thinking. We also need to forgive every single little offense we think is against us. Interestingly, when we think we are offended it simply means we are thinking we are more important than we are, or we are thinking too highly of ourselves, which is totally against the word of God. Then we could say that thinking more highly of ourselves than we should is sinful. However, the point is that we must, and that is an absolute, make every effort to live in peace with everyone. It seems to us that it starts with the way we think about others. If we have any ill feelings at all, any unforgiveness, bitterness, envy, or jealous type thinking toward one person then we are not at peace with them, and it seems we are not making any effort whatsoever. If that is the case, then how can we even think about being holy. If we are not holy, if we have not purified ourselves, which the only way is to live in Christ, then we will not see the Lord. In other words, if we are not making every effort, and thus not living in peace with each other, it means we are not living in Christ, and thus we are not holy, and because of that we are not truly saved, but just living a lie, deceiving ourselves about being a believer and follower of Jesus Christ. Surely, we cannot say to ourselves that is the way we are, and we just cannot help but have ill feelings toward this one person, and if that means we are not saved, so be it. No, no, we must repent that kind of thinking, change the way we think about that one person, or several people, and make every effort to live in peace with them. That may mean we have to go to them and ask for forgiveness for the way we have been thinking about them. That has to be part of every effort, as the Greek text puts it, to seek eagerly after, to earnestly endeavor to acquire. Therefore, to make every effort.