Set Aside

 DEVOTION

TO HEBREWS

SET ASIDE

Heb 12:1-3

12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

NIV

We just went through that list of great witnesses to living by faith, of being people of faith, and so we take their witnesses and apply all that to our lives. We are to throw off everything that hinders us and the sin that so easily entangles us. The first question is how to throw it off? All the things that hinder us are all around us and always facing us at every turn. It is almost impossible to get rid of them, and yet we are to throw them off. The Greek word is more of a sense to set aside but throw off is a good translation. We cannot throw off sin completely, that would be ignorant to think that we could live without any sin whatsoever. It does easily entangle us, even before we know it, there it is, an attitude, a hurt feeling that entangles us into being unforgiving and not loving toward that one who hurt us. Pride jumps right in before we know it, and we begin to think more highly of ourselves than we should. Being critical, and judgmental, accompanies that prideful attitude. It is not the physical sins that bother us so much, murder, stealing, adultery, hoarding, or others we cannot think of at the moment, it is the inward sins, the attitudes of the heart that entangle us so quickly. How do we throw them off? How do we keep ourselves from having attitudes that are unbecoming a child of God? We all may look good in front of others, or appear as righteous and holy people of God, but are our hearts pure, or are there attitudes hiding within that we have yet to throw off. How then do we worship when we are still struggling to forgive someone? Can we say that we are righteous enough to hold court on others' sins? Of course, that would be wrong on so many levels. Let us therefore throw off those things that hinder us from being the child of God we are supposed to be. We all have sins, none of us are perfect, but we need to live by faith, trusting in God to finish the work he started in us. Yes, we have all those witnesses, but they too were not sinless, it is just their witness of living by faith that we need to follow. Yet, at the same time, we are to make every effort, with the help of Jesus, to throw off those attitudes that hinder us from living by faith, and all those sins, those attitudes that so easily entangle us. It seems to us that requires some kind of a decision, some kind of making up our minds, setting aside those attitudes, and behaviors that we know in our hearts are not right. We also know that we need Jesus to help us accomplish that. It always comes back to living by faith, in order to set anything aside.