Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. (Hebrews 03:12-13, NKJV).
This is the second dire warning in Hebrews. First you drift away by not giving earnest heed to the doctrine of Christ, then you depart when that hardening heart degenerates into full-fledged and fatal unbelief - unless you beware.
Warnings in Scripture are there precisely because our Maker knows where we are weakest and most likely to stumble and fall. When these warning are repeated in the space of a few paragraphs, we should pay particular attention.
I believe the writer is not specifically addressing believers here, whom he calls, holy brethren, but brethren in the cultural, ethnic, or social sense, those on the cusp of believing, but not yet fully committed to the truth of the gospel.
This is a dangerous place to be, in some ways more perilous than outright rejection, because the straddler, or the seeker merely flirting with the truth, runs the risk of becoming desensitized to the marvelous revelations of God. How do I know this to be the case? For the compelling reason that in just a few chapters this very serious spiritual condition will be detailed even further, presenting even more catastrophic consequences.
To pretend belief is a form of self-deception. Whatever the motivations - relief from guilt, a desire to conform, a need to put on a certain facade - an insincere confession of faith is similar to the scam perpetrated in the early church by an infamous couple who made a great (and ultimately fatal) show of false generosity toward the church in Jerusalem.
But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession. And he kept back part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? “While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” (Acts 5:1-4, NKJV).
To feign conversion, or to repeatedly come to the boundary of full belief and knowingly retreat, if done frequently enough, ultimately cements you in a state of self-deceived rejection. Better to declare your unbelief forthrightly than to continually remain borderline but undecided. That way your are not guilty of trying to fool anyone, especially your own wicked heart.
God is not mocked. False allegiance to Christ is rebellion.
What is the most effective preventative for such a deadly state of mind and will? Daily exhortation to renew your knowledge of the truth, to exhort one another daily before it is too late and this disease, like the hardened heart of the prior verses, becomes incurable.
I am convinced that regular immersion in the truth of God's Word inoculates us from the temptation to fall back into the deceptive sin of covert unbelief. We are washed in the water of the Word. Our minds are renewed and we are transformed, rather than conformed to the world.
There are a variety of ways to implement this vitally important spiritual principle in practical day-to-day living. These include regular fellowship with other believers, daily study and meditation of the Bible, prayer for wisdom and guidance - two supplications guaranteed to be fulfilled, and cultivating a thankful, rather than a hardened and cynical heart.
To neglect this in your Christian walk is willful disobedience.
And disobedience to the Savior is both a sign of unbelief, and a hallmark of lack of love toward the One who died to free us from the unthinkable penalty of sin.
God knows that our fallen human tendency is to forget rather than remember His goodness. He knows our congenital bent toward sin is a mountainous obstacle that needs to be conquered anew every morning. He understands that we are continually at war with our flesh and its allies, the world and the devil.
To assist us in the necessary battle He provides us an armory of spiritual weapons, but they avail us nothing if we don't purpose in our belief-softened hearts to faithfully use them - daily.
And He promises that the war has already been won, and that He will always go before us into the fray, picking us up when we inevitably fall, healing our wounds and cleansing us from all unrighteousness.
We need to heed and act upon these warnings.
To do otherwise makes us dangerously susceptible to the deceitfulness of sin.
