Hebrews 6:11 MSG
11 And now I want each of you to extend that same intensity toward a full-bodied hope, and keep at it till the finish.
There are two interesting things implicit in this passage.
(i) We learn that even if these people to whom he is writing have failed to grow up in Christian faith and knowledge and even if they have been falling away from their first enthusiasm, they have never given up their practical service to their fellow Christians. There is a great practical truth here.
Sometimes in the Christian life we come to times which are arid; the Church services have nothing to say to us, the teaching that we do in Sunday school or the singing that we do in the choir or the service we give on a committee becomes a labor without joy.
At such a time there are two alternatives. We can give up our worship and our service, but if we do, we are lost. Or we can go determinedly on with them, and the strange thing is that the light and the romance and the joy will in time come back again. We keep right on loving each other and the joy returns.
(ii) He tells his people to be imitators of those who through faith and patience inherited the promise. What he is saying to them is: "You are not the first to launch out on the glories and the perils of the Christian faith. Others braved the dangers and endured the tribulations before you and won through." He is telling them to go on in the realization that others have gone through their struggle and won the victory. The Christian is not treading an untrodden pathway; he is treading where the saints have trod.
Has any part of your Christian journey become boring? Have you lost some of the joy? Love your brothers and sisters and hold firm. The joy is there. The purpose is there. We just have to get our heart back.
Michael