Hebrews 3
Hebrews 3:1-19
1 Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus,
2 who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house.
3 For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house.
4 For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God.
5 And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward,
6 but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “TODAY, IF YOU WILL HEAR HIS VOICE,
8 DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS IN THE REBELLION, IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS,
9 WHERE YOUR FATHERS TESTED ME, TRIED ME, AND SAW MY WORKS FORTY YEARS.
10 THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THAT GENERATION, AND SAID, ‘THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART, AND THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN MY WAYS.’
11 SO I SWORE IN MY WRATH, ‘THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.’ “
12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God;
13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “TODAY,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end,
15 while it is said: “TODAY, IF YOU WILL HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS IN THE REBELLION.”
16 For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses?
17 Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness?
18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey?
19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
Rather than being caught up in some kind of false confidence that makes way for transgressions, there is passion to be had that will produce an ever-expanding pursuit of the One who has established the house of God as His own Son. The greatest danger that comes from willful sin is its hardening effect on the heart. While it may seem that sin is just gratification of the sin from something that displeases God, it is actually intentional hardening of one’s own heart. Sort of like a candy bar with chocolate, peanut butter, and caramel. To partake of it is to intentionally, whether conscious or not, engage in hardening of the arteries, those conduits of life for the whole body. We can remain kept from the hardening affect on our heart of love for God by intentionally living true to His holiness from a heart that has lost all craving for the world’s facades.