“Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. You must warn each other every day, while it is still ‘today,’ so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ. Remember what it says:
‘Today when you hear his voice,
don’t harden your hearts
as Israel did when they rebelled.'”
In yesterday’s post we were reminded to keep our hearts soft and open to Jesus. Today’s passage continues that theme, and specifically tells us to make sure our own hearts are not evil and unbelieving. How do we each do that? What does it mean to make sure my heart is not evil? One clue: evil and unbelieving hearts turn away from God.
If you ever wondered if you could successfully follow Jesus by yourself, the answer is a big “NO!” Our hearts are prone to wander away from God, and we need to remind each other every day who Jesus is. The author uses the word “warn” here. This requires a certain level of commitment and willingness to say hard things and hear hard things from each other. When we position ourselves in this way, we just might make it to the end where we will share in all that belongs to Christ (which is everything!).
It’s really hard to be faithful. It means you’ve got to hang in there through good times and bad. It means you have to remember why you got into this whole Jesus thing in the first place. It means you cannot forget who he is, what he has done for you, and what is coming to those who believe in him. If you don’t have people in your life who regularly remind you about these things, find them! You need people to keep you in check or you run the risk of forgetting. Moses forgot and didn’t enter the Promised Land. Don’t let pride tell you that you can overcome evil by yourself. You can’t.