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by Katie Erickson

“Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. ‘Make level paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.
Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done.” -Hebrews 12:12-17

In the previous section, the author of Hebrews talked about the importance of having discipline in our lives as followers of Jesus. We need to be corrected when we’re not on the right path. This next section is an extension of that thought, encouraging us to live upstanding lives, living as a witness to our God.

The “therefore” at the beginning of verse 12 links what’s coming with what just preceded it. Because of the discipline that God provides to us, we need to do our best to live our lives in a righteous manner. If our arms are feeble and our knees are weak as the passage says, we need to strengthen them to do the hard work of living rightly! The Greek word used for “strengthen” also means to “make upright” or “make straight,” giving the idea of living in an upright manner.

In verse 13, the author quotes from Proverbs 4:26. This builds on the idea from verse 12 of strengthening our bodies to do the good works that honor God. If our paths are level, we’re better able to walk on them. This is connected to the idea of discipline among believers in Jesus. We’re meant to live as communities of believers, not to go it alone. When some are feeling “lame” or “disabled” and struggling with doing what is right, the community is to come alongside them to encourage them and provide spiritual healing. While we are not saved by the good things that we do, they do show God’s glory and demonstrate our faith (see James 2:14-26).

Starting in verse 14, we see the author giving more specific ways of how to live in a righteous manner. The Greek verb that’s translated as “make every effort” really has a meaning of pursuing or chasing after, so this verse starts out by saying, “Pursue peace with everyone.” This is a common idea in the New Testament, as we also see in Matthew 5:9, Mark 9:50, and Romans 12:18 just to name a few. Some scholars have debated whether this verse means to try to live at peace with everyone or just fellow believers, but the general consensus is that we are called to live at peace with all people, though peace within the Christian community is important for our witness to those who do not yet believe.

The structure of this verse indicates that we are to pursue both peace and holiness. What is holiness? It means being set apart and striving to be more like God. When we strive to live our lives in a way that is holy and glorifies God, others will be drawn to Him and see Him in and through us.

We see the community of believers at work in verse 15. While we are only responsible for our own actions, we are also called to live in community with one another. This ties into the idea of discipline from the previous passage. When we see a fellow believer pursuing the wrong things and headed down the wrong path, we need to lovingly provide them with correction.

But what’s the deal with the “bitter root” in the second half of verse 15? This is the same idea expressed in Deuteronomy 29:16-18. If people turn away from God, they will be like a bitter root - perhaps it will grow slowly, but its true colors of bitterness will be seen in time. A seed of bitterness can be sown in a faith community, and while it may not be visible right away, if left unchecked it will eventually defile the whole community.

The next warning in this passage is in verse 16 and has to do with sexual immorality. Again, the community of believers is called upon to help keep each other living in right ways and not falling into this temptation. The author next refers to Esau as being godless. The word for “godless” can also mean unholy or profane, which implies that Esau was more focused on the things of this world than on Godly things. Esau did not recognize the value of his birthright but instead gave it away to fulfill an immediate need (see Genesis 25:29-34 for the story). Unlike Esau, we are to look at the big picture that God sees as much as we can rather than focusing on the immediate needs we experience here on earth. Anyone who turns away from God doesn’t care about God’s plan; they only care about their own needs being met.

Verse 17 continues the narrative about Esau and how he did not receive the blessing he was to inherit. There was a finality to Esau’s actions; he could not undo what he had done. There are choices we make in life that cannot be undone. There’s a song by my favorite band called Bullets that has lyrics that say, “Can’t put the bullets back into the gun / Can’t undo what we have done.” While we can always receive forgiveness, some actions are more final than perhaps we would like them to be, just as Esau’s was.

The main ideas we can take from this passage are that we are all to pursue righteous living, both individually and in our communities of faith. We are to strengthen ourselves and one another in the faith so that we can more easily understand and follow God’s commands to us so that we honor and glorify Him. We are to lovingly discipline and correct one another in the context of our faith communities because we know that we can’t live this Christian life on our own. We are better together than by ourselves, to both encourage one another and help one another stay on the right path of honoring God with our lives.

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