the Week of Proper 22 / Ordinary 27
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King James Version
Hebrews 12:4
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You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin;
You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin.
Sure, your struggle with sin is rough, but in reality, it is just a little crow-hop compared to the broncs others have rode.
Till now you have not given your blood in your fight against sin:
Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, wrestling against sin.
You have not yet resisted to blood, striving against sin;
Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted so as to endanger your lives;
Yee haue not yet resisted vnto blood, striuing against sinne.
You did not yet resist unto blood, wrestling against sin.
for ye haue not yet resisted vnto bloude, stryuynge agaynst synne,
You have not yet resisted unto death, striving against sin.
In this all-out match against sin, others have suffered far worse than you, to say nothing of what Jesus went through—all that bloodshed! So don't feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children? My dear child, don't shrug off God's discipline, but don't be crushed by it either. It's the child he loves that he disciplines; the child he embraces, he also corrects. God is educating you; that's why you must never drop out. He's treating you as dear children. This trouble you're in isn't punishment; it's training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God's training so we can truly live? While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God's holy best. At the time, discipline isn't much fun. It always feels like it's going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it's the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God.
You have not yet struggled to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin;
Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin:
In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
For ye have not yet resisted vnto bloud sheddinge stryvinge agaynst synne.
You have not yet resisted to blood, striving against sin:
Ye have not yet resisted to blood, striving against sin.
Not yet unto blood did ye resist -- with the sin striving;
You are struggling against sin, but your struggles have not yet caused you to be killed.
You have not yet resisted to the point of bloodshed in your struggle against sin.
In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
None of you have yet been hurt in your battle against sin.
You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in the contest against sin.
In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
Ye haue not yet resisted vnto blood, striuing against sinne.
You have not yet come face to face with blood in your striving against sin.
In struggling against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
You have not yet resisted to blood, striving against sin;
In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding yourthe point of shedding your">[fn] blood.1 Corinthians 10:13; Hebrews 10:32-34;">[xr]
Not yet have ye come unto blood in the conflict which is against sin.
Ye have not yet come unto blood, in the contest against sin.
You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.
After all, you have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin.
In your fight against sin, you have not yet had to stand against sin with your blood.
Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin:
In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
Not yet unto blood, have ye resisted, against sin, waging a contest;
For you have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood as you struggle against sin.
Ye haue not yet resisted vnto blood, stryuyng agaynst sinne.
You are struggling against sin, but you have not had to give up your life for the cause.
You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin;
For in your struggle against sin you have not yet had to resist to the point of being killed.
For ye ayenstoden not yit `til to blood, fiytyng ayens synne.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
Hebrews 12:2, Hebrews 10:32-34, Matthew 24:9, 1 Corinthians 10:13, 2 Timothy 4:6, 2 Timothy 4:7, Revelation 2:13, Revelation 6:9-11, Revelation 12:11, Revelation 17:6, Revelation 18:24
Reciprocal: Joshua 23:6 - very Jeremiah 12:5 - thou hast Matthew 5:39 - That Romans 7:23 - another 1 Corinthians 9:25 - striveth Ephesians 6:12 - wrestle Philippians 1:30 - the same Colossians 1:29 - striving 2 Timothy 2:5 - strive Hebrews 12:5 - nor faint Revelation 13:10 - Here
Cross-References
Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.
And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.
By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Ye have not yet resisted unto blood,.... They had resisted sin, and Satan, and the world, the men of it, and the lusts of it, and its frowns and flatteries, and also false teachers, even every adversary of Christ, and their souls; but they had not, as yet, resisted unto blood, or to the shedding of their blood, as some of the Old Testament saints had done; as some in the times of the Maccabees, and as James the apostle of Christ, and as Christ himself: wherefore the apostle suggests, that they ought to consider, that they had been indulged; and what they had been engaged in, were only some light skirmishes; and that they must expect to suffer as long as they were in the world, and had blood in them; and that their blood, when called for, should be spilled for the sake of Christ:
striving against sin; which is the principal antagonist the believer has, and is here particular pointed out: sin is here, by some, thought to be put for sinful men; or it may design the sin of those men, who solicited the saints to a defection from the truth; or the sin of apostasy itself; or that of unbelief; or rather indwelling sin, and the lusts of the flesh, which war against the soul. Now this is said, to sharpen and increase the saints resentment and indignation against it, as being their antagonist, with whom they strive and combat, and which is the cause of all the evils in the world, exposes to wrath to come, and separates from communion with God; and to encourage them to bear their sufferings patiently, since they are not without sin, as Christ was; and since their afflictions and sufferings are for the subduing of sin, and the increase of holiness.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin - The general sense of this passage is, “you have not yet been called in your Christian struggles to the highest kind of sufferings and sacrifices. Great as your trials may seem to have been, yet your faith has not yet been put to the severest test. And since this is so, you ought not to yield in the conflict with evil, but manfully resist it.” In the language used here there is undoubtedly a continuance of the allusion to the agonistic games - the strugglings and wrestlings for mastery there. In those games, the boxers were accustomed to arm themselves for the fight with the caestus. This at first consisted of strong leathern thongs wound around the hands, and extending only to the wrist, to give greater solidity to the fist. Afterward these were made to extend to the elbow, and then to the shoulder, and finally, they sewed pieces of lead or iron in them that they might strike a heavier and more destructive blow. The consequence was, that those who were engaged in the fight were often covered with blood, and that resistance “unto blood” showed a determined courage, and a purpose not to yield. But though the language here may be taken from this custom, the fact to which the apostle alludes, it seems to me, is the struggling of the Saviour in the garden of Gethsemane, when his conflict was so severe that, great drops of blood fell down to the ground see the notes on Matthew 26:36-44. It is, indeed, commonly understood to mean that they had not yet been called to shed their blood as martyrs in the cause of religion; see Stuart Bloomfield, Doddridge, Clarke, Whitby, Kuinoel, etc. Indeed, I find in none of the commentators what seems to me to be the true sense of this passage, and what gives an exquisite beauty to it, the allusion to the sufferings of the Saviour in the garden. The reasons which lead me to believe that there is such an allusion, are briefly these:
(1) The connection. The apostle is appealing to the example of the Saviour, and urging Christians to persevere amidst their trials by looking to him. Nothing would be more natural in this connection, than to refer to that dark night, when in the severest conflict with temptation which he ever encountered. he so signally showed his own firmness of purpose, and the effects of resistance on his own bleeding body, and his signal victory - in the garden of Gethsemane.
(2) The expression “striving against sin” seems to demand the same interpretation. On the common interpretation, the allusion would be merely to their resisting persecution; but here the allusion is to some struggle in their minds against “committing sin.” The apostle exhorts them to strive manfully and perseveringly against; sin in every form, and especially against the sin of apostasy. To encourage them he refers them to the highest instance on record where there was a “striving against sin” - the struggle of the Redeemer in the garden with the great enemy who there made his most violent assault, and where the resistance of the Redeemer was so great as to force the blood through his pores. What was the exact form of the temptation there, we are not informed. It may have been to induce him to abandon his work even then and to yield, in view of the severe sufferings of his approaching death on the cross.
If there ever was a point where temptation would be powerful, it would be there. When a man is about to be put to death, how strong is the inducement to abandon his purpose, his plans, or his principles, if he may save his life! How many, of feeble virtue, have yielded just there! If to this consideration we add the thought that the Redeemer was engaged in a work never before undertaken; that he designed to make an atonement never before made; that he was about to endure sorrows never before endured; and that on the decision of that moment depended the ascendency of sin or holiness on the earth, the triumph or the fall of Satan’s kingdom, the success or the defeat of all the plans of the great adversary of God and man, and that, on such an occasion as this, the tempter would use all his power to crush the lonely and unprotected man of sorrows in the garden of Gethsemane, it is easy to imagine what may have been the terror of that fearful conflict, and what virtue it would require in him to resist the concentrated energy of Satan’s might to induce him even then to abandon his work. The apostle says of those to whom he wrote, that they had not yet reached that point; compare notes on Hebrews 5:7.
(3) This view furnishes a proper climax to the argument of the apostle for perseverance. It presents the Redeemer before the mind as the great example; directs the mind to him in various scenes of his life - as looking to the joy before him - disregarding the ignominy of his sufferings - enduring the opposition of sinners - and then in the garden as engaged in a conflict with his great foe, and so resisting sin that rather than yield he endured that fearful mental struggle which was attended with such remarkable consequences. This is the highest consideration which could be presented to the mind of a believer to keep him from yielding in the conflict with evil; and if we could keep him in the eye resisting even unto blood rather than yield in the least degree, it would do more than all other things to restrain us from sin. How different his case from ours! How readily we yield to sin! We offer a faint and feeble resistance, and then surrender. We think it will be unknown: or that others do it; or that we may repent of it; or that we have no power to resist it; or that it is of little consequence, and our resolution gives way. Not so the Redeemer, Rather than yield in any form to sin, he measured strength with the great adversary when alone with him in the darkness of the night, and gloriously triumphed! And so would we always triumph if we had the same settled purpose to resist sin in every form even unto blood.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Hebrews 12:4. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood — Many of those already mentioned were martyrs for the truth; they persevered unto death, and lost their lives in bearing testimony to the truth. Though you have had opposition and persecution, yet you have not been called, in bearing your testimony against sin and sinners, to seal the truth with your blood.
Striving against sin. — Προς την ἁμαρτιαν ανταγωνι ζομενοι· An allusion to boxing at the Grecian games. In the former passages the apostle principally refers to the foot races.
