Hebrews 12:4-5 NIV

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Hebrews 12:4-17

Here the apostle presses the exhortation to patience and perseverance by an argument taken from the gentle measure and gracious nature of those sufferings which the believing Hebrews endured in their Christian course. I. From the gentle and moderate degree and measure of their sufferings: You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin, Heb. 12:4. Observe, 1. He owns that they had suffered much, they had been striving to an agony against sin. Here, (1.) The cause of the conflict was... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - Hebrews 12:3-4

12:3-4 Consider him who steadfastly endured such opposition at the hands of sinners, and compare your lives with his, so that you may not faint and grow weary in your souls. You have not yet had to resist to the point of blood in your struggle against sin. The writer to the Hebrews uses two very vivid words when he speaks of fainting and growing weary. They are the words which Aristotle uses of an athlete who flings himself on the ground in collapse after he has surged past the winning... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - Hebrews 12:5-11

12:5-11 Have you forgotten the appeal, an appeal which reasons with you as sons? "My son, do not treat lightly the discipline which the Lord sends; Never lose heart when you are put to the test by him; For the Lord disciplines the man whom he loves, and scourges every son whom he receives." It is for the sake of discipline that you must endure. It is because he is treating us as sons that God sends these things upon us. What son is there whom his father does not discipline? If... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Hebrews 12:4

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... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Hebrews 12:5

And ye have forgotten the exhortation ,.... Or consolation, the consolatory word or doctrine, in Proverbs 3:11 . This, by their conduct, the apostle feared they had forgotten, and therefore puts them in mind of it; or it may be read by way of question, "and have ye forgotten?", &c.; do not ye remember? it would be right to call it to mind: which speaketh unto you as unto children ; not as the children of Solomon, but as the children of God, or of Christ, the wisdom of God: here, by... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - 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... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Hebrews 12:5

And ye have forgotten - Or, have ye forgotten the exhortation? This quotation is made from Proverbs 3:11 , Proverbs 3:12 , and shows that the address there, which at first sight appears to be from Solomon to his son, or from some fatherly man to a person in affliction, is properly from God himself to any person in persecution, affliction, or distress. Despise not thou the chastening - Μη ολιγωρει παιδειας Κυριου· Do not neglect the correction of the Lord. That man neglects... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Hebrews 12:4

Verse 4 4.Ye have not yet, resisted unto blood, etc. He proceeds farther, for he reminds us, that even when the ungodly persecute us for Christ’s sake, we are then contending against sin. Into this contest Christ could not enter, for he was pure and free from all sin; in this respect, however, we are unlike him, for sin always dwells in us, and afflictions serve to subdue and put it to flight. In the first place we know that all the evils which are in the world, and especially death, proceed... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Hebrews 12:5

Verse 5 5.And ye have forgotten, etc. I read the words as a question; for he asks, whether they had forgotten, intimating that it was not yet time to forget. But he enters here on the doctrine, that it is useful and needful for us to be disciplined by the cross; and he refers to the testimony of Solomon, which includes two parts; the first is, that we are not to reject the Lord’s correction; and in the second the reason is given, because the Lord loves those whom he chastises. (246) But as... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Hebrews 12:4-17

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - Hebrews 12:3-4

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - Hebrews 12:5-11

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Hebrews 12:4

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Hebrews 12:5

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Hebrews 12:4

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Hebrews 12:5

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Hebrews 12:4

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Hebrews 12:5

The Pulpit Commentary - Hebrews 12:1-29

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