Encumbrance (3591) (ogkos) literally refers to a bulk or a mass. It is used metaphorically in this verse (the only use in Scripture) to refer to that which serves to hinder or prevent someone from doing something - a hindrance, an impediment.
Ogkos referred to a mass as bending or bulging because of the load, burden. It referred to the excess bodily weight athletes shed during training. An athlete would strip for action both by the removal of superfluous flesh through rigorous training and by the removal of all clothes. In addition the ancient writers sometimes used “weights” figuratively for vices but that does not appear to be the primary meaning in this verse.
The Christian life is a race that requires discipline and endurance. We must strip ourselves of everything that would impede us. Weights are things that may be harmless in themselves and yet hinder progress. Thus encumbrances could include material possessions, family ties, the love of comfort, lack of mobility, etc. In the Olympic races, there was no rule against carrying a supply of food and drink, but the runner who wanted to win would never run in such a ridiculous manner. How sad that so many Christian runners choose to run weighed down with all manner of paraphernalia! What do you need to strip off that you might run unimpeded?
Marvin Vincent in his discussion of ogkos adds that it was often used in the classics...
Sometimes metaphorically of a person, dignity, importance, pretension: of a writer’s style, loftiness, majesty, impressiveness. Rend. “encumbrance,” according to the figure of the racer who puts away everything which may hinder his running. So the readers are exhorted to lay aside every worldly hindrance or embarrassment to their Christian career. (Vincent, M. R. Word studies in the New Testament: Vol. 4, Page 537)
An encumbrance is whatever deadens your soul, and holds you back when thou should be pressing forward to the upward call. In the case of the Jews who had believed the encumbrance would include old associations of their former life, lingering Jewish and legal attachments and the tendency to compromise with the fulfilled rituals and ceremonialism of the law. Paul addressed similar "encumbrances" in his letter to the saints in Galatia explaining that...
in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything (Nothing done or not done in the flesh makes any difference in one’s relationship to God - in Christianity the external is immaterial and worthless, unless it reflects genuine internal righteousness), but faith working through love. You were running well; who hindered (cut in on causing you to break stride and stumble, who threw obstacles in your way of or cut up the road so that normal movement was impossible?) you from obeying the truth (legalism of the Judaizers was preventing the unsaved from coming to Christ in faith and the saved from following Him in faith)? (Galatians 5:6-7)
J Vernon McGee gives us an illustration of the importance of laying aside whatever encumbers us...
I remember years ago when Gil Dodds, a very fine Christian, was a famous runner in this country. Some of us went out to the track at the University of Southern California, to watch him run. He ran around the track a couple of times with tennis shoes on. Then he stopped and changed into some other shoes. One of the fellows there asked why he needed to change shoes. He took one of the tennis shoes and one of the lighter pair of shoes and tossed them both to the man who had asked the question. Believe me, there was not much difference in the weight of the shoes, but just enough, he said, to cause him to lose the race. In the Christian life there are a lot of things that are not wrong in and of themselves, but Christians should not be carrying those weights around. Why? Because you won’t win the race. (McGee, J V: Thru the Bible Commentary: Thomas Nelson or Logos) (Or listen to an Mp3 from Thru the Bible)
Jamieson, et al write that encumbrance refers to...
As corporeal (bodily) unwieldiness (extra body fat) was, through a disciplinary diet, laid aside by candidates for the prize in racing; so carnal and worldly lusts, and all, whether from without or within, that would impede the heavenly runner, are the spiritual weight to be laid aside. “Encumbrance,” all superfluous weight; the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, and even harmless and otherwise useful things which would positively retard us (Mk 10:50, the blind man casting away his garment to come to Jesus; Mk 9:42-48)
Each runner must honestly judge what hinders faith for him or her and resolutely lay it aside, even though others seem to be unhindered by the same thing. One cannot run well in an overcoat! What are the things that hinder? The indulgence in innocent pleasures of life may become a hindrance and in fact, any legitimate enjoyment can become a weight if every spare moment is given to that enjoyment. Or it might be a habit, one that in itself is not sin. For example, let's say every evening after work you watch four hours of television. Now television can have some edifying, educational shows. But if all you do in your spare time is sit before the television, television has become to you an encumbrance. And "couch potatoes" don't tend to race very well! In short is anything makes you so busy that you have no time for prayer, Bible study and spiritual service, you are too busy.
What "encumbers" one believer may be of no consequence to another believer. The point is that we must not let anything hamper us.
M R De Haan calls believers to a serious, self evaluation regarding encumbrances...
Let me ask you, how much time did you spend this past week reading the magazines, trade journals, newspapers, novels, market reports and other secular literature? And how much time did you spend feeding your soul on the Word? Oh, Christians, awake! You are in a race which calls for the best that is in you. What is the weight which is slowing you down in your Christian life? I may not have put my finger on your particular deposit of excess fat, but you know what it is. Ask yourself in everything you do, Does this help or hinder my spiritual life? It really isn’t hard if we are only willing to face it. What a disappointment it will be when we meet the Judge of the race and miss the crown and our Lord’s commendation. Athletes today as well as in ancient times would deny themselves everything, submit to the severest discipline in training, observe the strictest abstinence and separation from everything which might prevent them from being at the very peak of condition. (De Haan, M. R. Studies in Hebrews. Page 167)
Tis' only one life,
Will soon be past.
Only what's done in Christ
Will last!
A W Pink writes that...
The principal thoughts suggested by the figure of the "race" are rigorous self-denial and discipline, vigorous exertion, persevering endurance. The Christian life is not a thing of passive luxuriation, but of active "fighting the good fight of faith!" The Christian is not called to lie down on flowery beds of ease, but to run a race, and athletics are strenuous, demanding self-sacrifice, hard training, the putting forth of every ounce of energy possessed. I am afraid that in this work-hating and pleasure-loving age, we do not keep this aspect of the truth sufficiently before us: we take things too placidly and lazily...let us be aroused by the howlings of fierce animals, let us be pursued by hungry wolves, and methinks that none of us would have much difficulty in understanding the meaning of those words "let us lay aside every weight!...Many erroneously suppose they would make much more progress spiritually if only their "circumstances" were altered. This is a serious mistake, and a murmuring against God’s providential dealings with us. He shapes our "circumstances" as a helpful discipline to the soul, and only as we learn to rise above "circumstances," and walk with God in them, are we "running the race that is set before us.""
In another note Pink writes encumbrances are...
“Inordinate care for the present life, and fondness for it, is a dead weight for the soul, that pulls it down when it should ascend upwards and pulls it back when it should press forwards” (Matt. Henry). It is the practical duty of mortification which is here inculcated, the abstaining from those fleshly lusts “which war against the soul” (1Pet. 2:11-note). The racer must be as lightly clad as possible if he is to run swiftly: all that would cumber and impede him must be relinquished. Undue concern over temporal affairs, inordinate affection for the things of this life, the intemperate use of any material blessings, undue familiarity with the ungodly, are “weights” which prevent progress in godliness. A bag of gold would be as great a handicap to a runner as a bag of lead! (Pink, A W: An Exposition of Hebrews)
Expositor's Commentary writes that
The Christian runner must rid himself even of innocent things which might retard his pressing on to maturity. And all that does not help, hinders. It is by running he learns what these things are. So long as he stands he does not feel that they are burdensome and hampering. (Bolding added)
Ray Stedman applies this teaching about encumbrances writing that...
"the race of the Christian life is not fought well or run well by asking, "what's wrong with this or that?" but by asking, "is it in the way of greater faith and greater love and greater purity and greater courage and greater humility and greater patience and greater self-control? Not ; Is it a sin? But: Does it help me run! Is it in the way?...Don't ask about your music, your movies, your parties, your habits: What's wrong with it? Ask: Does it help me RUN the race!? Does it help me RUN - for Jesus?" Hebrews 12:1 is a command (to run) to look at your life, think hard about what you are doing, and get ruthless about what stays and what goes....Note the seemingly innocent weights and encumbrances that are not condemned explicitly in the Bible, but which you know are holding you back in the race for faith and love and strength and holiness and courage and freedom. Note the ways you subtly make provision for these hindrances (Romans 13:14-note): the computer games, the hidden alcohol or candy, the television, the videos, the pull-tab stop on the way home, the magazines, the novels. In addition, note the people that weaken you. Note the times that are wasted, thrown away. When you have made all these notations, pray your way through to a resolve and a pattern of dismantling these encumbrances, and resisting these sins, and breaking old, old habits. And don't rise up against the Bible at this point and say, "I can't change."" (The Race of Life)
HOW TO RUN THE RACE
Find a trainer: Rely on the Holy Spirit for His help.
Follow a game plan: Read God's Word.
Work out regularly: Put your faith into action.
No pain, no gain.
Know pain, great gain..
F B Meyer has the following sage advice regarding encumbrances...
Every believer must be left to decide what is his own special weight. We may not judge for one another. What is a weight to one is not so to all. But the Holy Spirit, if he be consulted and asked to reveal the hindrance to the earnestness and speed of the soul's progress in divine things, will not fail to indicate it swiftly and infallibly. And this is the excellence of the Holy Spirit's teaching: it is ever definite. If you have a general undefined feeling of discouragement, it is probably the work of the great enemy of souls; but if you are aware of some one hindrance and encumbrance which stays your speed, it is almost certainly the work of the divine Spirit, who is leading you to relinquish something which is slackening your progress in the spiritual life...There would be little difficulty in maintaining an intense and ardent spirit if we were more faithful in dealing with the habits and indulgences which cling around us and impede our steps. Thousands of Christians are like water-logged vessels. They cannot sink; but they are so saturated with inconsistencies and worldliness and permitted evil that they can only be towed with difficulty into the celestial port. Is there anything in your life which dissipates your energy from holy things, which disinclines you to the practice of prayer and Bible study, which rises before you in your best moments, and produces in you a general sense of uneasiness and disturbance? something which others account harmless, and permit, and in which you once saw no cause for anxiety, but which you now look on with a feeling of self-condemnation? It is likely enough a weight.
Is there anything within the circle of your consciousness concerning which you have to argue with yourself, or which you do not care to investigate, treating it as a bankrupt treats his books into which he has no desire to enter, or as a votary of pleasure treats the first symptoms of decaying vitality which he seeks to conceal from himself? We so often allow in ourselves things which we would be the first to condemn in others. We frequently find ourselves engaged in discovering ingenious reasons why a certain course which would be wrong in others is justifiable in ourselves. All such things may be considered as weights. It may be a friendship which is too engrossing; a habit which is sapping away our energy as the taproot the fruit bearing powers of a tree; a pursuit, an amusement, a pastime, a system of reading, a method of spending time, too fascinating and too absorbing, and therefore harmful to the soul-which is tempted to walk when it should run, and to loiter when it should haste.
But, you ask, Is it not a sign of weakness, and will it not tend to weakness, always to be relinquishing these and similar things? Surely, you cry, the life will become impoverished and barren when it is stripped in this way of its precious things. Not so. It is impossible to renounce anything at the bidding of the inner life without adding immensely to its strength; for it grows by surrender, and waxes strong by sacrifice. And for every unworthy object which is forsaken there follows an immediate enrichment of the spirit, which is the sufficient and unvarying compensation. The athlete gladly foregoes much that other men value, and which is pleasant to himself, because his mind is intent on the prize; and he considers that he will be amply repaid for all the hardships of training if he be permitted to bear it away, though it be a belt he will never wear, or a cup he will never use. How much more gladly should we be prepared to relinquish all that hinders our attainment, not of the uncertain bauble of the athlete, but the certain reward, the incorruptible crown, the smile and "well-done" of our Lord!
There is an old Dutch picture of a little child dropping a cherished toy from its hands; and, at first sight, its action seems unintelligible, until, at the corner of the picture, the eye is attracted to a white dove winging its flight toward the emptied outstretched hands. Similarly we are prepared to forego a good deal when once we catch sight of the spiritual acquisitions which beckon to us. And this is the true way to reach consecration and surrender. Do not ever dwell on the giving-up side, but on the receiving side. Keep in mind the meaning of the old Hebrew word for consecration, to fill the hand. There will not be much trouble in getting men to empty their hands of wood, hay, and stubble if they see that there is a chance of filling them with the treasures which gleam from the faces or lives of others, or which call to them from the page of Scripture. The world pities us, because it sees only what we give up; but it would hold its sympathy if it could also see how much we receive "good measure, pressed down, and running over given into our bosoms." (Meyer, F B: Way into the Holiest: Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews) (Bolding added)
Richard Baxter, the great Puritan theologian, writes that...
It is a most lamentable thing to see how most people spend their time and their energy for trifles, while God is cast aside. He who is all seems to them as nothing, and that which is nothing seems to them as good as all. It is lamentable indeed, knowing that God has set mankind in such a race where heaven or hell is their certain end, that they should sit down and loiter, or run after the childish toys of the world, forgetting the prize they should run for. Were it but possible for one of us to see this business as the all-seeing God does, and see what most men and women in the world are interested in and what they are doing every day, it would be the saddest sight imaginable. Oh, how we should marvel at their madness and lament their self-delusion! If God had never told them what they were sent into the world to do, or what was before them in another world, then there would have been some excuse. But it is His sealed word, and they profess to believe it.
Keener writes that...
The image would represent anything that would hinder his readers from winning their race (ancient writers sometimes used “weights” figuratively for vices); this encouragement is significant, for like Israel of old in the wilderness, they may be tempted to turn back. (Keener, C. S., & InterVarsity Press. The IVP Bible Background Commentary : New Testament. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press)
Illustration of laying aside the good in order to attain to the best:
Film maker Walt Disney was ruthless in cutting anything that got in the way of a story’s pacing. Ward Kimball, one of the animators for Snow White, recalls working 240 days on a 4.5 minute sequence in which the dwarfs made soup for Snow White and almost destroyed the kitchen in the process. Disney thought it was funny, but he decided the scene stopped the flow of the picture, so out it went. When the film of our lives is shown, will it be as great as it might be? A lot will depend on the multitude of “good” things we need to eliminate to make way for the great things God wants to do through us. (Kenneth Langley)
THE SIN WHICH SO EASILY ENTANGLES US: ten euperistaton hamartian: (Heb 10:35, 36, 37, 38, 39; Psalms 18:23)
that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us (Amplified)
the sin which so persistently surrounds us (Barclay)
especially the sin that just won’t let go (CEV)
the sin which holds on to us so tightly (GNT)
the sin that clings so closely (NET)
especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress (NLT)
as well as the sin which dogs our feet (Phillips)
especially those sins that wrap themselves so tightly around our feet and trip us up (TLB)
that sin which so deftly and cleverly places itself in an entangling way around us (Wuest)
and the closely besetting sin (Young's Literal)
Sin (266) (hamartia) originally had the idea of missing a mark as when hunting with a bow and arrow. It then began to mean missing or falling short of any goal, standard, or purpose. (see below for discussion of what this sin might be).
Hamartia - 173x in the NT - Matt. 1:21; 6" class="scriptRef">3:6; 9:2, 8" class="scriptRef">8" class="scriptRef">5f; 12.31" class="scriptRef">12:31; 26.28" class="scriptRef">26:28; 4-Mark.1.45" class="scriptRef">Mk. 1:4f; 2:5, 7, 9f; Lk. 1:77; 3:3; 20" class="scriptRef">20" class="scriptRef">20" class="scriptRef">20-Luke.5.39" class="scriptRef">5:20f, 23-Luke.5.39" class="scriptRef">23f; 7:47, 48, 49; 11.4" class="scriptRef">11:4; 24" class="scriptRef">24" class="scriptRef">24" class="scriptRef">24.47" class="scriptRef">24:47; Jn. 1:29; 8:21, 24, 34, 46; 9:34, 41; 15:22, 24; 16:8f; 19:11; 20:23; Acts 2:38; 3:19; 5:31; 7:60; 10.43" class="scriptRef">10:43; 13:38; 22:16; 26:18; Rom. 3:9, 20; 25" class="scriptRef">4:7f; 5:12f, 20f; 6:1f, 6f, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17" class="scriptRef">17, 18, 20, 22f; 7:5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13f, 17, 20, 23, 25; 8:2f, 10; 11:27; 14:23; 1 Co. 15:3, 17, 56; 2 Co. 5:21; 11:7; Gal. 1:4; 2:17; 3:22; Eph. 2:1; Col. 1:14; 1 Thess. 2:16; 1 Tim. 5:22, 24; 2 Tim. 3:6; Heb. 1:3; 2:17; 3:13; 4:15; 5:1, 3; 7:27; 8:12; 9:26, 28; 10:2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 11f, 17f, 26; 11:25; 12:1, 4; 13:11; Jas. 1:15; 2:9; 4:17; 5:15f, 20; 1 Pet. 2:22, 24; 3:18; 4:1, 8; 2 Pet. 1:9; 2:14; 1 Jn. 1:7, 8, 9; 2:2, 12; 3:4f, 8f; 4:10; 5:16f; Rev. 1:5; 18:4, 5
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Greek Word Studies ( - )
Read freely Greek Word Studies from the Austin Precept text commentary of the Bible in text and pdf format. Precept Austin is an online free dynamic bible commentary similar to wikipedia with updated content and many links to excellent biblical resources around the world. You can browse the entire collection of Commentaries by Verse on the Precept Austin website.We have been "bought with a price" to be "ambassadors for Christ" and our "salvation is nearer to us than when we believed" so let us "cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" "so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming." (1Cor 6:20, 2Cor 5:20, Ro 13:11, 2Cor 7:1, 1Jn 2:28)