Hebrews 10

But remember the former days, in which, after you were enlightened, you endured a great struggle with sufferings. Wesley: enlightened with the knowledge of God and of his truth.

Paired with the warning: memory of grace under fire. Both camps urge endurance after 10:26–31. You once stood; do not now draw back. Enlightenment was not imaginary; endurance must continue.

Calvin: in order to stimulate them, he reminds them of evidences of piety already manifested. Remembrance of past warfare is useful not as a pretext for sloth but to render us more active in finishing the course. Enlightened: through God's favor they believed when light from above shone upon them.

Recall as fuel for perseverance. Early courage under Christ makes present fainting more shameful. The warning drove fear; this drives hope.

Solidarity in shame was part of their enlightenment's fruit.

Both camps: suffering with and for the brethren. Encouragement after the warning includes remembering shared reproach—not neglecting to meet, but standing together again.

Calvin: made gazingstocks by reproaches and afflictions—exposed as on a public theater. They became companions of the godly in persecutions; whatever one suffers, the rest ought to transfer to themselves, or they separate from Christ himself.

Partnership in affliction is communion with Christ and his body. Do not forget how you once shared the shame.

Compassion on prisoners; joyfully accepted plunder, knowing a better and abiding possession. Wesley: ye sympathized with suffering brethren and received joyfully the loss of your own goods.

Joy under loss sprang from knowing heaven's substance. That same knowledge must now hold them after the fearful warning. Both camps: better possession, abiding—live accordingly.

Calvin: poverty caused grief as men, yet sorrow did not prevent the joy of which the Apostle speaks. Looking at the heavenly recompense, they forgot the grief of present calamity. Knowing that you have in heaven a better and enduring substance—without persuasion that the inheritance belongs to you, knowledge is cold and useless.

Joy accepted plunder because faith saw the abiding possession. Meditate often on that felicity; then poverty and shame cannot overwhelm.

Therefore don’t throw away your boldness, which has a great reward. Wesley: cast not away this your confidence—your faith and hope; which none can deprive you of but yourselves.

"None but yourselves"—confidence can be thrown away. After the warning, the charge is personal and urgent. Both camps: great reward; do not discard what you held in the former days.

Calvin: what especially makes us strong to persevere is retaining confidence; when that is lost, we lose the recompense. Confidence is the foundation of a godly life. Mentioning reward diminishes nothing from gratuitous salvation; the faithful rest on mercy alone even as their labor is not vain in the Lord.

Do not throw away what God uses to carry you to the end. Reward and grace are not rivals in Scripture's grammar.

For you need endurance so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise. Wesley: the promise—perfect love; eternal life.

Both camps urge endurance after the warning. Need of endurance means the race is not finished at enlightenment; doing the will and receiving the promise require continuing faith.

Calvin: patience is necessary not only to endure to the end but because Satan has innumerable arts; without extraordinary patience we would be broken before half the course. The inheritance is certain, but life is a race; Christians will never advance without fainting unless sustained by patience.

Application: need of endurance is how the certain promise is pursued. Doing God's will and receiving the promise belong together under patience.

In a very little while, he who comes will come and will not wait. Wesley: he that cometh—to reward every man according to his works.

Both camps: short wait relative to eternity. The coming one anchors endurance after fear. Do not shrink in the little while that remains.

Calvin: that enduring may not be grievous, he reminds them the time will not be long. Nothing sustains faint minds like hope of a speedy termination. He who comes will come and will not tarry—God comes to our aid as promised, in due time, not later than he ought.

Habakkuk's word applied—the Lord will not delay beyond what is expedient. Wait without inventing another timeline of despair.

The righteous one will live by faith; if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. Wesley: the just—the justified person—shall live in God's favour by faith as long as he retains that gift; if he draw back—make shipwreck of his faith—I abhor him; I cast him off.

Living by faith can cease by drawing back; God's pleasure is not promised to the shrinker. Fair and serious—paired with the warning. Both camps still urge: live by faith now.

Calvin: patience is born of faith; we shall never carry on contests unless sustained by faith. All counted just before God live by faith. Drawing back is contrary to faith; pride and self-security drive away fear of God. My soul shall not delight in him—the character of impiety over against faith that draws a man unto submission.

The righteous live by faith; shrinking marks the path of perdition. The warning stands; God keeps his righteous ones in the faith by which they live.

But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who believe and so keep their souls. Wesley: not of them who draw back to perdition, but of them that believe to the end, so as to attain eternal life.

A confident pastoral identification that summons them to keep believing to the end. After the fearful warning, both camps say: endure; do not shrink; preserve your souls by faith.

Calvin: we are not of them which draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. We have been called that we might not draw back. Faith and drawing back are set in opposition; preservation of the soul over against perdition. We who have the light of the Gospel should advance in obedience and draw nearer to God—this is the preservation of the soul.

Pastorally: "we are not of those" is assurance joined to calling. Perseverance of the saints is not laxity; it is faith that endures after the warning, preserves the soul, and refuses to shrink back to destruction.