November 2026
The Danger of Neglect and the Hope of Victory
Feature Article
November 2026
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Several biblical writers—including the author of Hebrews—tell us that the Christian life is like a race. The starting line is our conversion. The finish line is death. As we run this race, we are to look ahead to the finish line—the victory and inheritance that are ours in Jesus Christ. Yet with the finish line before our eyes, we are warned by the author of Hebrews not to let our progress be hindered by carelessness or the rejection of godly discipline.
Just as athletes train hard, prepare in advance for the big race, and struggle not to quit when their lungs feel like they are about to explode, believers must endure over the course of the Christian life. The Christian life will be tough—like a marathon. It will not be easy, since it entails an intense struggle with sin. We will, at times, desire to give up and quit. We know that the Christian life will require work, diligence, and persistence. There are no shortcuts. Yet through faith in Jesus and through the power of the Holy Spirit, God gives us every resource we need to complete the race and win the prize. This is what the discipline of God is intended to teach us. We neglect this to our peril.
Hebrews 12:1–11 builds on the previous chapter. In chapter 11, we are given a catalogue of Old Testament saints who looked forward to God’s fulfilling His promises through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The author writes in 12:1, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” The “cloud of witnesses” is a reference to those just listed in chapter 11.
The witness imagery is often used to support the belief that those who have died in Christ watch us as we go about our lives. But the author is not referring to what the dead can observe about us. Rather, he is referring to that about which the witnesses in chapter 11 testify—the faithfulness of God in keeping His covenant promises. Those in the “hall of faith” bear witness to the greatness of God’s covenant promise now fulfilled in Jesus Christ. As chapter 12 opens, the author directs us to consider the goal that God has set before those of us living in the new covenant era—that to which the heavenly witnesses point us.
As we run this lifelong race, the author instructs us to keep our eyes on the goal. In verse 2, he writes, “Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Jesus trusted in God’s promise and gave His life for our sins, thereby earning the title of “the founder and perfecter of our faith.” Jesus fulfills God’s promise because He is God’s promise. Jesus is the One in whom we possess all the blessings promised to us by our gracious God. It is to Him that we look as we run the race.
By believing God’s promise unto death, Jesus accomplished everything necessary so that we might have faith—His death and resurrection become the object of our faith as we consider what He did to save us from our sins. Jesus blazed that trail from death to life. By trusting in what He did for us and in our place, we might have eternal life and be made perfect. Not only is Jesus the trailblazer (founder) who becomes the object of our faith, but He is also described as the perfecter of our faith. Having completed the work of redemption, He has made both Himself and us perfect. This is our hope for victory—running and completing the race as Jesus perfects our faith so that we reach our goal.
In verses 3–11 of Hebrews 12, the author speaks of the necessity for Christians to endure under the hardships we face because we are Christians and to realize that God disciplines His own because He loves us.
In light of what Jesus accomplished, in verse 3, the author instructs us to “consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.” Jesus has accomplished everything necessary for sinners to be saved. Jesus suffered throughout His life. He gave up the glory of heaven to take to Himself a true human nature. He lived and walked among those who He knew would hate Him. He knew that He would suffer rejection and humiliation by His people, while at the same time obeying every commandment of God. Although entirely innocent, He was put to death for our sins. So when we hear the exhortation in verse 3 to run the race, it is natural to think that the author’s intent is that when we go through persecution and trials, we should consider the horrible things that Jesus suffered and endured, so that we are motivated to persevere because our suffering is so much less than His.
Yet that is not the best perspective here. Perhaps a better way to understand the author’s exhortation is that when we suffer and then sinfully grumble about our circumstances, we ought to remember that Jesus did not sin in this way. He was perfectly obedient, even unto death. Whereas we wear out, tire, and give up, Jesus did not. He persevered to the bitter end before receiving the reward. Jesus was made perfect and is now seated at God’s right hand, where He performs His priestly work to ensure that God sees us as though we had suffered without complaint, as though we had endured the race without tiring or quitting, and so that when we fail to accomplish what God has for us, we know that Jesus accomplished all of it for us and in our place.
So when I grumble in my suffering, God sees Christ’s joy. When I tire and give up, God sees Christ’s endurance. When my sin weighs me down and causes me to stumble, God sees a bloody cross and a life of perfect obedience. Yes, Jesus is the founder and perfecter of faith, but now that I am in Him, I know that God will not condemn me, and so I begin to endure suffering. I get back up and get in the race. I now despise the sin that weighs me down. The only proper motivation for the Christian is not guilt (Jesus suffered far more than I did, so I shouldn’t complain) but gratitude (He was the perfect sufferer who suffered for me and in my place).
In Hebrews 12:4, the author exhorts Christians going through very difficult suffering and persecution: “In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” The real struggle is not so much external (persecution), as difficult as those trials might be. The real struggle is with indwelling sin. None of those receiving this letter had been put to death (yet), but all of them still faced a real and determined foe—their own sinful nature. As any wise military tactician will point out, it is crucial to “know your enemy.” The danger confronting the congregation to which the author wrote was not an armed human opponent, but the sin that sought to draw them away from steadfast faith in Christ—a danger that believers must still resist.
In verses 5–8, the author directs his original readers back to the Old Testament, with which they would have been well familiar. He then makes his point about the necessity and value of discipline. Quoting from Proverbs 3, the author writes:
And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
Every parent knows the importance and difficulty of disciplining children. Discipline is something that parents must do for the good and the well-being of our children, lest they grow up undisciplined, without the categories of right and wrong, and unable to navigate life. We discipline our children because we love them. So, too, God disciplines us because we are His children whom He loves. If God allowed us to go our own way, if He allowed us to indulge our sinful nature (the flesh) however we please, or if He were apathetic toward us and ignored or shunned us when we need instruction or correction, what would become of us?
The fact that God disciplines us is the proof that He loves us. How often and fervently do we pray when things go well? How deeply do we consider sound doctrine until our own beliefs are challenged? How lightly do we take the cross until we must come face-to-face with our own sins and the depravity of our own hearts? Admittedly, we cannot put ourselves in the shoes of those in the original congregation facing the kind of persecution that the author implies, but surely we can understand how easy it is to neglect our commitment to Christ even when no one ever really challenges our loyalties.
Therefore, we should not despise the discipline of the Lord, because it is both a sign of His love and given for our good. We should see His discipline as one of the ways that God prepares us to live the Christian life and receive our inheritance when we complete the race. As the author points out in Hebrews 12:9–10:
Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.
All of us were children at one time. We know that parental discipline was often appropriate. Our earthly fathers (according to the flesh) probably did, or do, the best they can. Our heavenly Father (the Father of spirits) has both the will and the power to do what is best for us, even if we don’t see it, like it, or understand it.
The author of Hebrews knows full well that sinful people prefer to do what they want, whenever they want, without the threat of discipline. And every parent knows that it would be far easier to let our kids do what they want, rather than make the effort to discipline them. But in verse 11, he makes a point that we all understand: “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” However much we dislike it, and even though we would rather not go through it, discipline is a good thing. It is a relative good when we are (or were) disciplined by our parents. But when God disciplines us, it leads to the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
God disciplines us because He loves us. The fact is that we are sinners who need such discipline to attain the promised victory. The struggle is that, at times, it is easier to neglect discipline than to pursue victory. And that’s the danger.