"Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense; for ye have
need of endurance in order that, having done the will of God, ye
may receive the promise."

The apostle thus exhorts them not to throw away, not to cast off
their confidence, because there is great recompense of reward laid up for them
in heaven. They had a confidence; the grounds of it we have been
dwelling upon. It is the same word which is translated "boldness" in the
earlier part of this chapter:"Having, therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the
Holiest by the blood of Jesus." They were not to cast away this
boldness; they were to hold fast the rejoicing of their hope and their
confidence steadfast unto the end. They had received no reward at present, save,
of course, that blessed witness of the Spirit in the soul, which is
its own reward; but the recompense remained.

The rest was there, where God Himself was resting in His own eternal
day. In a little while all the pleasure of the way would be
over, all the persecution for the name of Christ would be a thing
of the past.

How sweet in glory to be able to look back upon a course
run in which Jesus had not been denied, confidence maintained, and now throughout
eternity to enjoy the fulness of that blessing, the foretaste of which sweetened
all their sorrows in this life.

He reminds them that they have need of patience, as we all have;
or as the word really is, of "endurance." And it is tribulation that
"worketh patience, and patience experience." Experience and patience do not come from an
unexercised life; and they needed that endurance which abode under every stress; that
after they had done the will of God, after they had bowed to
that will as expressed in the Gospel, had confessed and suffered for Christ,
they would still cleave to Him, and thus obtain the promise which was
laid up for them in heaven. All this is very simple. It needs
not so much exposition as it does application, and I am sure it
has a voice for our souls which will be most sanctifying if we
bow to the truth which is here pressed home upon us.

"For yet a very little while ‘he that cometh will come, and will
not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; and if he draw
back, my soul hath no pleasure in him, But we are not of
those who draw back to perdition, but of them that believe to the
saving of the soul."

Lastly, the apostle gives them the cheer that it is only a little
while that there will be need for this endurance. The One who is
coming, that One whose promise is, "If I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself," will soon
be here. There is no delay, for "the Lord is not slack concerning
His promise as some men count slackness." The patience of the present time
is a patience of grace, "not willing that any should perish" — not indifferent,
we surely need not say. At any moment, the welcome shout, and saints
snatched from their place of trial will enter into the joy of the
Lord. This very inducement is held out for perseverance. This sharp trial may
be the last. This temptation to turn into an easier path may be
followed by the coming of the Lord. It is only "a little while."

Meanwhile, faith is the principle upon which the righteous are to live. "The
just shall live by faith." That is the principle which actuates the whole
life and upon which the apostle enlarges in the following chapter. There is
no other principle to control, no true power to actuate us.

The opposite of that is drawing back — turning away from what was once
known — giving up the precious truth. How important to see that the opposite
of faith is apostasy; and if any one thus draw back, denying Christ,
"My soul," says God, "shall have no pleasure in him." Whatever else there
may be about him to attract the natural man, even amiability and morality,
these things have no attraction for God where Christ is denied. It is
most essential to realize this at the present time, when a strong current
is drawing away from the great realities of Christ and the Holy Spirit,
and contenting men with certain results in the life which seem to answer
very much to the Christian virtues produced by a living faith; but wherever
the root is gone, there is no real fruit, however much it may
have that appearance. God has no pleasure in externals. If Christ has been
given up, the soul is an apostate. Solemn and awful thought!

But our apostle, according to his manner, cannot leave the subject with those
solemn words. There must be a word of cheer for true faith, and
so, in the last verse, he identifies himself with them, with all true
believers, in saying:"We are not of those who draw back unto perdition:"
we are no apostates. For us, it is Christ now as ever. We
are of those who believe, whose faith is not of that temporary character,
like the seed upon the stony ground which endures for a season — which,
under stress, withers away. We believe until the full, eternal outcome of faith
is manifest; "the saving of the soul" in that day of glory, when
all the fruitage of faith will appear to view.