"Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest
of our confession, Jesus" (Heb. 3:1 JND). "And let us consider one another to provoke unto love
and to good works" (Heb. 10:24).

The above passages are very intimately connected. They are bound together by the fact that the
writer uses the same Greek word for "consider" in both passages and this word occurs only in
these two places in the whole Book of Her brews. The word signifies an earnest application of the
mind.

We are to consider Jesus, and we are to consider all those who belong to Him wherever they are.
We are to apply our minds diligently to Him and to His interests on the earth, and thus be
blessedly delivered from the miserable business of thinking about ourselves or our own interests.

The titles bestowed on our blessed Lord in the first passage present Him to our hearts in a very
wonderful manner. They take in the range of His history from the bosom of the Father down to
the dust of death, and from the dust of death back to the throne of God. As the Apostle, He came
from God to us; and as the High Priest, He has gone back to God for us. He came from heaven
to reveal God to us, to unfold to us the very heart of God, to make us know the precious secrets
of His bosom.

What a marvelous privilege to have God revealed to us in the person of Christ! God has spoken
to us in the Son. Our blessed Apostle has given us the full and perfect revelation of God. "God,
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6).

We can now turn to the Gospels; and as we gaze upon that blessed One who is there presented to
us by the Holy Spirit, in all that lovely grace which shone out in all His words and works and
ways, we can say, "That is God." We see Him going about doing good, and healing all that were
oppressed of the devil; we see Him healing the sick, cleansing the leper, opening the eyes of the
blind, feeding the hungry, drying the widow’s tears, and weeping at the tomb of Lazarus; and we
say, "That is God." Every ray of moral glory that shone in the life and ministry of the Apostle of
our confession was the expression of God. He was the brightness of the divine glory and the exact
impression of the divine essence.

How precious is all this to our souls! To have God revealed in the person of Christ so that we can
know Him, delight in Him, find all our springs in Him, call Him Abba Father, walk in the light
of His blessed countenance, have fellowship with Him and with His Son Jesus Christ, know the
love of His heart, the very love wherewith He loves the Son_what deep blessedness! what fulness
of joy! How can we ever sufficiently praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for His
marvelous grace in having introduced us into such a sphere of blessing and privilege, and set us
in such a wondrous relationship with Himself in the Son of His love! Oh, may our hearts praise
Him! May our lives praise Him! May it be the one grand aim and object of our whole moral being
to magnify His name!

But we must now return to another great branch of our subject. We are to "consider . . . the High
Priest of our confession." The same blessed One who, as the Apostle, came to make God known
to our souls, has gone back to God for us. He came to speak to us about God; and He is gone to
speak to God about us. He appears in the presence of God for us; He , bears us upon His heart
continually; He represents us before, God to maintain us in the integrity of the position into which

His precious atoning work has introduced us. His blessed priesthood is the divine provision for
our wilderness path. Were it merely a question of our standing or title, there would I be no need
of priesthood; but as it is a question of our actual I state and practical walk, we could not get on
for one moment! if we had not our great High Priest ever living for us in the presence of God.

There are three precious aspects of our Lord’s priestly service presented in the Epistle to the
Hebrews. First, we read in Hebrews 4:14,15:"Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that
is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession [or confession].
For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but
was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin [or sin excepted]."

Just think of the deep blessedness of having One at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens
who is touched with the feeling of your infirmities, who enters into all your sorrows, who feels
for you and with you in all your exercises, trials, and difficulties! Think of having a Man on the
throne of God, a perfect human heart, One on whom you can count in all your weakness,
heaviness, and conflict_in everything except sin! With this, blessed be His name, He can have
no sympathy.

What a precious provision! The One who has all power in heaven and on earth now lives for us
in heaven. We can count on Him at all times. He enters into all our feelings in a way that no
earthly friend could possibly do. We can go to Him and tell Him things which we could not name
to our dearest friend on earth, inasmuch as none but He can fully understand us. But our great
High Priest understands all about us. He has passed through every trial and sorrow that a perfect
human heart could know. Hence He can perfectly sympathize with us. He delights to minister to
us in all our seasons of sorrow and affliction, when the heart is crushed and bowed beneath a
weight of anguish which only He can fully enter into. Precious Saviour, may we draw more
largely upon the exhaustless springs of comfort and consolation that are found in Thy large and
loving heart for all Thy tried, tempted, sorrowing, suffering brethren here below!

Hebrews 7:25 gives another aspect of our Lord’s priestly work:"Wherefore He is able also to
save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession
for them." What comfort and assurance is here for all the "holy brethren." Our great High Priest
bears us upon His heart continually before the throne. He lives for us, and we live in Him. He will
carry us right through to the end. We rest in the final perseverance of our divine High Priest. "If,
when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being
reconciled, we shall be saved by His life" (that is, His life now in heaven) (Rom. 5:10). He has
made Himself responsible for every one of the "holy brethren," to bring them through all the
difficulties, trials, snares, and temptations of the wilderness, right home to glory. Universal and
everlasting homage to His blessed name!

In Hebrews 13:15 we have the third aspect of our Lord’s service for us in the heavenly sanctuary.
"By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our
lips, giving thanks to His name." What a comfort to know that we have One in the presence of
God to present our sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving! How surely it encourages us to bring
such sacrifices at all times! True, they may seem very poor and imperfect, but our great High
Priest knows how to separate the precious from the vile. He takes our sacrifices and presents them
to God in all the perfect fragrance of His own person and ministry. Every little breathing of the
heart, every utterance, every little act of service goes up to God, not only divested of all our
infirmity and imperfection, but adorned with all the excellency of the One who ever liveth in the
presence of God, not only to sympathize and intercede, but also to present our sacrifices of
thanksgiving and praise.

All this is full of comfort and encouragement. How often have we to mourn over our coldness,
barrenness, and dead-ness, both in private and in public! We seem unable to do more than utter
a groan or a sigh. Well, Jesus takes that groan or sigh and presents it to God in all His own
precious-ness. This is part of His present ministry for us in the presence of our God, a ministry
which He delights to carry out-blessed be His name! It is His joy to bear us upon His heart before
the Throne. He thinks of each one in particular, as if He had but that one to think of.

It is wonderful, but so it is. He enters into all our little trials and sorrows, conflicts and exercises,
as though He had nothing else to think of. Each one has the undivided attention and sympathy of
that infinite, loving heart, in all that we experience as we pass through this scene of trial and
sorrow. He has gone through it all. He knows, as we say, every step of the road. We can see Him
(by faith) walking through this world and can look up and see Him on the throne. We see Him a
glorified Man, but the same Jesus who was here on earth; His circumstances are changed, but not
His loving heart. "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for ever" (Heb. 13:8). Such
then, beloved reader, is the great High Priest whom we are exhorted to "consider." Truly we have
all we want in Him. His sympathy is perfect; His intercession, all-prevailing; His presentation of
our sacrifices, ever acceptable. Well may we say, "We have all, and abound" (Phil. 4:18).

Now let us look at the exhortation in Hebrews 10:24:"Let us consider one another to provoke
unto love and to good works." The more attentively we consider Him, the more we shall be fitted
and disposed to consider all who belong to Him, whoever and wherever they may be. Show us
a man full of Christ, and we will show you a man full of love, care, and interest for every member
of the body of Christ. It must be so. It is simply impossible to be near Christ and not have the
heart filled with the sweetest affections for all that belong to Him. We cannot consider Him
without being reminded of them and led out in service, prayer, and sympathy according to our
little measure. If you hear a person talking loudly of his love for Christ while having no real love
for His people, you may be sure it is all hollow profession. "Hereby perceive we the love of God,
because He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But
whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of
compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love
in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth" (1 John 3:16-18).

These are wholesome words for all of us. May we apply our hearts most diligently to them! May

we, by the powerful ministry of the Holy Spirit, be enabled to respond with all our hearts to these
two weighty and needed exhortations to "consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession,"
and to "consider one another." And let us bear in mind that the proper consideration of one
another will never take the form of prying curiosity or unwarrantable espionage_things which can
only be regarded as the curse and bane of all Christian society. No, it is the very reverse of all
this. It is a loving, tender care, expressing itself in every form of seasonable service_the lovely
fruit of true communion with the heart of Christ.

(From "Holy Brethren" in Miscellaneous Writings, Vol. 5.)