Discover The Word

Thursday, January 22, 2009, Part 6

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-3, NIV).

IDEA: To put aside “the sin that so easily entangles us,” we need to decide what sin refers to in Hebrews 12.

PURPOSE: To help listeners identify the sin that gets in their way of running the race for Christ.

Do you ever look at films of tennis matches from the 1920s?
• How are the players dressed?
• They had the virtue of being modest but the encumbrance of being overdressed for the match.

I. The ancient Greek athletes who competed in the athletic contests got rid of everything that would get in their way.

They were like modern runners who take off their warm-up gear and strip down to very basic garments. They even find the lightest shoes possible with which to compete. Why do they do this?

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews works from that image in describing how we are to run the race that is set before us (Hebrews 12:1-2).

We are to throw off everything that hinders us.

We are to throw off the “sin that so easily entangles us.”

II. What do you think the sin that “easily entangles us” means? Different commentators make several suggestions:

Some say this is ALL sin. Sin isn’t simply a “bad mark” on God’s report card, but it gets in the way of living life in order to win.

Some say this is a PARTICULAR sin, a “besetting sin.” There are particular sins that are “our” sin. We almost cherish them and they keep us from getting anywhere in our Christian life. They trip us up, e.g., temper, arrogance, self-centeredness, pride.

Some say it is the sin of UNBELIEF. This would be particularly fitting in the context of the letter to the Hebrews. Unbelief tempts us to drop out of the race because it is too hard or there do not seem to be immediate pay-offs (Hebrews 10:35-39).