The Notes of Bible Reading (Last updated: 09/29/2026)
Two “Lests” and One “Holding Fast”
Scripture Reading: Hebrews 3:12–14
Hebrews 3:12–14 is a very solemn passage, yet at the same time it is full of hope. In these three verses there are two “lests,” followed by one positive “holding fast.” These two “lests” are not merely intended to make us afraid of failure; rather, they are meant to bring us into a way in which we may be preserved and continue all the way to the end.
I. The First “Lest” — Take Heed to Your Own Heart
“Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.” (Hebrews 3:12)
The first thing worth noticing here is the phrase, “in any of you.” The writer does not identify who that person might be. By leaving it indefinite, everyone who hears this word is brought to examine his own heart. No one can say, “This is speaking about someone else, not about me.”
Therefore, this warning is first of all addressed to all the brethren: “Take heed.” Moreover, what is spoken of here is not merely “unbelief,” but “an evil and wicked heart of unbelief.” “Evil” speaks of its nature, whereas “wickedness” points to a hidden motive. This unbelief is not merely a matter of having intellectual questions. Its deeper problem lies in the heart. A person may not only disbelieve himself, but may also harbor an evil, hidden motive that is not easily detected—a motive to draw others into unbelief and to lure others into the same company of unbelief.
Outwardly, a person may still remain among the people of God, while inwardly his heart gradually ceases to believe God, ceases to trust His word, ceases to rely upon His faithfulness, and no longer regards knowing God and believing God as something precious. To a person who harbors such an evil heart of unbelief, God may gradually change from being a God whom he can subjectively experience into a God who merely exists objectively—a distant God who has little or no bearing upon his actual life.
If this kind of unbelief continues to develop, it will eventually cause a person to “depart from the living God.” Believing in the Lord will no longer be a matter of life; it will become merely a doctrine, an idea, a way of speaking, or even simply an ideal.
The expression “departing” is very strong. It carries the thought of turning away and abandoning. It may develop beyond merely being separated from God and cut off from the experience of His life; it may become a deliberate departure, betrayal, and defection—a determined taking of one’s stand in opposition to God.
It is like Cain. God gave Cain an opportunity to repent, yet Cain finally chose to go out from the presence of the Lord.
Therefore, we must take heed. We must be watchful and vigilant. We must give no place to the devil, open no door to Hades, give the enemy no opportunity, and allow no room for an “evil and wicked heart of unbelief” to grow or spread.
Unbelief first enters the heart; then the heart gradually departs from God; eventually a person may actually turn away from God.
The history of Israel in the wilderness gives us a clear picture of this. Twelve spies went to spy out the land of Canaan. Ten of them returned with an evil report. It was not that they had never seen the works of God, nor that they had never heard His promise. Rather, when they faced their circumstances, they ceased to believe what God had said.
They saw the high walls. They saw the strong inhabitants. They saw their own smallness. And their hearts lost their confidence in God. Even more seriously, their unbelief did not remain with themselves. The evil report of ten men affected the entire congregation. The people wept together, murmured together, and even spoke of appointing another leader and returning to Egypt.
Unbelief can affect others.
The text itself does not say that this warning is addressed only to leaders or those who serve. It is addressed to all the brethren. Yet from Israel’s history we can clearly see that when a person has influence within a group, his faith—or his unbelief—can affect many others.
For this reason, those who serve and those who lead must be especially careful. They must live before God and stand before Him on behalf of the brothers and sisters. In the church life, those who serve the Lord, those who lead, and those who have influence among the saints need especially to receive this word seriously: “Take heed.” Our words, our attitudes, and our responses to God concern not only ourselves; they may also influence those around us.
If those who serve and lead are not watchful, people with an evil heart of unbelief may be given an opportunity to spread unbelief like a plague throughout the congregation, eventually causing people to take a position contrary to God, to become separated from Him, and to be cut off from the experience of His life.
II. The Second “Lest” — Exhort One Another Daily
“But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” (Hebrews 3:13)
There is a very important expression here: “one another.” Verse 12 says, “Take heed,” but verse 13 immediately brings us to, “exhort one another daily.”
Those who watch over others also need others to watch over them.
We must not think that because we are serving ones, our responsibility is only to exhort others and that we ourselves do not need to be exhorted. Nor should we think that because we can see the danger in someone else, we are therefore stronger or more spiritual. We are no more righteous than others, nor are others more sinful than we are. Verse 13 clearly tells us that every one of us is capable of being “deceived by sin.”
The most dangerous thing about sin is often not that it appears openly in some dreadful form at the beginning, but that it deceives. The sin spoken of here may be understood as man’s independence from God and his self-assurance apart from God. From the beginning of human history, this has been the underlying principle of sin, and all other transgressions can ultimately be traced back to this root. Sin deceives man into rejecting God and becoming independent of Him, while at the same time attempting by himself to attain to being like God. When a person is under such deception, he often does not realize that he has already departed from God: “What's wrong with being like God? What could possibly be wrong with being like God?” The problem is not in being “like God.” The problem is in departing from God, rejecting God, and yet attempting by oneself to “be like God.”
Thank God, He has not called us to walk this way alone. He has placed us among brothers and sisters. We need those who can speak the truth to us in love, and we also need to be willing to listen when they speak. In a healthy church life, it is good to have brothers and sisters who truly know our condition. When we begin to deviate, they can remind us, exhort us, and strengthen us.
The word “exhort” here does not mean merely to rebuke. It also includes comforting, encouraging, supporting, and strengthening. Genuine mutual exhortation, therefore, is not a matter of standing above someone else and correcting him; it is a matter of supporting one another in love. If we truly have in our hearts what Paul expressed: “Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?” then our concern when someone falls will be genuine, and there can be a true mutual exhortation in which both we and those whom we exhort may continue to stand together before God.
Verse 12 may be expressed this way: I must examine my own heart. Verse 13 may be expressed this way: I must allow my brothers and sisters to enter into my real condition and help me guard my heart. One side is personal watchfulness; the other is mutual watchfulness in the Body.
“While It Is Called Today, Exhort One Another Daily” —
Do Not Allow the Heart Gradually to Become Hardened
There is another very important phrase in verse 13: “While it is called Today, exhort one another daily.” This “Today” continues the word from Psalm 95: “Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” The expression “while it is called Today” tells us that God is still showing mercy. He has that love which refuses to let us go. God is still giving us an opportunity. In His love, He has not loosened His hold upon us, nor has He passed us by. Therefore, we must not be foolish. We need to discern the present age, redeem the time, and treasure every “Today.”
“Today,” then, is not merely an ordinary calendar day. It means that as long as God is still speaking to us today, and as long as we are still able to hear His voice today, we must respond to Him. For faith comes by hearing. If we do not have ears to hear, there can be no genuine faith. Whether we can hear today determines whether we can believe today. To be able to hear God speaking “Today” is evidence that our heart has not become hardened. Have you heard Him speaking to your heart today?
The hardening of the heart usually does not happen suddenly. A person hears God’s word again and again, yet repeatedly fails to respond. He receives reminder after reminder, but repeatedly rejects them. Eventually, he begins to live in himself, is deceived by sin, and loses the sensitivity of his heart. If the reason we cannot hear is not dealt with, unbelief will inevitably follow, and the result of unbelief will be departure from God. If the deceitfulness of sin and our independence from God are not exposed, the heart will gradually become hardened.
Why “Daily”? “While it is called Today” means that God is still speaking and is still giving us an opportunity. “Exhort one another daily” is our response to God’s speaking and our way of treasuring the opportunity He has given us. Some may feel that “daily” is excessive—perhaps even exaggerated. But the writer of Hebrews takes the history of Israel as a warning and shows us that one reason for their failure was that they took things lightly. They became careless and indifferent. Today they “let slip” a little; tomorrow they “drift away” a little more. They failed to take God’s speaking seriously. It must be daily, because a little leaven leavens the whole lump. We need to deal with things while they are still small. We need to exhort one another daily so that the enemy is given no opportunity to put leaven into the new lump. It must be daily also because our natural man is attracted to outward greatness of size rather than inward greatness of value. We naturally love what is impressive and conspicuous; we desire great achievements. We like the great tree, but we do not appreciate the mustard seed. If there is no daily mutual exhortation, the mustard seed may eventually grow into a great tree.
God Speaking Through One Another
The speaking of God in Hebrews 3:13 has a different form from His speaking in Psalm 95. In the Psalm, God is speaking directly: “Today if ye will hear his voice…” But in Hebrews 3:13, God also speaks indirectly through the brothers and sisters: “Exhort one another daily…” The principle here is one of mutuality. In a healthy and normal church life, the brothers and sisters beside us should be among those who know us best. When we are no longer able to hear God’s speaking directly, or when our spiritual condition becomes abnormal, brothers and sisters who are living in fellowship with the Head may discern our spiritual condition and speak a word of exhortation to us. We need to open ourselves to those brothers and sisters who are living before the Lord and receive their exhortation.
The warnings and reminders of Hebrews 3 are given to those of us who still have the opportunity today to hear God speaking. We need to take heed to such an extent that we can truly “exhort one another daily.” We are not stronger than the Israelites. We must acknowledge our weakness. We must acknowledge that there is no good thing in ourselves and that sin dwells within us. We must refuse to trust in our own supposed “strength” or “spirituality.” We need the brothers and sisters. We need exhortation daily, and we need to exhort one another. We should not wait until a person’s heart has completely departed before we try to help him. Rather, in our daily church life, we should remind one another to have ears to hear, strengthen one another, and help one another preserve a heart that remains soft toward God and an ear that is able to hear.
III. One “Holding Fast” — Hold the Beginning of Our Confidence Steadfast unto the End
“For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.” (Hebrews 3:14)
The word “beginning” is very important here. “Beginning” does not mean that our faith at the beginning was immature or incomplete and that later we must find another kind of faith. Here, “beginning” stands in contrast to “the end.”
It refers to the freshness and vitality of faith rather than merely to the maturity of faith. When faith remains as fresh and living as it was at the beginning, maturity in faith will naturally grow.
That living confidence which we had at the beginning must be held steadfast unto the end
In the direct meaning of Hebrews, this refers first of all to the confidence and trust in Christ which the believers possessed at the beginning. Yet throughout Hebrews 3 the history of Israel in the wilderness is continually set before us. Their history therefore provides us with a very vivid picture.
The Israelites were not people who had never believed God. God struck Egypt with the ten plagues and brought them out from under Pharaoh’s authority. At the Red Sea, although at first they murmured because of fear, after God divided the sea, brought them through on dry ground, and overwhelmed the Egyptian army, scripture says: “And the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD, and his servant Moses.” (Exodus 14:31)
Therefore, they truly had a real and living “beginning.” They had seen God’s power with their own eyes. They had believed in His salvation. They had sung praises to God on the other side of the Red Sea. The problem was not that they had never believed. The problem was: They did not hold the faith they had at the beginning steadfast unto the end through God’s speaking in each successive “Today.”
When they entered the wilderness, they encountered lack of water, lack of food, a difficult journey, the opposition of enemies, and finally the high walls and giants of Canaan. Gradually, they allowed their present circumstances to become greater than the God whom they had previously known. They did not have the ear or the heart to receive what God was speaking today. They saw the works of God, but through God’s repeated works they did not come to know God’s ways. As God led them through one circumstance after another, they failed to grow in their knowledge of God and in their knowledge of His ways and principles. They forgot the reality of the God who had divided the Red Sea, and they allowed their present difficulty to obscure the faithfulness that God had already demonstrated in the past.
Therefore, the warning of Hebrews 3 is very practical: A good beginning is not enough. It is not enough that we once saw God do great things. It is not enough that we once believed, once praised, or once were zealous. The real question is: Is the faith we had at the beginning still just as living today? Can it pass through the wilderness? Can it endure the passing of time? Can it pass through trials? Can it endure changing circumstances? Can it be held steadfast all the way to the end?
Thus, to “hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end” does not mean that we need to find another kind of faith. It means that we must not lose that living confidence in God and in Christ which we had at the beginning.
Do not merely remember how you once believed God; carry that faith you had at the beginning through the wilderness and hold it fast unto the end.
The final words of verse 14, “we are made partakers of Christ,” may more precisely be understood as becoming those who share together with Christ—becoming Christ’s companions. Therefore, God’s purpose is not merely that we should “not fail.” His purpose is that we should continue all the way to the end and become those who share with Christ. In the Old Testament, God’s goal was the promised land; in the New Testament, God’s goal is the promised Spirit. He has come to lead us into all reality, to impart to us what He receives from Christ, and to cause us to share together with the Son of God.
We partake by faith; we do not obtain this by our own struggling and striving. All along the way, what we need is to carry that genuine, living, and assured faith which we had at the beginning through every kind of testing and to hold it steadfast unto the end. In this way, faith grows and flourishes in our hearts, and we become Christ’s companions, partaking of what Christ is and what Christ has accomplished. In this matter, God is faithful. We have been called by Him to enter into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, so that we may share together with His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
These two “lests” are not intended to make us live in fear. Rather, they cause us to recognize human weakness and also to recognize the provision God has made for our preservation. We need to watch over ourselves, and we also need brothers and sisters to watch over us. We need to hear God’s voice today, and we need to respond to Him today. We need a genuine and living beginning, but we also need to carry that beginning all the way to the end.
Israel’s failure was not that they had never experienced God. Their failure was that they did not allow the God whom they had known and believed at the beginning to become the One in whom they trusted in every circumstance of the wilderness. “Faith cometh by hearing.” Therefore, we must not live merely upon a faith that we possessed in the past. We must hear His word “Today” and allow it to become faith in every circumstance we face. The confidence of the beginning must become the faith of today.
Day after day, while it is still called “Today,” let us exhort one another, strengthen one another, and hold fast that living confidence of the beginning unto the end. God’s intention is not merely to keep us from repeating Israel’s failure in the wilderness. His more positive purpose is that, through His word spoken to us “Today,” the faith we had at the beginning may be carried through the entire wilderness and held steadfast all the way to the end, so that we may become companions of Christ and partakers with Him.