The Grounds for Faithfulness

With his central theological argument concluded, the author turns now to some practical applications of what he has so effectively argued. Thus, as is true throughout his epistle, he is never content simply to present theology without showing its practical relevance to his readers. Indeed, he has had his Jewish readers in mind through all the argumentation of the preceding section. But now he comes again to their immediate situation. In this section he draws together motifs from the preceding several chapters and makes them the basis of his moving exhortation of his readers to faithfulness. They, as we shall be reminded again in verses 26–36, are in danger of falling away from the truth of Christianity. The firm conviction of the author is that if they can but…