HOW TO KEEP FROM DRIFTING: The Application of Focus
Hebrews 2:1 (ESV) Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.
As preachers in training we were taught to always make sure we apply the scriptures that we teach. A bunch of Bible knowledge without application to daily life makes people “heady” with their religion, where the Christian is more academic than active. They may know they Bible well, but they do not live it well. The Bible is not only to be studied but applied, not merely heard but done (see Jms 1:22). The author of Hebrews is doing this here. He tells his readers, “We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard.” The command to “pay much closer attention” is a transitional activity that moves us from learning things to doing things. Notice he is not giving them a list of ten things they need to do now that they have heard the message, that’s the way many modern preachers apply scripture. We preach a sermon and then tell the people, “Now go do these ten things to be good Christians.” And the list builds every week. Pretty soon the Christian’s “to do” list gets out of control and they get disheartened; in contrast, the first exhortation from the author of Hebrews is for his audience to give extra focus on what they have had heard, namely, about Jesus, knowing that this extra focus will be the catalyst for good application to their lives.
Certainly there are things we must do as Christians, but this comes as a result of our intentional focus on what we have already learned about the nature and mission of Jesus, which is not an easy exercise, because often things we already know become overly familiar to us and we tend to brush them off. In the back of our minds we are saying, ‘Yeah, yeah, I know that, go on.” This minimizes the impact on our souls. Also, we’re legalists by nature, self-righteous and self-dependent to our core. We want something to do, something practical. Give me the list of things to obey; I can get my mind around those. We focus on surrender, sacrifice, service, etc…. The author is telling them, “No! Start with this. Pay more attention to what you already know, then you will not drift away.” Notice the drifting does not come as a result of religious inactivity, but of spiritual misfocus. The author revisits this later by reminding his readers to fix their eyes on Jesus (Heb 12:2). Let us start applying what we know about Jesus by intentionally refocusing our attention on Him. It is from this place our lives stay anchored in Jesus, and everything we do and become springs up from this root.
