Hebrews 2:2-3

"The word spoken through angels" refers to the Mosaic Covenant (cf. Deuteronomy 33:2 LXX; Acts 7:53; Galatians 3:19). [Note: See Moffatt, p. 18.] For the Jews, it was the Law under which they lived. For them the will of God was unalterable. It required obedience. Under the Old (Mosaic) Covenant the connection between sin and punishment was clear and direct. Even more so, the readers could count on the New Covenant that had come, not through angels, but through God’s Son, to involve punishment for sinners. This is especially true if that sin involves failing to give attention to all our responsibilities as Christians who have received such a great salvation. "Transgression" refers to overstepping bounds, and "disobedience" to the violation of God’s will more generally. Another less probable view is that "transgression" refers to sins of commission and "disobedience" to sins of omission. [Note: Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, 2:282.] The writer did not specify the punishment, but it cannot be loss of salvation since Scripture specifically states that we will not lose our salvation (John 10:28-29; Romans 8:31-39; Ephesians 1:11-14; 1 Peter 1:3-5; et al.). In view of the context (Hebrews 1:8-14), the sufficiency of Jesus Christ and their own glorification and rewards seem to be what the readers were in danger of forgetting.

"The neglected salvation is not our final deliverance from hell, that is not the salvation ’about which we are speaking.’ Rather, it is the opportunity to enter into the final destiny of man, to reign with Christ over the works of God’s hands (Hebrews 2:8-9)." [Note: Joseph C. Dillow, The Reign of the Servant Kings, p, 131.]

"Salvation includes far more than moral and bodily regeneration, for it embraces the covenanted kingdom of God, the inheritance of David’s Son, the joint-heirship and reign with Christ." [Note: George N. H. Peters, The Theocratic Kingdom, 3:451.]

Note that the writer himself could have been negligent. He said, "How shall we escape?" not "How shall you escape?" (cf. Hebrews 2:1). The most natural conclusion is that genuine Christians are in view in this warning, not simply unsaved professing Christians. The writer gave us no clues in the text that he had in mind unsaved professing Christians. Furthermore, everything he said can be and has been true of genuine believers.

"Unlike most modern congregations the early Christian church was an integrated community centered around the worship of God and the advancement of his kingdom. Economically it was a commonwealth, which meant that its members were not being pulled apart from one another by the pursuit of individual goals of success; they were devoting everything they were and owned to the strengthening of one another and the cause of Christ. Worshiping and eating together, the members were in constant communication [cf. Acts 2:42]. . . . Little time or distance separated the members of this body, so there was an unhindered communication of the gifts and graces of each one to the others." [Note: Richard F. Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life: An Evangelical Theology of Renewal, p. 161.]

"It is emphatically NOT the same situation a Baptist preacher in the twentieth century faces when he climbs into the pulpit before eight thousand professing Christians. We are therefore fully justified in concluding that, when a New Testament writer uses a term like ’brethren,’ he is not thinking that some may and some may not really be brothers, but he assumes and believes that all his readers are in fact born again.

"Since the [epistolary] writers themselves never explicitly say that they feel their audience is a mixture and since they everywhere make statements to the effect that they are talking to genuine Christians, we have no warrant for reading into their otherwise clear statements qualifications which they themselves never make." [Note: Dillow, p. 241.]

The warning is against neglecting, not rejecting, salvation (cf. Hebrews 6:19). "Neglecting" assumes that one has something, whereas "rejecting" assumes that one does not have it.

"He [the writer] is not encouraging sinners to become Christians; rather, he is encouraging Christians to pay attention to the great salvation they have received from the Lord.

"More spiritual problems are caused by neglect than perhaps by any other failure on our part. We neglect God’s Word, prayer, worship with God’s people (see Hebrews 10:25), and other opportunities for spiritual growth, and as a result, we start to drift." [Note: Wiersbe, 2:282. Cf. pp. 276, 277, 278.]

Chapter 1 glorifies the person of our great Savior, and chapter 2 exalts the work of our great Savior: our great salvation.