Dull (3576) (nothros from negative nê = no + ôtheô = to push means no push in the hearing) is literally "no push" and thus means slow, sluggish, "numbed" in mind as well as in the ears. The idea is they are slow, slow to move, slothful, slack, obtuse, languid, lazy, sluggish, indolent.
Indolence is an inclination to laziness, which is bad enough in the physical world but can be deadly in the spiritual realm! Idleness is the enemy of the soul. As Henry Ward Beecher once said...
If you are idle, you are on the road to ruin, and there are few stopping-places upon it. It is rather a precipice than a road.
The insightful Puritan writer Thomas Brooks wrote that...
A lazy Christian will always lack four things: comfort, content, confidence and assurance...(adding that) an idle life and a holy heart are a contradiction.
In short, the readers of this letter (at least some of them) had no "push" or no "drive" in their spiritual life! They had no appetite or desire to hear deeper teaching. Instead of quickening the powers of their understanding and the susceptibilities of their heart by the regular intake and serious study of God's word, many of the Hebrew readers had become dull in their apprehension of spiritual truths. Beloved, does this describe your/my present spiritual life? Arrested development is a pathetic thing to behold - how sad to see a grown man acting like a small child! This is never a "pretty sight"! Thus we begin to get a sense of the frustration the writer must have felt as he wrote the sobering warning in this section.
In NT nothros is found only here and He 6:12 where the write desires of his readers
that (they) may not be sluggish (nothros), but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. (note)
Girdwood comments: "In He 6:12, the word “slow” (nothros) will be contrasted with those who operate “through faith and long-suffering.” This suggests a meaning like “distrusting and easily discouraged.”" (The College Press NIV commentary)
Nothros was used in secular Greek to describe the numbed limbs of a sick lion and the stupid hopes of the wolf that heard the nurse threaten to throw the child to the wolves! In the Greek papyri the corresponding verb is used of sickness. Plutarch notes that Parmenion was sluggish and lazy in battle; the term could also be used of an athlete who was slow because he was out of shape physically. In both the Wisdom literature and Greek literature generally, nothros connotes the failure to follow through with work or a responsibility because of being dull or slow in some aspect of life.
Plato calls some students nôthroi (stupid).
When they have to face study they are stupid (nothroi) and cannot remember. (Theaet. 144 B)
In the Septuagint (LXX) nothros is used only in Pr 22:29.
The author cannot deal with profounder themes (like Melchizedek) because his readers have become slow to hear and learn. Nothros however does not mean that the readers are in a permanent state of low intelligence. They have had time to understand, but they still do not and thus are in danger of falling into a state worse than the one they were in before they heard these truths (He 6:6-note)
Phil Newton writes that...
Dull ears make for scant understanding and little practice. Without a steady diet of God's Word a believer's ability to make wise decisions and live like a believer will be stymied. Andrew Fuller was right.
Christians should not rest satisfied in having attained to a knowledge of the first principles of the doctrine of Christ, but should go on unto perfection [The Complete Works of Andrew Fuller, vol. 1, 161].
To be satisfied with only an introduction to Christ calls into question the reality of his faith. We must leave the elementary diet of milk for the solid food of God's Word. This alone can sustain us and assure us in our faith as we journey through the trials and demands of life....
The writer uses this word (nothros) one other time in the Epistle in He 6:12 where it is translated, "sluggish." As we consider He 6:11, 12 we find what he means by "dull" in noting its opposite description.
And we desire that each of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
The opposite of dullness is diligence. It is a pursuit of full assurance in Christ. It is a dogged, unrelenting desire to know the hope of Christ filling your bosom to the brim. Dullness is really not an ear problem but a heart problem. Something in the heart seems to reject the idea of hearing and heeding the Word. John Piper comments,
The promises come to the ear, but there is no passion for them, no lover's embrace, no cherishing or treasuring; and so no faith and no patience and-if things don't change-no inheritance of eternal life! (By This Time You Ought to Be Teachers)
How does this happen to those of us who have professed faith in Christ? How can we become "dull of hearing"?
At least three things might possibly occur.
First, to neglect hearing the Word increases dullness of hearing. Reading and studying Scripture is an acquired taste. The Word cuts against the grain of the natural man, exposing him and laying bare his depravity (He 4:12-note, He 4:13-note). Apart from a changed heart and a renewed mind, a person has little desire to expose himself to the Word, either by reading or listening to it (Ro 12:1-note, Ro 12:2-note; Ep 4:20, 21, 22-note, Ep 4:23, 24-note). This is one reason why our writer exhorts these believers to "not forsake our own assembling together," for as we neglect hearing the Word and sitting under its counsel, we dull our own hearing (He 10:25).
Second, we become dulled when we take for granted the Word of God. If the Word is one of those things that you will eventually get-around-to, then you are in the process of being dulled. If you have become familiar to the Word without paying heed to its application, then you are being dulled. The train tracks run directly behind our home. Frankly, we don't even notice the roaring of the train as it rumbles through our backyard every day. But when someone visits us, they are often startled when they hear the train! We have taken it for granted and grown so familiar with it that we do not notice it. Has that happened with you and the preaching, reading, studying, and teaching of God's Word?
Third, when we ignore obeying the Word we become dulled in our hearing. James warns that we deceive ourselves when we are merely hearers without being doers of the Word (Jas 1:22-note). If you are given to disobedience, do not complain about what you are hearing of God's Word. It is no question why you do not hear. You have no intention to obey so do not expect God to make his Word plain to you if you want it only to satisfy your pride. (Leaving Milk for Meat)
Adam Clarke on "dull of hearing"...
Your souls do not keep pace with the doctrines and exhortations delivered to you. As nothros signifies a person who walks heavily and makes little speed, it is here elegantly applied to those who are called to the Christian race, have the road laid down plain before them, how to proceed specified, and the blessings to be obtained enumerated, and yet make no exertions to get on, but are always learning, and never able to come to the full knowledge of the truth.
Nida writes that...
The readers have become less keen in their understanding of the Christian faith and are in danger of abandoning their faith completely. (The United Bible Societies' New Testament Handbook Series or Logos)
Steven Cole notes that...
The author hits the Hebrews with the fact that they have become dull of hearing (Hebrews 5:11). They didn’t used to be that way, but they have developed this spiritual malady. Dull is used only here and in He 6:12 (note) in the New Testament, and has the nuance of sluggish or slow. It is used in the Greek papyri of someone being sick and therefore lacking energy. So the word has the idea of spiritual laziness or lethargy.
When there is an opportunity to get into God’s Word, this person says, “Nah, let’s see what’s on the tube.”
When there is occasion to go and hear the Word taught, he says, “I’m tired. I think I’ll stay home and go to bed early.”
He 5:11 shows that teaching God’s Word is a two-way matter. There is the knowledge and ability of the teacher to explain things clearly and in an interesting manner. But also, there is the receptivity of the hearers. It is significant that the best teacher who has ever lived used to exhort His audience,
“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” “Take care how you listen; for whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has shall be taken away from him” (Luke 8:8, 18).
If Jesus is the preacher and the message isn’t coming through, guess who is at fault? When hearers are dull, teaching is difficult.
I’m talking here about motivation. Motivation is the key to learning. Jesus said,
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Mt 5:6-note)
Hunger and thirst are strong motivators! When you’re hungry or thirsty, there is only one thing on your mind, to satisfy the craving for food or water. If you are driven by the hunger or thirst for righteousness, you will be satisfied (Mt 5:6-note). If you think, “Ho hum!” not only will you not grow; you won’t even know what you’re missing! There is one other lesson in He 5:11:
There is no neutral in the Christian life.
Either you are growing or you’re shrinking.
Which is it for you right now? We fool ourselves into thinking that we’re just treading water, but the strong current of the world, the flesh and the devil carries us backwards if we’re not striving to move ahead. Let me shoot straight:
if you’re not making time daily
to spend in God’s Word and in prayer,
you’re not growing, you’re shrinking!
You’re going from eating meat back to the formula and pureed peas. That stuff is great for babies, but it won’t sustain a growing teenager or adult.
The author wanted to teach them about the significance of Jesus being a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek, but they can’t handle it. It’s like trying to get a student to read Shakespeare, but he can’t even recognize the letters of the alphabet! In terms of their years as believers, they should have been capable, but they needed to go back to spiritual kindergarten. (Hebrews 5:11-6:3)
Phil Newton asks...
How satisfying and deep is the Word of God? Jonathan Edwards declared, "The word of God, which is given for our instruction in divinity, contains enough in it to employ us to the end of our lives, and then we shall leave enough uninvestigated to employ the heads of the ablest divines to the end of the world." He added, "There is enough in this divine science to employ the understandings of saints and angels to all eternity" [The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 2, 160]. More than enough, we might say of the Word of God...But the question that might be more pertinent for us is personally applied. "Are you growing in your knowledge and practice of the Word of God?" (Leaving Milk for Meat)
Adoniram Judson wrote:
"A life once spent is irrevocable. It will remain to be contemplated through eternity...the same may be said of each day. When it is once past, it is gone forever. All the marks which we put upon it, it will exhibit forever...each day will not only be a witness of our conduct, but will affect our everlasting destiny....How shall we then wish to see each day marked with usefulness...! It is too late to mend the days that are past. The future is in our power. Let us, then, each morning, resolve to send the day into eternity in such a garb as we shall wish it to wear forever. And at night let us reflect that one more day is irrevocably gone, indelibly marked." (from E. Judson "The Life of Adoniram Judson" published in 1883) (See biography)
HEARING IN
HEBREWS
Hearing (189) (akoe from akoúo = to hear; see related verb hupakouo) is the act, the sense or the thing heard.
Dull of hearing - (idiom = ‘lazy as to one’s ears’) slow to understand. Slow to the hearings and so slow to respond to the teaching sessions. Lest his readers think that the writer is "labeling" every one of them with this disgraceful assessment, elsewhere he singles out those who should be commended (see Heb 6:9, 10, 11, 12 and He 10:32, 33, 34, 35, 56).
The implication of dull of hearing is that a grasp of deep spiritual truth is dependent in part on the diligence of the believer in listening.
The idea of hearing is a key idea in Hebrews...
Hebrews 2:1 (note) For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.
Hebrews 3:7 (note) Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, "TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, 8 DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS
Hebrews 3:15 (note) while it is said, "TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS, AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME."
Hebrews 4:7 (note) He again fixes a certain day, "Today," saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, "TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS."
Hebrews 5:9 (note) And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey (literally "hear under", listen attentively hupakouo = hupo + akouo) Him the source of eternal salvation,
Hebrews 5:11 (note) Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.
Hebrews 11:8 (note) By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed (literally "hear under", listen attentively hupakouo = hupo + akouo) by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.
Why might they be dull of hearing? Drifting, neglecting (unconcerned, paying no attention to) (He 2:1-note, He 2:3-note), doubting (He 3:7, 8, 9ff-note), hardening their hearts (He 3:7, 8-note, He 4:7-note), not obeying (He 5:9-note). All of these attitudes and actions might explain their dullness. They had heard but they were not obeying and thus not growing.
Jesus emphasized this important principle of spiritual growth in John declaring...
If any man is willing (present tense) to do (present tense) His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from Myself." (John 7:17)
Comment: "If any man sincerely wants to do God's will, he shall know...." The first prerequisite to ascertaining God's leading or the truth about some doctrine, is a genuine willingness to believe the truth and to do (obey) the truth which one does understand. To know and not to do (obey) runs the danger of being hardened to that truth and thus becoming dull of hearing!
The problem was not that the writer was a dull teacher, but that they are dull hearers! Think of a slug! Slothful, sluggish, lazy, stupid, a condition of spiritual apathy and laziness that prevents spiritual development. This is an instructive passage in terms of studying Scripture. The writer says he’s got a lot to say, but its “hard to explain.” Why? Is it the difficulty of the revelation? No, it’s the density of those receiving. There’s a "learning disability" so to speak.
Spurgeon...
It may be hard going forward, but it is worse going back....Backsliders begin with dusty Bibles and end with filthy garments....It is dangerous to backslide in any degree, for we know not to what may lead.
Spiritual lethargy and slow response to God's truth prevented additional teaching at this time on "him" (Melchizedek), so the writer delays until He 6:20 (note) to mention Melchizedek again. There is an important principle in this section - Failure to appropriate the truth produces stagnation in spiritual advancement and the inability to understand or assimilate additional teaching (Jn 16:12 "but you cannot bear them now.")
The problem with the Hebrew readers of this letter reminds one of the situation that existed among the Gentiles who had received God's truth of natural (general) revelation in His creation and yet chosen to reject that revelation resulting in their hearts being progressively darkened, even becoming fools, and idol worshippers who were eventually given over by God to the power of their own innate lusts.
Ro 1:18 (note) For the wrath of God is revealed (continuously) from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who (continually, actively) suppress (hold down) the truth in unrighteousness,19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them (How? He will explain).
Ro 1:20 (note) For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile (empty, vain) in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened (Note well: The human soul abhors a spiritual vacuum. If we reject the spiritual light God provides, we will be given over to spiritual darkness! This is an immutable spiritual axiom! Such a person no longer discerns right from wrong [see more discernment in Hebrews 5:14], but actually begins to think that right is wrong! [cp Jdg 21:25-note] Note the "way back" is also shown in this passage - Know God, Honor Him as God, Give Thanks to Him! We read the Scriptures to grow to know which grows our love for Him and causes us to honor Him with our daily choice that seek His glory not ours and as we grow in our knowing of Him we begin to gain a greater appreciation of His sovereign, total control of everything, and we are motivated by that truth to genuinely give thanks in everything! This is the way back home beloved!).
Ro 1:22 (note) Professing to be wise, they became fools,23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures (Study ancient godless civilizations and you see abundant archaeological evidence of people who were desperate to worship something they could see or touch or feel -- idols -- rather than to submit and bow to the only true and Living God! This must break God's heart! Ex 20:2, 3, 5)
Ro 1:24 (note) Therefore (term of conclusion) God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts (i.e., into the power of and enslavement to Sin) to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them. (Ro 1:18-24)
These Hebrew readers had not only received natural revelation (God's Creation), but also special revelation (God's Word - Ps 19:7ff-see commentary on site) consisting of the OT Scriptures (Ro 9:4-note), the Messiah Himself (Ro 9:5-note), and the teaching of the apostles (Heb 2:2-note; He 2:3-note). Until the Hebrews obeyed the revelation they had received, additional teaching about the Messiah’s priesthood would be of no profit to them.
Evangelical Ear trouble
is still a problem today!
Christ as a priest after the order of Melchizedek is a difficult subject, and the writer is going to deal with it forthrightly. To understand the subject requires sharp spiritual perception. It requires hearers to be spiritually alert and to have a knowledge of the Word of God.
J Vernon McGee quips that...
The Hebrew believers who are being addressed here had a low SQ—not IQ, but SQ—spiritual quotient. It was hard to teach them because they had "lazy ears" (~"lazy hearts") and it was difficult to make them understand. They were babies, as many of the saints are today, and they wanted "baby talk" from the preacher. They did not want to hear anything that was difficult to understand. This is the reason some preachers are getting by with murder in the pulpit—they murder the Word of God. They absolutely kill it and substitute something from their own viewpoint, and the congregations like that kind of baby talk. (Hebrews 5:11 Mp3) (McGee, J V: Thru the Bible Commentary: Thomas Nelson or Logos or Wordsearch)
Guzik makes a cogent observation and application regarding dull of hearing writing that...
The dullness usually comes first, then the desire to give up. Watch out when the Word of God starts seeming dull to you! (Ibid)
AN INABILITY
TO LISTEN TO TRUTH
Hughes explains...
Therefore we understand that their problem was an acquired condition characterized by an inability to listen to spiritual truth. They were not naturally “slow,” they were not intellectually deficient, but they had become spiritually lazy. They listened with the attentiveness of a slug. They had become unreceptive and closed.
When people truly come to Christ, their initial posture is one of intense listening. Though only a boy, I was “all ears” after I met Christ. I listened as best I could—and even took notes. God’s Word was alive! My experience was not unique.
Webber, in his massive three-volume "A History of Preaching in Britain and America", writes that one of the by-products of the Awakening was an interest in shorthand...
Men and women studied shorthand in order that they might take down the sermons that were stirring the English-speaking countries. This had happened once before in Scotland, and it made its appearance once more in all countries where the influence of the Awakening was felt. It was not at all unusual to see men with a portable inkwell strapped about them, and a quill pen thrust over an ear, hastening to join the throng assembling on the village green.
But as the newness of it all died down, so did the listening—just as with the Hebrews centuries before, and as with so many in the church today. To such people it is “hard to explain” the deep, needful doctrines of the faith.
Richard Baxter in his “Directions for Profitably Hearing the Word Preached” gives this wise advice...
Make it your work with diligence to apply the word as you are hearing it.… Cast not all upon the minister, as those that will go no further than they are carried as by force.… You have work to do as well as the preacher, and should all the time be as busy as he… you must open your mouths, and digest it, for another cannot digest it for you… therefore be all the while at work, and abhor an idle heart in hearing, as well as an idle minister. (Hughes, R. K. Hebrews: An Anchor for the Soul. Volume 1. Crossway Books; Volume 2 or Logos)
Hebrews 5:12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary * principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. (NASB: Lockman)
Greek: kai gar opheilontes (PAPMPN) einai (PAN) didaskaloi dia ton chronon, palin chreian echete (2PPAI) tou didaskein (PAN) umas tina ta stoicheia tes arches ton logion tou theou, kai gegonate (2PRAI) chreian echontes (PAPMPN) galaktos, [kai] ou stereas trophes.
Amplified: For even though by this time you ought to be teaching others, you actually need someone to teach you over again the very first principles of God’s Word. You have come to need milk, not solid food. (Amplified Bible - Lockman)
Barclay: For, indeed, at a stage when you ought to be teachers because of the length of time that has passed since you first heard the gospel, you still need someone to tell you the simple elements of the very beginning of the message of God. You have sunk into a state when you need milk and not solid food; (Westminster Press)
KJV: For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
NLT: You have been Christians a long time now, and you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things a beginner must learn about the Scriptures. You are like babies who drink only milk and cannot eat solid food. (NLT - Tyndale House)
Phillips: At a time when you should be teaching others, you need teachers yourselves to repeat to you the ABC of God's Revelation to men. You have become people who need a milk diet and cannot face solid food! (Phillips: Touchstone)
Wuest: In fact, when at this time you are under moral obligation to be teachers by reason of the extent of time, again you are in need of someone to be teaching you what are the rudimentary things of the very beginning in the oracles of God, and have become and still are such as have need of milk, not of solid food. (Eerdmans)
Young's Literal: for even owing to be teachers, because of the time, again ye have need that one teach you what are the elements of the beginning of the oracles of God, and ye have become having need of milk, and not of strong food,
FOR THOUGH BY THIS TIME YOU OUGHT TO BE TEACHERS: kai gar opheilontes (PAPMPN) einai (PAN) didaskaloi dia ton chronon: (Matthew 17:17; Mark 9:19) (Ezra 7:10; Psalms 34:11; 1Corinthians 14:19; Colossians 3:16; Titus 2:3,4)
For though by this time - Considering the length of time since they had received Christ.
McGee quips...
Some of them want a D.D. degree, but they don’t even know their ABCs. (Hebrews 5:12-14 Mp3)
Marcus Dods speculates writing...
how long they had professed Christianity we do not know, but quite possibly for twenty or thirty years.
They had professed faith in Christ but were still "babes," needing spiritual milk (1Cor 3:1, 2, 3). It often happens that we dodge teaching something because it is difficult; we defend ourselves by saying that our hearers would never grasp it. It is one of the tragedies of the Church that there is so little attempt to teach new truth from Scripture (new in the sense that most have never heard it taught).
It is right and good for a baby to nurse from its mother's breast for a reasonable period of time, but if someone is an adult and still nursing, this indicates a serious problem! The writer is using this analogy to describe the condition of the Hebrews as what we might call "arrested development"!
The key word in this passage is time. Underline it in your Bible. The writer tells his readers, when by virtue of the passing of time you ought to go on to the college department, you’ve got to go back to kindergarten and learn your ABCs all over again. When you should be communicating the truth to others, you need to have someone communicate the truth to you. In fact, he says, you still need milk, not solid food. Solid food is for the mature. Who are the mature? Are they the people who go to seminary? Who can whip anyone in a theological duel? Who know the most Bible verses? No, the writer says you are mature if you’ve trained yourself through constant use of Scripture to distinguish good from evil.
The mark of spiritual maturity is
not how much you understand,
but how much you use.
In the spiritual realm,
the opposite of ignorance
is not knowledge but obedience.
The Bible is the primary means God has provided for saints to develop spiritual maturity. There are no shortcuts and yet tragically many modern churches (even "Bible" churches) are jettisoning the pure milk of the Word and substituting the preaching of sermonettes for Christianettes! Paul prophetic warning (his last recorded words - emphasizing their absolute importance!) to Timothy tragically appears to be coming all too true in modern Christendom...
the time (kairos) will come (It has come beloved!) when they will not endure (anechomai) sound (hugiaino ~ English "hygienic") doctrine (didaskalia); but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate (episoreuo) for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires (or "lusts" = epithumia); and will turn away (NB: This is active voice = they make a choice of their will) their ears from the truth, and will turn aside (NB: This verb is passive voice = they have no choice, but will be turned aside) to myths (Upshot? If one chooses to reject truth, they will be given over to error. Reject light and you will receive darkness. Our soul "abhors" a spiritual vacuum! Beware! Be in the Word. Better yet, let it be in you, transforming you from glory to glory, 2Co 3:18!). (2Ti4:3, 4-note)
And then we wonder why so many of the marriages in our congregation are in trouble! So then they have a marital seminar (which I am not against) in an attempt to heal the marital rifts. And yet one wonders if more proclamation (and practicing) of solid food would not be the "balm of Gilead" for many of those hurting marriages. I have more than once seen marriages "miraculously" healed by "simply" teaching the Word of God, not even with a focus on passages dealing with marriage! Our times remind me of the passage in Jeremiah...
Thus says the LORD, "Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; and you shall find rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not walk in it.' (Jer 6:16)
Time (5550)(chronos) perceives time quantitatively as a period measured by the succession of objects and events and denotes the passing of moments. Kairos in contrast refers to a season, the time of accomplishment, and considers time qualitatively as a period characterized by the influence or prevalence of something. Chronos is a period of measured time, not a period of accomplishment as kairos. Chronos embraces all possible kairos, and is often used as the larger and more inclusive term, but not the converse. Now are you really confused?
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Greek Word Studies ( - )
Read freely Greek Word Studies from the Austin Precept text commentary of the Bible in text and pdf format. Precept Austin is an online free dynamic bible commentary similar to wikipedia with updated content and many links to excellent biblical resources around the world. You can browse the entire collection of Commentaries by Verse on the Precept Austin website.We have been "bought with a price" to be "ambassadors for Christ" and our "salvation is nearer to us than when we believed" so let us "cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" "so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming." (1Cor 6:20, 2Cor 5:20, Ro 13:11, 2Cor 7:1, 1Jn 2:28)