Pay Attention to Your Faith

Hebrews 2:1 (ESV) - Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

NIV - “We must pay the most careful attention”

NLT - "we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard"

GNT - “we must hold on all the more firmly to the truths we have heard”

Berean Literal Bible - We must “give heed more abundantly to the things we have heard.”

NKJV - "we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard

Pay attention to what?

Pay attention to “what we have heard.”

NLT, GNT — “the truth we have heard”

CEV — “what we were told”

What exactly the Hebrews writer talk about? What are the thing that “we have heard”?

We know that the author referred to chapter 1, because he starts with the word “therefore.”

ESV — “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard”

The NIV puts “therefore” in the middle of the sentence, but most versions starts with “therefore” or a variation of it.

NASB — “For this reason…”

GNT, VOICE — “That is why…”

NLT, NCV — “So…”

Hmong GNT — “Yog li ntawd…”

Hmong Thai standard — “Vim li no…”

When we say therefore, we always say something first and follow with “therefore.”

Therefore, pay attention to what we have heard in chapter 1 about Jesus Christ.

What is it that the author has just mentioned in chapter 1?

There, he talked about the supremacy of Jesus Christ.

So “what we have heard” is about Jesus Christ.

Matthew Henry’s Commentary - “This is the first way by which we are...

to show our esteem of Christ and of the gospel. It is the great concern of every one under the gospel to give the most earnest heed to all gospel discoveries and directions, to prize them highly in his judgment as matters of the greatest importance, to hearken to them diligently in all the opportunities he has for that purpose, to read them frequently, to meditate on them closely, and to mix faith with them. We must embrace them in our hearts and affections, retain them in our memories, and finally regulate our words and actions according to them.”

Count it as the most important thing in our life.

must take care of

What does it mean by paying attention? How are we going to pay attention?

Hebrews 2:1 (NLT): we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard…

Hebrews 2:1 (GNB): we must hold on all the more firmly to the truths we have heard…

Colossians 1:23 (NLT): 23 But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it.

Hebrews 3:14 (NLT): 14 For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ.

“to hold firmly to” or “to continue to believe.”

‘to continue to strongly believe’ or ‘to not give up at all to believe.’

Similar verses.

Philippians 2:16 (ESV) — “holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.”

NLT - “hold firmly”

That means we are hold fast, firm, tight to Jesus Christ, as mentioned in chapter 1.

Jesus Christ is the

1 Timothy 1:4 (ESV) — “nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.”

In this case, Paul told Timothy to teach the church NOT to devote or hold on (but to give up) to myth and endless genealogies.