DRIFTING

Hebrews 2:1 KJV (WS)

Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.

Hebrews 2:2 KJV (WS)

For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward;

Hebrews 2:3 KJV (WS)

How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;

Slip (Drift)

The KJV here is not accurate. It is not lest … we should let them slip, but lest we should “flow past,” or “glide by” them (Thayer).

The picture is that of a careless, drowsy boatman in danger of drifting past the safe haven and being carried out to sea.

There are many ways in which Christians are in danger of drifting.

We must guard against inattention and neglect of God's message through His Son

- to flow from alongside,’ to gradually give up one’s belief in the truth—‘to give up a belief, to drift away from a belief.’

He 2:1 as ‘so that we will not gradually give up believing what we have believed in the past.’

- to cause someone to turn away from a previous belief

- to cause to turn away from, to cause to change one’s belief, to mislead.

- to cause someone to believe something that is quite different—‘to cause someone to turn away from a belief, to mislead.

- to cause serious difficulty or trouble with regard to someone’s belief—‘to upset belief.

Who upset the faith of entire households by teaching what they should not,

Titus 1:11 KJV (WS)

Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake.

- to cause a complete change in someone’s beliefs, normally in the unfavorable sense of causing someone to turn away from a previous belief and hence to be misled—‘to turn away, to mislead.

- to pull out, to drag. To cause a change of belief so as to correspond more with the beliefs of the person or factor causing the change.

- to carry along. To cause someone to depart from an earlier belief, with the implication of accepting a belief which is false—‘to mislead, to lead astray, to carry off.

Hebrews 13:9 KJV (WS)

Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.

Hebrews 2:3 KJV (WS)

How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;

If the word of angels was stedfast

2; authoritative and binding, and placed its addressees under just (suitable) penalties for disobedience, How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?

If it was serious to despise the law mediated by angels, it is far more serious to despise (by neglect) the salvation mediated by the Son of God, which has been delivered to men by confirming events and evidences everywhere as authenticating as those which confirmed the giving of the law on Mount Sinai.

This salvation began to be spoken by the Lord (3), then was confirmed by the apostles and other disciples; and their testimony was supported by God’s own witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost—“and with various powers and reserve or allocated

of the Holy Spirit” according to his own will (4).