LET us lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us” (Heb. xii. 1). We have already noticed the words, “the race set before us.” The race spoken of is the course in the arena of this world which every soul must run that will attain at last eternal blessedness; it stretches from the city of destruction to the celestial city. God has marked it out for us in His Word, and, therefore, the prayer of every true runner is, “Order my footsteps in thy Word, and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.” The evils that have to be overcome are so great, and the prize in prospect is so glorious, that the Christian must exercise, by the grace of God, uncommon oneness of purpose and exceptional diligence. He must shut his ears to every voice that would entice him to turn aside from the straight path of God’s commandments, and must concentrate every energy towards the attainment of the goal. “He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.” There is no one, certainly, that comes up to the perfect standard of Christian activity; the most exercised persons are disposed to consider themselves as but poor runners of the race. Imperfection, however, is no reason for indolence; the sense of imperfection is rather a goad in the side of all true Christians, urging them to look the more earnestly for strength to the fulness that is in Christ Jesus, and stirring them up to put forth all the greater effort in the race.
3. Let us notice the preparation that is required in order that we may run successfully. “Let us lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us.”
(1) The runner in the physical contest divested himself of every garment that was likely to impede his progress. He laid aside “every weight,” and very specially the article, whatever it might be, that most readily interfered with his movements. Let us suppose on the other hand, the case of a man who tried to run the race clad in his usual cumbrous garb. Would not such a person be regarded as extremely foolish? His failure would be a foregone conclusion. The lesson in both cases is obvious. The runners in the Christian race must not give place to the folly that they can make progress in the life of godliness, if they keep a tight hold of the things that hinder that progress; they must divest themselves (in a way and a sense that we shall hereafter explain) of everything that would clog their energies, and run as persons who are really desirous of obtaining the prize; and if there be any particular evil that is more ready than another to interfere with their success, they must make a special point of laying it aside.
(2) The weights that Christian runners must lay aside. “Every weight,” every one without exception. These weights may be noted under two classes—things unlawful, and things lawful. Unlawful things are manifestly the chief hindrances to the spiritual activity of the people of God. These things are to be found in the heart and in the life. The life of man, by nature, is a life of disobedience to God’s law, a life of indulgence in those things that God has forbidden. The soul that is beginning to run the Christian race must lay aside all unlawful occupations and unlawful pleasures of an outward kind. These are entirely alien to the life of Christianity, and it is a simple matter of fact that they are usually given up at the very start of a soul’s spiritual career. It is possible, however, that even true Christians may be again entangled, for a time, at least, in these pernicious things, and so the apostle here warns them against attempting to run the race burdened with these or any other weights. Again, the unlawful things are to be found in the carnal heart. There they are hid from the eyes of our fellowmen, but if cherished or indulged they are none the less injurious to the soul’s spiritual progress. Sin in all its forms, whether inward or outward, must be disowned. The hidden things of darkness must be renounced. And wherever there is a true runner in the Christian race, there you find one who endeavours, in the strength of grace, to lay aside every evil thing in heart or conduct. In fact, this renunciation of sin, and pursuit of holiness, this dying unto sin and living unto righteousness, enters into the very essence of vital Christianity, and where such dying and living are totally absent there is no running at all. The race is a holy race; the way is “a way of holiness.” Lawful things also are oftentimes weights. Not owing so much to the things themselves, as to the undue place they are apt to get in the thoughts and affections of even true believers. Sin is still in the heart of believers, and this is one way in which it exerts itself; it endeavours to turn their good things into evil things, their blessings into curses. Christians must therefore lay aside their lawful things; they must refuse to give them a higher place than really belongs to them; they must not allow them to rule their hearts, but must seek to have them in due subjection to Christ, and to the attainment of the prize of the high calling. We believe that the people of God are liable oftentimes to suffer more from their lawful than even their unlawful things. The latter are so manifestly injurious to their spiritual interests, that they diligently labour and pray against them, but the former, through their very lawfulness, are fitted to deceive and lead astray the soul. They get a more ready entrance into the affections, and secure more easily a place there they ought not to have, a place that has the disastrous effect of greatly retarding the believer’s diligence in the life of faith. We must, therefore, be much on our guard against the lawful things of the present world, and must reckon them at their true subordinate value, so that they may not prove powerful weights and hindrances to the Christian race.
“Every weight” must be laid aside, whether the object that constitutes it is unlawful or lawful in its own nature. There must be no compromise with some things at the expense of others. If we are not ready to make a complete renunciation of all and every object that will hinder us in the Christian race, then we may well question whether we are really running that race at all. Indeed, it is here where many Christians come short of that standard of godliness that otherwise they might attain to; they are zealous in many directions of spiritual activity, but they have some “little one” of carnal lust that they allow too much room to in their affections, and thus they are but lagging runners in the race, though they may reach the goal at last.
(To be continued.)