You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
Read Chapter 12
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
You have not yet resisted unto blood. Though you have met with some persecutions, you have not yet shed your blood for his sake who laid down his life, and shed every drop of his blood for you. (Witham)
There are two kinds of consolation, apparently opposed to one another, but yet contributing great strength each to the other; both of which he has here put forward. The one is when we say that persons have suffered much: for the soul is refreshed, when it has many witnesses of its own sufferings, and this he introduced above, saying, Call to mind the former days, in which after ye had been illuminated ye endured a great fight of afflictions. Hebrews 10:32 The other is when we say, You have suffered no great thing. The former, when [the soul] has been exhausted refreshes it, and makes it recover breath: the latter, when it has become indolent and supine, turns it again and pulls down pride. Thus that no pride may spring up in them from that testimony [to their sufferings], see what he does. You have not yet (he says) resisted unto blood, [striving] against sin. And he did not at once go on with what follows, but after having shown them all those who had stood unto blood, and then brough...
656. – Having commended in a number of ways the faith by which the members are joined to Christ, the head, the Apostle now gives a moral admonition to keep the faith in their hearts and show it in their works, as James also urges is his epistle (c. 2). First, he teaches how they should behave in regard to evil; secondly, in regard to good (c. 13). But there are two kinds of evil, namely, of chastisement and guilt: first, therefore, he teaches how they should behave in regard to tolerating evils of chastisement; secondly, in regard to avoiding the evils of guilt (v. 12). In regard to enduring the evils of chastisement: first, he gives the examples of the ancients; secondly, the example of Christ (v. 2); thirdly, the authority of Scripture (v. 5).
657. – In regard to the first, therefore, he says: Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. As if to say: Thus we have said that the saints, although approved by the testimony of faith, did not obtain the promises...
