Hebrews: Pay More Careful Attention

I am much enjoying our study of Hebrews. The approach of the lesson writers, a series focusing on how things are better since Jesus came, is a novel approach. Let's see, we've had:

• Jesus is superior to angels
• Jesus is great than Moses
• Jesus is the better way of entering God's rest
• Jesus is the greater high priest
• The new covenant in Jesus is superior to the old covenant

Yet, this type of approach overlooks something else in the book that is also important: the commands the writer of Hebrews gives us. The book includes quite a few "Therefore, we must..." type commands. These typically alternate with the "better than" segments. Take the first one:

"We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away."

Those who first read Hebrews, or who couldn't read and only heard it read, were at a decided disadvantage to us. They have no New Testament to study. They had no televisions or tape recorders to allow them to hear things over and over again. In their fellowship times, an elder would read from the scriptures that they had--the Old Testament--and then expound on it. It's possible that they might have read from one of Paul's letters, depending on how widely these had been copied and distributed at an early date.

They didn't have commentaries to explain how Jesus fulfilled their scriptures. They didn't have many published books created to help them live the life God wanted for them. Just what they heard.

Perhaps, then, we have less excuse than they did for drifting away. How should we paraphrase the command of Hebrews 2:1 to make it more applicable to our modern era? Perhaps:

Since Jesus is superior to all ministering spirits, we must pay more careful attention to all the life-building information God has sent our way, so that we do not drift away.