Hebrews 10:27Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

By adversaries he means not only unbelievers, but also those who do what is contrary to virtue. He teaches that our sinners will be subjected to the same fire as the adversaries.

Then, wishing to express the fierceness of this fire, he seems to fan it and says: "the zeal of fire, ready to devour the adversaries." As a wild beast, irritated, savage, and enraged, does not rest until it seizes and devours someone, so that fire also, as though inflamed with zeal, does not release the one it seizes. It devours and tears him.

Next the Apostle gives the justification for such a threat, showing that it is fitting and just. By this very fact, when its justice is shown to us, we are disposed to faith.

See how he has almost given life to the fire. As an enraged beast does not rest until it seizes someone and, having devoured him, satisfies its fury, so also that fire is, as it were, inflamed with zeal against transgressors of God's commandments. Raging against them, it always devours whomever it seizes. For he did not say, "ready to eat," but "to devour," plainly forever. He calls "adversaries" not only unbelievers, but also believers who act against the commandments of God.

Everyone, as far as he has strength, must heal the one who has something against him. One must not remember evil against a man who has sinned and repented, but must forgive him from the heart, cf. 2 Cor 2:7.

Whoever says that he has repented of sin must not only be contrite over what he has sinned, but also bring forth worthy fruits of repentance (Lk 3:8).

Whoever was instructed concerning his former sins and was counted worthy to receive forgiveness for them, yet sins again, prepares for himself a judgment of wrath stricter than the former.

If someone remains in his transgression after the first and second admonition, he must be reported to the superior. Then, after receiving a rebuke before many, he may perhaps come to shame.

But... the fearful punishment of judgment and the fury of fire... will devour the enemies, who were adversaries to themselves and to their neighbors.

By this the Apostle does not deny repentance. He says that there is no other sacrifice, because the Master Christ was slain for us once. The Apostle used the word "willfully" to teach that what is done against the will receives a measure of indulgence. By "adversaries" he meant not only enemies of the truth, but also those who dare to act against the divine laws. He again proves the impropriety of this by comparison with what existed under the Law.

"A certain fearful expectation of judgment." Yes, it will be for those who commit sins by their own choice, do not repent of them, and die in sins. The "expectation" is the very handing over to judgment, or the receiving of judgment.

"And the zeal of fire, ready to devour the adversaries." Depicting the power of the fire, he almost gives it life, speaking of the zeal of fire, that is, of its sharpness and heat. Like an enraged and embittered beast, it rushes upon the adversaries of Christ and devours them. That is, it will torment them without mercy.

By adversaries he now means not the unbelievers, but those who, after receiving the faith, do not obey the teaching of Christ. His discourse now concerns precisely those who sin by choice after understanding the truth.

Next he gives the basis confirming that they will justly bear punishment.

Therefore the one who has once received forgiveness of sins must sin no more. After the first and only repentance for sins, committed during the former pagan life that passed in ignorance, immediate repentance is offered to those called. It cleanses the soul of everything foreign to it and prepares a place for faith to be established within it.

The Lord is the Knower of hearts and knows beforehand all that will happen. He foresaw the light-mindedness of man, the wickedness and malice of the devil, and how the devil would envy the possibility of forgiveness of sins given to man. He foresaw that the devil would continue giving God's servants deceitful occasions for sinful actions, so as wickedly to bring them to a fall after himself.

Notice that the Apostle did not say, "we sinned," but used a continuing tense, wishing to show persistence in sin until the end. From this it is beautifully clear that he does not abolish repentance.

Zeal is a spiritual fire. As wisdom shines in the mind and love warms the heart, so zeal, the combined action of those two powers, sets aflame the whole being in which it is present. It appears in that being as intense activity. Everything that can submit to it, it powerfully directs toward its goal. What is capable of purification it purifies. What is mixed it separates. What is impure and corruptible it destroys. What resists it it repels and scatters. Thus the Apostle depicts the zeal of God Himself when he calls it "a zeal of fire that will devour the adversaries" (Heb 10:27).

To persuade his readers still more firmly to hold fast the salvation granted them in Christ, the Apostle next depicts the grievous consequences to which apostasy from faith in Christ leads.

A voluntary transgression means a conscious and continuing apostasy from the law of Christ, after a man has already known by his own experience the greatness of Christ and His Gospel. The present tense, αμαρτανόντων, indicates this. Such apostasy finds no sacrifice that could blot it out.

Such a man openly denies the meaning of Christ's sacrifice, although it alone blots out every sin. Therefore nothing remains for him to expect except fearful punishment.