Imitation of those who inherit the promises.
I. THOSE WHO ARE TO BE IMITATED. "Followers" they are called in our version, but they are followers in that particular respect which is known as imitation. And if we are to imitate, we must have some distinct and sufficient view of those whom we imitate. Abraham is singled out here, and truly there could be no better example of the firm believer in God's promises. We have him receiving those promises, acting upon them as real messages coming from a veracious Being; excluding from his life any natural purposes of his own, and becoming the willing and docile agent of the purposes of God. But, after all, he is only one. Wherever we see any one who has grasped a promise of God, feeling all that there is of authority and supreme importance in it, there we look for the habit of faith, there we shall find a long-suffering endurance of the consequent trials. When a man goes forth under some deep conviction, we must trace that conviction to its practical result, and see what comes of it; for only so shall we know that he was not believing a lie. In other words, we must see the man believing, the man long-suffering, the man inheriting the promises.
II. WHY WE ARE TO IMITATE. Because promises are made to us also. This was what so grieved and alarmed the writer of the Epistle, that he saw his friends indifferent to the promises made to them. It is worth our while to search the New Testament through and see how it abounds in promises. Now, these promises must trove stood very conspicuously before these apostles—these men who in the first days of the gospel had such peculiar authority to proclaim and. enforce the essential elements of the Divine message. Hence the uncompromising, searching way in which the writer hero presses a duty home. It is the same God who in Christ Jesus makes promises to us, who made promises so solemnly to Abraham of old. We have much need to study the course of such men as Abraham and Moses; for one day we shall be asked as to our treatment of the promises made to us in common with all who have come to know the New Testament Scriptures. Moreover, it will be asked why we so neglected to consider the inheritors of the promises.
III. HOW WE ARE TO IMITATE. By showing in our lives the same qualities as those which brought the inheritors of the promises to their inheritance. God keeps his promises to those who can believe and wait. God said after the Flood, "While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest shall not cease." But this very promise implied that men would have faith to sow the seed and patience to wait for the harvest. Here we are shown what God means by imitation. It is not copying outward appearance, but taking into the heart inward principles, which, if we only encourage them to take root and get fast hold, will show themselves more and more, keeping to the fulfillment of the promises. God's truth stands before us, exhibited in manifold ways, solemnly, lovingly, repeatedly. The first question is—Can we believe it? and the second—Can we wait God's time for him to make his righteousness clear as the light? God is true; the corresponding attitude on our part is to believe ever more deeply. God is loving and gracious; the corresponding attitude on our part is to wait as serenely and hopefully as we can.—Y.