"32 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, 33 sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 34 For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one."
Hebrews 10:32-34
The Apostle now recalls to his readers how it had been with them when first they began in the Christian way and how they had endured reproaches and afflictions and lived with their eyes and their hearts fixed upon the eternal hope. His point in doing so is surely clear and this is what constitutes the challenge of the passage for us - he is comparing their present wavering and faltering condition with those earlier days of faithfulness in order to prod them into an awareness of the beguiling deceitfulness of sin through which they were in danger of being led away from the truth. The thought here is echoed in Cowper's famous hymn, 'Where is the blessedness I knew when first I saw the Lord...?' This is a very disturbing passage. It is asking us with a quiet insistence, "Are you where you once were, spiritually? Can you look back to a time - a year ago, two years ago, ten years ago - when your heart was ablaze with the love of Christ, but now there is only a flicker of flame?" Ah, says the Apostle, remember what you once were, and get back to that earlier dedication. It is the only safe way