THEREFORE SINCE
WE HAVE
SO GREAT A CLOUD OF WITNESSES
SURROUNDING US: Toigaroun
hemeie tosouton echontes (PAPMPN) perikeimenon (PMPNSA)
hemin nephos marturon: (11:2-38)
(Isaiah
60:8;
Ezekiel 38:9,16)
(Luke
16:28;
John 3:32;
4:39,44;
1 Peter 5:12;
Revelation 22:16)
Many expositors feel
that the chapter break between 11 and 12 is a poor chapter division since 'witnesses' concludes the discussion of
Hebrews
11.
As an aside remember
that effective Biblical
teaching makes frequent use of
figures of speech (especially
simile and metaphor) wherein the author
compares the Christian life to familiar objects, events or practices. In the
present discussion, the author is drawing the reader's mind to the
competition in a Olympic sports stadium, and specifically comparing the
Christian life to a foot race, which was usually the featured event in the
Olympic games. This comparison would be very familiar to the reader.
Therefore since
(5105)
(toigaroun from toi = consequently + gár =therefore +
oun =
then, therefore) means by certain consequence or consequently. This triple
compound word is used to draw a conclusion of emphasis. Toigaroun is
a very strong Greek expression which could be translated something like
"Mark you, for this
reason, therefore let's run the race."
A world of
encouragement is bound up the examples of the saints who have run and
finished the race. The writer sought to encourage the first century saints
to endure and he would say the same to you and to me today.
We have
(2192)(echo)
means to have and in the present context means to possess.
Expositor's Bible
Commentary notes that the plural pronoun "we"
links the writer to his readers. He is a competitor in the race as well as
they and writes as one who is as much caught up in the contest as they are.
(Gaebelein,
F, Editor: Expositor's Bible Commentary 6-Volume New Testament. Zondervan
Publishing)
So great
(5118)
(tosoutos) is a strengthened form of tósos meaning so much and
translated in this verse "so great".
A cloud (3509)
(nephos)
literally refers to a shapeless mass covering the sky (a mass of clouds).
Here in the only NT use nephos figuratively
refers to a crowd or throng, especially emphasizing the
number.
Aristophanes in his
play, The Frogs, uses the concept of clouds as witnesses. The
picture of a cloud describing a crowded group of people is a common
classical figure and expresses not only the great number of people, but also
the unity of the crowd in their witness.
In the Greek world...
Clouds have a religious significance
because of human dependence on them and the fear of sinister thunderclouds.
The Harpies personify storm clouds, and there is a goddess Nephele. The cult
of the clouds does not occur in Greece, but Orphism includes invocation of
the clouds at the offering of incense. Aristophanes parodies Orphic worship
in his Clouds; the clouds represent the new gods of sophistry. The cloud is
an attribute of deity; Orphism itself often places the clouds in the service
of the supreme god. Gods watching battles hide in clouds. They hide their
assistants of favorites in clouds. The cloud is also the chariot of the gods
that leads the hero to them. In later Hellenism the cloud has a stylized
part in divine appearances or journeys. (Kittel,
G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. Theological Dictionary of the New
Testament. Eerdmans)
There are 25 uses of
nephos (17 in Job!) in the
Septuagint (LXX)
(Job 7:9; 20:6; 22:14;
26:8f; 30:15; 35:5; 36:28; 37:11, 16, 21f; 38:1, 9, 34, 37; 40:6; Ps. 104:3;
Prov. 3:20; 8:28; 16:15; 25:14, 23; Eccl. 11:3; 12:2). Most OT
Septuagint (LXX)
uses are literal but some
are figurative...
Job 30:15 "Terrors are turned
against me, They pursue my honor as the wind, And my prosperity has passed
away like a cloud.
Proverbs 16:15 In the light of a
king's face is life, And his favor is like a cloud with the spring rain.
Adam Clarke
commenting on the meaning of "cloud" writes that...
Both the Greeks and Latins
frequently use the term cloud, to express a great number of persons
or things; so in Euripides,...a dense cloud of shields; and
Statius, Thebiad.... a cloud of spearmen. The same metaphor
frequently occurs. (Commentary)
(Bolding added)
The picture of a cloud
then would
describe a crowded group of people and
express not only the great number of people, but also the unity
of the crowd in their witness - they all gained God's approval by faith as
recorded:
And all these, having gained
approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised (Hebrews
11:39)
B F Westcott writes that...
The image of the amphitheater with the rising rows of spectators seems to
suggest the thought of an encircling cloud. (Westcott, B F: Epistle to the
Hebrews)
John Calvin
derives an excellent application from "cloud" writing that...
Had they (the witnesses) been a few in
number, yet they ought to have roused us by their example; but as they were
a vast throng, they ought more powerfully to stimulate us. He says that we
are so surrounded by this dense throng, that wherever we turn our eyes many
examples of faith immediately meet us. (Commentary
on Hebrews)
Witnesses (3144)
(martus > root of our English "martyr") is one who has information or
knowledge of something and hence can bring to light or confirm something.
According to B F
Westcott
"There is apparently no evidence that martus
is ever used simply in the sense of a ‘spectator." (Westcott, B
F: Epistle to the Hebrews) (Bolding added)
The Bible Knowledge
Commentary agrees noting that witnesses...
This does not mean that they watch
believers today. (Walvoord,
J. F., Zuck, R. B., et al: The Bible Knowledge Commentary. 1985. Victor
or
Logos)
Witnesses who are former participants
have just been
presented. The witnesses are like a coach who exhorts his team onward crying
out...
Others have done it,
and so can you!
They overcame and
gained the victory, so there can be no excuse for us who have far more light
(the complete revelation of God's Word)
and greater advantages (the indwelling Spirit of Christ), to fail or
fall by the way to “suffer loss,” and be “saved so as by fire.”
Warren Wiersbe
comments that the men and women of Hebrews 11...
are the “cloud” that witnesses
to us, “God can be trusted! Put your faith in His Word and keep running the
race!” When you read the Old Testament, your faith should grow, for the
account shows what God did in and through people who dared to trust His
promises (see note
Romans 15:4). When you read the
Gospels, you see the greatest example of endurance in Jesus Christ. (Wiersbe,
W: With the Word: Chapter-by-Chapter Bible Handbook. Nelson
or
Logos)
Tertullian, (an
early church father), commenting on the witnesses of Hebrews 11 wrote
that...
You can judge the quality of their faith from the way they behave.
Discipline is an index to doctrine.
John Calvin
explains that through the examples of the witnesses it is as though the
writer was saying...
that faith is sufficiently proved by
their testimony, so that no doubt ought to he entertained; for the virtues
of the saints are so many testimonies to confirm us, that we, relying on
them as our guides and associates, ought to go onward to God with more
alacrity. (Commentary
on Hebrews)
S Lewis Johnson
writes that in interpreting the witnesses...
"Many picture the saints who have gone
before as spectators in the stadium. So we as Christians are running a race
with the spectators observing us. Even your loved ones may be looking down
and they are watching you carefully. This may be a motivation for you to run
well. If I knew that Moses, and Paul and all the prophets were there
watching, that would indeed be an incentive for me. However, that is not
what he is talking about. Rather it is the lives which faithful men have
lived and the stories found in the Scriptures which are witnesses to us. It
is not what we see in our spectators that is to move us, but what we see in
the Scriptures!...So as we look at these men and women, there should come to
our minds this conviction - that the God of yesterday is also the God of
today. In other words, the things that God did through Enoch, through Noah,
through Abraham, through Jacob, Isaac, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, the things that
God did through them, He is able to do today (through you and through
me beloved)!." (Bolding added)
One of the best ways to develop endurance and encouragement is to get
to know the godly men and women of the Old Testament who ran the race and won.
The author had alluded to these godly examples in Hebrews 6 writing:
And we desire that
each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance
of hope until the end, that you may not be sluggish, but imitators
(mimetes)
of those
who through faith and patience inherit the promises." (see notes
Hebrews 6:11;
6:12)
The people of God from
Bible days
Can help us through life in many ways;
Those saints of old can give direction
To steer and lead us toward perfection. —Fitzhugh
Imitate those who imitate Christ.
In a parallel teaching
Paul explained to the saints at Rome that...
whatever was written in earlier times
(referring to the Old Testament) was written for our instruction, that
through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have
hope. (see note
Romans 15:4)
A W Pink goes
so far as to add that
only then do we read the O. T. narratives unto profit when we draw from them
incentives to practical godliness. In Hebrews 11 we have had described at
length many aspects and characteristics of the life of faith. There we saw
that a life of faith is an intensely practical thing, consisting of very
much more than day-dreaming, or being regaled with joyous emotions, or even
resting in orthodox views of the truth. By faith Noah built an ark, Abraham
separated from his idolatrous neighbors and gained a rich inheritance, Moses
forsook Egypt and became leader of Israel’s hosts. By faith the Red Sea was
crossed, Jericho captured, Goliath slain, the mouths of lions were closed,
the violence of fire was quenched. A spiritual faith, then, is not a passive
thing, but an active, energetic, vigorous, and fruitful one. (Pink,
A W: An Exposition of Hebrews
)
W E Vine writes
that the great cloud of witnesses in Hebrews 11
were spoken of as those who had witness
borne to them (11:2–5, 39); here they are themselves witnesses. Not that
those who are now with Christ are spectators of earthly persons, but that,
as to the persons mentioned in chapter 11 , their lives of faith are so
recorded in the Old Testament narratives that they seem to be living
spectators urging us on to run as they did. The inspired record is like an
amphitheater, and, as with the cloud of onlookers of old, so these heroes of
faith utter their voices in the sacred page. As we read of their trials and
triumphs, they, so to speak, “compass us about.” The writer of the epistle
is here testifying to the permanence and vividness of the records of
Scripture. (Vine,
W. Collected writings of W. E. Vine. Nashville: Thomas Nelson
or
Logos)
And so if you think
you're experiencing problems with your family, read about Joseph's problems
in (Genesis
37ff)!
If you think your job is too big for you, study the life of Moses (Exodus
3:11ff). If you
are tempted to retaliate, see how David handled the problem the continual
curses from Shimei of the house of Saul (2
Samuel 16:5ff). All of these examples, and specifically
those in the Hebrews "hall of fame"
chapter 11
are given for our reference that we might be instructed, convicted and
encouraged to run the race with endurance. For example commenting on Moses
in Hebrews 11 (see notes
Hebrews 11:24;
25;
26;
27)
Vance Havner once said that because he was a man of faith, Moses was able to
“see the invisible,
choose the imperishable and
do the impossible”
Ray Stedman
applies this teaching about encumbrances writing that...
The word "witness" can have either
meaning: the act of seeing something, or the act of telling something. Which
is it here? I think it is the
act of telling. The verb form of this word "witness" (martureo) is used five
times in Hebrews 11 (2, 4 [twice], 5, 39) and always refers to the giving of
a (confirming) testimony rather than the mere watching of an event. So I
take the witnesses of Hebrews 12:1 to be the saints who have run the race
before us, and have gathered, as it were, along the marathon route to say,
through the testimony of their lives, "By faith I finished, you can too!...
This is the way all the witnesses of Hebrews 11 are helping us. They have
gathered along the sidelines of our race and they hold out their wounds and
their joys and give us the best high-fives we ever got: "Go for it! You can
do it. By faith you can finish. You can lay the weights down and the sins.
By faith, by the assurance of better things hoped for, you can do it. I did
it. And I know it can be done. Run. RUN!"...There are dozens and hundreds
and thousands of those who have gone before and who have finished the race
by faith and surround us like a great cloud of witnesses who say: "It can be
done! By faith it can be done." (The
Race of Life)
A number of well known, usually excellent expositors of Scripture such as
Marvin
Vincent, Henry Alford, F B
Meyer, et al, seem to have missed the
context and see these saints in
Hebrews
11
as spectators looking down from heaven observing the lives of those on
earth. But the writer of Hebrews does not call them spectators (which
was another specific Greek word) but witnesses. Even reference to the
definition of witnesses as those who give an account of what they have seen by
their words and by their actions would counter the interpretation of this
cloud as indicative of spectators. Witnesses give testimony, offer evidence of
actual events and generally present evidence based on their direct personal knowledge.
It is as if the reader is sitting in a courtroom, and have just listened to the testimony
of the witnesses of Hebrews
11.
Practical
application:
Meditate
on the lives of the saints in Hebrews 11.
In short, the
context as well as the definition of the
Greek word martus, indicate that the
witnesses in Hebrews 11 are not spectators looking on. Instead, the
intent of the writer is that in view of the faith the lives of these men and
women bear witness to, the reader is exhorted to finish the race exercising
a similar faith and endurance. We have all begun by faith, are to daily walk by faith
(see note
Colossians 2:6) and must run to "finishing tape" by faith. Be encouraged
by the witnesses of Hebrews 11, who all bear testimony that the race can be
run successfully and that the rewards are great.
F. F. Bruce explains that those in
Hebrews
11
are witnesses in
the sense...
that by their loyalty and endurance they have borne witness to the
possibilities of the life of faith. It is not so much they who look at us as
we who look to them -- for encouragement.
W G Pascoe (Biblical Illustrator) adds that the witnesses
in Hebrews 11 bear testimony...
(1). ...To the fact that their
confidence in God was not misplaced. A man may fail, but God never.
(2). ...To the sufficiency of Divine grace. They had no more natural
goodness than we; but they overcame it all, and it was in the strength of
the Lord they did so.
(3). ...To the faithfulness of God to His promises.
Surrounding (4029)
(perikeimai from peri = around + keimai = be laid down)
means
to be located around some object or area and thus to be around, to surround,
to encircle and then to hamper.
Perikeimai is
used by Jesus to describe the fate of those who cause one of the little ones
to stumble declaring that
it would be better for him if with a
heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea.
(Mark
9:42)
Paul uses this verb to
describe a chain hung around him, binding him.
Perikeimai is in the
present tense and
thus describes that which continually surrounds. The point is that the
Christian racer is to be continually mindful of the faithful crowd of
Hebrews 11 towering about them as cloud.
As an aside Hebrews
12:1 often raises the question of whether or not saints in heaven can see
our lives on earth. Unfortunately, as best I can discern, Scripture does not
seem to give a definite answer to this oft posed question. Whether the
saints can see or not is a moot point and is far less significant than the truth that
the omniscient Holy God sees all for...
"The eyes of the LORD are in every place,
watching the evil and the good." (Proverbs
15:3)
LET US ALSO LAY ASIDE: apothemenoi
(AMPMPN):
(Matthew
10:37,38;
Luke 8:14;
9:59-62;
12:15;
14:26-33;
18:22-25;
21:34;
Romans 13:11-14;
2 Corinthians 7:1;
Ephesians 4:22-24;
Colossians 3:5-8;
1 Timothy 6:9,10;
2 Timothy 2:4;
1 Peter 2:1;
4:2;
1 John 2:15,16)
Spurgeon
observes how the author of Hebrews (he thinks it was Paul but that is
doubtful)...
includes himself, so that his warning may
not sound like upbraiding. We cannot win if we are weighted: the pace will
have to be very swift, and we cannot get to it, or keep it up, if we have
weights to carry. Unloaded, we shall find the race taxing all our powers;
but weighted, we shall be doomed to failure. Oh, to lay aside all carking
(burdensome, annoying) care, fretfulness, ambition, anger, greed, and
selfish desire! These were never worth the labor they have cost us; but now
that we have become running men, we must have done with them. Down they must
go, till the last ounce is on the ground. Like the Greek footman, we would
strip; and instead of adding weight, we would diminish even our own bulk,
that we may fly along the course. O ye that would win, heed the caution, and
“lay aside every weight,” whether it be great or small; and press towards
the mark! Run for it, man! Thou hadst need do nothing else but run...
Do I not hear you say, “May God help
us”? This must be a tough race which requires such stripping as this. If
every weight of care must be laid aside, and every rag of sin, who is
sufficient for these things? How can we poor limping mortals run in such a
race as this? Even the starting is beyond us: how much more must
perseverance in it outreach our strength! See, my brethren, how we are
driven to free grace, how we are driven to the power of the Holy Spirit! The
race which is set before us most clearly reveals our helplessness, and our
hopelessness, apart from divine grace. The race of holiness and patience,
while it demands our vigor, displays our weakness. We are compelled, even
before we take a step in the running, to bow the knee, and cry unto the
strong for strength. We dare not retreat from the contest; but how can we
begin a struggle for which we are so unfitted? Who will help us? To whom
shall we look? Does not all this very admirably introduce the verse which is
specially my text- “Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our
faith”? (Read the full sermon
The Rule of the Race - Pdf)
Let us lay aside
(659)
(apotithemi
from apo = away from + tithemi = put) (click
study of
apotithemi) means
to put or take something away from its normal location and put it out of the
way.
Click
for all 12 "let us..." exhortations in Hebrews (in the NASB).
Apotithemi literally
was used to describe the
laying aside of clothes or taking off one’s clothes, as did the
runners who participated in the Olympic Games. In fact the ancient
Grecian runners ran in the
stadium nearly naked.
Figuratively apotithemi means to cease doing what one is doing, to
throw it off, be done with it or put it away. Stop doing it, "throw it off" and be
done with it.
In this verse lay
aside is in the
aorist tense which speaks of an effective,
once for all action. The
middle voice speaks of the subject
initiating the action to lay aside and participating in the action. The
middle voice conveys the "reflexive" sense, and so the idea is "you
yourself lay aside".
Wuest renders it "having put off and away
from ourselves".
Note the preposition apo is a marker of
dissociation, implying a rupture from a former association. This truth
should help
us picture what we as believers should do. The idea is that we should
"place
some distance between" the old life (the former lusts which were ours
when we were ignorant of salvation" (see notes
1 Peter 1:14;
15).
The writer is exhorting the readers to "travel light" spiritually speaking.
Like Olympic runners
who are willing to gain any legitimate, legal advantage in order to win, we
are to lay aside
anything and everything that tethers us to this earth and run with our face set
like flint toward the city Whose Builder is God. We should run to our heavenly
Jerusalem, wherein dwells our great Reward, Christ Jesus!
Ancient as well as
modern athletes would wear training weights to help them prepare for the events.
However no athlete would actually participate wearing the weights because they would
slow him down. Using the same principle modern baseball players swings a bat
with a heavy metal collar on it before they step to the plate. This is not
the best analogy in the present context because the weights the writer
refers to exert only a negative effect.
What then are the
“weights” that we should remove so that we might win the race? In general
terms, anything and everything
that hinders our spiritual progress. As discussed below such encumbrances might be “good things”.
Continuing with the athletic metaphor, a winning athlete does not choose between the good and the bad; he
chooses between the better and the best. So strip off and cast away even
harmless things if they hinder your progress,
diverts your attention, saps your energy or dampens your enthusiasm the goal
of the upward call in Christ Jesus.
In a parallel passage
Paul explains to Timothy that a good soldier "travels light" writing that...
"No soldier in active service entangles (describes a sheep whose
wool is caught in thorns!) himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that
he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier." (see note
2 Timothy 2:4)
John Calvin
writes that...
As he refers to the likeness of a race,
he bids us to be lightly equipped; for nothing more prevents haste than to
be encumbered with burdens. Now there are various burdens which delay and
impede our spiritual course, such as the love of this present life, the
pleasures of the world, the lusts of the flesh, worldly cares, riches also
and honors, and other things of this kind. Whosoever, then, would run in the
course prescribed by Christ, must first disentangle himself from all these
impediments, for we are already of ourselves more tardy than we ought to be,
so no other causes of delay should be added. (Commentary
on Hebrews)
ENCUMBRANCE ILLUSTRATED - The army of Alexander the Great was advancing on Persia. At one critical
point, it appeared that his troops might be defeated. The soldiers had taken
so much plunder from their previous campaigns that they had become weighted
down and were losing their effectiveness in combat. Alexander immediately
commanded that all the spoils be thrown into a heap and burned. The men
complained bitterly but soon came to see the wisdom of the order. Someone
wrote, “It was as if wings had been given to them—they walked lightly
again.” Victory was assured.
In the context of this
letter, the writer is addressing the Jews of the first century who had
expressed interest in Christianity but were being tempted not to walk
faithfully and persevere to the end. They were being tempted to go back to
the traditions and ritual of Judaism rather than the Way, the Truth and the
Life.
EVERY ENCUMBRANCE: ogkon apothemenoi (AMPMPN) panta:
Every (3956)
(pas) any and all encumbrances. Note there is no "exception clause"
but every "ounce" of superfluous ("spiritual") weight is to be cast off and
away from ourselves.
Encumbrance (3591)
(ogkos)
literally refers to a bulk or a mass. It is used metaphorically in this
verse (the only use in Scripture) to refer to that which serves to hinder or prevent someone from
doing something - a hindrance, an impediment.
Ogkos referred to a mass as bending or bulging because of the load,
burden. It referred to the excess bodily weight athletes shed during
training. An athlete would strip for action both by the removal of
superfluous flesh through rigorous training and by the removal of all
clothes. In addition the ancient writers sometimes used
“weights” figuratively for vices but that does not appear to be the primary
meaning in this verse.
The Christian life is
a race that requires discipline and endurance. We must strip ourselves of
everything that would impede us. Weights are things that may be harmless in
themselves and yet hinder progress. Thus encumbrances could include material possessions,
family ties, the love of comfort, lack of mobility, etc. In the Olympic
races, there was no rule against carrying a supply of food and drink, but
the runner who wanted to win would never run in such a ridiculous
manner. How sad that so many
Christian runners choose to run weighed down with all manner of
paraphernalia!
What do you need to strip off that you might run unimpeded?
Marvin Vincent
in his discussion of ogkos adds that it was often used in the
classics...
Sometimes metaphorically of a person,
dignity, importance, pretension: of a writer’s style, loftiness, majesty,
impressiveness. Rend. “encumbrance,” according to the figure of the racer
who puts away everything which may hinder his running. So the readers are
exhorted to lay aside every worldly hindrance or embarrassment to their
Christian career. (Vincent, M. R. Word studies in the New Testament: Vol. 4,
Page 537)
An encumbrance
is whatever deadens your soul, and holds you back when thou should be
pressing forward to the upward call. In the case of the
Jews who had believed the encumbrance would include old associations of their
former life, lingering Jewish and legal attachments and the tendency to
compromise with the fulfilled rituals and ceremonialism of the law. Paul
addressed similar "encumbrances" in his letter to the saints in
Galatia explaining that...
in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
nor uncircumcision means anything (Nothing done or not done in the flesh
makes any difference in one’s relationship to God - in Christianity the
external is immaterial and worthless, unless it reflects genuine internal
righteousness), but faith working through love. You were
running well; who hindered (cut in on causing you to break stride and
stumble, who threw obstacles in your way of or cut up the road so that
normal movement was impossible?) you from obeying the truth (legalism of the
Judaizers was preventing the unsaved from coming to Christ in faith and the
saved from following Him in faith)? (Galatians
5:6-7)
J Vernon McGee
gives us an illustration of the importance of laying aside whatever
encumbers us...
I remember years ago when Gil Dodds, a
very fine Christian, was a famous runner in this country. Some of us went
out to the track at the University of Southern California, to watch him run.
He ran around the track a couple of times with tennis shoes on. Then he
stopped and changed into some other shoes. One of the fellows there asked
why he needed to change shoes. He took one of the tennis shoes and one of
the lighter pair of shoes and tossed them both to the man who had asked the
question. Believe me, there was not much difference in the weight of the
shoes, but just enough, he said, to cause him to lose the race. In the
Christian life there are a lot of things that are not wrong in and of
themselves, but Christians should not be carrying those weights around. Why?
Because you won’t win the race. (McGee,
J V: Thru the Bible Commentary: Thomas Nelson
or
Logos)
(Or
listen to an Mp3
from Thru the Bible)
Jamieson, et al
write that encumbrance refers to...
As corporeal (bodily) unwieldiness (extra
body fat) was, through a disciplinary diet, laid aside by candidates for the
prize in racing; so carnal and worldly lusts, and all, whether from without
or within, that would impede the heavenly runner, are the spiritual weight
to be laid aside. “Encumbrance,” all superfluous weight; the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, and even harmless and
otherwise useful things which would positively retard us (Mk 10:50, the
blind man casting away his garment to come to Jesus; Mk 9:42-48)
Each runner must
honestly judge what hinders faith for him or her and resolutely lay it
aside, even though others seem to be unhindered by the same thing. One
cannot run well in an overcoat! What are the things that hinder? The
indulgence in innocent pleasures of life may become a hindrance and in fact,
any legitimate enjoyment can become a weight if every spare moment is
given to that enjoyment. Or it might be
a habit, one that in itself is not sin. For example, let's say every evening
after work you watch four hours of television. Now
television can have some edifying, educational shows. But if all you do in
your spare time is sit before the television,