Verse 28 says, “Let us have grace, through which we may serve God well-pleasingly with godly fear and awe.” For the Hebrew believers to remain in the new covenant way was to “have grace.” I prefer the translation, “take grace” to “have grace,” for the word “have” in this verse is the equivalent of “take.” A mother will often say to her child, “Take your food,” or “Take your milk.” Likewise, we all need to take grace and to help one another to take grace. If your wife is about to give you a difficult time, you must tell her to take grace. To remain in the new covenant way is to take grace. Whenever we take even a little grace, the entire situation is changed. Sometimes when a brother and his wife are sitting at the dining table, everything is dark. In such a situation, I would advise the wife to be the first to take grace. If she would do this, the dining table would shine, and the husband would say, “Praise the Lord!” Grace certainly is the most healthy food.
In 13:9 Paul tells us to “be confirmed by grace,” and in Romans 5:2 he says that we should stand in grace. Since we all have received grace, we now need to stand in it. Once we take grace and have been confirmed by grace, we shall be able to stand in grace.
In verses 15 and 16, Paul says, “Looking carefully lest anyone be falling away from the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and through this many be defiled; lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one meal gave up his birthright.” In these verses we see three causes of falling away from the grace of God: the bitter root, the fornicator, and the profane person. According to the implication of the context of this book, the root of bitterness must be some Judaizer who could cause the Hebrew believers to be turned aside from the grace of God to the rituals of Judaism and, neglecting the holiness of God, to thus defile themselves in the sight of God. This root of bitterness troubled the Hebrew believers by convincing them with Judaism and capturing them back to Judaism to be defiled in the common religion, rather than to be sanctified unto the Holy God. The Judaizers attempted to convince the Hebrew believers that the new covenant way was wrong and that the old covenant way was right. In principle, there have been some roots of bitterness in the churches in the Lord’s recovery. Such a root of bitterness will say that there is heresy in the churches. Recently there was such a root of bitterness in one of the churches, and several dear ones were poisoned. Once this poison of bitterness enters into a person, it is not easily extracted. I have seen this not only in the United States but also in Taiwan and in mainland China.
We should not listen to the roots of bitterness, for their intention is to damage the Lord’s recovery. The root of bitterness can cause us to fall away from the grace of God. I have the full assurance that the Lord’s recovery is the best place for us to enjoy grace today. If you leave the Lord’s recovery, you will certainly fall away from the grace of God. Deep within our spirit, we know that before we came into the church we never enjoyed grace like we do now. Do not care for what the opposers say; care for your experience. The opposers always try to stir up your mentality, just like the serpent stirred up Eve’s mind. Once they have stirred up your mentality to think things over, they will poison you with their talk. As a result, you will either leave the Lord’s recovery, or else you will be cold and negative concerning it.