Hebrews 6:12

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that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Hebrews 6:12 (NKJV)

We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.

Hebrews 6:12 (NIV)

That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and longsuffering inherit the promises.

Hebrews 6:12 (KJV)

Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God's promises because of their faith and endurance.

Hebrews 6:12 (NLT)

so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Hebrews 6:12 (ESV)

so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Hebrews 6:12 (NASB)

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.lockman.org

so that you will not be [spiritually] sluggish, but [will instead be] imitators of those who through faith [lean on God with absolute trust and confidence in Him and in His power] and by patient endurance [even when suffering] are [now] inheriting the promises.

Hebrews 6:12 (AMP)

Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified® Bible (AMP), Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.lockman.org

In order that you may not grow disinterested and become [spiritual] sluggards, but imitators, behaving as do those who through faith (by their leaning of the entire personality on God in Christ in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness) and by practice of patient endurance and waiting are now inheriting the promises.

Hebrews 6:12 (AMPC)

Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified® Bible (AMPC), Copyright © 1954, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.lockman.org

We want each of you to keep it up and not drag your feet from now to the end. No sluggishness now. Imitate those who by their faith and staying power are inheriting the promises.

Hebrews 6:12 (MSG)

Scripture quotations from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.

New Covenant Meaning

Faith and Patience: The Two Legs That Walk Into the Promises

Hebrews 6:12 identifies two qualities in those who inherit the promises: faith (pistis) and patience (makrothumia). Faith lays hold of what God has said. Patience holds on through the time between the promise and its fulfillment. The promises of God are not always instantaneous. Abraham waited decades between the promise of a son and the birth of Isaac. The promise was real and certain from the day it was given, but the receiving of it required both faith and patient endurance. The writer of Hebrews is not calling believers to earn their promises through effort. He is describing the posture that receives them: trusting in God's word and refusing to let go of it while time and circumstance work against it.

Imitate: The Company You Keep Matters

The Greek mimetes (imitators) calls the reader to look at specific people and adopt their posture. This is not abstract theology. It is concrete modeling. The writer of Hebrews is about to spend all of chapter 11 naming specific people who inherited promises through faith and patience: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses. These are not ideal archetypes. They are real people who had real doubts and real failures and still held on to what God said. The call to imitate them is a call to say: if they could hold on, so can I. The cloud of witnesses is not there to judge you. It is there to show you what holding on looks like.

Hebrews 6:12 must be read in its context: verses 11-12 follow the writer's encouragement that each one show the same diligence "to the full assurance of hope until the end." The concern is not that believers might lose their salvation but that they might become sluggish in their faith, drifting into spiritual inertia. The antidote is not greater performance. It is imitation: look at those who held on to what God said, who trusted through long seasons of waiting, and who received what was promised. The inheritance is already secured in Christ (Ephesians 1:11). The question of Hebrews 6:12 is whether you will walk in it with faith and patience or drift back into sluggishness.

Application for Your Life

The Promise Has Not Moved, Only Time Has Passed

Hebrews 6:12 speaks to those who are in the gap between the promise and its fulfillment. If you have received a word from God and are now in the long wait before you see it, this verse is written for you. The call is not to try harder. It is to hold on. Faith and patience together are what the gap requires. The promise is as sure today as the day you received it. God's word does not lose potency with time. Abraham's promise was equally certain on the day he received it and the day Isaac was born. The waiting does not weaken the promise. Stay in faith. Stay in patience.

Who Are You Imitating?

Hebrews 6:12 assumes that you are watching someone. The question is whether you are watching people who have given up on the promises or people who are holding on through faith and patience. Surrounding yourself with believers who are pressing into what God has said, who testify to His faithfulness through long seasons, who refuse to let go of what He promised, is not incidental to your faith. It is part of the mechanism by which you maintain yours. Hebrews 11 gives you a list to start with. The people in your life who hold on well are worth paying attention to.

Prayer Based on This Verse

Father, I choose faith and patience. I am not letting go of what You have spoken to me, even in the long seasons between the promise and the fulfillment. I look at those who have gone before me and I see that holding on works. Abraham held on. The cloud of witnesses held on. I hold on too. I will not become sluggish. I will not drift. I trust what You have said more than I trust what I can currently see. In Jesus name. Amen.