⁷ For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; ⁸ but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.

Simplest of grammatical connectives, the “for” attaches our passage today with the previous one, vss. 5-6. While it is impossible for a genuine Christian to fall away by repudiating Christ’s sacrifice, it is entirely possible for people, through lack of faith, to reject the one thing that can bring them spiritual peace and rest: Christ died once and that is our only hope.

The faith/unfaith dichotomy of Hebrews is reduced to a simple picture-analogy.  The genuine believer who has indeed been enlightened and tasted of the Holy Spirit is contrasted with the one in whom the Good News was “not united with faith” (4:2). Possibly the writer is alluding back to Jesus’ well-known parable of the sower and the seeds, but compresses the analogy of four soils into two. The believer is like ground that soaks in the rain and produces a good crop. That person experiences a “blessing from God” in terms of being useful.  This reminds us of Paul’s assertion that the free gift of grace was intended to produce “good works, which God prepared beforehand that we would walk in them” (Eph 2:10). This is the person that will hear from the Master, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Matt 25:21 (NIV).

The unbeliever is likened here to land that produces “thorns and thistles.” Harsh words describe this state, “worthless”, “close to being cursed” and “ends up being burned.” Here, advocates of the thinking that believers can lose their salvation, find in this verse some support that hell is in view for those who fall away from faith.  But that interpretation is not required by the context.

I have heard on a number of occasions the testimony of individuals who were raised in Christian homes, thinking all along they were believers, only to discover under the conviction of the Holy Spirit later in life, that they had never truly come to repentance and redemption.  If such as these, prior to coming to true “enlightenment,” were to fall away from the truth that was preached to them, it would give an appearance of a believer falling away from faith. But that would not have been the case at all. They were unbelievers who looked like believers falling away. That would have been loss of the opportunity for salvation, and the consequence would be dire! We would do well to “examine” ourselves, to “see if you are in the faith” (2 Cor 13:5).