You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. 37 For,

‘In just a little while,
    he who is coming will come
    and will not delay.’

38 And,

‘But my righteous one will live by faith.
    And I take no pleasure
    in the one who shrinks back.’

39 But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.

Here, at the end of chapter 10, we see clearly that in spite of his earlier severe warning, the writer to the Hebrews has every confidence that these believers will keep going. One incentive for them (and for us) is that Jesus will come again. The suffering will not continue for ever. Tom Wright points out that Christians are out of tune with this world because they are in tune with the future one. Therefore persecution in some form is to be expected. But Jesus will have the last word in human history. Those who know Him have every reason to hold on and keep going.

In the next chapter, we are going to be introduced to a catalogue of faith heroes who held on and kept going through thick and thin. How they inspire us (and even cheer us on from the stands!)