V. 12.— That ye he not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Sin naturally engenders slothfulness, so that we move slowly in the race set before us. The constraining influence of the love of Christ is wanting. We lose the joy of the Lord, which is our strength. The word “slothful” here is the same that is rendered “dull,” chap. 5:11. In opposition to slothfulness, he urges them to be followers of them who through faith and patience are now inheriting the promises. The Old Testament saints had finished their course, and were now inheriting the promises. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had fallen asleep, and, according to the sentence pronounced on fallen man, had returned to the dust; but the spirit had returned to God who gave it. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. They were absent from the body, but present with the Lord. He assured the dying thief that he should be with Him in paradise that night; and although those who now inherit the promises have not entered on the full enjoyment of what God has prepared for His people, still they are with the Lord, and are enjoying the fulfilment of those promises which from the beginning were all yea and amen in Christ, all wrapped up in the first parable— that declaration, "The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent.”