And if truly they'd called to mind that country from which they'd come out, they'd have had opportunity to go back, but they desire a better, that is a heavenly country; therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God. He has prepared a city for them”.
He's talking about some of the listed men of faith, and it says that the promises that God had for them were never received then. They are all to be fulfilled in the end time; but they were persuaded that God was faithful, and they committed their life to serving Him and honouring Him. It says: “they desire a better country and God is not ashamed to call them His”. Notice what it says…
1) They desired a heavenly country. They had a goal of eternal reward.
2) They looked for, and they sought it. They sought God and they sought to please Him.
3) They saw what God promised, and believed, and embraced them.
4) They lived a life that honoured God, despite hardships.
God honoured them, because He's not ashamed of them. He says: He's prepared for them a heavenly city, speaking of the resurrection.
Hebrews 11:35 – “…Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection”.
There it is again - obtain a ‘better’ resurrection. What empowered these Old Testament saints to do what they did? They had a vision of a better resurrection!
Everyone knew that there was going to be a resurrection; but a better resurrection - that word ‘better’ means: stronger, more noble, more powerful, having dominion and power. So they endured even being sawn in two. They endured being put to death. They endured all kinds of things and they also overcame, because they had a vision that God was using them; they were prophesying of something to come, and they served God in their generation.
Jesus then also reveals through this, what it is to be an overcomer who inherits the First Resurrection, focus on eternal rewards - walk with God, and live a life that pleases Him… and persevere through difficulties and persecutions.
I'll now give you one more. It's an exhortation by Peter, and it's: Growth in Godly Character.
2 Peter 1:5-12 – “for this very reason, give all diligence, add to your faith virtue, virtue knowledge, add to knowledge self-control, self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, godliness brotherly kindness, and brotherly kindness love. If these things are yours and abound, you will neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you lack these things you're short-sighted, even to blindness, you've forgotten you've been cleansed from your old sins. Therefore, be diligent to make your call and election sure, if you do these things you'll never stumble, and an abundant entrance will be supplied to you into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
And so, for this reason, I will not be negligent to remind you of these things, even though you know and established them as current truth, or present truth”.
The context of this is very clear - it's about the resurrection and the coming of the Lord.
In 2 Peter 1: 16, he talks about “we saw the coming of the Lord”, so all his discussion here is in the context of the second coming of Jesus, and the First Resurrection. He's saying: now you've been saved, add to your faith - and all the things he says to add are all character qualities. He says: make sure you're diligent. Add to your faith virtue (that means good characteristics); and to virtue, knowledge; to knowledge, self-control; to self-control, perseverance, godliness, kindness, brotherly love.
He says: here is a guarantee, that if you develop those qualities in your life, then the result is that you won't stumble. You will be fruitful, and have an abundant entrance to the kingdom, instead of being excluded from it.
It tells us very clearly, if he's urging them be diligent, to make your calling and election sure, then clearly the implication is that you're not sure, unless you do these things. Our election or selection for the high calling of God or First Resurrection is not sure, not for any one of us. Our lifestyle, and diligence, is the thing that will qualify us for that First Resurrection. Notice that he mentions diligence twice. It means hasten, hurry, exert yourself. If you look it up on Merriam Webster Dictionary: to be steady, put in energetic effort, persevere.