The Christian life is first and foremost a life of contemplation—listening to Jesus, considering Jesus, fixing the eyes of the heart on Jesus. Everything else in the Christian life grows out of this. Without this the Christian life is simply unlivable. This is why the next phrase in verse 1 is a warning: “For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” The first reason for paying close attention to what we have heard in God’s word through his