Maybe you do pretty well at resisting temptation on your own, but there are certain situations that you find yourself in where you seem to repeatedly fail. Maybe there are certain people, groups, or places that always bring out the worst in you or leave you feeling filthy and exhausted, and you just can’t seem to make a positive change around them.

We have to realize that there are some environments that simply are not conducive to our spiritual lives, and when we find ourselves in such environments, we are absolutely not expected to just stay there and let them negatively affect us.

Hebrews 12:1 gives us such wonderful instruction on this subject. It says, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1).

What I want to talk to you about is that phrase in the middle, “every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us.”

“Weight,” is the Greek word ogkos (ὄγκος), which describes anything that weighs you down. It’s so heavy and cumbersome that you’re unable to freely move. It might be a relationship, a habit, or anything else, but it is really just too much to carry, and it keeps creeping into your thoughts or words or behaviors and keeps you from moving where you need to move.

The second word is “sin,” the Greek word hamartia (ἁμαρτία), which means to fail to hit the target, to fail to meet the mark, or is simply the word for a failure. These are things that keep you from hitting the target that God has set for you. They pull you off track so that you aren’t growing into the person that He wants you to be.

Finally the writer of Hebrews qualifies these things with the phrase, “which doth so easily beset us” (Hebrews 12:1), and this is where we start to see the idea of a negative environment.

The words “easily beset us” are translated from a very long Greek word — euperistatos (εὐπερίστατος). It’s a compound of three words. The first word is eu (εὐ), describing something good, something swell, or something easy. Then is the word peri (περί), which describes a circumference or something that surrounds. Finally the word statos (στατος) means to stand. When you take those three words together, they describe something that stands all around you so that you feel very comfortable in it. You’ve been in this place so long that it’s become your environment, your comfort zone, and you feel at home there.

You see, most of us don’t go out seeking bad environments. Rather we find ourselves in an environment that is or has become negative, but over time we just acclimate to that negativity. We feel at home there, we know how to function there, and our friends are there. It may not be the best place, but it’s the place we’ve been for so long. It’s where we live.

It might be that you’re with a group of friends that are negative. You might even go to a church that’s negative — a church that preaches doubt and unbelief. Maybe it’s a certain place, like the place where you work or where you and your friends go to hang out. Maybe it’s the media that you’re consuming.

In my life, I’ve had people who I truly loved who were just not good for me to be around. They were born again, and they loved the Lord, but their level of negativity was not healthy for me. It wasn’t taking me higher in my walk with the Lord, and it was actually bringing me lower!

Sometimes we go into places or relationships knowing that they are bad environments, but we excuse ourselves by thinking that maybe we can affect them for the better. But look at your situation: if the environment isn’t changing, and instead you’re the one being negatively impacted, then maybe you need to change your environment!

You need to recognize that staying in that place is weighing you down! It’s causing you to fail at the goal God has set for you! What Hebrews 12:1 says is that we need to “lay aside” those things. 

When the Bible says, “lay aside,” it is the Greek word apotithimi (ἀποτίθημι), a compound of two words — apo (ἀπό), which means away, and tithimi (τίθημι), which means to lay, place, or position. When you compound the two together, they form the word apotithimi, which means to lay something down and to push it away. It’s not enough just to lay it down — you’ve got to push it beyond the point of retrieval. It is a deliberate decision to make a permanent change of attitude and behavior.

During the time of the New Testament, apotithimi was actually primarily used to describe the removal of clothes, which gives us an image for what the writer of Hebrews is trying to say. When you get to the end of the day and realize that your clothes are dirty, you don’t just expect them to jump off of your body — it doesn’t happen just because you realize it needs to happen. The only way you get your clothes off is to get involved. You have to undo the buttons, pull your arms out of the sleeves, and take all the necessary steps if you’re going to get your old clothes off and your fresh clothes on.

By using the word apotithimi, the writer of Hebrews is telling us that in the same way, if we want to make a change in our lives, we have to get involved in the change. The end of this verse says to “run with patience the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1), which really means to run at such a pace that both feet never hit the ground at the same time, eyes fixed on the finish line, steadily moving towards the goal. You can’t be leisurely about it — you’ve got to make a dash for it if you are going to change. Friend, just recognizing that your environment is bad for you isn’t going to make it better. You’ve got to make a decision to become untangled from the place where you are and really run away from it and toward the goal that God has set for you!

I know that we tend to spiritualize everything, but the Bible is so practical. Instead of praying for God to send angels to come and help you resist temptation or to interrupt your sin, just take steps to get away from that situation that is causing you to sin! Begin to take steps to remove yourself from that relationship or from that environment. Remove all that excess garbage, all that weight, all that negativism that’s holding you down and causing you to miss the mark that God has planned for your life, and become disentangled from the sin that easily besets you.

Now just because it’s practical does not make it easy. Friend, it really won’t be easy. When the writer of Hebrews talks about running the race, the word “race” is actually agόn (ἀγών), which refers to a physical competition, a real struggle. Your emotions will say, “I don’t want to change. These are my friends, and I really love them. I receive a lot of affection there. I fit in here. This way is more convenient. People will think I’m strange if I don’t do this.”

It’s a difficult decision, but we can’t let that stop us from living righteously before God. Think of the early believers. In the First Century, they had to avoid the bathhouses because there were just so many bad things and so much sexual temptation there. This wasn’t an easy decision either, because everybody needs to take a bath! They didn’t have baths in their homes — they went to bathhouses, so early believers had to get very practical and figure out how they were going to stay away from that bad environment and still take their baths. 

It might be easier to go along with the culture. You might tell yourself that it’s just more convenient to hang around the bathhouses of today’s culture — the groups of people who gossip and speak negatively or the places and websites that are filled with temptation to sin — but what you really need to be telling yourself is, “I’m the temple of the Holy Spirit. Why should I listen to these vulgar words or negative statements? Why should I fill my brain with frightening or foul images? None of this is taking me higher. It’s just taking me lower, and it’s a waste of time.”

You only have one life, friend, and what you do with it will qualify you for what you are going to do for eternity, so don’t waste it hanging around in environments that hurt you. It is vital that you do well right now — you’re qualifying for the next phase.

Whatever is weighing you down, whatever is pulling you off track and causing you to miss the mark, it’s time for you to obey Hebrews 12:1 and lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset you, and run with patience the race that is set before you.

If you’ll make the decision to do this, you won’t do it alone, because the Holy Spirit in you will energize you. He’ll empower you to walk out your decision, and He’ll put you in a good place with good people who will help you become all that Jesus Christ has ordained you to be.