(15) Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; (16) Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. (17) For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.
In these verses we have the Church called upon, to behold the safety of the Lord's people, by looking at the contrary character, in such as have not, neither ever had, the grace of God. Here is an earnestness recommended to the faithful, to look diligently in their assemblies among the mere professors, which form, to public view, part of the visible Church, but in reality do not, neither ever did belong to it. Such are of the bitter root, which, by springing up, and mingling with the true seed, like weeds in a garden, defile what is pure. And the case is instanced, in the history of Esau, who is here called a profane Person, that is a reprobate, Malachi 1:3. And this reprobation is accounted for, in despising his birth-right, which included Christ. Hence his rejection by the Lord. And what was it he sought carefully with tears? Not Christ, and the promised blessing in him, but the earthly blessing, which his father had settled upon his younger brother, in making him his lord. This as what he sought carefully with tears, hoping, by his exceeding bitter cries, to prevail upon his father to revoke this gift given to Jacob. And which, indeed, though not revoked, he obtained, when Jacob soon after, was obliged to flee for his life, from his fury; not returning again for many years. But the blessing of spiritual mercies in Christ, even the promised seed, Esau neither sought for, nor regarded. Hence, it is said, He found no place of repentance; or, the margin of the Bible more strongly expresses it, no way to change his mind; though he sought it carefully with tears. Let the Reader turn to the history, Genesis 27:1 throughout; Genesis 27:5. Reader! behold the repentance of Esau, the worldly sorrow, as an Apostle calls it, which worketh death; and learn to distinguish it from that sorrow, which is after a godly sort, and which worked life. The one, the effects of nature; the other the fruits of grace; the one man's labors, the other God's gift. Esau's and all like Esau's, ending in despair; Jacob's, and all the spiritual seed of Jacob's, leading to Christ, and life in him eternal, 2 Corinthians 7:10-11.