Hebrews 12:4

“Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, etc..] They had resisted sin, and Satan, and the world, the men of it, and the lusts of it, and its frowns and flatteries, and also false teachers, even every adversary of Christ, and their souls; but they had not, as yet, resisted unto blood, or to the shedding of their blood, as some of the Old Testament saints had done; as some in the times of the Maccabees, and as James the apostle of Christ, and as Christ himself: wherefore the apostle suggests, that they ought to consider, that they had been indulged; and what they had been engaged in, were only some light skirmishes; and that they must expect to suffer as long as they were in the world, and had…”

“not yet resisted unto blood--image from pugilism, as he previously had the image of a race, both being taken from the great national Greek games. Ye have suffered the loss of goods, and been a gazing-stock by reproaches and afflictions; ye have not shed your blood (see on Heb 13:7). "The athlete who hath seen his own blood, and who, though cast down by his opponent, does not let his spirits be cast down, who as often as he hath fallen hath risen the more determined, goes down to the encounter with great hope" [SENECA]. against sin--Sin is personified as an adversary; sin, whether within you, leading you to spare your blood, or in our adversaries, leading them to shed it, if they cannot…”

“Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin - The general sense of this passage is, “you have not yet been called in your Christian struggles to the highest kind of sufferings and sacrifices. Great as your trials may seem to have been, yet your faith has not yet been put to the severest test. And since this is so, you ought not to yield in the conflict with evil, but manfully resist it.” In the language used here there is undoubtedly a continuance of the allusion to the agonistic games - the strugglings and wrestlings for mastery there. In those games, the boxers were accustomed to arm themselves for the fight with the caestus. This at first consisted of strong leathern thongs…”

“Unto blood - Unto wounds and death. Hebrews 12:5”

“12:4 not yet given your lives: This community had not yet faced martyrdom for the faith. (This is one reason to date Hebrews prior to Nero’s persecution in the mid-60s AD.) If Jesus could endure a shameful death, the hearers should be able to endure lesser persecution.”

“Heb 12:2, Heb 10:32-34; Mat 24:9; Co1 10:13; Ti2 4:6, Ti2 4:7; Rev 2:13, Rev 6:9-11, Rev 12:11; Rev 17:6, Rev 18:24 Hebrews 12:5”