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To further their pursuit of peace and holiness, he metaphorically proposeth a caution against what might stop them in it, which he properly specifieth and exemplifieth in Esau, Heb_12:15-17.
Looking diligently: episkopountev notes a very strict and severe inspecting themselves; its primitive, skopein, signifieth such a looking to a thing, as those who, in shooting, aim at the mark; and the preposition adds intention to the action, signifying a most earnest care in Christians over themselves, in them over others, and in ministers over them all.
Lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any person among them should fail of grace offered in the gospel to it, and never have it, Tit_2:11,12; or apostatize from the profession of it, by seduction or persecution, Heb_4:1 10:38 2Co_6:1: compare Gal_1:6 3:3.
Lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you; a metaphor borrowed from plants, to which roots are proper, and which was used by Moses before, Deu_29:18: a root bearing a poisonful herb; intending by it such persons, whose nature, words, and works, are so bitter unto God, as gall and wormwood are to men; such as apostatized from God to idols. The apostle intending hereby the hindering the springing up and growing of errors, heresies, or immoralities, as profaneness, filthiness, &c., which are apt to infect churches, and, as they spread, to molest, trouble, and disturb them, and to keep them from pursuing holiness, Heb_3:8 Hos_12:14 Gal_1:7 Jam_3:14.
And thereby many be defiled; lest by but one such poisonous root, a whole church of Christians may be infected and poisoned, their sin being as apt to spread and diffuse itself, as leaven, 1Co_5:6, to taint the whole lump, Gal_5:9: and how early, even in the apostles’ time, for want of obeying this caution, were the primitive churches corrupted, both in doctrine and morals, by loose, filthy heretics among them!