Hebrews 13.4
December 21st 2014
Welcome.
There are four days till Christmas. If this stresses you out there is a serious disconnect between the meaning and what you believe should be the execution of the day.
Anyway . . . why don’t WE . . .
Pray, hear the word of God set to music, sit for a moment in silent reflection, and then come back and enter into our study of the last chapter of Hebrews – chapter 13.
Pray
Music
Silence
The closing chapter of Hebrews is made up almost entirely of 9 exhortations.
Brotherly love, Hebrews 13:1
Hospitality, Hebrews 13:2
Sympathy for those in bondage, Hebrews 13:3
Fidelity in the marriage, Hebrews 13:4
Contentment, Hebrews 13:5,6
Submission to those in authority, Hebrews 13:7,8
Stability in faith, Hebrews 13:9-15
Benevolence, Hebrews 13:16
Obedience to those in leadership, Hebrews 13:17
There is a little teaching that taps back into the Old Covenant – the writer can’t seem to resist these appeals.
Then we’ll read a special prayer and the epistle then closes with a beautiful and impressive benediction which includes the hope that the recipients of the epistle would receive what was presented to them.
Plus some other end salutations.
So after EVERYTHING the writer has presented, he kind of gets down to the brass tacks of everyday Christian living.
When we think about it the epistle sort of represents a beautiful illustration for us.
I mean the first 12 chapters are heavy with instruction and doctrine and teachings.
There are comparatives and illustrations and reasoning ad nauseum all aimed ostensibly at keeping the mind of the reader soundly pursuing faith and then knowledge in Christ – and to leave everything else behind.
But it is not a mistake that he wraps all the teaching and correction up with some brass tack, every day reminders of how to be.
First how to think and perceive (chapters 1-12) and now how to be – what to actually do.
Our context is these believers were living amidst great turmoil and upheaval as the time of redemption was literally “at hand.”
The things the writer is about to list for them in conclusion of his teaching are house rules for being true Christians and a means for them to remain united and strong in the face of the storm.
And so he says: (verse 1)
Hebrews 13:1 Let brotherly love continue.
2 Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
3 Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.
4 Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
Okay. Back to verse one.
1 Let brotherly love continue.
We can see the implication that brotherly love did exist among them because he says, “let it continue.”
The Greek for love here is phileo so we know that the passages says exactly what the writer intended – let love between the brother hood continue.
When I was doing the show on TV here in the state we used to get people writing in and complaining that I would end many of the calls with LDS people by saying, “Okay brother. Take care.”
The complaint was that they are NOT my brother until they come to know Jesus and are made Sons or Daughters of God.
I agree with this definition in the spiritual sense – the only spirit family we have are those that have received Christ.
And this is the strongest eternal bond a human being could ever have.
Paul writes in 1st Thessalonians 3:12
“And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all, even as we do toward you.”
With the command to love each other (who are spiritual brothers and sisters) AND ALL OTHERS how are we to see all others?
I would suggest that we see every single person as our fleshly brothers and sisters.
Granted, the context here is for these believers to love each other who are in the body.
But I am convinced that in order to fulfill passages like Hebrews 12:14 that says:
“Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord,”
That it is incumbent upon us to love everyone all the time – as His redeemed.
The thinking is this:
God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son.
And the Son so loved God AND all of us that He gave Himself to overcome sin and death.
In other words it is by LOVE that God overcomes all things . . . and therefore in and through us, who are bearing fruits of love, God will pull many from the fire ultimately having total victory over the dark.
It started with Him.
It continued with His Son.
It has been passed to believers.
It will overcome all . . . in the end.
Now, I would also suggest that this first directive – let brotherly love continue – serves as a topic head for pretty much everything else he says – with the topic head being some sort of love.
So first he says, “let brotherly love continue” then he adds
Hospitality of strangers
Sympathy for those in bondage
Fidelity in the marriage
Contentment
Submission to those in authority
Stability in faith
Benevolence
Obedience to those in leadership
So let’s continue – in verse 2 he advises them saying:
2 Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
The reference to entertaining angels unware draws from the Old Testament history – especially Abraham, Lot and Samson’s parents – who were met by angels not knowing their identity.
We banter this around today and it’s intriguing. I suppose if angels could appear as strangers then they could certainly appear in the same way today.
This being said the word for angels really means messenger and I am certain that we are frequently met by messengers unaware who enhance our lives by and through their influences on us.
The spirit of hospitality would certainly lend to more of these engagements and the level of intimacy that would result.
I personally wish I could be more hospitable. Over the course of my life I have seen tremendous hospitality extended toward me and my person by some inordinate Christians and am awed by their willingness to share and give and care for others.
In his epistle to the church at Rome Paul instructs the early saints to “be given to hospitality.”
The early elders were told, in 1st Timothy 3:2 to be
“blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach. . . ”
And Peter said in 1st Peter 4:9
“Use hospitality one to another without grudging.”
We cannot get around the fact that hospitality was especially encouraged by the Lord and the apostles in their travels.
In Luke 10:7 the Lord said to the apostles if they are received in a home,
“in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give.”
And of course there are all sorts of teachings Jesus gives about a man being in bed when another comes and askes for loaves or bread or Samaritans traveling and helping a man in need – these are all forms of hospitality – of love, really.
In fact, it is a lack of hospitality that Jesus will charge the wicked with, saying in Matthew 25:43
“For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.”
Job actually commended himself before God when he said of himself:
“If I have withheld the poor from theft desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail; or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof,” (Job 31:16-17)
So we know that biblically speaking hospitality in all of its forms was a common practice – in the most open and frank manner.
I think this open inviting come eat with us attitude is still the case in many eastern nations.
And it also seems more prevalent in thinly country settlements as opposed to cities and metropolis.
Culture certainly plays a big role in hospitality thriving but again, it is a biblical edict.
The question then for us here and now might be – are these very same approaches to hospitality supposed to be part of our lives and world today and if so, how do we adopt this very biblical attitude in 1, this American culture, 2, a very predatory culture that is constantly on the take?
(long beat)
In the course of full time ministry this very subject is one of the most difficult I personally face on at least a weekly basis if not a daily.
I have tried to live the biblical way to the extreme and find myself in situations that are just not right.
I have tried to approach it by being hard and find myself feeling badly.
I want to open my home to all but discover that typically speaking I wind up only helping to encourage a lifestyle that is for lack of a better word, predatory.
Let me put it this way – in nearly ten years of full time ministry, where most of it is physically carried out in the streets, I have NEVER helped a stranger personally (or in the name of the ministry) where I didn’t later discover that they had taken me or the ministry for a ride.
Every time when it comes to strangers in need.
Now, is this a sign of our times and we ought to approach them differently or are we to expect it and help anyway, knowing we are being despitefully used?
How do these directives play out when strangers are under the influences of drugs or substances or are of a criminal nature?
They are often in need the MOST but are often least willing to respond to kindness and or support?
I have also discovered, however that the exception to giving help and hospitality is when it is applied to people who are involved in the local congregation.
This type of help is often truly based in needs. But again, these are not strangers so it doesn’t really answer how to respond to this particular passage, does it?
(beat)
After all is said and done I would suggest the following and granted this is all from my perspective and nothing more.
First, we must first and foremost let the Spirit guide. And be willing to change course if we believe the Spirit is leading otherwise.
In every situation where I was being taken by strangers the Spirit was present saying something was wrong – every time.
But I always assumed it was my prejudice clouding the love God wanted me to share with others.
So there is the first rule of thumb – if the Spirit leads comply.
Secondly, I think we have to reasonably admit that we do live in different times, and under different circumstances and our very culture is not based in the open hospitality found in eastern cultures.
Because of this we might find the presence of people pushing for us to break with the established culture and system people who might be more inclined toward deviation than those who work in and through the established cultural norms to get by and make ends meet.
In other words, because our culture in American is not as open door as others when a person is pushing for it to become open door we might be suspect.
I say this because while our culture is lacking in apparent open hospitality evinced in biblical times, there are plenty of social programs available for those who are really in need and out of humble desperation are willing to do whatever is required to participate in them.
Finally, maybe the rule to employ in dealing with strangers – after having established the fact that we look to God and the established cultural norms to guide, we are open to doing what we “can do,” with can do falling into what is safe, what is reasonable, what is self-less but what is wise.
While such parameters really frustrate the predators out there, they do fall within the biblical directives to use wisdom of serpents but to also be harmless as doves; as giving as Jesus but realizing even He didn’t put an end to poverty and want.
A final note:
We may also deem it our individual responsibility, as believers, to react and reach out to individual believers we know are in need and to help them directly rather than assuming it is the duty of the church.
Of course if someone is too busy to get directly involved with individual families and their needs the church and the missions and other institutions are there to pass food and clothes along but I tend to believe more good is done in the name of Jesus when one family of believers reaches out and directly helps another rather than funds and goods coming through the church.
Because of the culture of the day this approach was not the method found in the New Testament but all things considered I personally feel it ought to be the approach today.
One final note on hospitality.
It was expected of early Christians that they would also show hospitality to the ministers of the faith who were often poor and traveled from place to place.
They were dependent for support on the kindness of those who loved the Lord Jesus Christ.
This was especially the case with the apostles who were the focus of Jesus instructions in Matthew 10 beginning at verse 9 where He said to them:
“Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat. And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, enquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go thence. And when ye come into an house, salute it. And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you.”
(And then in verse 40)
“And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.”
I would suggest that the spirit of the passages remain but the letter (or the attempts to make our lives fit these descriptions) is a mistake.
Ours is a completely different day, age, culture and approach.
Add in that some are gifted with hospitality and others are not (but are gifted with other abilities from the Holy Spirit) and we have His spiritual kingdom rolling forward through the ages not founded on “musts” but on are driven to want to.
This is perhaps the best rule of all.
In the spirit of both brotherly love AND hospitality the writer continues with the next directive, saying:
3 Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.
Again we are presented with a bit of conflict between he contextual presentation of this verse and our modern world.
Contextually I would suggest that the writer is speaking of believers who had been put in prison due to their faith.
I could be wrong on this and maybe it is a general directive which is telling us to remember all who are in bonds or chains or custody.
But it SEEMS (to me) that the writer is speaking of those who had been taken from their own ranks.
In the last verse of Colossian (4:18) when Paul was “in bonds” or in custody, he wrote:
“The salutation by the hand of me Paul. Remember my bonds.” Which is the exact same line the writer of Hebrews uses here:
“Remember them that are in bonds.”
In the book of Acts, which best represents a historical account of the early apostolic church we see frequent mention of people put in jail and taken into custody.
I mean I just did a cursory review of word searches and discovered that the term prison is mentioned 19 times in the book of Acts alone (representing half of the times it’s mentioned in the entire New Testament!)
Being “Bound” is mentioned 15 times (more again than any other book)
So being put in prison for being a believer was a major part of the early Christian church and hence the reason it is mentioned so often (in my opinion).
Because the directive is to remember those who are in bonds, and Paul asked the same thing when he was in prison, we are probably pretty close to understanding the contextual meaning here.
Additionally, because of the way the verse is written it appears certain that the writer was specifically appealing to his reader to remember the believing Saints where were in bondage, as we note that he adds that we ought to have compassion on them as
“as being yourselves also in the body.”
However, the phraseology could apply to anyone who is ANY kind of bonds – including prisoners of war, captives in dungeons, those detained in custody for trial for criminal activity, those who are imprisoned for righteousness’ sake or those who are in slavery.
Anywhere where bonds or shackles or chains are employed.
I think God hates bondage. Isaiah said that jesus came to set the captives free and them that are bound.
So whether it’s Egyptian slavery or American slavery or bondage to sin or drugs or anything – God loves liberty and hates bondage.
It’s yet another reason why to me keeping people in chains of a burning eternity makes no sense relative to Him and His desires.
In the face of this I tend to think that all impositions and restrictions men experience in the eternities are self-imposed.
But that’s another story.
When the writer says to “remember them” the word means to be mindful of them.
I would suppose that would mean to include them in prayers, be mindful of their plight, and to do whatever we can to help alleviate their suffering.
To us, as well as to them, I think this line helps us understand the heart we have for those who are incarcerated or held captive by anything – no matter where the blame lies.
Certainly it’s unfortunate when the innocent have lost their freedoms but in my estimation we ought to mourn over those prisoner to any addiction or captor.
When this is the case we will be more inclined, I think, to remember them in our prayers, to aid with relief, and to visit them when possible.
Christianity has always been a religion of the oppressed, the underdog, the failing and the weak.
Jesus is the savior of the lost not the found.
When it loses this approach or appeal it has lost touch with its roots and its master.
This sentiment is echoed in this verse because note that the writer says:
3 Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them;
The words seem to imply that we ought to think of them and their plight as we are bound with them, an attitude which would bring about the most empathy from us toward their person.
When I was LDS I used to look down my nose at the crimes of others, as if I would never.
Today I tend to see anything anyone does as within the potential of my doing it too – the present attitude allowing for much more humility than the former.
The writer adds, “And remember . . .
“them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.”
The Greek is KAK OO KAYO and it’s a word that mean mistreatment or difficulty.
From verse one and the command to embrace brotherly love, and from verse two and the command to be hospitable we can see how the directions of verse three are merely an extension of the same spirit.
If someone is our brother we would be hospitable toward them and be mindful of them in their bonds and afflictions, right?
If we are hospitable we would treat all guests as family and be mindful of their needs.
And if we are mindful of the suffering our response would be brotherly love and hospitality.
These terms fully integrate with each other and amount to the same mindset – Christian love – especially when people are suffering or struggling.
“For we are all of the same body,” the writer reminds us.
1st Corinthians 12 makes the idea pretty clear, saying (beginning at verse 12):
“For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.
13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
14 For the body is not one member, but many.
15 If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
16 And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
17 If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
18 But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.
19 And if they were all one member, where were the body?
20 But now are they many members, yet but one body.
21 And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
22 Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary:
23 And those members of the body, which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant honor; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.
24 For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked:
25 That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.
26 And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it.”
Long story short, the true spirit and attitude of the faith says that when our brothers or sisters are suffering we are suffering right along with them and when one of them is rewarded we are rewarded too.
We rejoice.
I really want to get to the point in my heart and life that no matter who it is – but ESPECIALLY when it comes to my brothers and sisters no matter how badly they have been toward me – I want to get to the point where I suffer when they are suffering and I am rejoicing when they are being honored.
This is the call and it is what the writer is saying. (Last verse – Hebrews 13:4).
Thus far the writer has given direction on matter that will serve to unite and protect the believers at that time. At verse four he seems to bring in another subject that certainly deals with the love of brother but also goes a long way to keep groups healthy and happy, saying (as if almost out of the blue):
4 Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
There are a couple of factors which may have – may have – contributed to the writer including this at this point.
First, and as stated, because they were all baptized into one body by one spirit the sin of whore-mongering (porneo) or adultery (moichaio) would have served to divide and destroy them.
Second, it is obvious that in the realm of the human experience sexual licentiousness is one of the greatest temptations and to warn against it is almost part of any exhortation looking to keep a people apart from the world and undefiled (as much as that is possible).
But because of the way the writer presents the subject it seems there was an idea pushed about that celibacy was a much more hallowed course of life for the Christian (which Christ Himself pursued as did Paul – whom it seems had a wife who left him – and who also promoted singleness as the superior state (if it could be lived).
So the writer seems to be sort of rebuffing this idea and says (almost out of the blue) Marriage is “honorable,” valuable, dear to God.
So while Paul may have provided reasons why those who are in the service of God will do better single, he does add that it is better to marry than to burn (meaning than to consume oneself with the lusts of the flesh).
The writer here (who could have been Paul) states clearly that marriage is good and valuable. And that those who are married are undefiled in the eyes of God.
“But,” the writer adds, “whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.”
So in both the passages that suggest celibacy is superior to marriage and here where the writer clearly states that marriage is good, both sets of passages confirm that:
It is better to marry than to burn and that whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
So in light of all of this the apostle asserts, without any restriction or qualification, that marriage is honorable in all.
Q and A
Prayer
