I. Introduction
A. The next passage after this fits in rather well with the theme we’ve been observing in Hebrews thus far. But not this week’s. Today it seems we’ve come to a radical transition. What we read in Heb.13:1-7 seems to have little connection with what comes before. Often we find the NT epistles moving to life applications following a long section of doctrinal teaching, but the author’s reason for choosing these particular ethical applications is a mystery to me.
B. However, I am amazed at how relevant these five applications are to our American evangelical context. I can hardly imagine five ethical exhortations which more perfectly suit our contemporary Christian context in America.
II. Explanation of Hebrews 13:1–6
A. 1 Let brotherly love continue.
1. He’s spent the first 12 chapters urging them to let faith continue. Now he urges them also to let brotherly love continue.
2. What is brotherly love?
a. Brotherly: like siblings with the same father growing up in the same household, sharing the same space and the same resources.
b. He is referring here to our spiritual family in Christ, urging us to cooperate and communicate with filial affection.
3. The follower of Jesus is not merely someone who puts his/her trust in God, but also someone who loves God’s people. The Christian life isn’t an individual life. It is a life lived in the context of community.
B. 2-3 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. 3 Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.
1. There are some categories of people who are easy to forget about. But God wants — even commands — us to remember them.
a. Three of these groups are mentioned here: strangers, prisoners and oppressed.
b. But there are other groups mentioned elsewhere: widows, orphans, poor, afflicted, etc.
2. Strangers
a. Likely the author had Abraham in mind here. He entertained angels unaware in Gen.18:3, 19:2.
b. There is a similar story in Luke 24 where two disciples invited the resurrected Jesus in, not knowing who He was. Similarly, in Matt.25:34-40 Jesus says that if we welcome the stranger, we have done it to Him.
c. We are supposed to love strangers expecting to discover angels. One of our big problems here is fear. We fear strangers are going to be devils, not angels. This fear can be seen in all the horror movies where a stranger turns out to be some kind of devil. This fear of the boogeyman keeps us from looking for angels.
3. Prisoners
a. Earlier, in Hebrews 10:34, the author commended them for having “compassion on those in prison.”
b. Now he urges them not to forget about them. In fact, he exhorts them to remember them as if they were right there in prison with them. This gives us a wonderful paradigm for compassion and prayer:
(1) We should pray for the sick as though we were sick. We should have compassion on an abused wife as though we were an abused wife. Etc.
(2) Sometimes we forget to pray for people who need prayer. Sometimes we don’t think of those who are in special need. Well, we wouldn’t forget to pray if we were the ones who were in desperate need. We wouldn’t forget to have compassion if we were the ones hurting. And that how God wants us to act.
4. The mistreated
a. He also wants them to remember the oppressed.
b. “since you also are in the body” = Since you know what it’s like to suffer pain.
5. It is easy to forget those who are invisible to us.
a. When we spent much of the last year focusing on ministry to groups like this, what was your reaction? You have to ask yourself: Down deep, do you want to forget about them?
C. 4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.
1. We are going to spend a lot of time next spring — starting in January and February — talking about sexual matters, so I’m not going to talk a lot of time on this today. But I would like to ask one question: This passage restricts sexual activity to the marriage bed. Does it have anything to say about same-sex marriage? Is sex between a same sex couple OK as long as they’re married?
2. These words weren’t written in a vacuum. The author meant something by “marriage.” And guess what? We don’t get to decide what he meant. And the Supreme Court doesn’t get to decide what he meant.
3. So what is marriage? You have to ask: What did the author mean? What does the God who inspired the author to say these things mean by them?
4. Let me illustrate. During a period of time in the French Revolution they instituted a ten-day week. But a week isn’t ten days, and a government cannot make it so by declaring it to be so. God established a week as seven days from the beginning.
5. So, what is marriage to God? To answer this question, you have to go back and see what these things mean in the earlier parts of the Bible. (If you want an in-depth discussion of this, read The Genesis of Sex by O. Palmer Robertson.)
6. Restricting marriage to a heterosexual couple may sound ridiculous to the modern ear. Even oppressive. Even bigoted. But the world is not our source of truth.
7. One more thought in this verse. This exhortation includes our minds: Let marriage be held in honor in our minds. Let the marriage bed be undefiled in our minds. This means that mental fantasies about having an affair are forbidden. Mental fantasies about sex outside of marriage are condemned.
D. 5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”
1. Perhaps this one is the most important of all these exhortations for Christians in America.
2. One of the main kinds of persecution these believers had experienced had to do with their possessions.“You joyfully accepted the plundering of your property.” – Hebrews 10:34
3. Well, apparently after a while the financial disadvantages of being Christians eventually began to wear on them and they began to yearn for a return to their prior privileged position.
4. But the author warns them not to get caught up caring so much about their financial situation but to be content with their with what they have, and not fear what men might do to them.
5. Did you know that love of money (v.5) and fear (v.6) are so closely related?
6. It’s so important for us to hear God on this.
7. We don’t need to have everything the people around us have.
8. All we need is enough: being content with enough, not always needing more.
9. The verse tells us how we can be free from the love of money: by having confidence that God will take care of us: v.5 “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ ”
a. What can move a person to let go of his time (to help the oppressed or those in prison), his money (Keep your life free from the love of money), and sex (let the marriage bed be undefiled)? How can we live in confidence, not in fear?
b. By knowing that you have a Father in heaven who will makes sure to give you everything you need and everything which is good for you to have, a God who will never forsake you.
10. And when we are content without all the latest and greatest stuff, we proclaim that happiness does not come from things, we proclaim that the Lord makes us rich even if we are financially poor.
III. Let me now point out three poignant pairs in this passage:
A. Philadelphia (v.1) AND philoxenias (v.2)
1. The Greek word translated “brotherly love” is PHILADELPHIA, love of brother. The word translated “to show hospitality to strangers” is PHILOXENIAS, love of strangers.
2. Here we see that we must be zealous to love each other and also zealous to love strangers.
3. We teach our children to fear strangers, and I agree that there is need for caution. But God never commands us to fear strangers; He does command us to love strangers.
B. Social justice AND sexual morality
1. V.2-3 tells us that we must love strangers, prisoners, and the oppressed.
2. V.4 tells us to uphold sexual morality.
3. A lot of times people either emphasize social justice or sexual morality.
a. E.g. politically liberal Christians typically emphasize social justice and politically conservative Christians typically emphasize sexual morality.
4. The fact is that the Bible calls us to both.
5. You see, people think sex is all about human pleasure and human fulfillment. And they think that my money is for my benefit. But my money is not for me. And sex is not for us. They are both for God and for His redemptive purposes on the earth.
C. Never forsaken AND forsaken
1. “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” How can a holy God say this? How can a just God say this to guilty sinners like us?
2. We are sinners, rebels against God. And having forsaken God, we are children of His wrath, subject to His just judgment.
3. So, how can God say to a sinner: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
4. It’s because of what we read in Matt.27:46: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” Jesus was forsaken by His Father so that the Father wouldn’t have to forsake US.
5. Isaiah 53:5, 10 “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 10 It was the will of the LORD to crush him; He has put him to grief.”
D. Mothers of young children: Have you ever thought about getting a tattoo? You could do worse than having this verse tattooed on your hand or forearm: “Be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ ”