Our Lord Jesus purchased us with His blood that He might set us apart a peculiar people zealous of good works. Let us therefore seek to excel in those duties becoming to Christians, such as brotherly love, generosity, contentment, obedience to those over us, fixedness in the faith, patient suffering with Him and continual praise.
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 honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
6 So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
7 Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.
8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
9 Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.
10 We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.
11 For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp.
12 Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.
13 Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.
14 For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.
15 By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.
16 But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
17 Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.
18 Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly.
19 But I beseech you the rather to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner.
20 Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
21 Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
22 And I beseech you, brethren, suffer the word of exhortation: for I have written a letter unto you in few words.
23 Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty; with whom, if he come shortly, I will see you.
24 Salute all them that have the rule over you, and all the saints. They of Italy salute you.
25 Grace be with you all. Amen.
¶ Written to the Hebrews from Italy by Timothy.
Hebrews 13:1-3 – J. Vernon McGee
Hebrews 13:4-6 – J. Vernon McGee
Hebrews 13: 7-8- J. Vernon McGee
Hebrews 13:9-14 – J. Vernon McGee
Hebrews 13:15-19 – J. Vernon McGee
Hebrews 13:20-25 – J. Vernon McGee
Hebrews 13:1-13 – Sanctify Daily Life
We may not like all the brethren, but there is something in each of them that Christ loves. Let us try to discover it, or love them for His sake. We can love people with our mind and think for them, or with our strength and serve them, even though the heart is somewhat reluctant.
Strangers and captives must never be forgotten, either in our prayers or our ministry. The love within the marriage tie must be unsullied, and we must watch against the insidious lust of gold. Why should we always be thinking of money, when God has promised, with two negatives, never to fail us (v. 5)? Thrice we are asked to remember those who bear office and rule in the church (vs. 7, 17, 24).
We are called to a holy crusade. It is not for us to linger in circumstances of ease and self-indulgence when our Master suffered without the gate! Let us go forth unto Him, bearing His reproach! Has not the Church tarried in the city long enough, enervated by its fashions and flatteries? —Through the Bible Day by Day
Hebrews 13:1 – As the spokes of a carriage-wheel approach their centre, they approach each other: so also, when men are brought to Jesus Christ, the centre of life and hope, they are drawn toward each other in brotherly relationship, and stand side by side journeying to their heavenly home. (J.F. Serjeant)
Hebrews 13:5 – God Almighty never failed a man. We fail one another and deceive each other, but God will never fail us. God never made a fish with fins until He made an ocean to put him in. God never made a bird with wings until He made an atmosphere for it to fly in, and God never planted the instincts of life immortal in our soul until He had built a heaven for our souls to dwell in. (Sam Jones)
Hebrews 13:8 – Religious systems naturally circle around the priest. Christianity finds its centre in Jesus. What He is, it must be; and since He is unchangeably the same, it can never he superseded or pass away; it can never wane as the stars of the old dispensation did in the growing glory of the new; it must abide as the one final revelation of God to man, and the way by which man may enter into fellowship with God. (F.B. Meyer)
Hebrews 13:14-25 – Praise, Prayer, and Peace
Notice that though the ancient sacrifices have been abolished, there is one which can never grow old—the sacrifice of praise. This incense must ever ascend from the heart-altar. And to this we must add the sacrifices of doing good and distributing our goods.
Perfection in the closing paragraph (v. 21) means adjustment, the setting of a dislocated bone. We may be in the body of which Jesus is the Head, and yet be out of touch with Him. We need setting; and this is work which God will delegate to no angel, however exalted. He will do it Himself as tenderly and gently as possible, because He is the God of peace. Do you doubt it? Did He not bring the Shepherd to glory, and is He not able to bring the sheep also? Never rest until you are in living organic union with Jesus, that He may be able to work His will through you to your own great joy and for the hastening of the Kingdom. —Through the Bible Day by Day
Hebrews 13:14 – A Christian, being only a traveller through the world, must expect a traveller’s fare—bad roads sometimes, bad weather, and bad accommodation; but since his journey is short, and his city is in heaven, all his actions, sufferings, prayers, and conversation turn that way. (Bogatsky)
Hebrews 13:15 – Praise is contentment rippling over into gladness, like the music of the brook. (Mark Guy Pearse)
Hebrews 13:20 – Our union with Christ is the union of the covenant, and therefore not dependent upon frames and feelings. (A.L. Newton)
Hebrews 13:21—Make you perfect in every good work to do his will.
To perfect is to adjust, to put in joint, to articulate us with the living Savior. It may be described as a surgical operation. Too many of those who are in the Body of Christ are not in living articulate union with Him. Hence the writer asks that we may be properly jointed with Christ.
The Agent of this process.—The God of Peace. Let us not be afraid of Him, as though He must use some terrible anguish, some heartrending grief. He will not shrink from this, if all other methods fail; but He prefers to achieve his purpose by gentle, tender, peaceful means. He is the God of the summer evening; of the bursting spring; of the slumber of the little babe.
The Guarantee that He will perform this process.—He brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that Great Shepherd of the sheep; and surely the power which achieved that bringing again is capable of any demand that may be made on it. Will He do so much for the Shepherd, and neglect the flock? Will He give Him the victory, and forsake those for whom He won it? In bringing the Shepherd did He not pledge Himself by the most solemn sanctions to do all that needed doing for the weakest of his sheep?
The Object of this process.—He adjusts us, that all which is well pleasing in his sight may be readily fulfilled in and through our yielded natures. When the helmsman is right with the captain, the boat will naturally take the course that the captain selects. When the machinery is adjusted with the motive power, the pulse of the piston will be felt away at the furthest loom, with the smallest amount of leakage and the largest of result. —Our Daily Homily