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Keep on loving one another
as brothers and sisters. 2 Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for
by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. 3
Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in
prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
4 Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage
bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. 5
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have,
because God has said,
“Never will I leave you;
never will I
forsake you.”[a]
6 So we say with confidence,
“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can mere
mortals do to me?”
Dig Deeper
The ancient Jews had a brilliant system, associated with
their marriage ceremonies, known as the Ketubah. We can’t be certain that the Ketubah was
practiced in biblical times but a form of it very likely may have been. A Ketubah is a contract of sorts that describes
in detail what life will be like for a married couple during their marriage and
as they develop into a family. They are
quite different in modern times than they were in ancient times but back in
ancient times they would basically describe the various important elements that
a husband would perform and maintain as part of the family that he was creating
through this marriage. It would
highlight the things that would characterize their family and marriage,
describe his duties and obligations, and give general protections for the
rights of the bride-to-be. It is a
clever idea and one that I wonder if it wouldn’t be helpful in more marriages
today.
I am certainly not claiming that this section of Hebrews
is a modified Ketubah contract or even based on one. But it does carry something of that flavor to
it. The writer has gone to great lengths
to show us just exactly who Jesus is. He
is the promised Messiah and the superior mediator between God and man. He is far superior to the Law, to Moses, to
angels, and to anything else we could ever put in that place. He is our great high priest who will serve
unflinchingly in that role forever. He
is the one who deserves and demands unshakeable loyalty, and when we give that,
we will find that he will enable us to stay faithful to him despite the difficult
circumstances. He has, as the author
mentions in chapter 12, made us part of God’s family. When we understand all that Christ is, what
he has done for us through his blood, and the fact that he has called us into
the family of God, then we should realize that this should have some major
implications. That’s what this last
chapter is all about. It might seem a
bit disjointed or that it randomly jumps about, and in some senses it does. But it has the feel of a description of the
important things that we need to know as we enter or choose to remain faithful
to God’s family. It’s almost like a
reading of a Ketubah contract where we are being reminded of the most important
aspects of our life in the family of God.
Above all, though, we must keep in mind the understanding of who Jesus is
that this lesson from the book of Hebrews has given us. For if we keep our eyes fixed on him, all of
the rest will fall into place quite naturally.
The first verse in this section flows quite comfortably
from the discussion of chapter 12 concerning being part of God’s family and one
of his children. The challenging times
that the recipients of this letter were going through should not cause them to
think that they were outside of God’s will.
On the contrary, they should realize that God was disciplining and
training them as his children. God was
lovingly teaching them to be his family and to grow into the image of the
supreme son, Jesus the Messiah.
As God’s children, then, we are no mere collection of
religious adherents. We are to be a
family and bind ourselves together as such.
We are to be, above all else, a loving family. And although that would include feeling and
showing affection for one another as our brothers and sisters in Christ, that
is not the main thrust of the idea behind the biblical word “love” when it
comes to the family of Christ. The
primary idea is to act loyally towards and care for one another. In fact, scholar NT Wright suggests that
verse 1 be translated “Let the family continue to care for one another.” The sentiment is dead on, but I would shy
away from a translation of this verse that fails to include the word
“love.” If we really understand who God
is and that he has called us not to be members of a religion but members of his
family, then it only makes sense that we are to love one another and take care
of one another. Religions don’t need to
do that, families do.
One of the clearest indicators of biblical love for one
another was caring for and showing hospitality to one another (you can see that
if you do a New Testament study and see how often discussions of loving
brothers and sisters is followed by an example to provide for one another and
give hospitality to one another).
Hospitality was an important part of the ancient world and it should be
continued and taken even a step higher in the family of God. If the gospel was to spread around the world
then disciples would have to go and travel.
They should be cared for and shown hospitality when they do. But that family hospitality should be a way
of life that would extend to anyone in need.
The author then brings to mind the ultimate biblical and cultural
example of hospitality, that of Abraham who showed hospitality to three
strangers, not knowing that they were angels.
The author’s point here is likely not that if believers generously bring
people into our home, care for their needs, and show them hospitality that we
just might be inviting in some angels without knowing it. His point was that Abraham showed indiscriminate
hospitality and was blessed by having angels as his guests. In the same way, when we show lavish and
generous hospitality and care for others, we will very likely receive
unforeseen benefits from doing so. There
is not only the inherent benefit of being generous but when we constantly show
love, generosity, and hospitality as a way of life, our household and all those
in it will benefit beyond our wildest imagination.
Another important aspect of life in God’s family is the
need to remember those in prison. With
all due respect to those that engage in ministries that go into prisons and
reach out to the prisoners (I certainly believe that this is a noble ministry
in which to engage), this is not what Hebrews is referring to. The Christian community frequently
experienced persecution, expulsions, and imprisonment. Paul urged his readers not to be ashamed of
his chains (2 Tim. 2:16) and praised Onesiphorus for coming to refresh him in
prison. In addition, the early
Christians were well known for caring for one another in prison, interring
themselves so that prisoners did not have to be the only Christians locked up,
and even taking the place of less physically capable brothers or sisters that
were prisoners. In short, Hebrews was
urging them to continue that behavior and to truly be a community that shared
identity and honor with one another, realizing that when one part suffers, we
all suffer (1 Cor. 12:25-26).
The common thread in all of these reminders, of course,
is selflessness. When we understand who
the Messiah truly is and what he is calling us to be as his people, then we
will embrace a lifestyle of self-sacrifice, self-control, and putting the
interests of others ahead of our own.
Loving one another demands that, as do hospitality and remembering those
in prison. But so does keeping the
marriage bed pure. There were two
extremes in the pagan world that were assaulting the marriage bed and both
appealed to selfishness in different ways.
The first was the call to indulgence and self-pleasure. It was the encouragement of having extra
relationships outside of marriage, including the Temple cults witch often
engaged in ritual prostitution and orgies.
On the other extreme was the ascetic view that encouraged people to
truly be happy by avoiding any physical pleasure, including marital sex. In doing so, some types of people found
personal happiness by training themselves to not have needs or desires. Both were self-focused and Hebrews calls for
God’s people to avoid both extremes. The
adulterers and immoral were obviously sinful and God would deal with that. The marriage bed should be kept pure but it
should also be attended and “kept” (“the marriage bed” was a figure of speech
denoting marital sex). Selfishly
depriving one’s spouse because of some newly cherished philosophy was not the
way of self-sacrifice for God’s people either.
Another area that will display the family ethic of
self-sacrifice is that of money and possessions. Christians should constantly be on guard
against the greed and materialism that so characterize the world. The guard against this greed and love for
money and possessions, however, is not to adopt a lifestyle of pointless and
abject poverty but, once again has to do with understanding the nature of
Jesus. Money is not evil, but the love
of money is. We should not seek money
but we should not seek poverty either.
What we should seek is the Kingdom of God and his righteousness. When we do
that, money and wealth will take their proper roles in our lives.
All of this self-less living hinges on our understanding
of Jesus and God. The writer
demonstrates this with two quotes from the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 31:6 in
verse 5 and Psalm 118:6-7 in verse 6.
When we understand that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever,
and that God is our relentless helper, we need not be afraid of what the world
can do to us or be attracted by it. It
is our understanding of God that informs us as to what type of people we ought
to be and then sustains as we seek to live lives that look radically different
from the world around us.
Devotional Thought
When those outside of the Christian community of which
you are a part look at your life, what do they see? Do they notice that your life is radically
different? Do they see you living as a
selfless member of a group of people that understand that they are family
through Christ? Which of the areas
mentioned in this passage today is a struggle for you in which you really need
to grow? What are you going to do about
it?
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