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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Hebrews 13:1 - 13:6
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Final Admonitions and Conclusion.
Exhortations of a general nature:
v. 1. Let brotherly love continue.
v. 2. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers; for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
v. 3. Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them, and them which suffer adversity as being yourselves also in the body.
v. 4. Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled; but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
v. 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,
v. 6. so that we may boldly say, The Lord is my Helper and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
The inspired author has presented the matter to which he wanted to call the special attention of the Hebrew Christians. But in connection with this doctrine he now takes occasion to address some special admonitions to his readers: Brotherly love should continue. Love of the brethren had existed in their midst, as he had frankly acknowledged, chap. 6:10. But if they did not heed the appeal and warning addressed to them in the preceding chapter, there was danger that the general decay of their faith would be accompanied by the inevitable corresponding loss of true brotherly love. But in order that brotherly love might remain, it required constant exercising, two forms of which are here mentioned. First of all: Entertainment of strangers do not neglect; for through this some have entertained angels without knowing it. True hospitality is here earnestly recommended, not an indiscriminate feeding of loafers. Conditions often made it necessary for the Christians to move from one place to another in those days, and many of them could ill afford to make use of the public inn. In such cases the brethren should be willing to show their love by receiving others, often fugitives, into their homes and providing for their wants. In this work of love the thought was to encourage them that some people at least who practiced hospitality in that way had entertained angels without knowing it, Gen_18:19. The hospitality of the early Christians was commented upon favorably even by heathen writers. It is a virtue which might be practiced with far greater liberality in our days, when a suspicious coldness has come to mark the intercourse of Christians with one another, Rom_12:13; 1Pe_4:9; 1Ti_3:2; Tit_1:8. But some of their fellow-Christians might be in even a worse plight, and therefore the text continues: Be mindful of those in bonds as fellow prisoners, of those that suffer evil as being yourselves also in the body. The Christians to whom these words were addressed were living in troublous times. The general persecution which came upon them after the death of Stephen had indeed subsided, but the hatred of their enemies remained, and there were probably local disturbances. The believers, then, should feel a prayerful sympathy for all those that were languishing in prison for the sake of the Gospel, just as though they had been bound with them and were suffering the same hardships. In the same way they should remember those that were being abused, maltreated, showing this cordial sympathy all the more readily since they, being in the body, were liable to similar ill-usage. It was in accordance with these and similar instructions that the early Christians composed special prayers for those suffering imprisonment and in every way provided for their relief.
A special admonition concerns the sacredness of holy wedlock: in honor let marriage be held by all, and the marriage-bed be kept unstained; but fornicators and adulterers the Lord will judge. Whether a person has already entered the state of holy wedlock or is still unwed, marriage should be held in honor, sacred as an institution of the Lord. There must be no violation of its sanctity either by the unmarried, by presuming upon the special functions of this state, or by the married, by defiling the marriage-bed through unfaithfulness or in entering this holy estate for the mere gratification of sexual lust. The conjugal relations should be chaste. With solemn emphasis the writer adds that it is God who will judge and condemn the fornicators and adulterers, those who in any manner violate the sacredness of the boundaries which He has drawn around the state of marriage.
Of the entire conduct of the Christians the author says: Your mode of life be without covetousness, being content with what you have: for Himself has said, I mill by no means leave thee, nor will I at all forsake thee. The entire life of the Christians, all their thinking and doing, their conduct under all circumstances, should be free from avarice, from the love of money, for God demands that His children on earth should be satisfied, content with what they have, with what He has given them. This contentment has a firm foundation in the promise of God that He mill under no circumstances leave His own to want, nor mill He in any manner forsake them, Deu_31:6-8; 1Ch_28:20. See Gen_28:15; Jos_1:5; Isa_41:17. This promise of God being secure, we may boldly say, The Lord is my Helper, I will not fear, Psa_118:6. The Psalmist asks the challenging question, but the author here changes the question to the bold statement of faith which fears no danger with God on its side. See 1Ch_28:20. Men can at their worst but take our lives; but our salvation in Christ Jesus is secure in the hands of the Father. The body they may kill, but the soul has been entrusted to the certainty of everlasting Mercy.