Hebrews 13:1-16 (from the NRSV (Anglicised), with OT quotes in italics)
1 Let mutual love continue. 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. 3 Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured. 4 Let marriage be held in honour by all, and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled; for God will judge fornicators and adulterers. 5 Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, ‘I will never leave you or forsake you.’ 6 So we can say with confidence,
‘The Lord is my helper;
I will not be afraid.
What can anyone do to me?’
7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever. 9 Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings; for it is well for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by regulations about food, which have not benefited those who observe them. 10 We have an altar from which those who officiate in the tent have no right to eat. 11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 12 Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the city gate in order to sanctify the people by his own blood. 13 Let us then go to him outside the camp and bear the abuse he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. 15 Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
Reflection
This last part of the letter moves on from the complex teaching of earlier chapters. Here is some practical advice, still serious in content but perhaps more straightforward to grasp. Three themes stand out in today’s verses.
First comes ‘mutual love’ (v.1). Pressure – prison and torture are mentioned (v.3) – tends either to draw people together or to force them apart. Yet unity grows when people help each other. Many New Testament Christians were hospitable (v.2) – especially when friends had travelled, or when any had to flee persecution. Kindness and generosity work as glue, keeping the bonds of belonging secure and firm (v.16).
A second theme is good faith, in respecting the commitments of marriage (v.4), and in trusting God through hard times and straitened circumstances (vv.5-6). The readers had good role-models to follow in the lives of their first leaders, who had brought them the gospel (v.7). These people had trusted Jesus, and he does not change (v.8).
Thirdly there is a clear challenge to ‘go out to Jesus’ (v.13). As the corpses of sacrificial animals were burned ‘outside the camp’ on the Day of Atonement, so Jesus died ‘outside the city’ (v.12). Now he calls his people to a distinctive and even despised pattern of living. Christian discipleship would not, for these readers, be a comfortable or conformist road to take. They would be a people apart and abused. And many Christians since those early times have faced the same challenge – in holding the faith and confessing it, in living with integrity, or in standing for justice, when others oppose and resent them. If these are your issues today, or mine, Hebrews assures us of ‘a lasting city’ ahead (v.14). We sustain our hope by a life of praise and mutual support (vv.15-16).
Prayer
Jesus, thank you for your constancy,
sharing holiness and wholeness today, as you did in Galilee,
calling and challenging still, as on the way to the cross,
powerful and present here, as in the Easter garden.
We pray for your church,
that it may know your holiness and wholeness,
that we may follow your call and challenge,
that all may discover your presence and power.
Amen.