Hebrews 13 Read, Study, & Breakdown
Hebrews 13 (Part One – vv. 1-12)
Concluding Moral Directions
13 Let brotherly love continue. 2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels. 3 Remember the prisoners as if chained with them—those who are mistreated—since you yourselves are in the body also.
4 Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.
5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we may boldly say:
“The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”
Concluding Religious Directions
7 Remember those who [a]rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 9 Do not be carried [b]about with various and strange doctrines. For it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them.
10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. 11 For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp. 12 Therefore Jesus also, that He might [c]sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate.
NOTES Hebrews 13 – (vv. 1-3, v. 7, v. 8, v. 9, v. 10, vv. 11-12)
13:1-3: Practical BROTHERLY LOVE is to be shown toward everyone and to all Christians, especially to the lowly, the powerless, and the victims of injustice … STRANGERS (v. 2) are travelers in need of hospitality … Abraham’s hospitality is recalled – (Genesis 18:1-8; see also, Genesis 19:1-3) … Prisoners – (v. 3) are to be prayed for and aided if possible, for all those in THE BODY OF CHRIST, THE CHURCH, ARE MEMEBERS OF ONE ANOTHER – (1Corinthians 12:12-27) …
Genesis 18:1-8: The Son of Promise
18 Then the Lord appeared to him by [a]the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. 2 So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground, 3 and said, “My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant. 4 Please let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. 5 And I will bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh your hearts. After that you may pass by, inasmuch as you have come to your servant.”
They said, “Do as you have said.”
6 So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quickly, make ready three measures of fine meal; knead it and make cakes.” 7 And Abraham ran to the herd, took a tender and good calf, gave it to a young man, and he hastened to prepare it. 8 So he took butter and milk and the calf which he had prepared and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree as they ate.
Genesis 19:1-3: Sodom’s Depravity
19 Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground. 2 And he said, “Here now, my lords, please turn in to your servant’s house and spend the night and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.”
And they said, “No, but we will spend the night in the open square.”
3 But he insisted strongly; so, they turned in to him and entered his house. Then he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
1Corinthians 12:12-27: Unity and Diversity in One Body
12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink [a]into one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not one member but many.
15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? 18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. 19 And if they were all one member, where would the body be?
20 But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. 21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. 23 And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, 24 but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, 25 that there should be no [b]schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. 26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.
13:7: THOSE WHO RULE are the leaders of the sacraments – (bishops, priests) … These Christian leaders are not only to be prayed for – (see v. 3) but followed as models of Christian life as well … The faith of Christian leaders is the same faith they both teach and live by …
13:8: SUCH A FAITH DOES NOT DISSAPOINT … Since Christ is God and does not change, His gospel does not change … Christians in the past attained the eternal Kingdom through faith, so can we … So, the Church (all followers of Christ) should strive to keep her doctrine pure and without change …
13:9: STRANGE DOCTRINES are “foreign” ones, those not coming from the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church … The outside teaching is Jewish and legalistic … Kosher laws dealing with food do no spiritual good if grace is not at the heart of one’s actions … Such has always been the teaching to the Church regarding fasting – (see also – Hebrews 9:9-10) …
Hebrews 9:9-10: It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience— 10 concerned only with foods and drinks, various [a]washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation.
13:10: IN THE OT, priests were given part of most sacrifices for food, but lay people had no right to eat this food … Under the New Covenant, all Christians may eat the food of the altar …
13:11-12: ON THE ONLY DAY OF THE YEAR when the holy of holies could be entered, the Day of Atonement, only the high priest could come in, and then only with the blood of sin offerings … The bodies of these animals were not eaten but burned outside the camp … Christ identified with this supreme sacrifice of the OT in that He suffered and died outside the gate – (v. 12) … His blood was not carried into the temple in Jerusalem by another human, however … Rather, He carried His own blood into the heavenly most holy place in the eternal “today” … This great entrance of Christ shows the Divine Liturgy is eternal and for all under the new covenant … We are members of our High Priest, Jesus Christ, so we may always enter in …
PSALM 138 (139) STUDY