Hebrews 13:1-17

Our acts of service and sacrifice

1 Keep loving each other like family.

2 Don't neglect to open up your homes to guests, because by doing this some have been hosts to angels without knowing it.

3 Remember prisoners as if you were in prison with them, and people who are mistreated as if you were in their place.

4 Marriage must be honored in every respect, with no cheating on the relationship, because God will judge the sexually immoral person and the person who commits adultery.

5 Your way of life should be free from the love of money, and you should be content with what you have. After all, he has said, I will never leave you or abandon you.

6 This is why we can confidently say, The Lord is my helper, and I won't be afraid. What can people do to me?

7 Remember your leaders who spoke God's word to you. Imitate their faith as you consider the way their lives turned out.

8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever!

9 Don't be misled by the many strange teachings out there. It's a good thing for the heart to be strengthened by grace rather than by food. Food doesn't help those who live in this context.

10 We have an altar, and those who serve as priests in the meeting tent don't have the right to eat from it.

11 The blood of the animals is carried into the holy of holies by the high priest as an offering for sin, and their bodies are burned outside the camp.

12 And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy with his own blood.

13 So now, let's go to him outside the camp, bearing his shame.

14 We don't have a permanent city here, but rather we are looking for the city that is still to come.

15 So let's continually offer up a sacrifice of praise through him, which is the fruit from our lips that confess his name.

16 Don't forget to do good and to share what you have because God is pleased with these kinds of sacrifices.

Closing greeting and blessing

17 Rely on your leaders and defer to them, because they watch over your whole being as people who are going to be held responsible for you. They need to be able to do this with pleasure and not with complaints about you, because that wouldn't help you.

Hebrews 13:1-17 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO HEBREWS 13

The apostle having finished the doctrinal part of this epistle, closes it with practical exhortations to these Hebrews, puts up prayers for them, and sends salutations to them. The exhortations are to brotherly love, and the continuance of it, Heb 13:1 to hospitality, by which some have entertained angels unawares, Heb 13:2, to sympathy with those that are in bonds, and in, afflictions, Heb 12:3 to purity and chastity in the honourable state of marriage, urged by the judgment of God on unclean persons, Heb 13:4 to avoid covetousness, and to be content with present things, enforced by the promises of God, which give boldness and strength to faith, Heb 13:5,6, to remember their spiritual guides and governors, the preachers of the Gospel to them; to follow their faith, and consider the end of their conversation, which is Christ Jesus, the same yesterday, today, and for ever, Heb 13:7,8. And then he cautions them from being carried about with the doctrines of men, which are divers and strange; which he urges from the profitable effect of the Gospel to establish the heart, and from the unprofitableness of meats to legal worshippers, and from the Christians having an altar, which is Christ, which those who are seeking life by the service of the law have nothing to do with, Heb 13:9,10. And this he illustrates in the type of burnt offerings, which were burnt without the camp, and there was nothing left for the priests to eat of, Heb 13:11. In like manner Christ, the antitype, suffered without the gates of Jerusalem, for the sanctification of his people, by his blood; and who only, and not those who seek for righteousness by the law, have an interest in, Heb 13:12. However, it becomes the saints to quit everything, and all dependence on themselves, and fellowship with others, and go forth to Jesus, believing in him, whatsoever reproach they suffer on his account; for here is nothing permanent and durable in this world; but there is a state of happiness to come, which will last for ever, Heb 13:13,14. And since Christ has offered himself for his people, they ought to offer up the sacrifices of praise to God by him, and to do acts of beneficence and goodness, which are sacrifices well pleasing to God through him, Heb 13:15,16. And to these exhortations apostle adds others; as to obey their spiritual rulers and governors, and submit unto them; since they watch for their souls, and must give an account, which to do with joy, and not with grief, is best and profitable, Heb 13:17 and to pray for the apostle, and other ministers, since they had a good conscience, and were willing to live honestly; and the rather, that he might be restored to them the sooner, Heb 13:18,19 and to engage them to this their duty, he sets them an example, by putting up prayers for them, Heb 13:20,21 and desires them to take in good part the letter he had wrote unto them, Heb 13:22 and acquaints them that Timothy was set at liberty, with whom he hoped to see them in a short time, Heb 13:23 and then closes the epistle with his own, and the salutations of others, and with his usual benediction, Heb 13:24,25.

Footnotes

• [a]. Deut 31:6; Gen 28:15
• [b]. Ps 118:6