Final Instructions: Love, Marriage, and Money

Verse 3 addresses our responsibility to those in prison who are also part of the body of Christ. Here again, the church has often failed in its duty to care for the imprisoned. I’m personally thankful, among many other things, for Christians through the centuries who have given witness to Christ among prisoners. I’m thankful for their obedience to remember those who were in prison as though in prison with them. We ought to do the same. Some of my most meaningful moments in preaching have happened behind prison walls.

It’s helpful to place this exhortation in the historical context of ancient jails. In the first century, prisons were not places one was sent to for any length of time. Prison was a place where one was held for trial or for debts. If you were in prison, you were most likely there because of your failure to repay a significant debt. Jesus’s parables make this clear. You were more or less incarcerated until you could come up with enough money to buy your release. Otherwise, you would eventually be sold into slavery.

Hebrews 13:4

Hebrews 13:4 comments on a very practical issue: marriage. The exhortation that marriage should be “honored by all” is essential because it demonstrates that Christ’s people, where they are visible in the world, ought to be seen as a people who value marriage. Marriage isn’t an issue at the bottom of the priority list for Christians, nor is it merely a secondary or tertiary issue. Instead, marriage is high on the list. “Marriage is to be honored by all” is a particularly comprehensive statement. It doesn’t say, “Do not commit adultery.” Rather, it’s a positive statement. Christians should give public, visible honor and private, personal honor to marriage as the monogamous union of a man and a woman.

The writer gives a second related instruction: “the marriage bed [is to be] kept undefiled.” A great deal of commentary is not necessary for that statement. It’s clear the author has sexual defilement in mind because of what he says next: “because God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.” Sexually immoral is a broader category that encompasses adultery. Many Christians get issues of sexual morality right in terms of a checklist but wrong in terms of understanding. The Bible does not have a “yes” list and a “no” list when it comes to sexuality. There’s no “allowed” list or “prohibited” list. Instead, the Bible teaches that sexual morality—in all of its aspects and manifestations—comes down to one central thing: sex belongs in marriage and nowhere else.

This is a radical statement to make in today’s world, but it’s deeply biblical. Scripture recognizes sex within marriage as something good and worthy of celebration. If we had a checklist on sexual morality, sex within marriage would be on the “yes” list. But everything else would be on the “no” list because every form of sex outside of marriage subverts and dishonors marriage. Any form of sex outside the marriage covenant, including adultery, is an affront to God’s gift of marriage and is therefore deserving of God’s judgment.

Hebrews 13:5-6

The author’s exhortation in Hebrews 13:5 is a call to live out the tenth commandment. Of the Ten Commandments, the tenth—do not covet—is perhaps the most difficult for us to fully comprehend, even though it tells us specifically what we should avoid coveting: our neighbor’s wife, our neighbor’s animals, or our neighbor’s belongings. But today’s entire commercial economy is built on a foundation that not only encourages us to have what we want, but to want what we don’t have. We live in a society and operate within an economy of covetousness. As a result, it’s a difficult thing to live free from want and free from a love of the money that can give us what we want. Nevertheless, this is exactly how Hebrews 13:5-6 tells us to live.

Verse 5 is not saying money is the problem. Instead, it warns against the love of money. Related to this first exhortation is the exhortation to be satisfied with what we have. In saying this, the author is not instructing his readers to stop working and simply live with what they have. Scripture comprehensively lays out the importance of thrift, labor, investment, and savings. God’s Word gives us a rich economic tapestry, but this verse tells us to be content with what we have. Hebrews isn’t giving us an economic philosophy; it’s giving us a spiritual principle by which to live.

The second half of verse 5 and all of verse 6 tell us why we can be content with what we have. The source of our contentment is not the security and comfort we get from owning enough things; it’s that we serve a God who takes care of us. We serve a God who will never leave or forsake us. God himself has promised.

In verse 6 the writer evaluates God’s statement and applies it in a pointed way: “Therefore, we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” This is an important Christian confession and reflects the same confidence in God’s abiding character that the apostle Paul displays in Romans 8:31-39. It’s good to ask ourselves these questions and to remember that nothing overly tragic can happen to us. We can lose everything we have, and it will be okay so long as we endure in the faith. I admit this is easy to say and a much harder thing to actually live out. But everything that can be taken away from us will be taken away from us one day. Nevertheless, we have everything we need in Christ, and we can be content because we serve a God who cares for us. The Lord is on our side.