Heb 13:1-3 Love One Another
Notes
Transcript
25 See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. 26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.
1 Let brotherly love continue. 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. 3 Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.
When you grew up you probably participated in 4H, Boys Scout, Girl Scout, or maybe you served in the military. In all of these groups, there is a moral code, for example 4H pledge goes like this:
I pledge my head to clearer thinking,
my heart to greater loyalty,
my hands to larger service, and
my health to better living,
for my club, my community, my country and my world.
What we see spelled out here in Hebrews 13:1-3 is the moral code of the church.
Last week we were studying the last verses of chapter 12 where the author of Hebrews reminded us that our God is a consuming fire. The Lord God Almighty is a Holy God, full of compassion and righteousness. He is the God of both mountains, Sinai with the trembling holiness and Zion with its arms open wide to offer us forgiveness and the righteousness that we do not have on our own.
If we truly see the God of the Bible as He is we will obey Him and worship Him with gratitude, entering His presence with reverence, awe, and boldness because we are covered by the blood of Jesus. The reality is that the more we study and know about God the more we will love Him and worship Him and want to live for Him.
Just like the rest of the New Testament and the other letters, after giving great theological insight God gives us very practical instructions on how we should live. This is what happens here at the beginning of Chapter 13 which we are going to study today.
Chapter 12 builds to an intensely theological climax with the statement that “God is a consuming fire,” which is then met by the intensely practical command that opens chapter 13—namely, to “keep on loving each other as brothers.” So now we move from fire to function—from vertical to horizontal—from love for God to love for one another.
The implication is clear: what we think about God has everything to do with our relationship with each other and with the world. This logic is built into the very structure of the Ten Commandments. The first four are intensely vertical and theological, followed by six that are intensely horizontal we could call it the moral code.
When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was He said: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt 22:37-39)
So the question that our text answers is this: Knowing that God is both the consuming fire of Mount Sinai and the consuming love of Mount Zion, how shall we relate—especially to those within the church? What should our church’s moral code be?
1 Let brotherly love continue.
1. Love One Another v1
The answer begins with the command given in verse 1: Let brotherly love continue or Keep on loving each other as brothers.
There had been an evident diminishing of brotherly affection among the members of the tiny Jewish congregation as it faced the increasingly hostile time with Roman culture. History and experience show that persecution and living against a pagan and secular culture can bring two different opposite outcomes. One is to draw God’s people together, but the other is that love grows cold.
Year after year of persecution can easily bend someone’s heart to be rigid, legalistic, and judgmental. An example of this was the Donatists. Around the year 300 the church had already faced 250 years of persecution. Can you imagine that? It would be as long as the United States has been established as a country.
The church by the year 300 was blessed with the end of this very long time of persecution. But then the church faced a dilemma as individuals returned. Should they welcome back into their fellowship those that had walked away from the faith/church? Or those who obtained false documents to avoid persecution such as stating they met the demands of the government even if they didn’t … so they lied their way to “protection”. Or worse yet betrayed other Christians to protect themselves during the time of persecution.
Each case was analyzed individually. But, for most of the church at that time they said yes if there is an outward sign of repentance. However, there was a group of Christians called Donatists who said no, the dissidents could not be brought back to fellowship even if they repented. They in a sense were saying that the sign of being a true Christian was enduring persecution and not fleeing when you had a chance. For them, there was no room for anyone to waver in the faith even for a moment.
While we can understand this and give credit to The Donatists in that they had a valid concern, however, it is likely that because of the prolonged persecution their love had grown cold. As such they had become very legalistic and unwilling to extend grace to others. Rather they saw themselves as better than these other “believers” revealing that they needed to understand the God of Mt. Zion and how far they were from a Holy God … which is exactly what Scripture tells us.
This shows us that prolonged persecution can also lead one’s heart to grow cold and unwilling to extend grace and compassion to one another. Jesus said regarding the end times in Matt 24:12 “And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold”
It is against this that the author of Hebrews is addressing here when he says: Let brotherly love continue
The wording here “keep on loving each other as brothers” suggests that the brotherly and sisterly bonds in the little church were dangerously worn out among some of the members. This was not the way they had begun because initially, the fresh experience of salvation in Christ had brought with it the discovery of shared brotherhood, the joyous sense of being brothers and sisters with the same Father, and the experience of brotherly love.
At first, this love had come to those new believers as naturally as one’s first steps in the faith, very much like Paul’s allusion to the similar experience of the Thessalonians: “Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other” (1 Thessalonians 4:9).
For these new Christians, loving other believers was a “piece of cake.” They could not wait to get to church where they could feast in the fellowship of the brotherhood. The fellowship of their new brothers and sisters was delightful to them, and they rejoiced in experiencing the depth of each other’s faith.
Indeed, their brotherly love was a revealing sign of their salvation. As the Apostle John would later write: “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers” (1 John 3:14). Their impulse to brotherly love provided a sweet and internal confirmation. It also announced to the world that their faith was the real thing, for Jesus had said, “All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another” (John 13:35).
What a glorious thing brotherly love is— having God as our Heavenly Father, a sense of brotherly affection taught by God, an internal confirmation of our Heavenly adoption, and a sign to the world of our connection with the Resurrected Jesus.
But this love was fading in the church that the author of Hebrews is writing to after years of stress and uncertainty. Some had grown weary of each other, and the patience and the kindness to one another was becoming less and less the norm for them. It was harder and harder to see the choices others were making through a lens of grace and more and more easy to see these brothers and sisters as “less” of a believer than me.
So what shall we do when we get a place like that? First, we must have a proper biblical view of God, a holy consuming fire, which in turn provides us with a proper view of ourselves and how far we are from this standard. That is what the previous verses were showing us. When we fail in our Christian marathon it is because we have the wrong view of God and of ourselves. We must come over and over to Mount Sinai where we have a glimpse of the true God Almighty, Who was, who is and who is to come, The Holy One of Israel before seeing ourselves at the foot of Mt. Zion.
Exodus 34:6-7 shows us this God:
“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
The God who is consuming love while at the same time a consuming fire. We must come to His feet recognizing that our righteousness is like filthy rags before a Holy and Righteous God. That we need His righteousness and it is only through Christ’s blood that we can come to the Righteous and Holy God of Israel. That is the first thing we must do when we don’t feel like loving one another. We must see ourselves as God sees us … a sinner covered in His gift of grace. It is only then that I can see someone else’s struggle with sin and love them in this rather than judge them.
Furthermore, the brotherly love for one another is a matter of the will. We must move our hearts towards wanting to see our brothers and sisters as true brothers and sisters in Christ. We need to realign our vision of others to see them through God’s eyes … He sees us through Christ’s blood rather than in our sin. We need to do the same with our brothers and sisters. It is often all too easy to see someone else’s sin/brokenness as easily fixed rather than recognizing how easily sin entangles us, pulling us away from the Holy life needed.
It pleases God when we dwell together in unity. Psalm 133 says “how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. Then Jesus in his prayer for us says in John 17:20-21 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
Therefore, we must take every thought captive and keep a guard over our mouths, and our hands so that everything that we do is out of love and reverence to God and then demonstrate love to one another. We must be quick to recognize how often we ourselves call upon God’s grace in our lives (hidden or for all to see) and allow that same grace to be granted to our brothers and sisters. Yet, in doing so I’m not called to let them continue sinning, but to encourage them to run to God at Mt. Zion and rise to the level of holiness that He is calling us to reach at Mt. Sinai without seeing myself as better.
What else should we do in the church? v1 commanded us to love one another now v2
2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
What shall we do in the church:
2. Show Hospitality v2
There is a good story about hospitality that was recorded by Campus Crusade for Christ representatives in Germany in the 90s. It says:
“Last week the former communist dictator, Erich Honecher, was released from the hospital where he had been undergoing treatment for cancer. There is probably no single person in all of East Germany that is more despised and hated than he. He has been stripped of all his offices and even his own communist party has kicked him out. He was booted out of the villa he was living in; the new government refused to provide him and his wife with accommodation. They stood, in essence, homeless on the street.…
It was Christians who stepped in. Pastor Uwe Holmer, who is in charge of a Christian help-center north of Berlin, was asked by Church leaders if he would be willing to take them in. Pastor Holmer and his family decided that it would be wrong to give away a room in the center that would be used for needy people, or an apartment that their staff needed; instead, they took the former dictator and his wife into their own home.
It must have been a strange scene when the old couple arrived. The former absolute ruler of the country was being sheltered by one of the Christians whom he and his wife had despised and persecuted. In East Germany there is a great deal of hate toward the former regime and especially toward Honecher and his wife, Margot, who had ruled the educational system there for 26 years with an iron hand. She had made sure that very few Christian children were able to go on for higher education. There are ten children in the Holmer family and eight of them had applied for further education in the course of the past years: all had been refused a place at college because they were Christians, in spite of the fact that they had good or excellent grades in school.
Pastor Holmer was asked why he and his family would open their door to such detestable people.… Pastor Holmer spoke very clearly, “Our Lord challenged us to follow him and to take in all who are weary and heavy laden—both in soul and in body.…”
In this account, the Christians who showed hospitality didn’t mention this verse, but they could easily have mentioned Heb 13:2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Even though the couple that they welcomed in were not angels nevertheless they did show hospitality.
But, we may wonder, why this teaching on hospitality, and what motivated it some 2,000 years ago?
For starters, inns were proverbially miserable places from earliest antiquity on. In a very old fragment of a letter, one person asks the other which inn has the fewest fleas. Notice that they were not asking which one didn’t have fleas, but which one had the fewest fleas. The famous philosopher Plato wrote an account of an innkeeper keeping his guests hostage. Another author compared innkeepers with those running a brothel.
Therefore, in the past inns where not a place you would want or should find rest as a Christian. Furthermore, Christians often were cast out of their families and were in need of the Christian hospitality, which was happily provided by brothers and sisters in Christ. As you can imagine this hospitality was sometimes abused by some and one time this abuse became so common that an early Christian teaching for hospitality was this:
“Let every Apostle who comes to you be received as the Lord, but let him not stay more than one day, or if need be a second as well; but if he stays three days, he is a false prophet. And when an Apostle goes forth let him accept nothing but bread till he reach his night’s lodging; but if he ask for money, he is a false prophet.” (11:4–6)
The effect of all this was that some Christians had noticeably cooled in their hospitality. As the old saying “Fool me once—shame on you! Fool me twice—shame on me!”
To counter this destructive trend among his congregation, the author of Hebrews gives the command: Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, or don’t forget to show love to strangers.
Then the author of Hebrews gives a reason why we should show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
The primary reference here was no doubt to Abraham in Gen 18 when Abraham showed hospitality to three strangers who end up being two angels and God Himself. A study of the Old Testament will also show other encounters such as Gideon’s encounter with an angel in Judges 6, and Samson’s parents in Judges 13 among others.
What the author of Hebrews is not arguing that if you show hospitality you might get lucky and house an angel. What he is arguing is that these accounts of the Old Testament show how much God cares that we show hospitality.
We see this emphasis on hospitality in the rest of the New Testament as well. Paul says in Rom 12:13 “Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality” Then Peter says in 1 Peter 4:9 “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling” Furthermore being hospitable is one of the qualifications for an overseer, or a pastor given by Paul in 1 Timothy and Titus.
We don’t live in a time where the inns are horrible places like they used to be, and we don’t live in a place where Christians are displaced and in need of a home. However, we still should show hospitality whenever the opportunity appears.
Back to the story of hospitality shown to the former dictator of East Germany, we don’t know what happened to him or if he ever repented and trusted in Jesus. But if he did, I’m sure that the hospitality that was shown to him and his wife when no one wanted them must have had an impact on them, it was the hospitality that was the living testimony of the love of Christ to those who hated Christians.
Our church moral code so far has called us to
v1 commanded us to love one another and v2 we must show hospitality. The author adds a third to this list here in v3
3 Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.
What shall we do in the church:
3. Show Empathy v 3
There is a good example of the lack of empathy in the novel White Jacket by Herman Melville. In this novel, one of the sailors became seriously ill with an incredible pain in the abdomen.
“The ship’s surgeon, Dr. Cuticle, waxes enthusiastic at the possibility of having a real case to treat, one that challenges his surgeon’s ability. Appendicitis is the diagnosis. Dr. Cuticle recruits some other sailors to serve as his attendants.
The poor seaman is laid out on the table, and the doctor goes to work with skillful enthusiasm. His incisions are precise, and while removing the diseased appendix he proudly points out interesting anatomical details to his seaman-helpers who had never before seen the inside of another human.
He is completely absorbed in his work and obviously a skilled professional. It is an impressive performance, but the sailors—without exception—are not impressed but are rather appalled. Why? Their poor friend, now receiving his last stitch, has long been dead on the table! The Dr. had not even noticed that his patient had died.
The lack of empathy can lead one to be so insensitive that one might not notice that the patient has been dead. I’m sure you have heard or experienced yourself going to the doctor where he or she does not even look at you or greet you … never sees you as a person, solely as one needing their expertise.
However, as followers of the Risen Savior we must show empathy. Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.
Previously the author of Hebrews had commended them for showing empathy in chapter 10:32-34
“32 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, 33 sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 34 For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one”
During that time the Christians in prison were dependent on the church for survival. In the early centuries, the followers of Jesus were known for taking care of imprisoned Christians. The body of Christ showed great empathy by bringing meals and Scripture to be read while they were in prison.
Even unbelievers were writing about what the Christians were doing to those who were imprisoned because of the name of Jesus, they wrote saying that believers would fast for two or three days so they could provide food for those in need when they could have simple fed themselves instead.
Here we have two pictures in the extreme; one when there is no empathy you have a doctor operating on a dead man; the other when there is full empathy and brotherly love when you have Christians not eating for two or three days so you can give your food to someone else.
We live in a time when we are bombarded by so much information and horrific images of all the evil that is happening in our world. This often leads to a desensitizing such that we are more and more dull to the sufferings of others.
There is so much that we can do, but we cannot change the world. What God calls us to do is to show empathy to those around us, those that God has placed in our lives.
So What shall we do in the church? We must love one another, and show hospitality and empathy. We must come to God, The Awesome, Holy, Almighty, All Righteous and Loving God, and Worship Him with reverence and awe. As our heads understand this truth, it impacts our hearts and soul as we worship God. In turn, God calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves. To love them enough to not let them live in sin for fear of being seen as judgmental, yet as we confront them love them as God loves us … with grace and mercy. We must invite them into our homes, into our lives … even if that means sacrificing time or food or money that we may wish to spend on ourselves or even others that we love and hold dear.