Jeanie and I watched several segments of the History Channel’s “The Men Who Built America” this past week. We had watched parts of it before and had always wanted to watch it again as a gave a great history about how America has become the land of opportunity it has come to be.
However, as we watched the segment that focused on the careers of business magnates J. P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie and John P. Rockefeller we were both surprised by some of the darker themes of American business history. J. P. Morgan, Carnegie and to some degree Rockefeller were all very cold-blooded, ruthless businessmen who crushed competitors, developed monopolies and especially Carnegie abused their employees, demanding impossible work schedules, dangerous working conditions and barely livable wages in order to get ahead. They had, by today’s standards, billions of dollars, but never had enough, because they were in competition with each other to either be the richest or the most powerful men on the planet. Their excesses led to labor violence, unions, and eventually anti-trust legislation to destroy monopolies and spread the wealth.
In fact, by the end of one segment, their greed, selfish ambition and abuse of others were so obvious that Jeanie had nightmares that night.
And it reminded me of the choice that we all make, that is evident from Hebrews 13, when we decide to follow Jesus. When we follow Jesus, we choose to live by Christ’s love, rather than the world’s lusts.
And that seems to be the theme of the first few verses of Hebrews 13. The writer seems convinced that he’s persuaded his readers to persevere in the faith. And for a moment, he wants to review exactly what that means practically. Now that you’ve decided to continue following Jesus, live according to His love, not the world’s lusts. Live according to love, rather than the perverted, ugly and harmful desires of the sinful nature.
It’s a theme that will again be emphasized tonight at the baptism. We have eight folks who are willing to declare publicly by being baptized that they have died to living for sin and self, and now are living for Christ.
Again, remember that those being addressed are first century Jewish or Hebrew believers in Jesus living in Judea. They had suffered persecution from their fellow Jews in Israel for decades, and the Holy Spirit has here indicated that they had grown so weary of the persecution that they were contemplating abandoning Christ and going back to Judaism. Since the writer now believes he has precluded that possibility, now they need to renew their commitment to follow Christ. And the first order of business is this matter of demonstrating Christ’s love for each other. Verses 1-3 tell them and us to continue to love one another like you’re family—because you are. Continue to love one another, like you’re family, because you are.
Hebrews 13:1: “Let love of the brethren continue.” Don’t let it stop! Don’t hesitate in this most cardinal and basic virtue to be displayed by all who believe in and follow Jesus Christ.
The word used here for love is phileo, brotherly love. The emphasis then is that we as believers, who are all part of the family of God and Christ, are to love each other with the same affection and care that we would love the members of our own nuclear and extended families. It’s because we actually are family. We are all part of God’s family, all brothers and sisters in Christ. And how does a healthy family relate to each other? They care about each other, they see each other regularly, they pray for each other if they are believers, they are there for each other in hard times, they sacrifice for the welfare of each other, they provide for each other; they are there for one another in good times and bad.
Do you know that we are a family? And we are to love one another as a family. It clearly is not enough to merely attend church, sit and soak and go away. The love of Christ, the example of Christ compels us be devoted to one another in love, as Romans 12:10 tells us. And of course Jesus Himself set the example and told us in John 13:34 that we must love one another as He has loved us. How did He love us? To the end, to the ultimate end, of giving His life for us on the cross. John 15:13: “Greater love has no man than He give his life for one another.”
Now think about this for a moment. The entire letter has been so far devoted to encouraging faith, continued faith in Christ. Faith is what connects us to the life and eternal life of God. Now that the writer has concluded his exhortation about keeping the faith, now he exhorts us to keep or continue in the love of Christ. Faith connects us to the life of God. Love is that very life of God, the very essence of who God is and what He is like. It is to the believer what electricity is to a light bulb, what gasoline is to the internal combustion engine. It is the motivation and expression of the fact that Christ lives in us. You cannot be a Christian, or act as a Christian unless the love of Christ is the controlling motivation, power and character of your life. As I John 4:20 puts it, if anyone says He loves God, but does not love His brother, He is a liar. You simply cannot love and follow Christ without loving your brother in Christ. To claim to do so is simply a lie.
Now these folks had had some practice at this. I imagine that a number of them had been part of the very early church, the church of Acts 2 in Jerusalem and Judea that painted the picture for what the love of Christ ought to really look like in the Church of Christ, the family of God. Acts 2:42-47 is worth reading again: “They were continually devoting themselves to the Apostle’s teaching (effectively the Bible, and especially New Testament teaching) and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer.” (In other words they were devoted to one another, spending time daily together. They weren’t casual or half-hearted in their devotion to spending time together, and it was spiritual, it was over the Word, and the Lord’s supper and prayer. The result, verse 43: “Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe, and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.”
This is the ideal! This is what we ought to be aiming toward. But it only begins to happen when we are as devoted to caring, and sharing, and giving and sacrificing for the welfare of one another as these folks were.
And the question for each of us here to consider is, are we devoted as these folks had been to caring, sharing, giving, worshiping, being together in this way. Or are we simply satisfied to have fulfilled our obligation to show up on Sunday. We can’t be satisfied with this. We’ve got to be devoted to one another, through the week, in life, to one another in brotherly love to display the love of Christ. Are you? How can you be? It’s got to be more than a Sunday morning only commitment—it’s a life and love commitment to Christ and to each other, to pray for each other, whether we personally need prayer or not, others need us to pray for them and to care for them, not just on Sundays, but through the week.
Now if that isn’t challenging enough, the next two verses exhort us to love others who are at the very least inconvenient to love, easily neglected and most often forgotten.
One of the ways we show love is to be hospitable—using our homes and our possessions as dedicated to the Lord and as a means of encouraging and serving other believers. It’s called hospitality, using all you have to love other members of the family.
Verse 2: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers.” In other words, two aspects of loving the brethren are mentioned here, two that might really put us out, or inconvenience us. First, sharing our home with others, when they are in need, or just as a matter of fellowship. Again, do you, ever? And then to add to the challenge of loving one another in this way, we are to share our homes with strangers? Some of you might be wondering if that’s a misprint. Does God want us to go beyond the bounds of known believers and even be hospitable, invite into our homes, strangers! Seems that’s the case to me. This is the Word of God.
Now the way we typically understand, or want to understand this, is that this is hospitality shown to believing strangers. In the first century, Roman roads facilitated travel, and facilitated also the spread of the Good News of Jesus Christ. Though the roads were good, the accommodations along the road were not. There were few inns, there were many robbers, and prostitution was common. Travel, though easy, was not necessarily safe. And of course, we know that there were many itinerant preachers during this time from the New Testament itself—Paul and Peter were among them as we know from the Book of Acts, as well as others. Believers were to be especially ready to welcome them into their homes and to keep and accommodate them on their ministry travels. Most of us might be willing to do this, we ought to, because this is not merely a suggestion, it’s a command, it’s part and parcel of Christ’s love.
But I have entertained the thought that the Scriptures might be talking about some out-and-out strangers—maybe some folks who are not necessarily believers. Absolute strangers in every respect. Yes, we’d need to be careful about this. But what if part of the command here goes beyond believers involved in ministry and believers in need. Now most of us might say that’s challenge enough. But there is evidence in Scripture that the Lord might want more from us.
It’s found in the little and little-known parable of the guests in Luke 14:12-14. Let me read it for you: “And He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will be your repayment. 13 But when you give a [a]reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed, since they [b]do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
Whoa! Now that’s a challenge. Not just inviting friends, or relatives, or rich neighbors, but especially including the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind.r The people who will not be able to repay us. I remember considering this parable 40 years ago, and I think I’ve put God off. I cannot say I’ve ever entirely fulfilled this. And yet in Matthew 25 when Jesus provides us with the parable of the Sheep and the Goats, he was a stranger, and we invited him in. And it turns out he is any stranger or any poor person, or anyone in need, that we invited in, or helped in any way, and that we will be rewarded when we invite a stranger or provide for a poor person as though we had done so for Jesus Himself.
And verse two goes on tell us we might reap an unexpected blessing as a result. “For by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.” Now I have heard of this sort of thing happening in modern times, especially as angels showed up as human beings ready to help when a believer was in some sort of great need. I think the point here is you never know what kind of unexpected blessing you might receive from showing hospitality to complete strangers. My question is how many might come to Christ, how many might be a blessing to us or a glory to God in completely unexpected ways if only we were willing to fulfill this command—not neglecting to show hospitality to strangers.
And then we have another prospective object of our affection—those in prison. Now I suspect the primary object in view here are believers who were in prison—the kind of thing that happens when there’s great persecution, and we know there was in first century Judea. It was likely considered a crime for some to convert, abandon Judaism, and follow Christ. We know that Paul was putting many people in prison for this before he became a believer, and then suffered the same fate himself as a believer.
You know what’s really easy to do when someone is in prison? It’s easy to forget them. They’re out of sight and out of mind. But they are some of the most needy people for relationship you’ll ever find. So verse 3 tells us explicitly not to forget them. It’s part of our responsibility to continue to love the brethren. “Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body.” In other words, so feel for them, so identify with their suffering, that you do to them what you would have others do to you if you were in their shoes. How many of us, apart from Dave, who has been in prison ministry for 25 years, ever even think of attempting to be any kind of encouragement to believers who are in prison? Maybe we should ask Dave how we can help in this way. Again, a specific encouragement from God’s Word about how we should love one another, especially those who are likely to be neglected or forgotten by everyone else. Include them in the list of people you pray for, care for, share with, encourage.
So ask yourself, do I neglect to show hospitality to strangers; do I forget the prisoners, and determine to do differently. Determine to be distinct from the world, since you actually do follow Christ, whose way was revolutionary among sinful, selfish, self-absorbed mankind.
Then we have two exhortations in verses 4-6 to avoid the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the world, the inordinate desires that typically rule the lives of many unbelievers--the ugly and sinful side of human nature that was so evident, so dark, and so sinister that Jeanie and I observed among the famous and powerful men who built America. The two issues are immorality and greed—love destroying, lives destroying lusts indeed. But among those sins that so easily entangle even us.
First, don’t disparage marriage, but maintain purity. Don’t disparage marriage, it is a holy institution.
Verse 4: “Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled. For fornicators and adulterers God will judge.”
Obviously, God is dead serious about this. That’s why there’s a warning here. Fornicators and adulterers God will judge. Now when we think about sexual sin in relationship to marriage, we immediately think of adultery, because by definition it is sex while married with someone you are not married to. But notice something here. Fornication, sex between people who are not married to anyone, is also mentioned here as being destructive to the holiness and purity of the marriage bed. We live in such a permissive society that fornication is simply considered normal. Not so with the Lord. It clearly is considered destructive to God’s ideal in marriage. And what I’ve noticed is that those who have participated in fornication before marriage are often incredibly insecure about their mate’s faithfulness. They themselves have the sense that if their mate were loose before marriage, that they might well continue to be unfaithful and loose after marriage, and this is a blight upon their marriages. Sexual purity, faithfulness to God’s standard of sex only within marriage, the one man, one woman plan of Genesis endorsed by Jesus Christ in the Gospels is not to be taken lightly even in a culture like ours. God will judge those who do. Yes, we need to consider that before we indulge. There will be consequences eternally, and remember, the writer is speaking to believers here. God will somehow judge even believers who indulge in these ways.
Of course the kind of immorality that is now defiling the marriage bed, and the institution of marriage today is very gross—it is homosexuality. The whole idea that marriage is between a man and a woman is being challenged repeatedly, and since this month is gay pride month, all of us are repeatedly having this grossly perverted immorality thrown in our face as though it’s normal, and Christians are being persecuted for refusing to bow to the secular ideology that insists that we have to cater to trans-sexuals by calling them by their preferred pronouns or we will pay the consequences. If you haven’t heard a Christian teacher in Virginia briefly lost his job and was banned from campus for fear of incitement of violence because, based on his Christian convictions, he simply refused to obey a board policy that required him to call trans-sexual students by their preferred pronouns. It’s been overturned since on the basis of Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Speech, but get ready. This is the way America is headed.
Sadly I read in World magazine about Seattle Pacific University, a long-time Christian institution, that now 70% of its faculty is pro-gay rights. This is incredible! Christian institutions and churches are compromising on this issue, and in this way, marriage, that is Biblical marriage between a man and woman is not being held in honor by all, even many professing believers who work in Christian ministries. This is an abomination, and something I will resist to the death. Homosexuality is a perversion, gross sin, and dishonorable. We can love the sinner, but we must hate the sin.
Don’t disparage marriage through immorality, in any way. God will hold us accountable.
And then finally, we’re to avoid the lust of Greed. Keep yourselves free from the love of money. Why? Because God will take care of you.
Verse 5: Make sure your character is free from the love of money. Totally free. The love of money should not even be in your DNA, though all of us have the sinful nature. If we follow Christ, we use money to love people. We don’t use people to love money.
Make sure your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, I will never leave desert you nor will I ever forsake you. So that we confidently say, and here is a quote from Psalm 118:6: “The Lord is my helper, what will man do to me.”
Now I’m accustomed to seeing Hebrews 13:5 quoted apart from its context. “The Lord will never desert you or forsake you.” That’ a great promise for any circumstance. But the specific context and circumstance that it’s quoted with respect to is this: Being content with what have, not loving money.” The idea is that God is with you in the sense that He will provide for you. There is no reason for anxiety about what we have or don’t have, because the Lord is our helper. If He’s our helper, what in the world can man do to us? His care and provision is why none of us need to be greedy, or selfish. We can all be givers and experience the blessing of Jesus’ promise “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
Now these two examples of lust, sexual immorality and greed, or love and relationship destroyers. They were so obviously in the lives of those rich and powerful men of the 19th century. Love was destroyed, hatred and violence and resentment ensued. But this happens on a smaller scale as well. Just think of the examples you know of immorality and greed, and how they have destroyed families, destroyed love, caused all sorts of bitterness and destruction. Lust destroys, love builds up and encourages others. Relationship thrive when love is in control. They are devastated when lust reigns.
And with that in mind, I’m sure, Hebrews goes on to encourage its readers to consider the lives of those who had led them previously, and the outcome of their lives—the legacy of their lives.
Verse 7: Remember those who led you, who spoke the Word of God to you, considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.
Their former leaders, some of them, were likely the Apostles, Peter, James and John and the others who were elders in the church in Jerusalem. Most of them had been martyred by this time, they had passed the torch of leadership to others. But consider their legacy of love, how they were now revered, the glorious outcome of their lives, given in love for the sake of Jesus and for their sakes. And imitate them. Imitate them as they chose to love as Christ loved, rather than lust as their world loved, so that you might have the same outcome of life and leave the same legacy they left.
And this is an encouragement for all of us. What kind of legacy do we want to leave? How do we want our friends, our relatives, and our children to remember us. Will we be remembered and revered because the love of Christ and our love for others controlled us, or will we be remembered by how our submission to the lusts of the world and the lust of flesh destroyed relationships, because we were all about ourselves and ultimately sin.
Since you have decided to follow Jesus, there’s really only one choice, to live a life characterized by Christ’s love, rather than the world’s destructive lusts.
