The Verses
Verses 1-3 – We are to love each other. Paul also emphasizes the importance of loving strangers, in order that we might witness to them as he admonished us in chapter 12:15. That would not have occurred to many “religious” Jews.
Chapter 10 was the “privileges”
chapter; chapter 11 was the “faith” chapter; was the “hope” chapter. And now we
come to chapter 13, which is the “love” chapter. You will remember that it was
chapter 13 of I Corinthians that was its “love” chapter. In Romans, it was
chapter 12. In II Corinthians chapter 8 was the love-in-action chapter, as was
Galatians 6. In Ephesians the practical aspect of love was emphasized. Paul was
big on love. And so he is in Hebrews.
Jews had the idea that you
should love your friends and hate your enemies. Jewish Christians might have
had a hard time throwing off this concept. Jesus had taught “love your enemies”
(Matthew 5:44). Here Paul addresses the need to love self, each other and
strangers.
Verses 4-6 – Here Paul speaks
of marriage as he did so often, particularly in Ephesians 5:21-32 and
Colossians 3:16-25. Because he is speaking to Jews, he keeps it short and to
the point: you be personally responsible for keeping your marriage
honorable…free from adultery (in thought or deed), and don’t make money the
central theme around which it is built.
Verses 7-8 – This love is to
extend to your leaders (and here he is talking about your church leaders). You
owe “followship” to your spiritual
leaders, so long as they do not lead you away from God’s Word, into illegality
or to immorality.
Verses 9-10 – DO NOT BE
INFLUENCED BY THOSE WHOSE DOCTRINS ARE DERIVED FROM SOME PERVERSION OF THE
MEANING OF GOD’S WORD OR BY SOME VISION OR “SPECIAL” REVELATION. 1 Timothy is
ALL about being sure to teach right doctrine and to pick leaders who will do
so.
Christian fellowship is when we
gather around the Word of God and it
brings you to the person of Christ.
Verses 11-14 – The priests of
the Old Covenant made their sin offerings in a specific place, at the altar in
the temple. There is no New Covenant altar. Our altar is the sacrifice of
ourselves at the Throne of Grace. Jesus made His sacrifice outside of the city. He was the sin offering. We are to go to Him.
Verses 15-16 – The only
sacrifice we have is ourselves as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1-4) and our
praise that confesses His name.
Verse 17 – We are to make our
pastor’s work an absolute joy. We are to help him and stand beside him.
Verses 18-19 – Paul desired
the prayers of God’s people.
Verses 20-21 – Paul asks that
God would equip us with everything we need to accomplish His will, and that we
will strive to do what is pleasing to Him.
Verses22-25 – Paul actually
had much more to say, but he wanted to get this much out immediately. He reminds
the reader to lovingly greet their leaders and God’s people from Italy, who
send their greetings. He closes with a prayer for God’s GRACE to be with every
one of them.
That’s love.
The case for Paul’s authorship
of Hebrews.
The writer was known by the readers Paul was known by
the readers
The writer was in Italy Paul was
in Italy
The writer knew Timothy Paul knew
Timothy (and was his spiritual father)
The writer had to understand Judaism Paul would have understood the
Hebrew mind set
The writer had converted from
Judaism Paul converted from Judaism going
to Damascus
The writer followed Paul’s usual pattern Hebrews is a perfect commentary to
Jews on Romans
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This is Sunday's Bible Study lesson.
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