Hebrews 13:1-6

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we're at Hebrews chapter 13, verses 1 through 6. We're going to be going over the final exhortations. This is a pivot, a change, a switch in the book. It's the conclusion, the ending matters, and it's going to be, or some people call it the epilogue, right? And so this is very practical applications.
So let's have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this day and we thank you for your word. Father, we pray that as we read your word, we pray that you would please help us to understand it. We pray that you would please teach us, grow us in our understanding of who you are and the ways in which you have called us to live. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Alright, here we go, Hebrews chapter 13 verses 1 through 6.
Remember the prisoners, as if chained with them, those who are mistreated, since you yourselves are in the body also. Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled, but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. Let your conduct be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.
So we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, I will not fear, what can man do to me? So we need to ask ourselves, A, what's this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do? So I'm gonna list out the various different things that this is talking about, the different exhortations. First is let brotherly love continue. Second is let strangerly love, hospitality continue.
Third, remember the prisoners. Fourth, keep the marriage bed pure. And fifth, let your conduct be without covetousness or be without the love of money. Instead, be content.
So let's go ahead and dive into these. So first, continue in brotherly love. They're doing this already. This is a family relationship between brothers and sisters in Christ, and they're to love one another, show one another this care and affection towards each other. He says, continue, persevere in that, keep going.
But it's not just loving your brother, Philadelphia, it's also loving the stranger, Philazena, right? And so we hear a lot today about things like Xenophobia, right, being afraid of the stranger. Well, Christians aren't afraid of the stranger. No, what do we say in verse 2? Do not forget to entertain strangers.
The word there is philozinias, for by doing so, some have unwittingly entertained angels. angels themselves right now this is a hard part because angels angolos can mean is this talking about spiritual beings or is this talking about messengers the word for angel can be either a messenger or a spiritual being so is this talking about traveling evangelists like clement writes about from rome or in the didache right as there were traveling teachers as people would entertain Paul or even Jesus when he was on the earth and he was going from different places and people would receive him even though he was a stranger to them? Is that what this is talking about? Or is this talking about Genesis chapter 18, Abraham and the three messengers or Gideon in Judges chapter 6? I'm open to either interpretation. I think it is possible that this is saying that, look, there have been historical examples, even in the old covenant, where God showed up, messengers showed up, and they just thought they were showing hospitality.
Hospitality was a big deal in the first century, especially amongst Jewish people. Now, most of the time, hospitality was shown Jewish people to Jewish people, but here, hospitality is being shown to strangers. And so he says, don't forget about the strangers, too. Then he says, remember the prisoners as if chained with them.
Now, this is, I think, an amazing thing, right? There's a lot of talk recently in certain parts of the reformed world about how we can have sympathy, but we can't have empathy. And I would say that, well, I think here is a clear example of not just sympathy, not just going, oh man, I feel bad for you, but actually empathizing with them, going beyond and stepping into their problems, right? It's actually feeling what they're feeling.
They're chained up, they're in prison, don't forget them. The rest of society might count them off. The rest of society might think that people in prison are too bad, they're too wrong, or there might be a shame, right? If you go to visit the people in prison, you might be associated with them, and it might bring shame on you, and your souls are standing, and don't worry about that. You need to have your heart tied together, recognizing that you feel that same way as fellow prisoners. They're not actually in prison, they're free, but remember the prisoners as if chained with them.
Those who are mistreated since you yourself are in the body also. You're members of the same body of Christ. To say that, oh, I don't have to feel for you when you're hurt is like saying, well, I don't have to feel bad when somebody takes a hammer and slams it on my toe or slams it on my finger. No, it's going to hurt the whole body because we're connected and we're in the body. We're physically here, too, and we can be thrown in prison. So we want to show that type of empathetic compassion.
Next, marriage is honorable among all, right? There's a blanket statement that even amongst the pagans is normally seen that marriage is a good thing. So marriage should be held in high esteem, especially in the church, especially amongst the believers of God. If we have Philadelphia, if we truly love the brothers, then we're especially going to love marriage.
This is Remember, God's the one who judges, as the New King James translates it here, fornicators and adulterers. This is the idea of porneus, it's sexual immorality. The Lord sees what happens in the secret, in the marriage bed. He knows what sexual immorality is. He knows when people are doing all sorts of lewd and evil things, even in the marriage bed, or sleeping with people who aren't their wives, or having lust in their eyes. What did Jesus say in the Sermon on the Mount? For it has been told unto you, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, if a man even looks at a woman lustfully with his eye, he's already committed adultery, sexual immorality, in his heart.
So keep the marriage bread pure. Keep your eye pure. Keep your heart pure. Follow after God. Honor marriage. And then, let your conduct be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have. Interestingly, again, this is just where some fun things, language-wise, come in. Let your conduct be without love of money, love of silver.
So, phila argus. Did you hear the phila, right? We had philadelphia, we were to love the brother, and then philosinia, we're to love the stranger, and we're to have a philo, a philoargus, let our conduct be without a love of silver. We're not about just trying to get more and more money, more and more gold, more and more stuff, right?
No, no, no. Be content with the things you have at your own disposal. God knows your lot. That's what he's getting at in this last part. For he himself said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Right. This is this is the whole point of what he was saying in Deuteronomy chapter 31, 6 and 8, that God himself was going to care for you. He knows your needs.
Don't be anxious about what you will eat or what you will drink or what you will wear. The pagans worry about those types of things. Worry about what you got at your own disposal. Don't think, well, I'll show brotherly love when I have enough money, when I'm done working. I'll show hospitality to the stranger. I'll be generous when I've got enough money. No, don't. Just use what you have that the Lord has given you at your disposal. Don't love money. Go love others.
So we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? There's a great confidence that we have. We don't have to fear in this life. So what? Somebody takes our money. We get the kingdom of heaven. Okay. Somebody persecutes us. All right. We have the kingdom of heaven.
Who can steal away our joy? We can rejoice always, we can laugh in the face, speak out to God with the true pain and heartache that we might have, but we can know that our hope and our rock is in heaven. What can man do to us? But this is a great joy that we have.
It's not saying that life is going to be all puppy dogs and rainbows. It's just going to be beautiful and butterflies. And as you know, my seven-year-old daughter, and she's all into sparkly and pink, right. And glitter and everything. Life's not like that. It's not a fairy tale. There are people in prison.
But what can they do to us? The Lord is for us. He'll never leave us or forsake us. We can have thanks. His kingdom can't be shaken. We trust in Him. We've heard His word. We know His Son. We have the final prophet. And He's going to come and make all things right again. Let's pray. Father, you've given us a very applicable passage today.
Lord, we do pray that your Holy Spirit would help us out of a true heart of love for you to turn and to love others. Lord, that we would love our brothers and sisters in Christ. We pray that you would make us a generous, welcoming, and loving people towards a stranger. Lord, we pray that you would please help us to not forget those who are in prison, especially those who are in the faith. Lord, we pray for those who are in the persecuted church, even today, who may be in prison. Please encourage and bless them. Make us more compassionate and empathetic.
Lord, we pray that you would indeed help us to hold marriage in high esteem. Father, we pray that we would be kept from sexual immorality and adultery. And Lord, we pray that you would give us a heart of contentment. that we would know how to rejoice in you, whether we are in plenty or in want. Lord, because our eyes are fixed on you, knowing that you will never leave us or forsake us. Father, please help us do these things. We need you to do it in our hearts. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. May God bless you as you follow him and you walk in his ways. May you be filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit. And I'll see you next time. Bye.