A Study Of The Apostle Pauls Letter To The Hebrews

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AStudyOf TheApostlePauls LetterTo The
Hebrews
How can we neglect so greata salvation?
Hebrews 23
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Hebrews Christ Is Superior! Superior Person
(11413) Superior to Prophets
(11-3) Superior to Angels (14218) Superior
to Moses (31-19) Superior to Joshua
(41-13) Superior Priest (414728) Superior to
Aaron (414612) Superior to Melchizedek
(613710) Superior to Levi (711-28)
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Hebrews Christ Is Superior! Superior Pact to
Moses (811018) Superior Promises
(81-13) Superior Sanctuary (91-15) Superior
Sacrifice (916-28) Superior Results
(101-18) Superior Principle (Faith) to Moses
(10191325) Superior Things (1019-39) Superio
r Actions (111-40) Superior Relationship
(121-29) Superior Way of Life
(131-25) Today well consider verses 9-17.
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As mentioned in the introduction of our study on
verses 1-8, chapter 13 demon-strates that The
Faith-Principle of Christ Is the Basis for a
Superior Way of Life to that possible under
Moses. And As mentioned in the conclusion of
that study, since God and Jesus are faithful to
the faithful, Paul went on in verses 9-17 to tell
these Hebrew brethren how they could remain
faithful.
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Do not be carried about with various and strange
doc- trines. For its good that the heart be
established by grace, not with foods which have
not profited those who have been oc-cupied with
them.
Hebrews 139 ?
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Do not be carried about with various and strange
doc- trines. For its good that the heart be
established by grace, not with foods which have
not profited those who have been oc-cupied with
them.
This could be literally translated as Stop being
carried away. In other words ?
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Do not be carried about with various and strange
doc- trines. For its good that the heart be
established by grace, not with foods which have
not profited those who have been oc-cupied with
them.
Many or all of those who had already for-saken
Christ did so by falling prey to different
foreign teachings. What teachings? Judaistic
teachings.
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Do not be carried about with various and strange
doc- trines. For its good that the heart be
established by grace, not with foods which have
not profited those who have been oc-cupied with
them.
These brethren needed to become those who were no
longer children carried about with every wind
of doc-trine by the trickery of men (Eph. 414)
remember, being children in their un-derstanding
was part of their problem (cf. 51262).
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Do not be carried about with various and strange
doc- trines. For its good that the heart be
established by grace, not with foods which have
not profited those who have been oc-cupied with
them.
This implies an ob-vious contrast what is good
is that which purifies the heart consciencethe
New Covenant (914 10 22), not that which
never purified the heart and consci-encethe Old
Cove-nant (99-10).
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Do not be carried about with various and strange
doc- trines. For its good that the heart be
established by grace, not with foods which have
not profited those who have been oc-cupied with
them.
Paul often wrote against eating (and even not
eating) for religious reasons Food does not
com-mend us to God for neither if we eat are we
the better, nor if we dont eat are we the worse
(1 Cor. 88).
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In order to compromise with the Jews who refused
to let go of Judaistic rituals, many Christians
allowed their beliefs into the church just as
Paul predicted in First Timothy 41-5 where he
even specifically mentioned that some would bind
eating and/or not eating. But Colossians 216
says, Let no one judge you in food or in drink,
and Romans 14 17 says that Gods kingdom is not
food or drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy
in the holy spirit.
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We have an altar from which they who serve the
tab- ernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies
of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the
sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned
outside the camp.
Hebrews 1310-11 ? ? ?
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They refers to the OT priests, while we refers to
NT priests (i.e. Christians, 1 Pet. 25 9).
We have an altar from which they who serve the
tab- ernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies
of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the
sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned
outside the camp.
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An altar was that upon which a sacri-fice was
made for sin and in worship to God and, as well
soon see, the altar of this verse (based on
typology) is a re-ference to Christ Himself (cf.
Bullingers Figures of Speech). So ? ? ?
?
We have an altar from which they who serve the
tab- ernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies
of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the
sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned
outside the camp.
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The assertion Paul made here (and that he went on
to validate) is simply that Chris-tians (like OT
priests) have an exclusive altar however (as has
been the case throughout Hebrews), the difference
is that instead of it be-ing a tangible altar,
its an intangible one. Furthermore
We have an altar from which they who serve the
tab- ernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies
of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the
sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned
outside the camp.
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Being exclusive means that OT priestsyea all
Jews represented by those priestshave no right
to Christ and His blessings (e.g. salvation). Now
why was/is this true? Well, before we con- sider
the reason Paul presented here, lets recall some
other passages ? ? ?
We have an altar from which they who serve the
tab- ernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies
of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the
sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned
outside the camp.
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In John 653-56 Jesus spoke figurative-ly, of
course, of eating and drinking (i.e.
assimilating) Him and to do that they needed to
have faith in Him (v. 64). So since to have faith
in Him meant that they believed His claim to
Messiahship, then to continue worshipping at the
altar of Judaism while claiming to be Christians
was totally unacceptable. Why? Plainly because
while things like Passover predicted the coming
of the Messiah, the Lords supper proclaims that
He has already come (cf. Col. 216f).
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Incidentally, while the Jews could not eat of
sin-offerings because such would signify that
they were forgiven when they were not forgiven,
Christians can eat of Jesus because they have
been forgiven (cf. Clarkes on v. 11).
Well Lets consider Pauls reasoning in this
specific text, reasoning he applied by means of
typology ? ? ?
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In both verses 10 11, Paul was alluding to
Leviticus 630 1627 where God said, concerning
bloody sin-offerings (e.g. on The Day of
Atonement), that ?
We have an altar from which they who serve the
tab- ernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies
of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the
sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned
outside the camp.
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1. The priests were not to eat of those
sacrifices, rather 2. Those sacrifices were
to be taken outside the camp of Israel
burned. Now with that in mind ?
? ?
We have an altar from which they who serve the
tab- ernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies
of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the
sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned
outside the camp.
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Im certain that what Paul went on to say here
(i.e. how he went on to apply this) were fightin
words to the Jews, especially to those who
totally rejected Jesus as the Christ.
Listen ? ? ?
We have an altar from which they who serve the
tab- ernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies
of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the
sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned
outside the camp.
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Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the
people with His own blood, suffered outside the
gate. Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside
the camp, bearing His reproach.
Hebrews 1312-13 ? ? ?
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Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the
people with His own blood, suffered outside the
gate. Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside
the camp, bearing His reproach.
Heres Pauls point as well as the proof for his
assertion that insistent temple-servants have no
right to Christ and His blessings ? ?
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When the OT priests were submitting to the
regulation of taking the sacrificial sin-offering
outside the camp, they ap-parently had no idea
that they were pic-turing how that one day they
would likewise take their own Messiah and kill
Him outside of Jerusalem and thus also outside
the templethe two main symbols of Judaism! So
since the Mes-siah was killed outside of that
which represented Judaism, that in itself was a
sign that Judaism would cease and that God would
ultimately accept, as His people, non-Jews as
well as Jews.
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Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the
people with His own blood, suffered outside the
gate. Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside
the camp, bearing His reproach.
Here are two other points Paul made here ? ?
?
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1. Christs blood was shed outside the
temple instead of inside it as with the OT
animal sacrifices, indicating that He gave
Himself voluntarily as our sacrifice
reminiscent of John 219-21 The Jews asked
Him, What sign do You show to us? Jesus
answered Destroy this temple, and in
three days I will raise it up. Then they
said, It has taken 46 years to build this
temple, and will You raise it up in three
days? But He was speaking of the temple of
His body that which He willingly gave
according to John 1015-18. And
? ? ?
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2. Those who claimed to be Christians, those
who desired the benefits of Jesus death,
were to forsake Judaism by meeting Christ
where He diedoutside the camp (John
1917-20) i.e., to eat drink Christ, one
had to leave the camp of Israel, for to
remain in that camp, to stay with Judaism,
would be (as Paul said in 1026) to forfeit
the one and only sacrifice for salvation,
for sacrifices made within the camp were no
longer accepted. Now moving on ? ? ?
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Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the
people with His own blood, suffered outside the
gate. Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside
the camp, bearing His reproach.
What was Christs reproach? It was the verdict of
exclusion an outcast, which is why He was
cruci-fied outside the holy city and which also
may be connected to why dying on a cross was
considered shameful (Gal. 313). (Outside the
city theyd let the bodies go un-buried for more
than a day cf. Deu. 2123.)
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Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the
people with His own blood, suffered outside the
gate. Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside
the camp, bearing His reproach.
As those outside the camp carried a stig-ma
because of un- cleanness (Lev. 1345-46) or
excommuni-cation (Num. 1530) or guilt demanding
death (Lev. 2414 Num. 1535), early Christians
were ex-horted to remain faithful to Christ and
accept a similar fate of disgrace. I.e. ?
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Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the
people with His own blood, suffered outside the
gate. Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside
the camp, bearing His reproach.
These brethren were expected to identify with
Moses who es- teemed the reproach of Christ
greater rich- es than the treasures of Egypt
(1126) Pet-er wrote, blessed are you when you
are re- proached for Christ (1 Pet. 414). By
the way ? ?
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Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the
people with His own blood, suffered outside the
gate. Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside
the camp, bearing His reproach.
While Paul was ob-viously telling them to go
forth outside the camp of Jerusa-lem
figuratively, it wouldnt be long un-til theyd
have to take this advice lit-erally. In fact
?
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I like what A. Barnes wrote The object of the
writer seems to be to comfort the Heb-rew
Christians on the supposition that they would be
driven by persecution from the city of Jerusalem,
doomed to wander as exiles. He tells them that
their Lord was led from that city to be put to
death, so they should be willing to go forth
also, for their permanent home was not Jerusalem,
but Heaven. So in view of that blessing, they
should be willing to be exiled from that city and
be made wanderers on the earth. (Slightly
Paraphrased) Moving on ? ? ?
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Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the
people with His own blood, suffered outside the
gate. Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside
the camp, bearing His reproach.
Why did Paul exhort these brethren to go forth
outside the camp and bear Jesus reproach?
Because ? ?
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Here we have no continuing city, but we seek the
one to come.
Hebrews 1314 ?
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Here we have no continuing city, but we seek the
one to come.
This word obviously means in this situa-tion or
under these circumstances. (cf. Thayer 5602).
What situation or circum-stances? The state of
Jewish govern-mental rule. I.e ?
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Here we have no continuing city, but we seek the
one to come.
Due to Gods plan from the very begin-ning that
Judaism be temporary, under the Jewish
admini-stration there never wouldve or couldve
existed a continuing citya spiritual and eternal
kingdom of God (cf. 1226-28).
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Here we have no continuing city, but we seek the
one to come.
Now we come to the last time Paul used the term
mello to come on the verge of arriving. I.e.
soon the old, earthly, temporary Jerusa-lem
would be supplanted by the new, heav-enly,
eternal Jerusalem and soon the old, temporary
covenant of Moses from Sinai would be completely
supplanted by the new, eternal covenant of Christ
from Zion (cf. 1218-19 22-24).
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Therefore by Him let us continually offer the
sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruitof
our lips, giving thanks to His name.
Hebrews 1315 ?
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Therefore by Him let us continually offer the
sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruitof
our lips, giving thanks to His name.
This word means through or by means of. I.e.
? ? ?
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Therefore by Him let us continually offer the
sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruitof
our lips, giving thanks to His name.
Instead of continu-ally offering unpro- fitable
and unaccept- able animal sacrifices to Yahweh
as OT priests did, Christi-ans (as NT priests)
are expected to con-tinually offer praise to
His name by means of or through Christthe
once-for-all-time profit-able and acceptable
physical sacrifice.
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Therefore by Him let us continually offer the
sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruitof
our lips, giving thanks to His name.
Peter agreed with Paul when he wrote to
Christians, saying, you are a holy priesthood
to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God
through Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 25).
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Therefore by Him let us continually offer the
sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruitof
our lips, giving thanks to His name.
Giving God praise is called a sacrifice here in
order to re-tain the contextual parallelism
i.e., just audibly extolling God isnt much of a
sac-rifice, but by calling that action the fruit
of our lips, Paul par-alleled it with the fruit
of the field the firstfruits and the fruit of
animal-loinsthe firstborn.
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Therefore by Him let us continually offer the
sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruitof
our lips, giving thanks to His name.
This phrase is from a term found 23 times in the
NT and which is always translated as confessing
or pro-fessing except here. So ? ? ?
44
The idea Paul meant to express was con- fessing
or professing His name, not giv-ing thanks to His
name. If giving thanks were the best rendering,
then it should read as giving thanks to Him , not
to His name. So This statement isnt about
speaking to God, but about speaking about God
through Jesus. Yes Thanksgiving in a prayer is a
way in which to praise God that just wasnt
Pauls point here. But ? ? ?
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While were thinking about offerings of
gratitude, its interesting to note that while
the thank-offerings were only pre- sented on
certain occasions (Lev. 711ff), the praise of
Christians may be, yea is expected to be, offered
continually.
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One other interesting point is that its quite
evident that Paul was alluding to a quote from
one of the Jews most re-spected rabbins (Rabbi
Menachem) who wrote, In the time of the Messiah,
all sacrifice shall cease except the sac-rifice
of praise.
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By quoting this, Paul was indicating that this
very declaration was being fulfilled, meaning
that now (in that generation) was the time of the
Messiah. And, since this was true, then 1. Jesus
was the Messiah. 2. The Jewish sacrificial system
was be- ing abolished. And 3. No other
sacrifice would be accepted by God, except
the sacrifice of praise for the sacrifice He
Himself supplied. (Cf. Adam Clarkes comments at
this place.)
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But do not forget to do good and to share, for
with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
Hebrews 1316 ?
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But do not forget to do good and to share, for
with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
This means on the other hand i.e., they were
cautioned to not allow their work of praise to
consume their time to the ne-glect of the more
physical things yes, even the New Cove-nant
requires a few things of a physical nature. This
is con- firmed elsewhere
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But do not forget to do good and to share, for
with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
In Philippians 410-20 Paul referred to the
physical aid that the Philippian breth-ren sent
him as an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to
God (v. 18).
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But do not forget to do good and to share, for
with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
Nothing shouldve been more important to these
brethren (especially at this pre-carious time)
than to make their Creator and Judge happy with
them.
They needed to imitate Enoch who pleased God
(115, same Greek term), something this verse
teaches was to be accomplished by praising Him
with their lips and serving Him with their lives.
So ? ? ?
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Combining verses 15 16, Paul was in essence
saying that praise of God in word and deed are
inseparable, or, as First John 420 puts it, If
someone says I love God yet he hates his
brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love
his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God
whom he has not seen?
Therefore by Him let us continually offer the
sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruitof
our lips, giving thanks to His name. But do not
forget to do good and to share, for with such
sacrifices God is well pleased.
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Obey those who have rule over you and be
submissive, for they watch for your souls as
those who must give account. Let them do so with
joy and not with grief, for that would be
unpro-fitable for you.
Hebrews 1317 ?
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Obey those who have rule over you and be
submissive, for they watch for your souls as
those who must give account. Let them do so with
joy and not with grief, for that would be
unpro-fitable for you.
As discussed at verse 7, this phrase refers to
leaders. Since he called Jesus the chief shepherd
in verse 20, Paul pro-bably had elders in mind,
but that isnt a necessary conclu-sion i.e.,
this injunc-tion applies to all leaders.
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Obey those who have rule over you and be
submissive, for they watch for your souls as
those who must give account. Let them do so with
joy and not with grief, for that would be
unpro-fitable for you.
As a reminder, while verse 7 was about leaders of
their past, verse 17 is about those who were
still alive and presently leading them have rule
are ruling.
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Obey those who have rule over you and be
submissive, for they watch for your souls as
those who must give account. Let them do so with
joy and not with grief, for that would be
unpro-fitable for you.
This means exactly that to listen to and comply
with. Paul commanded this be-cause, in the world
of men, rulers are allowed to possess their
authority by their subjects so if those subjects
re-fuse to obey them, those rulers cannot be
effectivethey cannot rule.
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Obey those who have rule over you and be
submissive, for they watch for your souls as
those who must give account. Let them do so with
joy and not with grief, for that would be
unpro-fitable for you.
Applying that here, if these members refused to
listen to and comply with the teachings admoni-
tions of their leaders, then the God-ordain- ed
government of the church wouldve been rendered
inef-fective. Why? Be-cause God will not force
His way against mans free-will.
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Obey those who have rule over you and be
submissive, for they watch for your souls as
those who must give account. Let them do so with
joy and not with grief, for that would be
unpro-fitable for you.
This is different from obey only in that be-ing
submissive car-ries with it an atti-tude of
humility i.e., although one can obey without
being submissive, one cannot be submissive
without obeying.
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Obey those who have rule over you and be
submissive, for they watch for your souls as
those who must give account. Let them do so with
joy and not with grief, for that would be
unpro-fitable for you.
This word literally means to lose sleep over and
refers to the idea of staying awake to nurse a
critical case and this is exactly what leaders
are expected to doto carefully watch over the
con-gregation (cf. Acts 20 28ff). So ? ? ?
60
1. Their leaders needed to remember that
they had this duty or, if they did not
fulfill their duty, they needed to step down
from their positions. And 2. The members werent
to get aggra- vated with their leaders for
doing their job of watching them by teach-
ing or approaching them out of con- cern
for by becoming irritated or by not
listening to them, theyd bring much grief,
not only to their leaders, but also to
themselves.
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Obey those who have rule over you and be
submissive, for they watch for your souls as
those who must give account. Let them do so with
joy and not with grief, for that would be
unpro-fitable for you.
This word refers to the miserable feeling of one
whos trying to fulfill a thankless task, all the
while reflecting on how unappreciated and perhaps
even op-posed his work may be. So ? ? ?
62
Obey those who have rule over you and be
submissive, for they watch for your souls as
those who must give account. Let them do so with
joy and not with grief, for that would be
unpro-fitable for you.
Why would causing grief to their leaders prove to
be unprofit-able (disastrous) for the members? I
can think of at least two reasons that are
im-plied here ? ? ?
63
1. As just alluded to, it couldve caused
them to fulfill their duties in a re- sentful
manner (cf. 2 Cor. 97), bring- ing on
nothing but hostility among everyone
concerned. And 2. It couldve caused the loss of
souls when the time of accounting would
come. Why? Because just as submit- ting to
parents and civil leaders is ul- timately
submitting to God, so sub- mitting to
congregational leaders is submitting to God
(cf. John 1320).
64
As referred to in our last study, Paul once urged
the Thessalonian brethren Appreciate respect,
NIV those who diligently labor among you and
give you instruction esteem them very highly in
love because of their work(1 The. 512-13,
NASB). However When leaders must be approached,
they should be approached like anyone else
(Matthew 1815-17). So ? ? ?
65
Obey those who have rule over you and be
submissive, for they watch for your souls as
those who must give account. Let them do so with
joy and not with grief, for that would be
unpro-fitable for you.
The point here is that the members of the church
were ob-ligated by God to cheerfully obey their
religious leaders, unless they could clearly and
biblically demonstrate that those leaders were in
error by doing this, the leaders would be able
to ful-fill their duties and give account to God
with joy.