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
(61375) Superior to Levi (76-28)
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Hebrews Christ Is Superior! Superior Pact to
Moses (811018) Superior Promises
(81-13) Superior Sanctuary (91-14) Superior
Sacrifice (915-28) 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 1-8.
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After presenting numerous examples of faith in
chapter 11, and after presenting many
encouragements of faith in chap-ter 12, Paul
concluded in chapter 13 by presenting some
evidences of faith, evi-dences that God expected
to exist in their lives if they were really
walking by faith and not by sight. Another way to
look at chapter 13 is that (as mentioned in our
introduction to Hebrews) ? ? ?
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After Paul demonstrated in chapter 12 that The
Faith-Principle of Christ Estab-lishes a Better
Relationship with God than what was possible
through Moses, he concluded in chapter 13 by
demon-strating that The Faith-Principle of Christ
Is Also the Basis for a Superior Way of Life than
what was possible under Moses.
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Let brotherly love continue.
Hebrews 131 ?
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Let brotherly love continue.
The original word is philadelphia, from philia
referring to fondness and adel-phia referring to
siblings, literally those from the same womb
its trans-lated as brotherly kindness in Second
Peter 17. So by this, Paul was indi-cating at
least two things ? ? ?
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Let brotherly love continue.
1. They were expect- ed to act as sib-
lings would act. And ? ? ?
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Let brotherly love continue.
2. They were breth- ren, people with the
same parent in this case, of course,
that par- ent was God, im- plying that it
was love among Chris- tians, not non-
Christians, that Paul had in mind.
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Even though siblings may fight, just let a
non-sibling come between them, and watch what
happensone sibling will protect the other! In
fact This is the very reason I believe Paul used
philia instead of agape here i.e., he wasnt
referring so much to how they treated one another
as much as to how they protected one another from
out-sidersthe Judaizers who wanted to bring
Christianity to its knees (cf. 1216).
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Let brotherly love continue.
The original word here means to sur-vive and is
translat-ed as endure in First Peter 125.
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Do not forget to entertain strang-ers, for by
doing so some have un-wittingly enter-tained
angels.
Hebrews 132 ?
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Do not forget to entertain strang-ers, for by
doing so some have un-wittingly enter-tained
angels.
Now, moving from love for those fami-liar to
them, Paul went on to include an admonition to
show concern for those unfamiliar to them, viz.
Christian brethren from other places. (Verses 1
and 3 are about Christians.)
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In Galatians 610 Paul wrote, As we have
opportunity, let us do good to all, especially
those of the household of faith. In James
215-17 James wrote, If a brother or sister is
destitute and you do not give them the
things that are needed for the body, what does it
profit? And In Matthew 2534-40 Jesus said ? ?
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Then the King will say to those on His right
hand, Come inherit the kingdom pre-pared for
you from the foundation of the world for I was
hungry, and you gave Me food I was thirsty, and
you gave me drink I was a stranger, and you took
Me in I was naked, and you clothed Me I was
sick, and you visited Me I was in pri-son, and
you came to Me. Then the right-eous will ask
Him, When did we do these things? And the King
will answer, inasmuch as you did it to one of
the least of these my brethren, you did it to Me.
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So I believe that Pauls main point to these
Hebrews concerned outpost brethren i.e., in
their time there were many itinerant preachers
who needed places to stay (cf. 3 John 5-8), not
to mention brethren who had been driven from
their homes (as we talked about when we
considered 1033).
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Do not forget to entertain strang-ers, for by
doing so some have un-wittingly enter-tained
angels.
Its very likely that Paul was referring to the
accounts in Genesis 18 19 of Abraham and Lot
entertaining angels without realizing it, at
least at first.
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During the time these Hebrews livedthe time when
supernatural occur-rences were coming to an end
yet still in existence (cf. 1 Cor. 138-13 Eph.
47-13), there may very well have been a chance
for those brethren to encounter angels
unknowingly after all, as we noticed when
studying 114, angels had a closer relationship
to them than they do to us today. So, NO,
? ? ?
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Even if those brethren couldve literally
entertained angels as Abe and Lot did, I dont
believe we ever do that today although, however,
we may obtain blessings from our visitors just as
Abe and Lot did from theirs, which was pro-bably
Pauls main point. Incidentally Although I
believe this principle of hos-pitality applies
today, I also believe the principle of Matthew
76 applies today Do not cast your pearls
before swine lest they turn and tear you in
pieces i.e., we must use good judgment.
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Remember the prisoners as if chained with them
and those who are mistreated, since you
yourselves are in the body also.
Hebrews 133 ?
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Remember the prisoners as if chained with them
and those who are mistreated, since you
yourselves are in the body also.
Common sense alone tells us that this command
included more than just thinking about tor-mented
and impris-oned Christians from time to time
i.e., it obviously in-cluded praying for them, as
well as visiting them and taking things such as
food and clothing to them if possible.
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Remember the prisoners as if chained with them
and those who are mistreated, since you
yourselves are in the body also.
By penning these two phrases, Paul was reminding
them of their Saviors teaching to treat others
the way they would want to be treated if they
were in their shoes (Mat. 712), which,
espe-cially in their time, they could very well
have found them-selves in!
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Remember the prisoners as if chained with them
and those who are mistreated, since you
yourselves are in the body also.
I placed brackets around the definite article the
here be-cause it isnt in the original, meaning
that Paul wasnt referring to the church body,
but to the physical body.
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Remember the prisoners as if chained with them
and those who are mistreated, since you
yourselves are in the body also.
One reason I believe Paul had Christians in mind
in this verse is because he said the prisoners
be-sides, the immediate context (as well as the
entire context of Hebrews) suggests that Paul was
writ-ing about the en-couragement of Christians
during this time of unspeak- able persecution.
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Marriage is honor-able among all and the bed
undefiled but fornicators and adulterers God
will judge (condemn).
Hebrews 134 ?
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Although before studying this verse I believed it
was sim-ply a declarative statement, I now
believe its an im-perative statement i.e., I
believe that the first part of this verse should
say, Let marriage be honorable among all, and let
the bed be undefiled. Why?
Marriage is honor-able among all and the bed
undefiled but fornicators and adulterers God
will judge.
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1. Interlinears and most versions render it
as a command. 2. This corresponds to the flow of
the entire chapter thats full of exhorta-
tions to do this or that.
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3. Every verse immediately surrounding this
one indicates that it was also meant to be
in the form of a com- mand Let brotherly
love continue (v. 1), Dont forget to
entertain (v. 2), Remember the prisoners (v.
3), and Let your conduct be without covet-
ousness (v. 5). And 4. Before the word
fornicators, Nestles text has the Greek
word gar which means for or because i.e.,
let the marriage bed be undefiled because
God will punish fornicators.
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Whats the differ-ence between these two? Well,
adultery is to commit any sexual act against a
biblical marriage.
Marriage is honor-able among all and the bed
undefiled but fornicators and adulterers God
will judge.
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Fornication is to commit any unlaw-ful sexual act
period. So fornication is adultery, incest,
homosexuality, pre-marital sex, besti-ality,
etc., which is why the NKJV usu-ally translates
the original word here as the sexually im-moral
(cf. 1 Cor. 510).
Marriage is honor-able among all and the bed
undefiled but fornicators and adulterers God
will judge.
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Let your conduct be without covet-ousness, and be
content with such things as you have.
Hebrews 135 ?
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Let your conduct be without covet-ousness, and be
content with such things as you have.
Although this word literally referred to the love
of money (as in 1 Tim. 610), the word came to
refer to a yearning for better circum-stances in
general, which is obviously what Paul had in mind
here for the following reasons ?
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Let your conduct be without covet-ousness, and be
content with such things as you have.
1. The word have re- fers to that which
presently sur- rounds someone, i.e. his
current situation, which is reminiscent
of Philippians 411 where Paul wrote,
I have learned to be content in
whatever circum- stances I find my- self.
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2. In the immediate context, Paul wrote of
God helping them and never leav- ing them
(vv. 5b-6) as well as the fact that they
could find themselves mis- treated and in
prison (v. 3). And 3. In the remote contextthe
entire letter, Paul had been encouraging
them to press onward through what- ever
negative circumstances they found themselves
in for Christs sake.
So ? ? ?
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Let your conduct be without covet-ousness, and be
content with such things as you have.
Since this simply means to live your lives, then
Paul was in essence telling them to live your
lives without yearn-ing for better physi-cal
lives under Mos-es (at least what was left of
it), because that would result in forfeiting
better spiritual, eternal lives under Christ,
with God. Now ?
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Why did Paul feel it necessary to give them this
exhortation? Because the indication back in
1033-34 was that some of these brethren had lost
much for Christ so Paul was probably
en-couraging them here to not use up their time
and energies trying to get back what they once
had, especially at this point in time when things
would likely only get worse. So we could
para-phrase it like this Just be content,
placing your lives in the hands of God.
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For He Himself has said, I will never leave you
nor for-sake you (Deu. 31 5-8). So we may
boldly say, The Lord is my Helper I will not
fear! What can man do to me (Ps. 1186)?
Hebrews 136 ?
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For He Himself has said, I will never leave you
nor for-sake you (Deu. 31 5-8). So we may
boldly say, The Lord is my Helper I will not
fear! What can man do to me (Ps. 1186)?
Let me begin here by saying that in Eng-lish a
double nega-tive equals a posi-tive e.g., to say
He hasnt eaten nothing actually means that he
has eaten some-thing. However, in Greek the
opposite is the case i.e., the more negatives,
the greater the empha-sis. Now ? ? ?
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For He Himself has said, I will never leave you
nor for-sake you (Deu. 31 5-8). So we may
boldly say, The Lord is my Helper I will not
fear! What can man do to me (Ps. 1186)?
In our translation of verse 5b, theres only one
negative never, but in the original there are
two negatives be-fore the word leave and three
negatives before the word forsake. So whats the
significance? Well ? ? ?
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For He Himself has said, I will never leave you
nor for-sake you (Deu. 31 5-8). So we may
boldly say, The Lord is my Helper I will not
fear! What can man do to me (Ps. 1186)?
A more literal trans-lation would have God
promisingwith strong emphasis something along
these lines I will never, never leave you! I
will never, never, never forsake you! By the way
?
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For He Himself has said, I will never leave you
nor for-sake you (Deu. 31 5-8). So we may
boldly say, The Lord is my Helper I will not
fear! What can man do to me (Ps. 1186)?
The word forsake is very strong in the original,
referring to leaving someone totally helpless or
in dire straits.
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For He Himself has said, I will never leave you
nor for-sake you (Deu. 31 5-8). So we may
boldly say, The Lord is my Helper I will not
fear! What can man do to me (Ps. 1186)?
The word boldly re-fers to courage i.e., Paul
was saying, So wewith couragemay say. So ?
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The whole point here is that as long as they
trusted in God, they needed no one and nothing
else i.e., covetousness (which implies worry and
anxiety) for better earthly/physical
circumstances was detrimental and wholly
unnecessary! Pauls attitude was, as having
nothing, yet possessing all things (2 Cor. 610).
And
? ? ?
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We might add to this the comforting promise of
Romans 828 All things work together for good to
those who love God (or to those who are
faithful). Jesus said to His apostles, I am with
you always, even to the end of the age (Mat.
2820). And I love the exclamation of Isaiah
122 God is my salvation! So I will trust in
Him and not be afraid!
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What a wonderful way for Paul to begin closing
his thoughts to these weary brethren! No matter
what happened to them, the Lord would never,
never leave them! They could leave Him (which is
why this book was penned), but He would never,
never, never forsake them!
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Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken
the Word of God to you, whose faith follow,
consider-ing the outcome of their conduct.
Hebrews 137 ?
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Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken
the Word of God to you, whose faith follow,
consider-ing the outcome of their conduct.
The original word here is slightly dif-ferent
than the one in verse 3. They are synonyms, but
be-cause this word is more closely relat-ed to
the words for mention and mem-orial, ? ?
?
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Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken
the Word of God to you, whose faith follow,
consider-ing the outcome of their conduct.
its believed that Paul used this one instead of
the other one again because here he was
refer-ring to those who were dead, perhaps
martyred. And this is probably correct for the
following reasons ? ? ?
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1. The phrase those who rule may be sim- ply
translated teachers or leaders, eli-
minating the idea of present rule (cf. other
versions notes on 210). Besides 2. The next
phrase, who have spoken to you, is in the
past tense, more liter- ally reading who
spoke to you. 3. The clause considering the
outcome of their conduct indicates that they
were dead. And 4. Verse 17, being in the
present tense, discusses living, ruling
leaders. So Paul charged them to do three things
in regard to these leaders ? ? ?
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Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken
the Word of God to you, whose faith follow,
consider-ing the outcome of their conduct.
1. Memorialize or honor them.
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No, he wasnt telling them to worship them in the
sense of sainting them and putting them up as
idols, but (as he said to the Thessalonians) he
was urging them to 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).
(How often does that occur today, especially in
our proud country?)
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Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken
the Word of God to you, whose faith follow,
consider-ing the outcome of their conduct.
2. Imitate them. We get our English word mimic
from this Greek word.
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Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken
the Word of God to you, whose faith follow,
consider-ing the outcome of their conduct.
3. Consider the out-come of their lives. And what
was that? Jesus never, never, never forsook them
(cf. 2 Tim. 416-17) so, as Revelation 1413
says, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord
be-cause they rest from their labors, their
labors follow them.
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Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and
forever.
Hebrews 138 ?
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Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and
forever.
Paul began this let-ter by quoting God as saying
to His Son, You are the same, and Your years will
not fail (112), then here he ended it with the
same senti-ment. So whats the point here? Well ?
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Keeping both the immediate and re-mote contexts
in mind, it seems very clear to me that Paul was
telling them that just as the Lord has always
been with the faithful in the past, so He would
be with these brethren in their time and all
others from that time on.
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Putting ourselves in the shoes of these first
century brethren, Paul was saying to them that as
a sacrificial high priest, Jesus yesterday
offered Himself for your sin (923-28) likewise,
as a sympathetic high priest, Jesus today
represents you at the throne of God (414-16)
besides that, Hell continue to do this for all
His people forever-more (723-28).
So ? ? ?
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God and Jesus are faithful to the faith-ful, and
because of that, Paul went on in verses 9-17 to
tell them, at least in part, how they could
remain faithful. But thats for our next
installment.