Slices
Prepare
Try to work out how much time you spend on different aspects of your life: faith life, family life, church life, leisure life and work life. What overlap is there between any of those?
Bible passage
Concluding exhortations
13 Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. 2 Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. 3 Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are ill-treated as if you yourselves were suffering.
4 Marriage should be honoured by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. 5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,
‘Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.’
6 So we say with confidence,
‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?’
7 Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever.
9 Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by eating ceremonial foods, which is of no benefit to those who do so. 10 We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat.
11 The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. 12 And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. 13 Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. 14 For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.
15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise – the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. 16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
Explore
Jesus is at the centre of this passage. We see glimpses of and read prophetic words about Jesus in the Old Testament. His sacrifice was prefigured by the old covenantal sacrifices made by the high priests. That’s yesterday. Today, we can meet him and know him, love and serve him because of his sacrifice; and one day, we’ll meet him face to face – for ever. The same Jesus, through the whole of time.
Because of Jesus, the way we live in relationship with others is important. Our fellow believers need loving (v 1) with his love. Those we don’t know need his welcome and generosity (v 2). Those in trouble or struggling need his compassion (v 3). Our family lives and our personal lives should show his purity and integrity (vs 4,5). Those with spiritual authority should be honoured as Christ himself should be (v 7). We also need God’s grace to stay on track (v 9).
Living like that is summed up in verses 15 and 16. While describing it as a sacrifice means it isn’t necessarily easy, it pleases God.
Respond
How does it make you feel, to know that the way we live as Jesus’ followers can please him – or not please him? Are there areas in your life where Jesus needs to be more central than he is? Pray about it.
Deeper Bible study
Lord, may the words of my lips be pleasing to you as I confess the name of Jesus today.
Hebrews 13 begins with several commands about the behaviour of the readers as a community of God’s people. They are to love one another, show hospitality to strangers, remember prisoners, maintain sexual purity and avoid the love of money, remaining content with what they have. They are to remember their former leaders, imitate their faith and consider the outcome of their way of life. Unlike these historical figures, who have died, the Jesus they knew in the past remains the same now and for ever. None of these things have lost their relevance for God’s people, even in the twenty-first century.
Then, in a book where the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit have spoken the Scriptures to one another and to the community, in verse 6 the community responds by speaking the Scriptures themselves. They affirm that they are not afraid and they ask what mere mortals can do to them with the Lord as their helper. This is a statement of confidence in the God who has resolved to remain with them (v 5).
Finally, the author reverts to ‘we’ language (vs 6,10,14). We have an altar, he says, probably meaning the sacrifice of Jesus. It was a sacrifice like that offered on the Day of Atonement, where, rather than being eaten by the priests, the animals carcasses were burned outside the camp,1 prefiguring Jesus’s execution outside Jerusalem. This has consequences for the believers. By using ‘let us’ language (vs 13,15), he encourages them to leave the confines of the city, no longer holy since it was where Jesus was rejected, and go to a formerly unholy place ‘outside the camp’ (v 13), now holy because Jesus is there. There they bear his disgrace and offer words of praise. There are other sacrifices to offer – doing good and sharing with others, for this is pleasing to God.
These verses contain seven commands. Find them all and examine your life before God to see if you have been neglecting any of them.
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Proverbs 31; Psalm 94
Pray for Scripture Union
Every year, children on our activities seek help for difficult issues. Pray that the volunteers who respond to safeguarding concerns and the staff who support them will be able to help them all to get long-term care and support. Pray that the children will experience the love of Jesus through the way in which this is done.
Getting active with your community
There are so many fun ways you can engage with your local community. Sport is a fantastic way to break down barriers, build teamwork and connect with children and young people. We’ve got some fantastic resources to help you and a brilliant Sports Team on hand to share their ideas and encouragement.
