Hebrews 13:1–8

Section Overview: Love, Purity, and Trust in Jesus Christ’s Constant Presence

The epistolary closing begins with a series of terse ethical directives. These commands address three spheres: relationships with other believers, especially sufferers (Heb. 13:1–3); the meeting of physical needs (sexual and financial) in submission to and trust in God (vv. 4–6); and leadership transitions in the congregation (vv. 7–8). The brevity of the commands is more evident in Greek (many are only three or four words) than in English: “Let brotherly love continue” translates a Greek noun (with article) and a verb; “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers” reflects a noun (with article), a negative particle, and a verb; and “Let marriage be held in honor” reflects an adjective and noun (with article). Most of these commands are supported by rationales for obeying. For example, hospitality should be extended to strangers because “thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (v. 2); marriage should be honored because God will punish adulterers (v. 4); we should not crave money because God will never forsake us (vv. 5–6).

TABLE 1.7: Greek Syntactical Parallels Linking Hebrews 13:4 and 13:5–6

In each directive the first clause is amplified by a second that restates the first in other words:

Finally, each directive is supported by a rationale introduced by “for” (gar):

These directives summon Christians to seek satisfaction of their physical needs and desires through submitting to God’s will and trusting in God’s presence. Sex and money are perennial human issues, and with both the author orients our hearts toward God, who designed our sexual drives to be fulfilled in marriage and who jealously woos our anxious hearts away from an adulterous affair with silver. In doing so, God makes good his promise never to leave us (a promise that silver cannot keep: Prov. 23:4–5; Luke 12:16–21).

“Held in honor” reflects the adjective timios (Acts 5:34), which can often mean “precious” in the sense of having great value, such as “precious stones” (1 Kings 10:2, 10–11; 1 Cor. 3:12). Our author focuses on the priceless gem of sexual intimacy, to be protected by the covenant of exclusive fidelity between a man and a woman. That sexual purity within marriage is his concern is shown in the amplification “Let the marriage bed be undefiled [amiantos]” and in the rationale he offers: “God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.” Because God designed human marriage and its sexual intimacy to illustrate his exclusive covenant love for his people, he will jealously defend its precious purity (Ezekiel 16; Eph. 5:22–33). Sexual union (lit., “the bed”) within the covenant of marriage is “undefiled.” Jesus likewise is intrinsically “unstained” (amiantos; Heb. 7:26), and he has cleansed our consciences. Having experienced such cleansing at such great cost to our High Priest, we must not cheapen the treasures of sexuality and marriage that he counts so precious. Our author has warned against the bitter root that could “defile” many and against the influence of the “sexually immoral” person like Esau (12:15–16).

Esau’s preference of one meal over God’s promised inheritance also exemplifies the person whose life is characterized by “love of money.” An insatiable appetite to acquire possessions is a form of idolatry (Eph. 5:5; Col. 3:5), since it relies on created things to provide the satisfaction and security found only in the Creator (Rom. 1:25; cf. Jer. 2:11–13). The Lord Jesus warned against covetousness: “One’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15). Christian contentment (Phil. 4:11–13; 1 Tim. 6:6–10) springs from confidence that our divine provider and protector will keep his promise to “never leave you nor forsake you.” In this statement our preacher blends the wording of God’s promises to Jacob (Gen. 28:15) and Joshua (Josh. 1:5; cf. Deut. 31:6–8), as each faced a daunting and uncertain future.

Since God kept his word to Jacob, Joshua, and a great cloud of OT witnesses, we too can echo the bold announcement the author quotes from Psalm 118:6 (LXX 117:6): “The Lord is my helper [boēthos]; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” The ancient psalmist, surrounded by enemies, confidently defeated them “in the name of the LORD” (Ps. 118:10–13). Hebrews has shown the length to which the Lord went to be our “helper,” undergoing suffering and temptation in order to “help” (boētheō) us in temptation (2:14–18) and to grant us access to the throne of grace, where we find “grace to help [boētheia] in time of need” (4:16).

13:7–8 The Lord will never leave his people, but the same cannot be said of human leaders. Like Levitical priests, they are “prevented by death from continuing in office” (7:23). Therefore, in addition to “remembering” those presently suffering imprisonment and abuse (13:3), the hearers must also “remember” their congregation’s original leaders, who no longer serve among them. In the past they “spoke to you the word of God,” and hearers must now recollect the “outcome of their way of life.” That “outcome” (ekbasis) was their exit from life on this earth, the completion of their pilgrimage. Whether their deaths were due to natural or accidental causes or to martyrdom, our author does not say. Although the hearers of Hebrews themselves had not yet shed blood (12:4), some of their leaders may have done so. Elsewhere in the NT, congregational leaders are called “elders” or “overseers” (Acts 20:17–35; Phil. 1:1; 1 Tim. 3:1–7; Titus 1:5–9; 1 Pet. 5:1–3). Teaching and spiritual shepherding are the ministries of such elders/overseers. The original leaders of the people reading this letter “spoke . . . the word of God,” and their successors were “keeping watch over your souls” (Heb. 13:7, 17). The first generation’s integrity and conduct were no doubt exemplary, but our author spotlights their faith as that which must be imitated (reinforcing the point of 10:26–12:3).

The later admonition to “obey your leaders and submit to them” (13:17) may imply that some in the congregation have not transitioned well from the first generation to the present leadership. If any were troubled over the loss of those who once shepherded them, they must realize that their great shepherd is and always will be with them: “Jesus Christ is the same [ho autos] yesterday and today and forever.” The OT citations showing the Son’s divine superiority to angels at the start of this sermon included Psalm 102:25–27, in which the Son is contrasted with the created heavens and earth: “They will perish, but you remain. . . . You are the same [ho autos], and your years will have no end” (Heb. 1:10–12).

The created order’s mutability has touched his hearers’ experience in the death of their shepherds, but the divine Son, Jesus Christ, remains “the same,” unchangeable and eternal. That divine Son has become the incarnate Son, has undergone temptation and suffering and death, and has emerged triumphant “by the power of an indestructible life” (7:16) to become and remain a “priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek” (7:17). If the death of trusted human shepherds has contributed to the hearers’ weariness and faintheartedness, they must realize that they have a “great shepherd” whom God “brought again from the dead” (13:20). He “always lives to make intercession for them” (7:25) and keeps his word, promising, “I will never leave you nor forsake you,” which he expressed in other words to his awestruck disciples after his resurrection: “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20).