1Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters. 2Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realising it! 3Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies. 4Give honour to marriage, and remain faithful to one another in marriage. God will surely judge people who are immoral and those who commit adultery. 5Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.” 6So we can say with confidence, “The LORD is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?”
Hebrews 13:1-6
The author of the letter begins the closing section with seven personal exhortations after he has concluded his encouragement to them concerning the coming shaking but to hold on to the fact that they are bound for Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. The major point to take away from the preceding statements was for them to realise that the purpose of the shaking was to prove or test that which is of God and that which will therefore remain. Now with these closing remarks he appears to have been exhorting them to stay true to the LORD’s teaching on personal matters in order to hold true and survive the shaking. Those key things he exhorts them to hang on to are:-
- Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters.
- Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers.
- Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself.
- Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies.
- Give honour to marriage, and remain faithful to one another in marriage.
- Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have.
- Don’t fear, for God is your helper and has said He won’t fail or abandon you.
You know I have truncated the list in order to make it a list. But likewise there are some interesting things attached to these exhortations. One thing to be asking yourself as we work through this list; do these seven exhortations constitute “this brief exhortation“?
I find this list of seven things featured for the Jewish Christians to do personally so interesting by virtue of the points he has chosen to the highlight, the subtleties he includes and the relevance to them given what they have been through and what they will face in the future. Allow me to show you what I mean. The first two points are summed up in two very different words but words which are highly significant and filled with meaning.
φιλαδελφία and φιλοξενία
Philadelphia and philoxenia are two fascinatingly strong words which go together in a remarkable way. The author is using the two words in a very economic way to make a major point.
῾Η φιλαδελφία μενέτω.
The {brotherly love} {let it remain}
τῆς φιλοξενίας μὴ ἐπιλανθάνεσθε·
The {love of strangers} not forget
You can see, I am sure in the way I have interlinearised these verses, the economy of words involved. But there is something else that is hidden in the Greek. These exhortations can be translated as imperatives (commands) or encouragements (exhortative). I won’t bore you with the discussion among the experts of this feature, but each of these seven exhortations can be commands or encouragements.
Keep loving the brothers and sisters. OR Let brotherly love remain.
Don’t forget to love strangers. OR Let’s not forget to love strangers.
The Greek terms used here are so interesting.
φιλαδελφία is a compound noun made up of [phileō] meaning “to love” and [adelphos] meaning “brothers”, “sisters” – (denoting filial relationship).
φιλοξενία is another compound noun made up of [phileō] meaning “to love” and [xenia] meaning “a stranger”. I am sure you could work that out because we have the English term xenophobia meaning ‘the fear of strangers’ a compound of xena / xenia and phobia / phobos meaning “fear”. These grammatical constructions are interestingly set in adjectival phrases yet can carry the force of a command or a softer exhortation. So which is it? A command or an exhortation? The author seems to saying he has crafted these as exhortations.
These first two are interesting in their ordering. Start with loving the body, the family of God and then love strangers.
“No Ian, the author told us to practise hospitality. That’s what the translations say.”
Yes but don’t you see the subtlety here? The Greek term for ‘hospitality’ is φιλοξενία which in essence is loving strangers. I did warn you it was subtle. I admire this writer’s cleverness and word imagery he employs, all through his letter.
You are getting the point now I am sure. In the midst of this coming shaking (Nero’s persecution of Christians) love and care for the body; care about what happens to your fellow believer who is enduring with you. Build them up, look after them, love them. Don’t forget what we covered when looking at Hebrews 10:24-25. While you are loving the body of Christ, your fellow Christians around you, love the strangers around you too in this time of shaking. If they were encouraged to do this in the time of Nero’s persecution, how much more should it apply to us who will face the time when all earth and heaven are shaken so that the things that can’t be shaken will be made known?
Have you seen the connection now to all this writer is talking about? This section we are beginning is by no means a bland blah to the end. This is all carefully crafted exhortation to encourage the Jewish Christians in the time of Nero. But of course it applies also to us who may well ultimately face the time when all earth and heaven will be shaken. The author wanted to make clear to us all the importance of hanging in there in order to gain eternal life, the Life of the Age to Come and therefore your heavenly Jerusalem and the place Jesus is preparing for you. To do that he works his way through seven exhortations to the Body of Christ to hang in there and ensure you don’t get tripped up at such an important time.
And don’t worry, I haven’t quite finished yet with the exhortations to love each other as brothers and sisters and hospitality toward strangers. I will include as well the one-liner relating to entertaining angels as one person asked. But that will have to wait for the next Gem as this one has grown too long already. It goes without saying that I will work my way through this list of seven exhortations before handling some really knotty issues of what the author was meaning, highlighted by Kevin, Michael and Ross in the previous Gem.
Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.
Galatians 6:10
If we cannot love the person whom we can see how can we love God whom we cannot see?
Mother Theresa
Want to see a miracle? Plant a word of love heart-deep in a person’s life. Nurture it with a smile and prayer and watch what happens.
Max Lucado
You can impress people from a distance, but you have to get up close to people to love and influence them.
Howard Hendricks