Introduction
- Pew Research poll of 27 countries: 58% of respondents said family ties had weakened in their country (64% in the U.S.).
- Factors: Moving away, divorce, cohabitation, devaluation and abandonment of the father's role, etc.
- Against the backdrop of societal change and pressure against the Christian faith, it is important for believers to understand and embrace the family of Christ.
- Hebrews 1-12 is doctrinal. In it, though, we learn Jesus is bringing many sons to glory (Hebrews 2:10). We also discover how, though Christ has won us individual access to the Father (Hebrews 4:15-16), we need one another (Hebrews 10:24-25).
- So how does this family operate?
- Note regarding Hebrews 13: an important epilogue.
- Hebrews 1-12 is doctrinal. In it, though, we learn Jesus is bringing many sons to glory (Hebrews 2:10). We also discover how, though Christ has won us individual access to the Father (Hebrews 4:15-16), we need one another (Hebrews 10:24-25).
1. Love
1 Let brotherly love continue.
- 1 Brotherly love: Theme verse for this section.
- Greek: philadelphia
- Phileo: tender affection
- Adelphos: from the same womb.
- Christianity introduced a wonderful new love to the world.
- Irrespective of race.
- New relationships adopted.
- John 13:35 (ESV) — 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
- Greek: philadelphia
- 1 Let / Continue:
- A culture of familial love should pervade the church.
- 4 Observations about Christian love:
- It takes you outside your race, age group, income level, educational level, and geographic boundaries.
- It can be awkward, for Christ attracts hurting people who need his aid.
- It requires time and space in your life's rhythms.
- It is helped by a solid understanding of Romans 14-15.
- 4 Observations about Christian love:
- A culture of familial love should pervade the church.
2. Be Hospitable
2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
2 Show hospitality to strangers:
What did this mean to them?
- Lodging, especially at inns, was often too expensive, unavailable, or of bad reputation.
- Many scholars: Christian missionaries often needed accommodations as they traveled.
- Less to do with being a free Air B&B for adventurous people who happen to be Christians, but more to do with advancing the kingdom.
- In short: A way for them to use their homes for gospel advancement.
What does this mean for us? How can we use our homes for gospel advancement in our era? Or, considering how their hospitality was meant to address a problem, what problems can our hospitality address?
- As examples for others.
- As places of refuge.
- As centers for evangelism.
- As centers for disciple-making.
It requires margin in time, space, and finances.
Practicing radically ordinary hospitality necessitates building margin time into the day, time where regular routines can be disrupted but not destroyed. This margin stays open for the Lord to fill—to take an older neighbor to the doctor, to babysit on the fly, to make room for a family displaced by a flood or a worldwide refugee crisis. Living out radically ordinary hospitality leaves us with plenty to share, because we intentionally live below our means. -- Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, The Gospel Comes with a House Key: Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in Our Post-Christian World, loc. 127. Kindle Edition
2 Thereby some have entertained angels unawares:
- Old Testament examples:
- Abraham (Genesis 18:1ff)
- Lot (Genesis 19:1ff)
- Why would this motivate them to practice hospitality?
- No: maybe angels will come over.
- Yes: Happy results flow when you extend yourself.
- Yes: consider the potential of those you interact with.
- Question: Can you walk around with a vision for who the people you interact with might become if Christ got ahold of their lives?
- Old Testament examples:
3. Remember Prisoners
3 Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.
- 3 Those who are in prison: Who were these prisoners?
- Presumably Christians who were there for the cause of Christ.
- Hebrews 10:34 (ESV) — 34 For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property...
- These prisoners were mistreated.
- The believing community likely had easier access to them than our modern prison system would allow.
- 3 Categories:
- 1 Prisoners for Christ.
- 2 Christian prisoners.
- 3 Prisoners in general.
- Each category is worthy of the love and honor of Christ.
- Honor human beings, made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27).
- Presumably Christians who were there for the cause of Christ.
- 3 Remember: More than recollection, but action.
- Hospitality might find you, but prisoners and mistreated need you to find them.
- Some ways to remember those who are in prison:
- Prison ministry
- Christian media
- Ministries which help parolees
- Welcoming spirit
- Teaching / Preaching (which elevates the hearer)
- Shift wrong perspectives
- "There's no hope for them."
- "I don't want to interfere with their punishment."
- "It's not my responsibility."
- Be aware of the "second prison" parolees/ex-prisoners often face.
4. Honor Marriage
4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.
4 Let marriage be held in honor among all:
All
Married or unmarried alike
Because it is hardwired by God into creation itself.
By the fact that he made but one man and one woman, he indicated that marriage was to be monogamous and indissoluble (Matthew 19:3-9). -- Henry C. Thiessen, Lectures in Systematic Theology, loc. 1616-1617. Kindle Edition
It's written in the cosmos: honor marriage.
4 Let the marriage bed be undefiled: A major way to honor marriage -- keep the marriage bed, the sexual union, unsoiled and uncontaminated.
Common view: Christianity is repressive and anti-sex.
Modern translators dance around 1 Corinthians 7:3 a little bit, using phrases like marital responsibility, duty, due affection, and the giving of conjugal rights. The NLT gets down to it:
1 Corinthians 7:3 (NLT) — 3 The husband should fulfill his wife’s sexual needs, and the wife should fulfill her husband’s needs.
Proverbs 5:18–19 (ESV) — 18 Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, 19 a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.
Song of Solomon 1:2 (ESV) — 2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine;
Song of Solomon 4:6 (ESV) — 6 Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, I will go away to the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense.
Genesis 2:25 (ESV) — 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
Sex is beautiful inside marriage.
- God created it prior to the fall of humanity.
- In marriage it's intended to be safe, build trust, serve someone else, lead (at times) to a family, and be a glue for a married couple.
- Sex is deadly outside marriage.
Don't invite impurity in this pure sexual union.
Pornography
Lust
Abuse
Neglect
Atrophy
Anxiety, fear, and weariness take their toll the longer a couple is together. Sometimes it has a lot to do with biology. Bodies change; metabolisms change; hormones change. Kids introduced to the home always change the dynamic. People change jobs, homes, cities. A marriage is constantly changing day by day based on the growth (or lack thereof) of the couple.
These stressors can dampen the fire, cut off the oxygen to it. If we’re not careful, they can dampen and cut off the heat of our love for one another. But if we’re mindful, our fire doesn’t have to go out. It may rage or flicker, but it won’t go out, so long as we keep tending to it. You just have to keep putting logs on the fire. -- Matt Chandler, The Mingling of Souls: God's Design for Love, Marriage, Sex, and Redemption, pg. 179, loc. 2071-2073. Kindle Edition
Recommended resources:
4 God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous:
- All forms of sexual sin will come under the judgement of God.
- Novel in the first century.
- But a Scriptural constant.
- All forms of sexual sin will come under the judgement of God.
5. Be Content
5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, [from Joshua 1:5] “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we can confidently say, [from Psalm 118:6] “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”
5 Keep your life free from love of money:
Keep: This sounds like a constant fight.
Love:
It has to do with the heart.
Money: perhaps not morally neutral, but morally good.
- Money sets us apart from the animal kingdom.
- Enables us to establish community.
- Providing for others.
- Helping poverty.
Money provides many opportunities to glorify God: through investing and expanding our stewardship and thus imitating God’s sovereignty and wisdom; through meeting our own needs and thus imitating God’s independence; through giving to others and thus imitating God’s mercy and love; or through giving to the church and to evangelism and thus bringing others into the kingdom.
Yet because money carries so much power and so much value, it is a heavy responsibility, and it presents constant temptations to sin. -- Wayne Grudem, Business for the Glory of God: The Bible's Teaching on the Moral Goodness of Business, loc. 499. Kindle Edition
The love of money has nothing to do with having or not having.
- Wealthy: tempted towards pride, self indulgence, lack of trust in God.
- Poor: covetous, jealousy, not valuing their own position and calling in life.
He provides two great tools to keep us free from love of money.
1 Contentment.
5 Be content with what you have:
Philippians 4:11 (ESV) — 11 I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.
Contentment "is essentially a matter of accepting from God's hand what He sends because we know that He is good and therefore it is good." -- J.I. Packer, "The Secret Of Contentment," Wheaton College Address, 1984
2 God's faithfulness.
- 5-6 Said / Say: Notice how the word of God has calmed his fears.
- He believed God would provide.
- Psalm 37:25 (ESV) — 25 I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread.
- He believed God would provide.
- 5-6 Said / Say: Notice how the word of God has calmed his fears.