seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Hebrews 13:1 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 mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
4 Marriage should be honored 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.”[a]
6 So we say with confidence,
“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?”[b]
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 forever.
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.
17 Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.
18 Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way. 19 I particularly urge you to pray so that I may be restored to you soon.
20 Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, 21 equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
22 Brothers and sisters, I urge you to bear with my word of exhortation, for in fact I have written to you quite briefly.
23 I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been released. If he arrives soon, I will come with him to see you.
24 Greet all your leaders and all the Lord’s people. Those from Italy send you their greetings.
25 Grace be with you all.
a. Hebrews 13:5 Deut. 31:6
b. Hebrews 13:6 Psalm 118:6,7
This is from the easy English site.
All Christians have the same Father in heaven. We are all children of God. As we love God, we are to love his children. So we must love and help each other as brothers and sisters.
This love should extend to those whom we do not know. When strangers come to us, we should receive them into our homes. We should care for them while they are with us. We should do this because we are Christians and love the Lord. However, some people have had angels come to them and they did not know it. For example, angels came to Abraham (see Genesis 18) and they went on to the house of Lot (Genesis 19).
At that time there were many who were in prison only because they were Christians. The readers of this letter had known this. Those in control of the prison did not give food or other help to those in prison. They had to depend on their friends to give them what they needed. In many parts of the world today there are Christians who suffer like this. If we know of Christians in prison, we should show them our love. We should try to understand what they suffer, as if we were there in prison with them. We should share with them in their need and do what we can for them.
Marriage is good and we should respect it. It is a contract for life between a man and a woman. Sex in such a marriage is pure and good. But it is wrong for either of them to have sex with someone else. It is wrong for anyone else to have sex with them. All acts of sex, other than in a marriage, are sin. God will judge all who have wrong sex with another person.
The desire for wealth can be too strong. It can so easily take control of our lives. We cannot love money and love God. One of them has to take the first place in our lives. The love of money is the cause of much that is wrong in the world. While we do need money, we need God more, and he knows what is good for us. He has promised us that he will never leave us. He loves us and we can depend on him to take care of us. What we have should satisfy us and we should trust God for what we need. We may have to work for it, but if we love God first, money will not control us. (Jesus spoke about this, see Matthew 6:25-34).
Human leaders come and go, but Jesus is always here. ‘Yesterday’ means the past, and Christ was there even before God made the world. ‘Today’ is the present, and Jesus is alive and here now. ‘Forever’ is the future, and he will always be there. He died once for our sins, but now he will never die again. He never changes, as he was, he will always be. So we can trust him with total confidence for our lives now and for the future.
There have always been many who teach strange things that did not come from God. These teachers may be from other religions or from groups that claim to be Christian. They seem to teach that we must do what they say before God will accept us. They say in effect that we must work to be good enough for God. But we Christians know that we cannot please God by what we do. We can only come to God because of what Jesus Christ has done for us. He died for our sins, so that God will accept us. We need to be strong in our belief in Jesus, for that is what God asks of us. In most of these other religions and groups, there are rules that people have to obey. There are the ceremonies that all must come to. They can only eat certain foods or they have to prepare their food in special ways. The religion of the Jews had become like that. Doing such things did not help those who did them to come to God. Our trust must not be in what we can do, but in what Jesus has done on our behalf.
God has given us leaders in the church. It is their responsibility to help us to grow as Christians. One day they will have to give an account to God for how well they have done this. We should obey what they teach and follow as they lead. If we do this, their task will be a joy to them. If we do not, it will be hard for us and will make them sad. If we make the task of the leader hard in this way, it will do us no good and the church will suffer. Jesus is for us the leader above all others. We must obey and follow him at all times.
This chapter is about being a good neighbor.... a good partner.... a content soul. I started to use a couple of other commentaries but when I got to verse 4 the commentaries went astray. Instead of discussing the partnership of marriage they went into bashing homosexuality.
I'm going to confess.... I use to be the kind of woman who would get right up in a gay person's face. There were two gay men teaching at an elementary school my daughter attended. I asked them "was you mother happy with your choice?" See I was buying the myth going around at the time.... that homosexuality is a sin of choice... a crime of choice.. a horrid choice.... I had been indoctrinated by the local church and religious media.
Back in Corinthians I read that the church rented a room for their meetings. The room was located inside the Temple of Aphrodite.... a brothel... that employed male and female prostitutes. Those male prostitutes were there for the pleasure of all... not just wealthy women. Those female prostitutes were there for anyone not just men. They were members of the church. They were not condemned for their homosexuality and required to change before the church in Corinth would accept them... they were there... part of the church.... they didn't choose to be gay.... but they chose to Believe in Christ, the Messiah.
Now, this morning I realized that the Temple of Aphrodite didn't make the descendants of Jacob [Israel] stay out. After all it was those goodie two shoes Jews who looked down their noses at the male and female prostitutes. It was the descendants of Jacob [Israel] who put extra-marital sex on the list of sins.
Let me throw in one more little thought here..... Jesus said there is no marriage in heaven..... Sex isn't necessary because populating Heaven is not the goal. On earth sex produces humans to work the land, tend the flocks, and build the cities. In Heaven.... those things are not important. Isn't it possible that God realized the problems a gay man or woman would face.... and love them all the more for being a Christian and gay? Let's face it... a lot of humans withhold the gospel from "some people" because in their human mind... God wouldn't want "those people" to hear it..... But Jesus went to dinner with the tax collectors, drunks, drug addicts and the hookers. Jesus loved them and we somehow have decided they are evil. God sculpted them.... and counted the hairs on their heads.
So if Verse 4 was not about homosexuality.... as harped upon by the "exclusive" preachers.... what is it about?
Apparently by the time Jesus came to earth... man had progressed to monogamy. That's a difficult problem for some humans. Just like some animals.... humans can lust for something different. They create a steady "normal" monogamous relationship with one person... and then they discard that relationship when a different perfume catches their senses. Just like the goodie two shoes in the church in the Temple of Aphrodite.... they must have had to deal with distractions.... other women... other men, maybe, were a huge distraction.... and if a man was in a lazy, waiting for Jesus to return, knife sharpening phase.... he might not have a problem with "sniffing" something new. The author of this chapter says.... "respect your partner". Respect the oath you took.
Marriage is an oath. There are a lot of rules and regulations concerning making an "oath" in Deuteronomy and Leviticus. It's disrespecting the oath that makes extra-marital sex wrong... not the act or the choice.
Then the chapter talks about leadership..... the leadership in the church and the leadership in the form of government. We are to respect our leaders. God doesn't really care who the earthly leaders are. I mean why would the creator of Heaven and earth care who is the leader. If God wanted to He could have a rock become a human to lead us. The real reason God wants us to respect our leadership... is that it looks good for us to follow the societal rules. It's a good example of how to get along with others. Getting along with our neighbors opens the door to sharing the Gospel.
And.... this chapter talks about being content with what I have. It's a great thing that money doesn't mean much to me. Sure.... I need money for rent, utilities, food... and clothing.... but the need to have more than what I have... well it doesn't bug me too much. I've been homeless with three kids.... so I know how lucky I am now. I've never been one to "do anything" for money. I may have "done anything" to secure shelter and food for my kids... but not to swell my bank account. The love of money never bit me.... but I can see how being a workaholic can be as big a problem as being an alcoholic.... both create a wall between the human and God.
There's been a lot of talk about all the things humans do that are mean and hateful lately. There's been a lot of talk about how the church has been affected by the pandemic and how evil people have closed the church.... or how evil people attend church but don't allow masks. There's been a lot of talk about "right" and "law and order".... but I'm not supposed to worry about all that.
I'm called to be a good neighbor.... good partner... and content soul.
