Today’s message is from Hebrews 13:1-8. Chapter 13 is the last chapter in Hebrews. The NIV gives this chapter the title Concluding Exhortations. It’s about how to live your life as a Christian—how to live your life in view of God’s mercy and sacrifice—how to live your life by faith. There is a lot of material in chapter 13. We will be covering it in sections—just the first 8 verses this morning.

As we read the passage, remember as always that we are reading the word of God. It’s God speaking to us through the writer of Hebrews and telling us how we must live our lives as those who have eternal life through Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul says (in Romans 12:1), “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your reasonable act of worship.” The Lord God who holds our very lives in his hand is telling us that we must do these things!

Also, as always, I exhort all of you to read your Bibles every day. Don’t read the Bible just once, and think that’s all you need. All of us need to be reminded day by day of who God is, who we are and what our relationship to God is.

A while back Tom pointed out that I always tell you what the word of God says, but don’t tell you that you have to do it (I had assumed that that was obvious). So let’s not be just hearers of the word and deceive ourselves, but do what it says. (James 1:22)

¹Keep on loving each other as brothers. ²Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. ³Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.

⁴Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. ⁵Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,

Verse 1 says, “Keep on loving each other as brothers.” Literally it says, “Brother-love must remain (or continue).” It’s a command. Brother love must continue. Our brothers are our Christian brothers (and Christian sisters). We must love each other.

But before I say more about this, I’m going to talk a little bit about love. You remember that the Bible talks about two kinds of love. There are two different words that are translated love in the New Testament. (Did you all know that?) There’s agape love and philos love. Agape love refers to what you do. It means serving others—being willing to sacrifice yourself on behalf of others. It’s what Jesus did for us when he went to the cross on our behalf—and it’s what we are commanded to do on behalf of others.

Philos love, on the other hand, refers to affection. As a noun, it means friend. It’s what we usually think of when we talk about love these days. Philos love—affection—can certainly lead to agape love. But philos love is more about how you feel than about what you do. Agape love is about what you do.

When Jesus said, “Love your enemies,” he was talking about agape love. That’s the word he used. What he was telling us was to love those whom we have no affection for—our enemies. We are commanded to do something—love our enemies— irrespective of how we feel about them.

Well. I’m getting off on a side track here, but I’m going to continue anyway. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Do you want to know something? That’s not the correct translation of John 3:16. (My wife is saying in her mind, “He’s getting too scholarly.) “God so loved the world...” was the correct translation back in the late 1500’s when the King James Version was translated. But it isn’t any more. When we read “God so loved the world...” these days, we think, “God loved the world so much that he that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” We think love means affection.

Do you think God had any affection for this fallen world when he sent Jesus? Do you think he has any affection for this fallen world now? Do you think he had any affection for us before we were believers? We were all his enemies at one time. We were by nature objects of his wrath. That’s from Ephesians 2:3. Let me quote the whole verse: “All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.” And, by the way, we are not objects of his wrath any more (unless you have not accepted God salvation, in which case you are still an object of his wrath—so do something about it right away!). God had no affection for us, but he loved us anyway with his agape love and sacrificed Jesus in our place for our sin!

Here’s the correct translation of John 3:16: “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” (HCSB) God loved the world in this way... not God loved the world so much... That’s from the Holman Christian Standard Bible. (I only found one other translation that renders it in this way. It says, “This is how God loved the world...” I think all the translators certainly know what John 3:16 means. But they seem to be reluctant to go against tradition even though the meaning of the English words have changed since the time the King James Version was translated.)

So, “God loved the world” describes what he did regardless of what he felt. Jesus told us to love our enemies and he set the example for us by what he did. We were his enemies and he suffered and died in our place—regardless of how he felt about us. Now we are his brothers. And we are commanded to treat our enemies in the same way Jesus treated us.

Now let’s get back to today’s passage. Verse 1 says, “Keep on loving each other as brothers.” Literally, it says, “Brother-love must remain.” We are commanded to continue to treat our brothers in Christ (and sisters) with affection. (If you don’t have affection for a brother in Christ, that needs to be fixed. Pray about it. Ask other people to pray for the situation, too. We need to pray for each other.)

Let’s look at verse 2. Verse 2 says, “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.” You remember that “loving each other as brothers” is “brother-love”. I didn’t say it before, but the Greek word is philadelphia—the same as the city. (Remember? Philadelphia is the city of brotherly love.) Well, the word that’s translated entertain strangers is literally “stranger-love”—love of strangers. In Greek it’s philoxenia. Xenia comes from the word xenos which means strange or foreign. (Xenos Christian Fellowship, for those of you who know them, is the fellowship of people who are foreigners to the world. Our citezenship is not in this world, but in the kingdom of God.) The word xenia in Greek is used to mean hospitality—entertaining someone you don’t know—a stranger. (If you look up xenia on the internet, by the way, it says, “Welcome to Xenia, Ohio... the city of hospitality.” That means they welcome strangers.)

Anyway, we have philadelphia and we have philoxenia—brother-love and stranger-love. If brothers are believers, then strangers would be unbelievers. We are commanded not only to love our brothers (and sisters) in Christ, but also to show hospitality to strangers. Jesus says that if we only show hospitality to our brothers, we are no better than the Pagans. Matthew 5:47: “And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?” (The Pagans headed for hell, by the way.) Verse 2 in today’s passage says, “Don’t forget to entertain strangers...” It’s easy to just think about our own little group and forget about anyone outside of it. Let’s not do that.

³He said, “If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by. ⁴Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. ⁵Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way—now that you have come to your servant.”

⁷Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it. ⁸He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree. (Genesis 18:2-8)

Well, as it turned out, two of the men were angels and the third was the Lord! It doesn’t say whether or not Abraham knew immediately that one of the visitors was the Lord and that the other two were angels. But I believe that he was in the habit of entertaining strangers in any case. But what if he had considered them just spongers and had ignored them or sent them away? I don’t know what. But it doesn’t sound like it would have been good. I’ll let you try to decide. Anyway, Abraham did welcome them and received an encouraging message from the Lord. Sarah would have a son in less than a year.

So how can we apply these to ourselves? We have people who come to the door and ask for money and we just know that they want to use it to buy drugs. I also know there have been people who would give money if someone asked no matter what. (Remember Kim taking someone to the “hood” (twice) and it turned out that he wanted to go there to buy drugs? Was she foolish? She was showing hospitality. How can it be foolish to show hospitality?)

Or how about if someone you don’t know comes to your door and wants to spend the night? Well, if it was bitter cold and he said he had no place to go, I might try to take him to a shelter. But if I let him in, who knows, he might steal all my possession or harm my family or both. (I think it was probably more common to show hospitality to travelers back when Hebrews was written than it is now, and because of that, there was probably less danger. It’s more likely that they would have considered it an inconvenience. But still they would have had to take some risks. (I remember Donna offering to put up a woman from down the street whom I don’t think she really knew. She said her husband was using drugs and she wanted to avoid the temptation.)

Well, I don’t think we should expose our families to obvious danger. But neither can I think of any place in the Bible where we are told to protect ourselves from danger. God may have told some people to go to a place of safety in some cases, but I can’t recall any general instructions on protecting yourself. Jesus did tell the disciples to be armed, but that was probably to keep them from being attacked in the first place rather than to defend themselves in an attack. On the other had, there are plenty of places where God defended people who were in danger. The general message is to trust God in every situation. We need to pray.

It says “remember” again just as it did in verse 2. It doesn’t say (God doesn’t say) whether this is for brothers or for everyone. But it says “remember”. We tend to remember those who are close to us and forget those who aren’t. Do you think you will be doing wrong if you try to help someone who is not a brother? (I don’t think so.)

³⁴“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

³⁷“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

Jesus is talking about his brothers here—“the least of these brothers of mine”—so they are our brothers, too. What should we do about those who are not our brothers? And what if we would like them to be our brothers? What should we do then?

And, by the way, Jesus referred to the people in this passage I just read as “the righteous”. These are the things the righteous do. If you are righteous you will visit the sick and those who are in prison and help those who are in need.

But if you look at verse 41, the verse right after this passage, Jesus calls those who apparently had the opportunity to visit the sick and those who are in prison and help those who are in need, but failed to do it, cursed! They will be sent to the place of eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Something to think about! But if you belong to Jesus you will do these things. You will visit the sick and those who are in prison and help those who are in need. You won’t belong to Jesus because you do these things. You won’t make yourself righteous by doing them. You are righteous because you have trusted Jesus. You will do these things because you are righteous.

Well, what I have said seems to imply that we don’t need to do anything. Since we belong to Jesus, God will somehow see that we will do the righteous things. Nevertheless, we need to pray and ask for God’s leading. I can only remember visiting anyone in prison twice. And I can remember turning down a request to visit someone in prison when I certainly should have done so. I believe I was disobeying God. May he forgive me.

“Marriage should be honored by all.” Literally it says, “Marriage is honorable in all ways,” or possibly, “Marriage is honorable among all people.” The translators used honorable to translate a certain Greek word. But if you look up the word in the Greek lexicons it says that while it means honorable when referring to a person, it means something else when it refers to a thing—a thing such as marriage. Here’s what the lexicons say that it means: It means precious, valuable, of great worth, held in high honor, prized. Marriage is precious, valuable, of great worth, is to be held in high honor and prized in all ways (or by all people). How do you treat something that is precious, something that is very valuable? If you already have it, do you treat it as very valuable, as something very precious? How do you protect it and take care of it?

We don’t take sexual immorality seriously any more. Sexual immorality is now a right (as long as it’s between consenting adults—and they seem to be working on getting rid of the adults part of that, too. It’s already happened in parts of Europe. We usually follow about ten years behind in depravity.

Anyway, in the first joke, the husband and wife are sitting on the couch in front of the TV and the husband is surfing through the channels. The wife says, “What’s on the TV.” The husband says, “Dust.” That, according to the joke, is when the fight began.

Well, there maybe was some sin in the first joke. The husband was being sarcastic about the wife’s not dusting the TV and the wife got mad. But the second joke was about adultery. Actually, I didn’t repeat it to Mooma and I deleted the e-mail (I usually keep all my e-mails).

Actually, I was going to repeat the joke at this point. I already said I would—two jokes—but I don’t think I will. I was going to tell you that you weren’t allowed to laugh, but that I wanted to give a real example. The joke wasn’t explicit or obscene. It’s just that the humor was about adultery, something that shouldn’t be humorous at all. It’s just that it was thrown in with a bunch of more innocuous jokes as though the subject were not very serious at all. Adultery is very serious—a lot different from dust on the TV.

You know, until I was almost 40, adultery and sexual immorality were illegal in Ohio. It was illegal to have sex with someone you weren’t married to. You could be arrested. Motel operators were responsible for ensuring that couples who rented rooms were married.

But, as time went by, the laws were enforced less, and finally they decided to replace all the laws that had to do with sexual immorality. Sexual immorality is no longer illegal in Ohio. But we are not the ones who make the real laws, God does. And he is the Judge. Listen while I read Revelation 21:8: “But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” The sexually immoral—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. God is the Judge. But don’t forget that there is forgiveness. Confess your sin and go and sin no more. And by the way, “the magic arts” (“those who practice the magic art”) are drugs. They used drugs in the practice of witchcraft.

I suppose if you asked most Christians if there was anything wrong with loving money, they would say, “Yes.” But, you know, we don’t usually think too much about it—maybe don’t even notice it. But we love things that money will buy—big-screen TV’s, fancy computers, shiny new cars, nice clothes for some of us. Are these things necessities? (Some may be.) But do these things bring glory to God? Do they advance his kingdom? And what does it mean to “be content with what you have”? What the writer is talking about when he says “Don’t love money,” is not wanting something you don’t really need. It’s greed and covetousness.

The apostle Paul says—the Holy Spirit speaking through the apostle Paul says—that we must not even associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is greedy. Let me read the whole verse. This is from 1 Corinthians 5:11: “But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.” You see, greed is in the same class with sexual immorality, slander, swindling and drunkenness. (I don’t think we take slander or drunkenness seriously enough either, by the way.)

“Be content with what you have.” God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” He said that through Moses to the Israelites when they were getting ready to enter the Promised Land. But he says it to us, also.

“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” The Lord takes care of us. He provides for us. If you really believed this, how would it change your thinking? How would you do things differently? If you say you would do nothing differently, then maybe you are already perfect in faith. In any case, pray about everything.

Let’s look at verse 7: “Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.” The apostle Paul was able to tell people to follow his example just as he followed the example of Christ (except, Kim would probably say, his example of boasting about all that he had suffered). Well, for most of us in any positions of leadership, there are definitely areas where we wouldn’t want anyone to follow our examples. (May the Lord correct all of them!) But, you know, all of us, leaders, or not, are examples to those around us. If people see what we do, they will think that’s what Christians do. Consider how many people you may influence whether you have an office of leadership or not. You are a leader for those people. So live your life in that knowledge. (Someone said that if you put a Christian bumper sticker on your car, it would help you to go slower on the freeway.)

Verse 8, the last verse in today’s passage, says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” He is our Lord and our Savior. He is the Judge. He will reign until all of his enemies are submitted under his feet. The last enemy to be conquered is death. He will come back for us and we will be with the Lord forever. And all that he taught and showed by his life still applies to us today. He does not change!

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, 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.