Monday 12th
Hebrews 13:1-6
NIV (vv1-2) – ‘Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.’
ESV (vv1-2) – ‘Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.’
We have arrived at the final chapter in this Hebrew epistle, and in concluding his letter the writer is leaving his readers with some final words of instruction and encouragement. We will spend a few days in this chapter.
The first thing the author says here is ‘Let brotherly love continue’, In his epistle Peter talks of the importance of brotherly love, ‘For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue . . . godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.’ 2 Pe 1:5–7 In his letters, John also emphasises the importance of love among God’s family, for example 1 John 3:11 ‘For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.’ And of course, we know the familiar chapter in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians on love, chapter 13 which we will quote here in full, ‘If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.’
The world is crying out to be loved and is seeking to find love in all manners of way, but the greatest example of all is in the love that God has shown toward fallen humanity in sending his Son to be the propitiation for our sin, and once we have accepted that love and fallen in love with the Lord Jesus Christ, it should be demonstrated in the love that we have toward others, and in the context of our text today, toward each other as brothers and sisters in the body of Christ.
The author continues with the importance of showing hospitality to others, that means that we care for even those who we may not know and continues to say to not forget those who are in prison, I think here that Paul is thinking in particular of those who are in prison because of their faith, make sure that out of sight is not out of mind, remember them and pray for them and if possible send gifts of love to them. Hospitality is another theme that crops up in the epistles, for example ‘Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.’ Romans 12:13, ‘Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.’ 1 Peter 4:9,
It was Jesus himself who gave a lesson on being willing to show hospitality especially to strangers in his parables in Matthew 25 ‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’’ Matthew 25:31–40
To sum it all up as God’s children we should be a loving, caring and sharing people, and the measure we use is that to which God has loved us and cares for us.