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How to Please God
Hebrews 13:1-8 and 15-16
Good News Translation (GNT)
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1 Keep on loving one another as Christians.
2 Remember to welcome strangers in your
homes. There were some who did that and
welcomed angels without knowing it.
3 Remember those who are in prison, as though
you were in prison with them. Remember
those who are suffering, as though you were
suffering as they are.
4 Marriage is to be honored by all, and
husbands and wives must be faithful to each
other. God will judge those who are immoral
and those who commit adultery.
5 Keep your lives free from the love of money,
and be satisfied with what you have. For God
has said, "I will never leave you; I will never
abandon you."
6 Let us be bold, then, and say,
"The Lord is my helper,
I will not be afraid.
What can anyone do to me?"
7 Remember your former leaders, who spoke
God's message to you. Think back on how
they lived and died, and imitate their faith.
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today,
and forever.
15 Let us, then, always offer praise to God as our
sacrifice through Jesus, which is the offering
presented by lips that confess him as Lord.
16 Do not forget to do good and to
help one another, because these are
the sacrifices that please God.
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Commentary taken from
'The Applied New Testament Commentary'
(Kingsway)
How to Please God
Hebrews 13:1-8 and 15-16
Jesus said to His disciples, "A new command I give you: Love one another".
Such love is not just a warm and happy feeling that comes on us when everything is going well.
To love each other as brothers is costly.
To His command above, Jesus added these words: "As I have loved you, so you must love one another".
How did Jesus love us? He gave up His own life for us.
Keep on loving each other. Even in times of trouble and persecution, our love for each other must
continue to grow. In this way we shall be able to stand firm in the face of difficulties.
The Hebrews were facing persecution.
The writer's word to them is that in order to stand firm they must keep on loving one another.
Here the writer recalls an Old Testament story in which Abraham entertained three angels,
and one of them turned out to be God Himself.
The other two angels then went to Lot, Abraham's nephew, and saved him from destruction.
Perhaps an actual angel will never come to our home; but strangers will come,
and we should not turn them away. Like the angels who went to Lot, these strangers
might one day bring us great blessing.
However, we should not entertain strangers in order to get a blessing
but rather to give a blessing! To show hospitality is an important Christian duty.
In the third verse the writer gives us an important principle:
namely, in order to adequately love those who are in trouble, we must put ourselves in their place;
we must try to imagine ourselves in their circumstances.
If we do this, we will be better able to love them and to sympathise with them.
When we remember those in prison, let us at the same time imagine ourselves there in prison with them.
When we think of those who are being mistreated or dishonoured or afflicted in any way,
let us imagine it is we who are enduring these sufferings instead of them.
Remember those who suffer, says the writer, as if you yourself were suffering.
We have bodies just like theirs; we experience the same sorrows and joys they do.
And tomorrow our turn to suffer will surely come. At that time, we will be needing their love and sympathy!
God Himself established marriage.
Therefore, the joining of a man and woman together in marriage is honourable and pleasing to God.
And if marriage is honourable and pleasing to God, that means the marriage bed is also honourable
and pleasing to God, because sexual intercourse is an essential part of marriage.
An adulterer is a person already married who then has intercourse with someone else.
To marry a second wife while the first wife is still living is to commit adultery -
unless the first wife herself committed adultery to begin with.
God will judge all adulterers and all the sexually immoral; those who do not repent will not enter heaven
God does not want us to lack any essential thing.
He is ready to provide us with everything we need, but He usually does not provide us with more than we need.
To seek for more than we need is to be greedy; and a greedy man is an idolator,
because he puts wealth and possessions in the place of God.
Paul wrote to Timothy:
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith
and pierced themselves with many griefs. The person who has a love of money begins to love God less and less,
and his worldly possessions more and more.
No one can love both God and money at once. Not only that, those who love money end up piercing themselves with many griefs.
These griefs are worry and anxiety. The lover of money is always afraid of losing his money.
He is never at peace; he is never happy. He is never content with what he has; he always wants more.
Let us not be like that.
Rather, let us learn to be content with what we have.
Paul wrote: godliness with contentment is great gain.
For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing,
we will be content with that.
On this subject, Jesus Himself gave the main teaching:
"... do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat' or 'What shall we drink ' or 'What shall we wear '...
But seek first God's] kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well"
The writer here quotes from Deuteronomy 31:6.
God will never leave us, nor forsake us!
Why should we be anxious?
Then the writer quotes from Psalm 118:6.
Believers are under the protection of almighty God. We need not be afraid.
Then in this verse, the writer is speaking about past leaders.
If we honoured them while they were alive, we should continue to honour them after they have gone.
They brought us the word of God, and they set a good example for us to follow.
Our former leaders have gone, but Jesus never goes.
And because Jesus abides forever, His priesthood is eternal and unchangeable.
Jesus always lives to intercede for us.
Jesus said: "I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead,
and behold I am alive for ever and ever!".
The animal sacrifices of the old covenant have been done away with.
The sacrifice of Jesus is sufficient; it remains in effect forever.
However, we Christians have a new kind of sacrifice to offer to God: namely, a spiritual sacrifice.
Peter wrote that we are a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ
What are these spiritual sacrifices? One of them is mentioned in this verse:
the sacrifice of praise. Praise and thanksgiving are "sacrifices" which are always acceptable to God.
But it is not enough to offer sacrifices only with our lips.
We must also offer sacrifices to God by performing works of love.
Our sacrifices are love, mercy, faithfulness.
But more than these, we must offer our bodies as living sacrifices.
This is the sacrifice most pleasing to God, because if we have offered our bodies to God,
then we have offered Him everything.
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