Year 9, Day 117: Hebrews 13

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Hebrews 13 gives us a final note from the author.  Unlike the majority of the book, which is about the divinity and supremacy of Christ, this chapter is about us as humans.  The authors speaks primarily about behavior and attitude.

What leaps off the page in the author’s voice isn’t so much the expected behavior – which is important to note.  Rather, it is the motivation of the author that is striking.  Today we get a sense of why the faith exists.  Today we get a sense of why the followers of Christ live as they do.

We might think, as many people do, that we worship God in some kind of response to death and eternal life.  People think that the followers of Christ behave like they do to earn God’s favor.  Other treat following Christ as some kind of fire insurance.  Still others look for an advantage of their own making.  Still others do it because of outside expectations and peer pressure.

Fortunately, the author of Hebrews does not ascribe to any of those measures.  We are hospitable because we might just be entertaining God and His angels.  We watch out for the orphan, widow, poor, and imprisoned because we are ourselves understanding of persecution and turmoil.  We are content with what we have because we know God is with us. We remember our leaders because they are spending themselves watching out for us.  We seek the world to come because we have no place in the current world.

In other words, we are a people of response.  We do because of what He has done.  We live because of what He has given.  We watch and mentor because we know what it is to be judged and outcast by the world.

We are not a people who look for our own gain.  We are not people who appease out of fear.  We are a people who respond to a God who has come down and shown the way to us.

<><