Full Text for Sermon Study on Heb. 13:1-9 (Text)
Sermon Study on Heb. 13: 1-9 751
all manner of false worship, not only against gross idolatry,
vv.11-17, but against every neglect of their divinely prescribed
worship, or cult, 18-26. "For after the tenor of these words,"
!:)- ~y, according to the mouth, the saying, the exact wording of
the words which I have just spoken, "did I make My covenant
with you." His covenant made on Mount Sinai contained not
only moral commandments, it comprised also many laws pertaining
to the form of worship, to the ritual, the cult. This lesson they
had forgotten; they had worshiped God in a manner forbidden
by Him. This was the lesson that had to be stressed by Him in
renev,ing His covenant. That explains why Ex. 34: 10-27 repeats
not the Decalog, but only laws pertaining to worship, all of which
are to be found in the original covenant legislation of Ex. 20-23.
There can be no doubt that according to the divine records
found in the Pentateuch the two sets of tables of stone contained
the written Decalog. Whether the Decalog was written in the
form found in Ex. 20:2-17, which I regard as most probable, or
in the form of Deut. 5: 6-21, or combining the two forms, is of
little consequence; in each case it was the Decalog, the Ten
Commandments, the words which Israel had heard out of the
cloud and the fire. TH. LAETSCH
~ . ,
Sermon Study on Heb.13:1-9
Eisenach Epistle-lesson for the Twenty-second Sunday after Trinity
The author of the Letter to the Hebrews is as little known as
its addressees. This uncertainty as to the identity of the writer
and the readers of this letter does not render the purpose of the
letter uncertain and dubious. The recipients of the letter were
quite evidently Jewish Christians, long-time members of the
Church, 5: 12, who had endured "a great fight of affiictions,"
10: 32-34. They had experienced to the full the persecutions fore-
told by the Savior, Mark 10: 21, 22, and they may still have been
in the thick of the fight when this letter was written. Evidently
they were finding it increasingly harder to endure to the end, since
there seemed to be no end of their persecution in sight. Or if the
bloody persecution had ceased or abated to some extent, they were,
as adherents of a religio illicita, still misunderstood, ostracized,
slandered, by their heathen neighbors and hated with bitter ma-
levolence by their own fellow-Jews. Because of their faith in the
crucified Jesus they were still made to feel that they were regarded
as the offscouring and the refuse in the midst of the people, Lam.
3: 45. And "they found the long sustained conflict with sin, 12: 4,
and the day-by-day contempt and derision they experienced as
Christians, 13: 13, more wearing to the spirit than sharp persecu-
752 Sermon Study on Heb. 13: 1-9
tion." (Expositor's Greek N. T., p. 235.) They were in grave danger
of apostasy, of returning to Jewish ritualism and ceremonialism,
from which they had been delivered by the preaching of the Gospel
of Christ Jesus. In order to reestablish their wavering faith, the
author calls their attention to the superiority of the New Covenant,
into which they had entered through faith in Christ, over the Old
Testament covenant, to which they wanted to return, to the danger
of going back to the shadows, which could never make perfect,
10: 1, and of losing the body, the true Mediator, infinitely greater
than Moses, the perfect High Priest, far surpassing the priests of
the Old Covenant. In the verses immediately preceding our text
he had called to their mind the instability of the Old Covenant over
against the immutability of the New Testament and had exhorted
them: 12: 28. As a practical Seelsorger he points out a number of
instances of serving reverently and with godly fear that God who
through Christ's atoning blood had become their Father, yet is and
remains a consuming fire.
Let brotherly love continue, v.1. Lt.a.bEt.!pLa. is used in the
New Testament only of that love which binds the hearts of Chris-
tians together in mutual affection in the knowledge that they all
are the children of God through faith in Christ Jesus, Gal. 3: 26-28.
This love, engendered in the Christians through the power of the
Holy Spirit, is to continue, abide, remain unchanged, in spite of all
the efforts on the part of Satan to quench it, to cool its ardor.
Christians are taught of God to love one another, 1 Thess. 4: 9, and
taught in a manner which enables them to practise what they have
learned, John 15: 16, 17. Yet they are in constant need of being
admonished to remain constant in this love. There are so many
considerations which tend to make them forget that there are no
closer ties than those of common faith in Jesus, making all be-
lievers members of one family, brethren and sisters in Christ. "In
our times, when so many false brotherhoods are established, claim-
ing to be superior to our brotherhood in Christ, urging their claims
and their benefits to the detriment and even disruption of our
spiritual brotherhood in the faith and confession of Christ, it is
especially necessary to emphasize the divine character of the bond
of brotherly love which unites us as believers in Christ and to urge
all our brethren ever to continue therein, cutting loose from every
antagonistic tie." (Lenski, Hebrews, p.476.)
Let brotherly affection continue even if the brother seems not
at all worthy of our love; as long as he is a Christian, a member
of the household of God, so long he is our brother, to be regarded
and loved by us as our own flesh and blood. Let this brotherly
affection remain unchanged even if the brother has offended you,
insulted you, slighted you, harmed you, spoken evil of you, even
if your flesh cries out for revenge. Let us walk in love as Christ
Sermon Study on Reb. 13:1-9 753
hath loved us and hath given Himself for us an offering and
a sacrifice, Eph. 5: 2, wholly unworthy though we are of such love.
This love will manifest itself in various ways, two of which the
apostle names in vv. 2,3.
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers; for thereby some have
entertained angels unawares, v. 2. Do not forget to entertain
strangers, such as are not members of your household; to practise
hospitality, entertaining not only your friends and relatives, who in
turn will invite you, but to go farther, to receive into your home
also those Christians whom you do not know, who are in poverty
and want and look to you for your assistance. The word qn~o!;evLa
implies more than the mere entertaining. It expresses that love
of strangers which will look upon hospitality not only as a Chris-
tian duty, grudgingly observed because one does not wish to lose
one's good standing. It expresses that love of the strangers which
will treat the unknown Christian, less refined, less cultured, per-
haps, with brotherly affection, and open one's house and one's heart
to him, bid him a cordial welcome, as one would receive and wel-
come one's own flesh and blood. Such pposition, defending it against all the gates of hell, comforting,
strengthening, preserving them that are His, leading them from
victory to victory. The same forever, £l~ ,OU~ alwv(l~. The first
time this expression occurs in the New Testament there is no room
for doubt as to its significance. Luke 1: 33 it is used in parallelism
with "no end." It denotes endless duration, eternity. In eternity,
throughout all ages and eons, Jesus Christ remains the same. He
whose years shall have no end, Ps.192: 27, shall never grow old and
feeble, shall never fail. As His words shall not pass away, Luke
21: 33, so He Himself shall endure, though earth and heaven pass
away. In eternity He will be the Bridegroom of the bride, the
Church of the elect, Rev. 21: 9, the bright and Morning Star of the
heavenly Jerusalem, Rev. 22: 16; its Light, its Temple, 21: 22,23; the
Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the
End, 22: 13, the One and All of eternal bliss. The Bible Com-
mentary makes the following observation: "Thus the last chapter
resumes, and applies practically, the testimony to Christ which
had been given in the first, Thou art the same." Jesus Christ the
same forever and ever. May we be as changeless in our affection
and loyalty to Him! We can prove our loyalty by heeding the
exhortation of the next verse.
Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For
it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with
meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied
therein, v. 9. The author speaks of divers and strange doctrines.
Divers, 1toLxlA.o~, originally many-colored, variegated, then various,
of different, divers sorts, Matt. 4: 24; Jas.l: 2. Various sorts of
doctrines have harassed the Christians at all times, varying as to
the particular point of departure from the truth; differing in the
presentation of, and argumentation for, the error; changing the
phraseology as circumstances demanded. But all these varying
doctrines are strange doctrines, foreigners, aliens, in the realm of
divine truth, without right of citizenship in the kingdom of Him
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whose doctrine is one and unalterable, as He Himself is the One
and Unchangeable. Christ's kingdom is not a democracy in the
sense that the citizens form the supreme authority and are vested
with power to change the laws and teachings governing their
commonwealth. Christ's kingdom is an autocracy, in which He
alone rules, He alone has the right to decide which doctrines are
to be taught and tolerated. He has laid down these teachings in
His holy Word, and only if we continue in His Word, can we lay
claim to being His disciples indeed. Christ has not given each suc-
cessive age the liberty to reinterpret the Scriptures for themselves
in the light of the advancement in science and biology and psy-
chology and other ologies. It is His will that His Church adhere
to His Word, teach it exactly as He has delivered it to man in Holy
Scripture. Any change, any alteration, of His Word is in fact
a crimen laesae maiestatis and should be so regarded by His fol-
lowers. Yet, at all times men within and without the Church
have claimed the right to teach as they please, to change, to alter,
the truth laid down in the Bible. Also the readers of this letter
were being disturbed by false teachings arising within their own
midst or coming to them from without, and therefore their leader
regards it as his duty to raise his voice in warning against the
danger threatening them.
Be not carried about. The Authorized Version follows the less
authenticated reading of the Receptus, 3tEQLCfJEQEOiho, while by far the
most manuscripts offer 3tUQCUPEQEcritE, to carry away, to be led aside
from the right course. This term is used by our Savior in His
prayer that the cup be removed from Him, Mark 14: 36; Luke 22: 42.
Jude 12 it is used of the clouds carried away by the winds, in
classical Greek of objects swept away by the force of wind-storms
and floods. In Heb. 2: 1 the result of being swept away from the
right course is expressed by "let them slip," literally, lest we drift
past them. It is a dangerous matter to drift about in matters of
doctrine, to be swayed and carried about with every wi...'1d of
doctrine, Eph. 4: 14. The result, as expressed in our text, will be
that one is carried away from the truth, past the goal toward which
Christians are headed, carried to eternal destruction. The writer
purposely uses the strong term "carried away" to show the in-
sidious nature of false doctrines. Wind and water seem innocent
enough, harmless, even beneficial, cooling, refreshing; yet what
destruction, what havoc, can they create! False doctrines may seem
harmless, they may seem plausible to our reason, pleasant to the
flesh; yet they will carry one away from the truth, once one sur-
renders to them.
The writer motivates his warning against vacillation. Firm-
ness, and firmness alone, is a good thing. KUAOV denotes that which
764 Sermon Study on Heb. 13: 1-9 .
is good in its nature and adapted to its purpose. In a brief sentence
the writer connects a number of important thoughts: one, that the
heart be established, made firm and sure; another, that the estab-
lishment of the heart is effected by grace, XUQL'tL being emphatically
placed at the beginning. A third thought is that the heart is to be
established, 't~v %(J.Q~H(J.v emphatically at the end. A fourth thought
is added in the final clause. Only grace, neither meats nor divers
doctrines, can establish the heart. These four thoughts deserve
careful study.
Christians are to be established, made firm, rendered immov-
able, firmly rooted in the foundation on which they are built. The
author would not subscribe to the canon of the Tridentinum which
places the anathema on the doctrine that a Christian should be
certain of his salvation. He is not a defender of what Luther calls
the monstrum incertitudinis, the monster of uncertainty. Like
Paul he regards certainty, assurance, as the good and proper and
profitable state of mind of a Christian. Cpo Rom. 8: 31-39; 1 Cor.
15: 58; 2 Tim. 1: 12.
The heart is to be established. This word in New Testament
usage denotes the entire soul-life, comprising intellect, emotion,
and will. The heart knows and understands, e. g., Matt. 13: 15; Luke
2: 19,51; 2 Cor. 4: 6; Eph. 1: 18. The heart is the seat of emotions
and feelings, John 16:6,22; Rom. 1:24. The heart wills, Acts 5:4;
11: 23; Rom. 2: 5. Christian intellect, Christian emotions, Christian
will, the entire spiritual life of a Christian, must be firm and
established. The normal Christian must know the truth; his in-
tellect is to grasp firmly the doctrines proposed in Holy Writ, so
that he can distinguish between truth and error, defend the truth
and refute every error. No one that has not intellectually graspel
the truth can possibly follow the admonition, in v. 9 a and similar
exhortations. Ignorance of facts is what makes error possible, and
ignorance of the facts of Christian doctrine makes the Christian an
easy victim of any error or errorist. Therefore it is a good and
profitable thing that the Christian's knowledge, his intellectual
understanding of the teachings of Scripture, be made firm, be
established. The term heart comprises more than mere intellectual
knowledge; it includes emotion, feeling; it involves an attitude
with regard to the knowledge one has acquired. The doctrines
assimilated by the intellect must not be stored in the mind as dead,
cold facts; they are to rouse our interest and attention; they are
to be objects of our trust and reliance and confidence, truths on
which we base our hope of life, to which we are bound with a
thousand ties of love and affection, which are a matter of life and
death to us, for which we would gladly lay down our lives rather
than renounce or deny them. Finally, in order that our heart be
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established, these teachings must, and by their very nature will,
affect our will, rouse us to detennined action, make us zealous in
good works, Titus 2: 14; cause us to let our light shine before the
people, Matt. 5: 16; 1 Pet. 2: 11 ff.; make us active, energetic, un-
tiring v;mrkers in the kingdom of our Lord.
To be established in this knowledge, in this love,in this ac-
tivity, is indeed a good thing, adapted to its purpose. A house built
on sand will not stand, Matt. 7: 26,27. A Christian who is not
firmly established in the knowledge of Christ's doctrine, who will
not make this doctrine his one and only hope of salvation, who
does not love every detail of the Word and teaching of His Savior,
who is not willing to make every sacrifice in the spreading of this
Word, a Christian, in brief, to whom doctrine is a matter of in-
difference, such a Christian is helpless against the flood of error
and falsehood sweeping over the world. Only thorough knowledge
of the doctrines of Christ, combined with a childlike trust in them,
an affectionate love of them, and a fervent zeal for them, will make
us safe against the divers and strange doctrines of errorists. Such
firmness cannot be attained in a moment. The writer purposely
uses the present infinitive, expressing durative action. It is a
matter of continuous exertion of our spiritual powers, of constant
increase in knowledge by studying the Word, of steady growth in
humble, yet trusting faith, of continually furnishing the fire of our
love with fresh fuel from the inexhaustible storehouse of Holy
Writ, of never permitting our zeal for holiness and sanctification
of life to grow cold and sluggish.
Establishment of the heart cannot be effected by divers and
strange doctrines. Their very nature precludes this possibility.
They are of varying sorts, one denying what the other affinns or
prohibiting what another permits or commands. Once leave the
firm foundation of truth revealed in the Bible, and we are hope-
lessly adrift on the sea of human opinions, theories, and specula-
tions. They are strange, they have no right of existence in the
kingdom of God. They are alien, antagonistic, to the true doctrine.
They teach a doctrine which is not the Gospel of God. How can
they make the heart of man firm in matters which God alone can
decide, in matters pertaining to man's eternal salvation? Establish-
ment of the heart can be effected only by the truth.
The writer, however, does not use the word "truth" or "true
doctrine." Instead he singles out that truth which is the very
heart and center of Christianity, the truth which he had so clearly
and beautifully presented to his readers, the doctrine of the grace
of God in Christ Jesus. This grace which speaks to man of for-
giveness, life, and salvation through the vicarious offering of the
great High Priest is indeed a good thing, is well adapted to
766 Sermon Study on Heb. 13: 1-9
establish the heart of man. Cpo the firm assurance of Paul ex-
pressed in such passages as Rom. 5: 1 ff.; 8: 31 ff. Grace certainly
gives divine assurance of one's salvation. This grace, the doctrine
that we are justified by grace, through faith, without works, also
enables us to take a firm stand against all divers and strange
doctrines, to be sure that we have the truth as long as we adhere to
the Scriptures. This doctrine of grace cannot be of human origin.
It is a mystery that has never entered the heart of man, 1 Cor.
2: 7-9. And therefore the Book in which this divine mystery is
revealed to us cannot be of human origin. It cannot have been
conceived by the heart of man. It must be the Word of Him who
already in eternity planned salvation by grace, the Word which is
truth, infallible truth, reliable in its every statement, the irrefra-
gable Word of the God of Truth, John 10: 35. Basing our faith on
this Book, which speaks to us of God's grace, accepting its teach-
ings, which have been penned by inspiration of God, we can be
sure that we have the truth; for we are merely repeating what
God has told us in His holy Word, which is truth, John 17: 17.
As the writer had singled out one of the truths revealed by
God, so he singles out a human doctrine, in which both the diversity
and strangeness of error became especially manifest, the doctrine
concerning meats. BQwl-w"t