Living Out Our Christian Faith Hebrews 13

Living Out Our Christian Faith The first eleven chapters of Hebrews do not emphasize specific commands to Christians Those chapters are pure doctrine and are almost entirely directed to Jews who have received the gospel, but need to be affirmed in the superiority of the New Covenant The exhortations in Chapter 12 are general, encouraging Christians to run the race of faith with patience and to follow peace and holiness

Living Out Our Christian Faith The specific practical exhortations for Christians are found in Chapter 13 The layout of Hebrews fits the pattern of New Testament teaching, which is first doctrine, then duty, position, and then practice Chapter 13 emphasizes that true faith demands true living

Living Out Our Christian Faith Hebrews 13 gives us some of the essential practical ethics of Christian living that help portray the true gospel to the world encourage people to trust in Christ, and bring glory to God

Living Out Our Christian Faith A Note on Ethics Ethics have to do with the standards of conduct (behavior) or moral judgment There can be no ethics without doctrine Doctrine is the foundation on which any practical ethic must be based

Living Out Our Christian Faith A Note on Ethics This is the reason why the author of Hebrews took the first eleven chapters to cover doctrine, before finishing in Chapter 13 with ethics Perhaps one of the reasons that our country is struggling so mightily with ethics today is that we have removed much doctrine upon which to base ethics

Living Out Our Christian Faith Hebrews 13 Organization Importance of Maintaining One’s Personal conduct Importance of Maintaining One’s Practical Christianity Importance of Maintaining One’s Personal Commitment

Living Out Our Christian Faith Personal Conduct as it Involves Others Hebrews 13:1 begins with “Let brotherly love continue” The phrase brotherly love describes an attitude that should mark the church – a family love that marks the church family Think about how rewarding to a parent is seeing one of your children taking care of another of your children

Living Out Our Christian Faith Personal Conduct as it Involves Others This gives us a picture of how God views one member of the church family (“child”) taking care of another member of the church family It is the love of deep friendship and partnership There should always be plenty of this kind of love among Christians, and it should continue

Living Out Our Christian Faith Personal Conduct as it Involves Others In verse 2 we are told “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels” We all know the story of Abraham and Lot entertaining angels While we may not always be entertaining angels, God in his Providence may have someone come our way that He has sent that you can be a benefit to in ways that will have eternal value

Living Out Our Christian Faith Personal Conduct as it Involves Others Verse 3 reminds us to remember those who are in prison and who are suffering adversity It is not hard to imagine that there will be more and more religious persecution for just doing right as time moves on We need to pray for and encourage one another in this area

Living Out Our Christian Faith Personal Conduct as it Involves Oneself In verse 4 we are challenged to acknowledge and to maintain the sanctity of marriage We need to be aware that there is a direct attack on marriage by the devil, the world, and the flesh This verse reminds us to treasure the value and true meaning and purpose of marriage

Living Out Our Christian Faith Personal Conduct as it Involves Oneself In verse 5, we are told to have the right attitude toward material possessions We should never have an attitude of covetousness And, in verse 6 we realize that our help truly comes from the Lord – the Lord is our Strength and Substance – without Him, we are totally helpless

Living Out Our Christian Faith Our Practical Christianity – Attitude toward the Truth Verses 7-14 remind us that our Christian heritage is given to us to sustain us with reminders from the past These reminders show us how those before us were able to stay in the race and continue in faith And, we are not to be led away by strange and diverse teachings, because we have “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever”

Living Out Our Christian Faith Our Practical Christianity – Acceptance of Truth We prove the acceptance of the Truth by our sacrifice of praise to God We also show that we have accepted the Truth by applying the Truth – Truth should mark us in all our doings Everything we do should be done in a very unselfish manner

Living Out Our Christian Faith Our Practical Christianity – Acting upon Truth Verses 17-19 give us an admonition We are to obey those who are presently our guides These are our religious leaders who speak the Truth to us in a very unselfish manner knowing that they have both an obligation and also an accountability back to the Lord for instructing us in the ways of the Lord

Living Out Our Christian Faith Our Personal Commitment The last few verses (20-25) are a concluding benediction to the readers (and future readers) of the Book of Hebrews As the book closes, readers are urged to keep their eyes upon Jesus as they go on to perfection The idea of being perfected is that God will give whatever grace is necessary for the believer to do His will and to keep His commandments

Living Out Our Christian Faith This is the purpose of Hebrews being written so that we can clearly see how much better things we have as believers as we look unto Jesus

Living Out Our Christian Faith Do the ethics in your life reflect that you look unto Jesus?

?????????? Who wrote Hebrews?

?????????? “All Scripture is breathed out by God…” 2 Timothy 3:16 We are not told who wrote Hebrews

?????????? “All Scripture is breathed out by God…” 2 Timothy 3:16 We are not told who wrote Hebrews After studying Hebrews, I am comfortable with simply saying God wrote Hebrews