Hebrews 13

1 – 2

Keep on loving each other as brothers in Christ. Look for ways to welcome strangers into your homes. Some people have done this and have welcomed angels without knowing it.

The original language says, “Look for ways to show love to strangers.” Work your way through the Bible and take notes of things that would speak to someone and then pray about that person’s life. Ask God to stop any evil spirit from being in this person’s life. Then go and ask this person if you can pray for them. Plant some seeds and keep on praying for them! See Genesis 18:2.

3. Do not forget those who are in prison. Remember them as if you were in prison with them. Remember those who are suffering as if you were suffering with them.

When one of us suffers, we all suffer! The devil says, “This is not your problem!” Pray the way you would want people to pray for you if you were the one in prison.

4. Marriage should be honored by everyone. Husband and wife should keep their marriage pure. God will judge guilty those who are sexually immoral and commit adultery. 

Marriage is a beautiful life of showing the life of Christ by laying down your lives for each other. This is why the devil wants to destroy the idea of getting married. Evil spirits make it look exciting to live in immorality but they hide the fact that this sin destroys your conscience and your mind. People who have to always make excuse for their guilt cannot think clearly.

5. Keep your lives free from the love of money. And be satisfied with what you have. God has said, “I will never leave you; I will never abandon you.”

The original language says. “I will never, never, never leave you!” The devil says that God cannot be trusted. Those who are doing evil always accuse someone else of the things that they are doing. See Deuteronomy 31:6.

6. So we can feel sure and say, “I will not be afraid because the Lord is my helper. People cannot do anything to me.”

While we are going through the fire it looks like we will not be able to live this way. God is pleased when we trust Him in the fire and somehow He will make a way. God has told us that He would not allow us to be tested more than we can handle (1 Corinthians 10:13). If God is for us who can be against us? Romans 8:31, Psalm 118:6

7. Remember your leaders. They taught God’s message to you. Remember how they lived and died, and copy their faith.

We have great examples of Christians who have died for Christ in our day. More are dying now than at any time in history but because the news media does not talk about it we do not know this. Find out all you can about them and live the way they lived!

8. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
These words are used by some teachers to say that we need miracles every day in the church. Yes, we do but 1 Corinthians 12 and 1 Corinthians 14 show us how to use these gifts in the way that God says. It is important to first be strong in the Word and in sharing the Gospel before you spend all of your time looking for miracles.

9. Do not let all kinds of strange teachings lead you into the wrong way. Your hearts should be strengthened by God’s grace, not by obeying rules about foods. Obeying such rules does not help anyone.

How will you know what is wrong if you are not reading about what is right?

Then we will no longer be immature like children. We will not be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching.

We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever that they sound like the truth. Ephesians 4:14

10. We have a sacrifice. But the priests who serve in the Holy Tent cannot eat from it.

If you are not reading the Bible every day, you are starving your spirit!

I have not stopped following His ways, I need His Words more than daily food. Job 23:12

People do not live by bread alone, but by every Word that comes from the mouth of God. Matthew 4:4

11 – 13

The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place. There he offers this blood for sins. But the bodies of the animals are burned outside the camp.

So Jesus also suffered outside the city. He died to make his people holy with his own blood. So let us go to Jesus outside the camp. We should accept the same shame that Jesus had.

The Christian Jews had to leave the city and run for their lives. The writer is saying that Jesus was also sent outside the city. In Jerusalem today there is hill of rocks which look like the face of a skull. There is an empty tomb close by. Some say this hill cannot be the place where Jesus died because it is now inside the wall of the city but in Bible days this hill was outside the wall.

14. Here on earth we do not have a city that lasts forever. But we are looking for the city that we will have in the future.

We are passing through the earth and if Jesus does not come during our lifetime we will soon be gone from earth and be with Him. We should not think of our time on earth as our real home.

Find something in your house that you enjoy and ask God to show you someone you can give it to. This will remind you that in a few years this thing will not be yours anyway and it will open the door to share the Lord with someone.

15 – 16

So through Jesus let us always offer our sacrifice to God. This sacrifice is our praise, coming from lips that speak his name. Do not forget to do good to others. And share with them what you have. These are the sacrifices that please God.

Stop yourself from talking back to someone who is making you angry. Give some food to someone else that you were going to eat. Do something for someone who needs help. These are the real sacrifices for God!

The sacrifice You desire is a broken spirit. Psalm 51:17

17. Obey your leaders and be under their authority. These men are watching you because they are responsible for your souls. Obey them so that they will do this work with joy, not sadness. It will not help you to make their work hard.

Pastor and church leaders will be asked by God about the things they do in the ministry. Pray for them that God will show them how to visit the sick and the jails and the homes with problems. Their job is not easy! We who teach will be judged more strictly. James 3:1

18 – 19

Continue praying for us. We feel sure about what we are doing, because we always want to do the right thing. And I beg you to pray that God will send me back to you soon.

Maybe the writer was in prison with Timothy? It is best to be quiet when the Bible is quiet.

20 – 21

I pray that the God of peace will give you every good thing you need so that you can do what He wants. God is the One who raised from death our Lord Jesus, the Great Shepherd of the sheep. God raised Him because of the blood of His death.

His blood began the agreement that God made with His people. And this agreement is eternal. I pray that God, through Christ, will do in us what pleases Him. And to Jesus Christ be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Pray that God will give you the gifts that you need to do His work of reaching the people around you. Every day He is giving you experience in ministry and showing you what to do and what not to do.

22 – 23

My brothers, I beg you to listen patiently to this message I have written to encourage you. This letter is not very long. I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been let out of prison. If he arrives soon, we will both come to see you.

By this we know that whoever wrote this book was a friend of Timothy’s. Church history says that Timothy was killed by a crowd of people in Ephesus.

24 – 25

Greet all your leaders and all of God’s people. Those from Italy send greetings to you. God’s grace be with you all.

Whoever wrote this book must have been helping the church of Rome.