OF LOVE.
Hebrews 13:1-4 Let love of the brethren continue. Forget not to show love to strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; them that are evil entreated, as being ourselves also in the body. Let marriage be had in honor among all, and let the bed be undefiled: for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.
Continuing on in the SECOND HALF- PRACTICAL.
Hebrews Chapters 10:19 - 13:25
Of a Life in the Power of the Great Salvation.
Starting in the TWELFTH SECTION and last section.
Hebrews 13:1-25.
Love and Good Works.
BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY
At the door of the Holiest, coupled with the invitation to enter in (10:19-25), we heard the name of the three sisters--- Faith, Hope, and Love. The life into which faith leads us has been set before us in chapter 11; that of hope and its patience in chapter 12:1-13. We now have the life of Love and good works. Our author begins with pointing out four of the chief characteristics of the Life of Love. These are, the love of the brethren, hospitality, sympathy with those who are in bonds or persecuted, and the love of the married state (which is a mystery of the secret intimacy and intercourse with God Himself now in the heart of those who have become receptive of Him, the perfect ones. emphasis added).
Let love of the brethren continue. The word love, used of God or Christ, is not found in this Epistle. It was not needed: its whole teaching is the revelation of that Love. Of the love and loving care of the saints for each other mention has more than once been made. He that enters the Holiest finds there the God of Love. The Life and the Blessing he receives is nothing but the very nature of God, the Love of God shed abroad in his heart, as a result of his having with wholehearted devotion turned all over to God's care, keeping and charge. He cannot truly enter the presence of God or enter His Love without finding his brethren there: he cannot but prove his love to God and his joy in God in love to his brethren. On Mount Zion is the city of God, where God makes the solitary to dwell in families: we cannot share its Blessings in any way but as we share them with our fellow-citizens.
The command of our text reminds us of how love may wax cold, and how it may be sadly wanting in the Church. In divisions and separations, in indifference and neglect, in harsh judgments and unloving thoughts--- alas, how little has Christ's Church proved that it has its birth from the God of Love, that it owes its all to Him who Loved us and Loves us, gave us the New Commandment of Love, and asks us to prove our love to Him by bestowing it on our brethren. If our study of this Epistle has not been in vain, if we have seen or tasted aught of the power of the Eternal Redemption it reveals, let us yield ourselves to live lives of love. Let every child of God, be he ever so feeble or erring or unlovable, be to us the object of a deep, Christlike Love. Let us show it in the humility and gentleness, the kindliness and helpfulness, with which we give ourselves to care for them and to comfort them. The life in the city of the Living God is a Life of Love: the more we love, the more the mists will roll away and our souls see it in sunshine and beauty. The greatest of all is love: he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him.
Forget not to show love unto strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Love must prove itself in deeds. Our Lord's words: I was a stranger, and you took Me in, teach us the sacredness and the blessedness of hospitality, shown not only to friends, but to those whose only claim is that they are Christ's. It is too sadly true that, with the increase of riches and luxury, the simplicity that loves to entertain strangers is often lost. Scripture lays down no rules, it only points us to the Law of Love. It addresses us as those who have entered the Holiest, who are come to Mount Zion, and asks us, who, apart from all worthiness or merit, have been so freely and wonderfully loved and received into the home of God, that we in turn should open our home to the stranger and the needy. The Holiest is the abode of perfect Love: let him who enters live in Love. Let us remember the deep spiritual mystery, that our actions often mean more than we know; we may be entertaining angels, or even their Lord: He that receives you, receives Me.
Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; them that are evil entreated, as being yourselves also in the body. We know so well in our own body that when one member suffers all the members suffer with it. The word points to Loving union with Jesus and His Body on earth as close and real. This feeling of sympathy may and must be as quick and real in the spiritual as in the natural body. We are to feel towards the prisoners and the persecuted as if we ourselves were suffering. We have been admitted to a Life in the Home and the Love of God; they who abide there will learn thus to Love.
Let marriage be had in honor among all, and let the bed be undefiled: for fornicators and adulterers God will judge. From the wider we are now led to the inner circle. Marriage is the God-ordained type of the Love of Christ to His Church. Alas, how its Holy Union has been abused and defiled! Christianity raised marriage out of the deepest degradation, and made it, with the home that gathers round it, what it has been in the Christian Church. Love, the love of God in Christ alone, can keep it pure and holy.
You are come to the city of the Living God. Let your life be one of love. Its claims appear too high and exacting, they appear impossible to one who stands outside the gate. They become the joy of him who Knows what it is to have entered the Rest of God, where He works all. They become the very nature of Him who has, in fulness of faith, accepted Jesus as His High Priest, in the power of the Endless Life, bringing him near, giving him entrance into the Life of God. The Covenant, of which He is the Mediator, has written on the New heart the one Law of Love, has given us the Spirit of Love.
1. The first half of the Epistle opened our eyes to the Heavenly Glory of Jesus, and of that Heavenly Sanctuary into which He Lifts us. The second shows us how we are to Live that Heavenly Life on earth. The more a man Lives in Heaven, the Better fitted he is to live on earth.
2. Love is the New nature we receive from Heaven, and Is renewed from Heaven day by day. The fruit of the Spirit is Love. When the Spirit was given out from Heaven, Love filed the hearts. Let us beware of attempting to fulfill these commands of Love by our own will: It is only the Love given from God that can Love all, at all times and In all circumstances.
3. You are not come to Mount Sinai, with its life of Law and effort, of strain and failure in the materialism of the worlds spirit. But you are come to Mount Zion, with its Life in the Holy Spirit, in the power of Jesus, in joy and strength and perfect Love.
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