CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 13
It has been said that this chapter gives us the dress of the Christian, and that conveys the idea pretty much. It gives that by which the Christian is to be characterised as down here, his outward appearance. We have had entrance into privilege; then we had the life of faith, that which determines the Christian’s course here; then here we get his dress. It is not a garb to appear religious here, but is moral. The thought in chapter 10 is to go inside the veil. In chapter 13 it is outside the camp, so we get: “be content with such things as ye have”, and “to do good and to communicate forget not”.
The first thing is hospitality — and to strangers. Under the form of a stranger you may entertain an angel. An angel is a messenger of good, a bearer of good tidings.
The next thing (verse 3) is identification with those who suffer. The apostle says to Timothy, “Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner”. Many profess now in a way to value the truth, and yet hold themselves apart from those through whom it comes to us. In Psalm 18 you get the identification of Christ with Israel, right away from Egypt. The people of God were then oppressed. Their reproach was His reproach: when they suffered, He suffered with them, and the sufferings of the people in that way were the reproach of Christ, for the power [p. 481] of the world at that time was turned against them, just as it was against the Lord when He came here.
“As being yourselves also in the body”. We are in the body and therefore exposed to the same things. The right feeling for us is, that if Paul, the vessel of the truth, was bound in prison, we should be prepared to be where he was. We might have a feeling of shame in being better off than the vessel of the testimony. I think I can understand this.
Onesiphorus was not ashamed of Paul’s chain, “he sought me out very diligently, and found me”. It is very beautiful to see how he is thus marked out. He had gone into the metropolis of the world to hunt out a prisoner. God orders things so that we are free from the pressure that such were under, but we should be sympathetic. It is a great thing to be identified with those whom the Lord is putting forward for the good of His people. When Moses might have been great and instrumental for relief, through his influence with the worldly power, he did not feel that to be the true path, to be a patron of the people. It was rather to suffer with the people. Moses felt his rejection by the children of Israel a great deal more than the power of the Egyptians: “who made thee ruler and a judge over us?” The man whom God is using in His testimony is sure to come into reproach even though the powers that be do not oppress.
The next point is respect for God’s institution, and then trust in God, which is true piety. What proves piety is contentment with present circumstances. Faith brings me into God’s things; piety is the contrast of this, and brings God into my things. Piety has respect for God’s institution — marriage, etc. Another feature of it is that you are not afraid of man. Piety is called in the Old Testament “the fear of the Lord”. If we expect anything from man, we are afraid of offending. If we do not expect from man, we are not afraid of man.
[p. 482] It goes a long way to be content with present circumstances. There are few people who would not like some sort of change in some way or other. If there is not confidence in God, we are not worth much; therefore the apostle laboured so much in the doctrine that is according to piety. If I expect anything from man, I have the fear of men, and the only way to get free of fear of men is trusting God: when you can say: “the Lord is my helper”, it is then you can say, “I will not fear what man shall do unto me”. We ought to take that word home: “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee”. It is so natural to begin to reckon what we shall do in certain contingencies, but what meets every contingency is, “I will never leave thee”. God does not come in for us till we believe Him and trust Him: while people are on the line of putting God to the test — tempting Him — they will not get much from Him. If a man be pious, God will come in in some way or other for His need. I desire to be free of the fear of man, so as to be able to say, “I will not fear what man shall do unto me”. This specially refers to circumstances here — not to persecution. If I can take that home, “I will never leave thee”, I can go on my course in peace. Half our troubles are prospective.
1 Corinthians 2: 9 is not got hold of by one who does not love God. “All things work together for good to them that love God”. And it is to those who love Him that God reveals by His Spirit what eye hath not seen nor ear heard. It is this that makes us superior to every influence here. We are not to be high-minded or imprudent, but not afraid of man — the Lord is my helper. To be satisfied with present circumstances meets all the natural tendency to turn to man to gain advancement here. If God pleases to order well for a man providentially it is all right, but it is poor work for a Christian to be seeking and scheming to open doors for himself — and has a miserable effect [p. 483] on the soul, for it keeps you in the fear of man.
Verses 7 - 9. “Remember your leaders who have spoken to you the word of God”. Stability is the point here. We need to be established; the basis of stability is the word of God. These leaders were, I suppose, the Jewish apostles. Then another reason for stability is that there can be no change in Him; therefore they were not to be carried about with divers and strange doctrines. Paul is an independent writer here (the epistle is anonymous), but it is beautiful to see the recognition of these Jewish teachers. Hebrews is one of the most valuable epistles; if it were possible to take it away from us, there would be a great gap. The reason of the absence of the author’s name is evident, for Christ is the Apostle. This epistle came to the Hebrews as a kind of independent witness.
We are to remember the leaders as knowing their manner of life, “considering the end of their conversation” — whose faith follow. “Your leaders” in verse 17 are those who watch for your souls; in verse 7 those who had been the vessels of God’s communications to them. I do not care for a man’s doctrine if his manner of life does not correspond.
Verse 8 is distinct; there is no change in Jesus Christ. It is the same Person all through, not only yesterday, but today and for ever. What He was in heaven He was down here, and what He was down here He is in heaven — as to condition changed, but always the same morally. One who is carried about, shifting here and there, proves that he is not established in the word of God — this gives stability. The great difficulty for us is to rest in what we know as the word of God. Orthodoxy is no security for stability: many are orthodox who have no sense in their souls that it is the word of God. The word of God is God Himself, but God expressed. I always believed that the Bible was the word of God, but to [p. 484] know that I could trust to it if all else were broken up is another matter. Suppose every prop were knocked away and all Christian association broken up — what then? Would you cleave to the word of God as your stay? “Therefore will we not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea”, Psalm 46. A time does come when we are tested as to how far we can rely upon the word of God when all else fails. Man lost God, and therefore we know nothing of God save as God expresses Himself to us, and that is the word. We cannot know Him without the word. There is a moral character about the word — it is God in expression. If God has been pleased to express Himself, then when the upheaval of all things comes, the thing that I can trust to is the word of God, for it is Himself. Orthodoxy will not avail you then.
“We have an altar”, etc. It is evident that the apostle is addressing himself to those who had not taken the place of reproach as dead to the world — outside the camp. If you enjoy the place of privilege inside the veil, you must take the place of death to the world. It has been said “the camp” is where everything is ordered with military precision. With Israel, the camp was connected with the religious system; their camp was ordered with reference to the tabernacle; the tribes were arranged in reference to it. The only place in which Christ is known here is the place of reproach.
To “eat” is the thought of fellowship or communion. Those who were going on with the Jewish order, how were they in the fellowship of Christ’s death? Christ suffered without the camp that He might sanctify the people with His own blood. The first thing we have to learn is the Lordship of Christ. No thought that is covered by the Lordship of Christ is connected with any existing system upon earth. As Son of God, He raises up man to heavenly life. As [p. 485] Son of David, He will sit on the throne of David and bring in the sure mercies of David. As Son of man, He brings in the world to come. If we get to the Lord we must leave systems on earth, for He is outside the camp. People will never get rightly into fellowship till they get to the Lord. The systems must be left in the Spirit. The Lord is to be found, but outside all the systems here. All that goes to make up His title of Lord belongs to another order of things.
The only place in which Christ is known here is outside the camp, and that is reproach — the reproach of having suffered outside the gate. Man put Him outside, but He took that place, and He can have no place here but through judgment. This chapter is the answer to chapter 10. If we go in we cannot evade the reproach of Christ. Christ is accepted in the holiest, but He is in reproach here. Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp: “go forth” is an injunction at a certain crisis. The Living Stone is disallowed of men, but accepted of God — chosen of God and precious. The two things go together. It resolves itself into a question of going on with the first man or with the Second. Those who served the tabernacle had no business to take the place of reproach here, for the tabernacle service contemplated God being in relation with that order. If the camp were owned by God, it would be clearly wrong to go outside.
The altar refers to what the Patriarchs had — they had an altar. It [p. 488] is a place of communion, and we get eating associated with it. By the fact of being a sin-offering Christ necessarily suffered outside the gate.
In verses 7, 8 and 9, the point is stability; it is a good thing the heart should be established with grace not with meats. The “meats” in verse 9 is what gives rise to the thought of the altar.
The holiest on God’s part is where He displays Himself; on our side it is worship; the holiest is the scene where God’s purpose in Christ is displayed. It is the [p. 486] privilege into which the assembly is led by the Spirit of God. It is in the holiest Christ has His proper place in the assembly. The holiest had no existence, I judge, till Christ became man, save in type. Then we get that, not only is Christ the antitype of all in the holiest, but more, that He Himself has entered the holiest by His own blood. We get this in chapter 9: 12. We are not led into the holiest except as conscious that He is there. He is the Great Priest over the house of God. Affection claims Him and gets Him.
Nothing is of any power in the assembly but affection. If you were not in faith you would not be there, but being there, nothing is effective except the divine nature. Christ is the Living Stone — that is, we know Him and recognise Him in His nature as the Son of God, and when we realise this we too are recognised as living stones. It is thus we are led into the sense of the holiest. It is all a question of living stones, and that is not simply faith, but that you are partakers of the divine nature. This is the real point of 1 Corinthians 13. You may have all gifts, but if you have not love you are nothing.
Many people think that because they are in our fellowship, the Lord’s presence is guaranteed to them. To affection there is no difficulty in realising the Lord’s presence in the assembly. As has been said, we must first know the Lord’s relation to us as High Priest, it is then that we learn His love — not only see His death as the proof of His love, but learn the way He rescues us and draws us to Himself. The Lord is not bodily present now, it is all a question of spiritual affection. John had the deepest appreciation of His love, and for this reason, he was the disciple whom Jesus loved.
In 1 Corinthians 12, the church is the vessel of the Spirit; if this is held too exclusively it would make us Quakers, but in chapter 13 everything is made of the [p. 487] divine nature, and what we are as partakers of the divine nature. We sing sometimes,
‘’Tis the treasure we’ve found in His love,
That has made us now pilgrims below’. (139:5)
If we had any true idea of the holiest, we should feel that the only possible place here in consistency with it is that of reproach.
With God, love originates everything; with the Christian we love because we are loved. No one appreciates love without responding to it. A person may be loved and not appreciate it, but if love be appreciated you must respond to it. The Holy Spirit sheds abroad God’s love in our hearts, and our love is the answer to that. The Corinthians were gathered to the Lord’s name, but they knew little of entering into privilege. The Lord is in the midst, but it is not much good to us if it is not realised.
If we know anything of the service of Christ in the assembly we should feel that the only place in the world is the reproach of Christ, for all here is but the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life.
Verse 14, “we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come”, the Christian has the sense that there is nothing stable in this world — no continuing city. A ‘city’ in our day has a cathedral and a charter; the idea of a ‘city’ is a political and ecclesiastical centre. Jerusalem was a ‘city’. What is the charter in the coming City? “Jerusalem which is above is free”. We are under grace. The mother represents the system under which you are, and that system is grace: it is the grace in which God is accomplishing His purpose. We are not under law but under grace.
Verse 15. A sacrifice is that which costs you something, it is not quite like worship, it will cost you a little self-abnegation; the application here is individual, not collective. The idea of an altar to me involves acceptance; we are on the ground of acceptance. It is a place of communion, and we are accepted there. A man who comes to God in the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ is acceptable, and so our sacrifices are acceptable.
The blood of the burnt-offering never went inside, but that of the sin-offering did. I have thought this remarkable. The blood of the burnt-offering is connected with acceptance down here, but the blood of the sin-offering goes in to meet and vindicate God’s glory — all His claims met and vindicated, and on the ground of this we can enter. We go in in the life of Christ. It was on the day of atonement that the blood of the sin-offering was carried in: we go in in a life which needs no acceptance, but the burnt-offering, being all burnt on the altar, is the ground of acceptance for man here on earth, and that will be equally true in the millennium. We get it set forth in figure in Noah’s offering. There is no ground of acceptance for man down here save the death of Christ.
In Leviticus the way into the holiest is not yet made manifest; this makes it difficult to bring Leviticus into Hebrews.
Verses 15, 16, to minister to the need of others, and for a man to deny himself to this end is a sacrifice. It is the spirit and principle of the thing that is in question here. Sacrifice involves self-denial; what you have you do not use to gratify yourself, but for the Lord. The body is to be a sacrifice for God’s will. If I get into a passion my body is for my will.
Verse 17. “They watch for your souls”. I have wondered sometimes who watches for my soul. “Do it” is watching — that they may watch with joy. It is wider here than a local charge, I think. Watching is more than praying — it is taking oversight. It would be a comfort to people if they felt their souls were watched for. The shepherd does not drive, but leads. It is not God’s intention that people should be without a shepherd. A leader is a guide, one who [p. 489] shows the way. One of our great weaknesses is that people have so little sense that their souls are watched for. Bishops were more akin to the leaders here. The guide partakes of the character of the shepherd, and so we get the great Shepherd of the sheep. Pastor is gift, and more like the shepherd. Pastor and teacher go together.
The two great functions of the shepherd are guiding and watching — showing the way. I remember at a crisis in London a brother who had been a leader in a gathering wrote to the gathering to the effect: ‘I shall be content to go with whatever course you take’. The brother had given up the place of guide so that when the wolf came he was content to follow the sheep.
Verse 18, “For we trust we have a good conscience”. I have wondered whether there were insinuations abroad about the apostle — unworthy motives imputed, etc.; so he adds, “in all things desirous to walk rightly”.
Verses 20, 21. “Through the blood of the everlasting covenant”, should be, “in the power of the blood”.
“Perfect you in every good work to the doing of his will”; shows what the path of the Christian here is — the doing of God’s will. He works in you what is well pleasing in His sight.
“Everlasting covenant” — never to be set aside; everlasting is used all through the epistle in this sense as “eternal redemption, eternal salvation, eternal inheritance”.