Grace Still Amazes

We talked last week about remembering and imitating the faith of our leaders. For the Hebrews, some, maybe most, of those leaders were now gone, likely having been martyred for their faith. The reality is for all of us that our pastors come and go, and some of them fall into sin. We’ve seen that happen far too often among pastors we have respected and loved lately.

Not only will our leaders change, but the religious landscape around us will change. All of us who are older know that our culture has gotten “worse and worse” (2 Tim. 3:13). So Jesus’ unchanging character not only encourages them in the midst of losing good leaders but also admonishes them to stay true to the faith and not follow “diverse and strange teachings” (Heb. 13:9). If Jesus does not change, we should be wary of any new teachings.

“Jesus Christ” was the center of the message that the leaders had preached to these hearers (cf. v. 7). That message and its Hero is what this writer had urged his readers not to abandon. The leaders had preached the Word of God to these readers, and that preaching culminated in Jesus Christ.

All the changes that we face is why it is so important to keep our eyes and trust on Jesus Christ. Everything, and I mean everything else changes. Some of those changes upset us. That is why it is so comforting that “Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever” (Heb. 13:8). So we need most to follow our real Leader, Jesus Christ our Lord.

In the midst of this ever-changing environment, it is good to remember that there is one thing that never changes — and that is Jesus Christ! He was in the past exactly who He is in the present and precisely who He will be forever! That’s why Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever.”

Here, the very same Old Testament Scriptures and wording that describe God the Father’s immutableness are applied directly to Christ (cf. Psalm 102:27 and Hebrews 1:12; Isaiah 48:12 and Revelation 1:17).

The later admonition to “obey your leaders and submit to them” (13:17) may imply that some in the congregation have not transitioned well from the first generation to the present leadership. If any were troubled over the loss of those who once shepherded them, they must realize that their great shepherd is and always will be with them: “Jesus Christ is the same [ho autos] yesterday and today and forever.” The OT citations showing the Son’s divine superiority to angels at the start of this sermon included Psalm 102:25-27, in which the Son is contrasted with the created heavens and earth: “They will perish, but you remain. . . . You are the same [ho autos], and your years will have no end” (Heb. 1:10-12).

The created order’s mutability has touched his hearers’ experience in the death of their shepherds, but the divine Son, Jesus Christ, remains “the same,” unchangeable and eternal. That divine Son has become the incarnate Son, has undergone temptation and suffering and death, and has emerged triumphant “by the power of an indestructible life” (7:16) to become and remain a “priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek” (7:17). If the death of trusted human shepherds has contributed to the hearers’ weariness and faintheartedness, they must realize that they have a “great shepherd” whom God “brought again from the dead” (13:20). He “always lives to make intercession for them” (7:25) and keeps his word, promising, “I will never leave you nor forsake you,” which he expressed in other words to his awestruck disciples after his resurrection: “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). (ESV Expository Commentary).

Some of these readers might have experienced Jesus while he was still alive, but for most of them they had no first-hand experience with Christ. But the Jesus seated at the right hand of God is the same Jesus who walked on earth and the same Jesus who will come again for us.

Everything around us changes. We humans change most of all. Our moods sweeten or sour, our ability to work lessens as we age, we age and fall ill and eventually we die. Jesus does not. He always lives and is always the same.

Yesterday Jesus “offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death” (5:7). Today he is a high priest before the Father who is able to sympathize with our weakness because “in every respect [he] has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (4:15). And forever this same Jesus “always lives to make intercession for them” (7:25). “Our priest is eternally the same and eternally contemporary. We need not fear opinion changes or mood swings in Jesus!” (R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word: Hebrews, vol. 2, 228).

But what does that mean? What does it mean to say that Jesus is the “same” no matter what time or season it is? This is what theologians call “immutability.” That is, God does not change in His essence (character), His will or His plans or His promises. There is no variableness, no “shadow of turning” (James 1:17) in Christ.

“[Immutability] means that, being perfect, God cannot and does not change. In order to change, a moral being must change in either of two ways. Either he must change for the better or he must change for the worse. God cannot get better, because that would mean that He was less than perfect earlier, in which case He would not have been God. But God cannot get worse either, because in that case He would become imperfect, which He cannot be. God is and must remain perfect in all His attributes” (James Montgomery Boice, Minor Prophets, Volume 2, p. 600).

When we say that Jesus is always and ever the same and that he never changes we aren’t thinking of immutability in the way we apply that term to the Rock of Gibraltar. The Rock of Gibraltar is a very real place off the southwestern tip of Europe on the Iberian Peninsula, was known in myths and history as a solid, stable entity that could not be moved.

John MacArthur has written: “Immutability does not mean that God is static or inert, nor does it mean that He does not act distinctly in time or possess true affections. God is impassible—not in the sense that he is devoid of true feeling or has no affections but in the sense that His emotions are active and deliberate expressions of His holy dispositions, not (as is often the case with human emotions) involuntary passions by which He is driven.”

God is solid and stable, like a rock, and we can depend upon Him in any and every circumstance. But rocks don’t have sense or feelings. Jesus is alive and feels and thinks and responds to circumstances.

Jesus Christ did “become flesh” (John 1:14) but did not cease to be God. God is willing and able to be reconciled to former enemies through the cross (Romans 5:10; 2 Corinthians 5:18-19).
The Greek word for the “same” emphatically states that Jesus Christ is unchangeable! What good news this is in a world where things are changing at lightning speed! Jesus Christ is the one Person we can depend on to be the same, regardless of the time or the spirit of the age. We don’t need to refigure who Jesus is, what He thinks, or what His message is, because He is the same — and everything He represents is the same — yesterday, today, and forever!

The word “yesterday” is the Greek word exthes, and it depicts all time that ever was up until this present moment. It describes the past. The word “today” is the Greek word semeron, and it means today or at this very moment or this current age. It depicts the present. But in the Bible when the words “yesterday and today” are used in one phrase, as they are used here, it also portrays continuity.
The words “yesterday and today” are an Old Testament expression to denote continuity (see Exodus 5:14; 2 Samuel 15:20). So here we find that Jesus isn’t one way in the past and another way in the present. Whoever He was in the past is exactly who He is in the present. There is continuity in Jesus Christ!

Therefore, if you discover Jesus of the past, you have also discovered Jesus of the present, and you have discovered Jesus of the future, because He is continuously the same. The word “forever” in Greek means into all the ages of the future. This phrase depicts all future time to come, including all ages that will ever be known. Hence, it describes the future.

I don’t know about you, but I am so thankful that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for all future ages! With all the sweeping changes happening in the world right now, I thank God that Jesus isn’t one of them!

Who He was in the past, in the Gospels is the same Jesus who is present with us today and will be with us forever!

There is no “before” or “after” with God, as there is with us. There’s no “He used to be like that, but now He’s like this.” There’s no such thing as “the Old Testament God” as opposed to “the New Testament God.” He was good, He is good, and He always will be good. And the same can be said about His power, His wisdom, His love, and so on.

Another way to talk about God’s immutability is that whereas you and I are always “becoming,” God is always “being.” We’re always traveling; God is already there and has always been. We can develop or deteriorate, grow or decay, progress or regress. But with God, there is no room for improvement. He has always been, and always will be, utterly and delightfully perfect in every way. One theologian puts it like this: “All that is creaturely is in [the] process of becoming. [The creature] is changeable, constantly striving, in search of rest and satisfaction, and finds this rest only in him who is pure being without becoming.”

So when we talk about Jesus never changing, we mean, first of all, that His love towards us does not change. There is no “loves me, loves me not.” Whom He loves, He loves to the end (John 13:1). His love for you doesn’t rise and fall like a thermometer. It doesn’t change toward us because we fail Him, rather His love changes us.

William E. Sangster, a Methodist leader, suggested that if you nail your heart to people, they will move and change, but if you nail your heart to Jesus, as the Bible says, He is, “the same yesterday and today and forever.”

Now, understand that God loves different people in different ways. God “loved the world” (John 3:16) and provides the possibility of salvation. God loves His own children in a different and deeper way. He also loves someone who obeys Him (John 15:14) and who is a cheerful giver (2 Cor. 9:6) in a different way. We could say for those who belong to Jesus Christ God’s love towards us is unconditional, or maybe better said, “contra-conditional.” He loves us even though we are sinners.

The Puritan Thomas Adams takes his love back into the past before the worlds began. He writes:
“Much comfort I must hear leave to your meditation. If God preordained a Savior for man before He had either made man, or man had marred himself—as Paul to Timothy, “He hath saved us according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (2 Tim. 1:9)—then surely he meant that nothing would separate us from that eternal love in that Savior (Romans 8:29)” (Thomas Adams, The Immutable Mercy of Jesus Christ).

Secondly, God’s promises do not change. Isaiah 40:8 makes the point: “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” He will always be faithful to keep His promises no matter how seemingly impossible it may be. “There is many a believer who forsakes God, but there is never a believer whom God forsakes” says Bob LaForge.

When God’s people departed from Him (in the Old Testament biblical accounts) all the more emphasis was put upon His faithfulness, so that the only hope of His wayward people lay not only in His grace and mercy but also in His faithfulness, which stands in marked contrast with the faithlessness and inconstancy of His people (Gaspar Hodge).

“God is true. His Word of Promise is sure. In all His relations with His people God is faithful. He may be safely relied upon. No one ever yet really trusted Him in vain. We find this precious truth expressed almost everywhere in the Scriptures, for His people need to know that faithfulness is an essential part of the Divine character. This is the basis of our confidence in Him” (A. W. Pink, The Attributes of God). As Spurgeon says, “God writes with a pen that never blots, speaks with a tongue that never slips, acts with a hand that never fails.”

Consider God’s faithfulness to His promises: We learn that all things do work together for good (Rom. 8:28). We learn that God will never leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5). We learn that nothing will separate us from the love of Christ (Rom. 8:35). We learn to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7). We learn to trust in God’s character and not our circumstances. We learn no detail of our life is outside His loving purpose and sovereign control. We learn His solution far surpasses our most creative imagination. We learn God is often closest when we least feel His presence. We learn Hebrews 10:23 which calls us to “hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.”

Thirdly, His presence is always with us. To say that Jesus is unchanging and always the same means that there never has been a time in the past and never will be in the days ahead when his assurance to us in the Great Commission will prove false. You will recall that in Matthew 28 Jesus said, “And I will be with you, even to the end of the age.”

So here in v. 8 he tells us that we need never fear that we will wake up one day and God will be gone, vanished, having left us to ourselves. We know this will never be the case because Jesus Christ who is God is the “same” yesterday, when he first made that promise, as well as today when I need him to be near and close by to me, and in the days and weeks and years ahead when my life starts to fall apart.

When we face difficulties, we sometimes forget God’s past faithfulness. We see only the detours and the dangerous path. But look back and you will also see the joy of victory, the challenge of the climb, and the presence of your Traveling Companion who has promised never to leave you nor forsake you.

I’m sure most of you are familiar with the poem Footprints in the Sand.

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with
the Lord. Scenes from my life flashed across the sky. In
each, I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were
two sets of footprints; other times there was only one.
During the low periods of my life I could see only one set of
footprints, so I said, “You promised me, Lord, that you would
walk with me always. Why, when I have needed you most,
have you not been there for me?”
The Lord replied, “The times when you have seen only one set
of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.”

This is the consistent reason, throughout Scripture, why we have no need to fear. After the death of Moses, God encouraged Joshua, the new leader who would lead the children of Israel into the covenanted land, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9).

What a precious promise.

What this means most of all for us and for our author’s first-century readers, is that everything else may change and does change, and only Christ can be depended upon. Our trust in him is therefore a confident trust, for we know that he will not, indeed cannot, change. His purposes are unfailing, his promises unassailable. It is because the God who promised us eternal life is immutable that we may rest assured that nothing, not trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword shall separate us from the love of Christ. It is because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever that neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, not even powers, height, depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:38-39)!

No matter what lies ahead in this always-changing world with its drifting continents and fading suns—no matter what the seas may bring, we must sustain ourselves with this double-focus—remembering those who have gone before and focusing on Jesus Christ, our eternal, unchangeable contemporary. Those who truly do this will navigate the roughest seas.

Today we’re going to look at a verse in Hebrews 13 that has to do with our response to those who lead us in the church. Who has had an impact upon your life spiritually? What men or women have taught you truth that has changed your life? Who are your mentors? More than likely someone has planted seeds in your life that have helped you to become the man or woman you are today. Hebrews 13:7 encourages us to remember them and imitate them.

Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.

Oh how the church, and even our culture, needs leaders who faithfully speak God’s Word and live in such a way that we want to imitate their faith. Unfortunately, even in this past year we have seen pastor after pastor fall to moral failures.

How we need models. We need men and women that we can pattern our lives after. Men and women of ironclad integrity, strong faith, indomitable courage, sacrificial kindness and genuine humility.
The Bible puts a high emphasis on remembering, usually remembering things about what God has done for us and who He is. But we are also to remember our leaders, those who taught us and modeled the faith for us. We are to regularly call them to mind so that we can imitate their faith. The verb consider actually means to “look at again and again,” to “observe carefully.” (William Hendriksen & Simon J. Kistemaker, NT Commentary: Hebrews, 414)

It’s too easy to forget those who are dead and gone. Our attention span can only focus on so much these days, and the new and spectacular tends to grab our attention. Warren Wiersbe reminds us that “while we do not worship people or give them the glory, it is certainly right to honor them for their faithful work.”

Unlike the Lord, who is ever with us (Heb. 13:5-6), human leaders, just like the Old Testament priests are “prevented by death from continuing in office” (Heb. 7:23). Therefore, in addition to “remembering” those presently suffering imprisonment and abuse (13:3), the hearers must also “remember” their congregation’s original leaders, who no longer serve among them.

It is important to have guides and mentors from the past. Maybe for you these are people who have long since passed from this life, people like John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Simeon or even more recently J. I. Packer or Eugene Peterson. I would encourage you, if you cannot think of someone who has impacted your life significantly, to turn to some of these mentors from the past and learn from them.

In fact, I would encourage you to read Christian biographies. There are some compilations which feature several key Christians, like John Woodbridge’s Sketches of Faith: An Introduction to Characters from Christian History, Eric Metaxas’ Seven Men and the Secret of Their Greatness and Seven Women and the Secret of Their Greatness, and James and Marti Hefleys’ By Their Blood: Christian Martyrs of the 20th Century and Tim Chester’s Bitesize Biographies. All of John Piper’s compilations of men from the past which he calls The Swans are not Silent, seven books each covering three biographical sermons about men from the past are excellent.

Then there are individual biographies as well. I would recommend John Bunyan’s Grace Abounding, Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret, Iain Murray’s Amy Carmichael. There are several biographies of C. S. Lewis, Charles Spurgeon, Martin Luther and John Newton that are excellent as well. All of these will encourage your faith. Tim Challies has a long list of Christian biographies on his website: https://www.challies.com/book-recommendations/biographies/

Now, the key concepts here are remembering and imitating. One of the dangers we have in our society is what is widely known as the “celebrity culture” in which pastors are often put upon pedestals and almost treated as gods. This is unhealthy. It is fine to remember them and imitate their lives, but don’t worship them.

R. Kent Hughes reminds us how this passage fits in this context. He says…

“Significantly, this is beautifully consistent with the purpose of chapter 13, which is to strengthen the little Hebrew church so it will ride out the coming storms of persecution. A church that adequately recalls its godly leaders and considers the outcome of their way of life and attempts to imitate that way of life will sail well! Remembering, considering, and imitating the virtues of departed believers is of greatest spiritual importance both to one’s family and to the broader family of the Body of Christ. Doing so will certainly help keep the boat afloat” (R. Kent Hughes, Hebrews, An Anchor for the Soul, volume 2, p. 227).

Our author points out two specific characteristics of these men. They had taught them the Word and they lived out their faith. In other words, they preached the Word, then they practiced what they preached (Ezra 7:10). First, these are men “who spoke to you the word of God.” When you recall how few copies of Scripture these first century churches possessed, you can see how highly dependent they were upon teachers of the Word. This teaching the Word is a vital part of our mentoring and discipling of others today, that we engage with them over the Scriptures. We open the Scriptures and seek to interpret its meaning just like Ezra and Nehemiah did. “They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading” (Neh. 8:8).

Likely this author wanted his readers to become so proficient with the Scriptures that, like the Bereans, they could “examin[e] the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11).

Relationships that impact us deeply are relationships that are built upon the truth of God’s Word. Oh, we can have relationships with people outside the faith. In fact, we should. But our spiritual lives are nourished by being around people of the Book. We need the Word of God to guide us, especially today with its emphasis on feelings.

In Paul’s final imprisonment he wrote the Pastoral Epistles. Over and over again in those three letters to Timothy and Titus Paul emphasized the importance of sound doctrine and instructing people in that sound doctrine.

Paul gives instructions for many ministries of the church, but the one he emphasizes most is the ministry of preaching and teaching the Word of God. He exhorts Timothy to “devote [himself] to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation [preaching], to teaching” (1 Tim. 4:13). The ministry of the Word is critical to faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Moreover, sitting under the Word strengthens the faith of God’s people. In 2 Timothy, Paul exhorts his younger colleague to “preach the Word . . . in season and out of season . . . for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions” (2 Tim. 4:2-3).

Paul told Timothy, “and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also” (2 Tim. 2:2). We are to teach the Word so that it is passed on from generation to generation.

But we are not only to listen to these men teach, we are also to watch their lives, the way that they live and (likely) the way that they died. This is so that we can imitate them. They say that more is caught than taught, meaning that the way you live preaches more powerfully than the words of your mouth.

Remember that Jesus chose twelve men “so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach” (Mark 4:13). These men learned by watching Jesus. It was not just what He taught that was vitally important, it was the way he interacted with people, cared for people, and lived His life before the Father. They saw him pray and then asked, “Teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1). It was this very reality that these men had been “with Jesus” that was so obvious to the religious leaders after Pentecost. In Acts 4:13, as Peter and John are preaching before the Sanhedrin, their conclusion was “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.”

Life on life is so very important. Those who disciple, don’t just depend upon some written curriculum and believe that once you have finished that you have discipled someone. They need to see how you live. That was the genius of Dawson Trotman, the founder of the Navigators. He would invite sailors into his home to see how he and Lila and his children lived together. They need to see your “way of life.”

Now, it is quite possible that our author is speaking of leaders who are no longer with them. In the past they “spoke to you the word of God,” and hearers must now recollect the “outcome of their way of life.” That “outcome” (ekbasis) was their exit from life on this earth, the completion of their pilgrimage. Whether their deaths were due to natural or accidental causes or to martyrdom, our author does not say. Although the hearers of Hebrews themselves had not yet shed blood (12:4), some of their leaders may have done so.

Scholars agree that the author here is referring to past leaders who have already died. In 13:17 & 24, he refers to current leaders. But in 13:7, they are told to consider (Greek = “to look at again and again”) the result or outcome of these past leaders’ way of life, implying that they successfully finished their course. While some of them had been martyred, it is not specifically the actual death which they were to consider and imitate, but rather the “sum total” or “achievement” of their day-to-day behavior, manifested in a whole life. Yes, they had finished their race well.

This, of course, is what our author had earlier encouraged all of them to do, to run the race so as to win. Back in Hebrews 12 he encouraged them:

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Elsewhere in the NT, congregational leaders are called “elders” or “overseers” (Acts 20:17-35; Phil. 1:1; 1 Tim. 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9; 1 Pet. 5:2-3). Teaching and spiritual shepherding are the ministries of such elders/overseers. The original leaders of the people reading this letter “spoke . . . the word of God,” and their successors were “keeping watch over your souls” (Heb. 13:7, 17). The first generation’s integrity and conduct were no doubt exemplary, but our author spotlights their faith as that which must be imitated (reinforcing the point of 10:26-12:3).

Now, reading this passage in its context, we realize that the dilemma these readers were facing, in addition to losing some of their leaders, there was the possibility of being “carried away by varied and strange teachings” (13:9), including returning to Judaism. So he calls them to remember the godly teachers who had spoken the word of God to them (13:7). Even though these men had now died, Jesus Christ, whom they preached, is the same yesterday, today, and forever (13:8). His grace (13:9) and His sacrificial death on the cross (13:10-12) are at the center of sound doctrine.

Jesus and His death on the cross have become our altar, which supersedes and replaces the Jewish altar in the temple. Therefore, we must turn our backs on Judaism or any other religion and hold firmly to Christ and the cross (13:13). If such faith leads to hardship, rejection, persecution, or even death, keep in mind that we are not living for rewards in this life, but for the reward He has promised us in heaven (13:14).

The fact that our heroes do sometimes fall and every leader eventually dies is what makes verse 8 so powerful. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” The reality is, even for those of us preachers and leaders who are still here, we need to point our people to Jesus. Their focus must be on Him, not us.

Warren Wiersbe relates how after announcing his resignation from a church that he had been pastoring for several years, one of the members said to him, “I don’t see how I’m going to make it without you! I depend so much on you for my spiritual help!”

His reply shocked her. He said, “Then the sooner I leave, the sooner you can start depending on the Lord. Never build your life on any servant of God. Build your life on Jesus Christ. He never changes.”

So, keep pointing to Jesus. Give him all the glory. Don’t steal the glory from God.

But all of us, as leaders, should want to finish well. Seeing men that we have known and respected crash and burn through moral failures makes this all the more urgent. We should want to be like Paul, neither coasting into the final years of our lives, nor crashing and burning, but finishing well.
Paul said at the end of his two letters to Timothy (2 Timothy 4:7-8)…

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.”

Paul fought, Paul finished, Paul kept the faith. Finishing well means that we deal with our sins decisively, killing sin and confessing it when we commit sin. It also means treasuring God, beholding Christ, and being filled with the Spirit — finding all our satisfaction in Him.

It made me think of Robertson McQuilkin, who served as president of Columbia International University for 22 years, died in 2016. He wrote these words before he died:

It’s sundown, Lord … I fear not death, for that grim foe betrays himself at last, thrusting me forever into life: life with you, unsoiled and free.

But I do fear … That I should end before I finish or finish, but not well. That I should stain your honor, shame your name, grieve your loving heart. Few, they tell me, finish well. . . Lord, let me get home before dark.

McQuilkin feared “the darkness of a spirit grown mean and small, fruit shriveled on the vine, bitter to the taste of my companions … the darkness of tattered gifts, rust-locked, half-spent, or ill-spent, a life that once was used of God now set aside.” He longed for fruit “lush and sweet, a joy to all who taste.” He wanted to burn brighter at the end.

“Of your grace, Father, I humbly ask. . . Let me get home before dark,” he prayed. And to that we say, “Amen.”

When we use the phrase, “finishing well,” we mean following Christ to the very end of our lives, finishing his assignments for us and hearing his “well done, good and faithful servant.” That should be our highest desire, our greatest goal in life.

Ultimately, the only thing that can keep is in the race and help us to finish well is to drink deeply of God’s grace constantly. Grace is also how we start the race. Grace is what keeps us in the race. And grace is what takes us to the end. As John Newton put it in his famous hymn, “Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.”

When all is said and done, grace is the ultimate explanation for why any of us make it. We are kept by the grace of God. It is then very appropriate to pray, “Lord, give me the grace to finish well.”
Jerry Bridges identifies four practices that can help us finish well. He says…

There may be other issues that are important, but I believe these four are fundamental. They are:
 daily time of focused personal communion with God
 daily appropriation of the gospel
 daily commitment to God as a living sacrifice
 firm belief in the sovereignty and the love of God
https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/four-essentials-to-finishing-well

So if you are a leader, set your nose to the grindstone and pursue those practices that will help you to finish well. The church depends upon it. Future generations of Christians depend upon it. Teach the Word well, but also live a life that is worth imitating.

If you are a Christian, look for leaders whose life you can imitate. If you cannot find one that is near you, get on the phone or go visit them. If you cannot find anyone that is alive, find a mentor among the biographies I mentioned earlier.

For the Hebrews, it was their regular recollection of the victorious witness of those persons who had first led them to Christ by faith, of their joyful living for the glory of God, and of their untroubled dying in the assured hope of resurrection, that would put away from them all thoughts of giving up their own struggle. It would encourage them to “keep on keeping on.”

And I hope it will do the same for you today.

Last week we looked at a second idol that is so dangerous to our Christian race, the temptation to believe that money and possessions will fill the holes in our souls and bring us ultimate joy and satisfaction. The reality is that only God can do that. Our text is Hebrews 13:5-6:

5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”

Instead of coveting more, we need to learn to be content with what we have, with what God has given us.

Steve Cole illustrates the reality that contentment is an attitude of the heart independent of circumstances in this way:

A Jewish man in Hungary went to his rabbi and complained, “Life is unbearable. There are nine of us living in one room. What can I do?” The rabbi answered, “Take your goat into the room with you.” The man was incredulous, but the rabbi insisted, “Do as I say and come back in a week.”

A week later the man returned looking more distraught than before. “We can’t stand it,” he told the rabbi. “The goat is filthy.” The rabbi said, “Go home and let the goat out, and come back in a week.” A week later the man returned, radiant, exclaiming, “Life is beautiful. We enjoy every minute of it now that there’s no goat—only the nine of us.” (Reader’s Digest [12/81].) Contentment is more a matter of our perspective than of our circumstances, isn’t it!

But even among God’s people, true contentment is not common. The Puritan Jeremiah Burroughs captured this fact by titling his book, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. The philosopher, Immanuel Kant, saw this when he observed, “Give a man everything he wants, and at that moment, everything will not be everything” (cited by Richard Swenson, Margin [NavPress], p. 190).
Contentment never comes from having more, contentment comes from trusting in the God who can provide all that we need. When we have God, we have all we need.

What is to be the standard of contentment as to food and clothing? The Apostle furnishes us with it in the words before us: “Be content with present things.” Indeed, if we do not make this the standard of contentment, we will never be content at all (John Brown, Geneva Series Commentaries: Hebrews, 682). We are to be content with the things we already possess, that God has already given to us. In fact, one of the best ways to overcome our greed is to be grateful for what we already have. Another is to be generous with what we have.

For you see, not only does contentment focus upon what I presently have, not what I feel like I “need”; contentment also focuses upon eternity. Joni Eareckson Tada says it like this:
For me, true contentment on earth means asking less of this life because more is coming in the next. Godly contentment is great gain. Heavenly gain. Because God has created the appetites in your heart, it stands to reason that He must be the consummation of that hunger. Yes, heaven will galvanize your heart if you focus your faith not on a place of glittery mansions, but on a Person, Jesus, who makes heaven a home” (Heaven: Your Real Home, p. 126)

The reality was, some of these people our author is addressing had had property seized, had been put in prison, had all their worldly possessions taken away from them. Certainly that could be a reason for them to abandon their faith. But the writer here encourages them to keep their eyes on their Lord.

A boatload of discontented materialists—lovers of money—will not do well in the coming storms. Those who always want more and more will turn away from God when their Christianity brings material subtraction rather than addition. On the other hand, those who are content—who have found their ultimate treasure in the unflagging presence and care of God—these will sail on!

And that gets us to the reason our author gives for pursuing contentment in life, “for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” What a wonderful, amazing promise!

The Greek text is very emphatic that this is a promise directly from God to you, for literally “He himself said ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.” No one else has said it on God’s behalf. This isn’t someone claiming to speak for God. God himself, and it is quite emphatic, is the one who makes this promise and assurance to us. And he doesn’t merely say it once. Again, more literally, “he said it and it still stands.” Or, the ever-lingering and always applicable effect of what he said is that he will never leave us.

“Greed not only flows from the lie that God is not enough for us in the present, but the fear that he will not adequately provide for our future. Greed not only wants to hoard, acquire, and possess more today, but it also fears that God will not meet our sense of need and be enough for us tomorrow. Hebrews 13:5 not only teaches us that the opposite of the ‘love of money’ is being ‘content with what you have,’ but it also takes God’s stunning promise of provision to Joshua (Josh. 1:5) and gives it to every Christian: ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ Far better than having some seemingly endless, but finite reserve of possessions is having the infinite God himself and his truly endless energy and resourcefulness to supply our every need, and to lavish his grace on us ‘far more abundantly than all that we ask or think’ (Eph. 3:20)” (David Mathis, Kill Joys: The Seven Deadly Sins)

In other words, “Christians, be content because you have God—and he will never forsake you!” “be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’”
Where in the Old Testament did God say he would never leave us or forsake us? Only occasionally explicitly, but everywhere implicitly! God told Jacob as he fled from Esau to Bethel, “I am with you. . . . I will not leave you” (Gen. 28:15). Moses encouraged the Israelites, “Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you” (Deut. 31:6, cf. vv. 7, 8). When Joshua was called to take over Moses’ leadership, God said, “I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you” (Josh. 1:5). David instructed Solomon, “Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed, for the LORD God, even my God, is with you” (1 Chron. 28:20). David expressed the preciousness of God’s presence when he said, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” “To the people of Israel as a whole God said: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you” (Isa. 43:2). To the church Jesus said: “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20).

There is no more precious promise than God’s presence with us. In Psalm 73 Asaph initially becomes envious of the wicked who had so much—not only material possessions, but health and comfort and influence over others. It bothered him greatly, until he went to worship and there his perspective turned more towards God, towards spiritual realities and towards eternity. Then he realized that all that they had on earth would perish with them, but he would be received into glory (Psa. 73:24). His conclusion then are some of my favorite verses in Scripture:

“Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” (Psa. 73:25-26)

Asaph was enabled to revive in his estimation the value of God’s presence over having all the advantages of this life. You see, idols cannot be just rooted out of one’s life by willpower, it has to be replaced. As Thomas Chalmers called this the “expulsive power of a new affection.” You get rid of the old affections by replacing them with new, and greater, affections.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones illustrates it this way: “The way the dead leaves of winter are removed from some trees is not that people go around plucking them off; no, it is the new life, the shoot that comes and pushes off the dead in order to make room for itself. In the same way the Christian gets rid of all such things as bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking and all malice. The new qualities develop and the others simply have no room; they are pushed out and they are pushed off.”

Charles Spurgeon reminds us, “You that are familiar with the Greek text know that there are five negatives here. We cannot manage five negatives in English, but the Greeks find them not too large a handful. Here the negatives have a fivefold force. It is as though it said, ‘I will not, not leave thee; I will never, no never, forsake thee.’” How wonderful is that? He uses a double negative which might be rendered this way: “I will not, no, by no means will I ever abandon you. And if that doesn’t register with your soul, let me say it again: I will not, no, by no means ever will I forsake you.” Wow!

You would think saying it once would be enough. But God knows how prone we are to doubt. He knows how inclined we are to question whether or not he’s really that committed to us. He knows that our experience in this world is one where we are often abandoned by people closest to us. People make promises. They make vows. They declare their undying and unwavering commitment and promise that no matter what happens they will always be there for us. No matter how bad it gets, whether there be financial disaster or physical disability or some devastating loss, they tell us that we can count on them. They won’t let us down.

God knows that all of us, at some time or other, and in the case of many of you several times, have experienced the devastation that comes when that person on whom you thought you could always depend failed to show up or decided not to stick with you. Or if they did show up, they told you they were backing out of a relationship or a marriage or now refuse to fulfill a promise or pay a debt.
God says:

“I know how hard it is for you to believe anyone when they promise they’ll always be present with you. I know how deep the pain is in your heart. I know that your instinct is never to trust anyone ever again. I know that you’ve put up defenses in your heart lest you suffer that unimaginably painful rejection yet again. I know that you think you yourself can only rely on you yourself. But I’m telling you that, as God, as the only totally truthful being in the universe, I will always be there when you need me. You may not feel my presence. You may feel all alone, but you aren’t. I’m there. I’m watching and loving and caring and guiding you through even the worst of circumstances. So don’t be afraid. Don’t make stupid or sinful decisions based on your past experience with unreliable people. Trust me. I will never, ever, by no means ever leave you or forsake you or abandon you. There isn’t much you can rely on in this life. The stock market looks stable, but one day it will crash. Your house feels sturdy and strong, but a tornado may leave it in a pile of rubble. Your husband/wife gives every indication that they meant what they said when they exchanged wedding vows with you, but there’s no guarantee they won’t fall in love with someone else. Your best friend has repeatedly told you, ‘If you’re ever in a bind, call me.’ But I’m the only one you can ultimately and unconditionally and with complete confidence know will keep his word to you.”

And here’s the most important point. God will be there when money cannot be. You can’t trust money to be there like you can trust God to be there.

Again, “This is the reason why we must not be covetous. There is no room to be covetous, no excuse for being covetous, for God hath said, ‘I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.’ We ought to be content. If we are not content, we are acting insanely, seeing the Lord has said, ‘I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.’”

The material things in life can decay or be stolen, but God will “never leave us or forsake us.” He will not leave us even for a little while. He may seem to hide his face, but he will not leave us.

The soul that on Jesus hath lean’d for repose,
I will not, I will not, desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavour to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.
Rippon’s Hymns, 1787

What a wonderful promise. God promises he will “never leave us or forsake us.” People may forsake us, turning their backs on us and we can no longer count on them as friends. Even married people can become enemies and divorce. And people, through no fault of anyone, may move away and leave us. But God does neither. He will not forsake us, no matter how much we mistreat Him. And He will never leave us, He is always present, right at our side, or as Tozer says, “God is as near to you as your own breath, as near to you as your blood, as near to you as your nerves, as near to you as your thoughts and your soul.”

And here’s the amazing truth. God will always be there for us precisely because one day on a cruel cross at Calvary, God abandoned His own Son. Yes, God did forsake his only-begotten Son. He abandoned him on the cross. He gave him over to torture and death. He turned His back on His beloved Son. Jesus cried out from the cross those plaintive words of Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Of all the people on earth that God should have kept this promise to, it was Jesus, His perfect Son. But out of eternal love and grace and mercy He had determined to forsake His Son on the cross so that you and I might be accepted, eternally and fully and completely accepted.

Jesus was forsaken and abandoned as the punishment and judgment you and I deserved, precisely in order that we would never have to undergo such an experience. We will never be forsaken by God precisely because Jesus was forsaken in our place. Whatever abandonment you and I deserved, abandonment to eternal torment, he suffered. The separation from God that he endured, we should have, but now never will.

Therefore, if someone had pushed back against God’s promise here in v. 5 and said, “How do I know you will never leave me or forsake me,” God would reply by pointing to the cross of Christ. “There,” he says to us, “right there in the God-forsakenness of my Son and your substitute is the assurance that you will never undergo what he did. All the reasons why I might leave you or forsake you have been poured out on Jesus.”

Based upon this strong, amazing promise (v. 5), we can speak to ourselves with confidence (θαρροῦντας), reminding ourselves that “The Lord is my helper.” Our mind-set must be crowned with matchless confidence: “So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’” (v. 6). The Apostle Paul addressed this same issue in slightly different terms in Romans 8. He asked: “If God is for us, who can be against us”? (Rom. 8:31). And he backed this statement up with another look at the cross for proof: “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32).

When our minds are fearful at what man can do to us, this is the promise we must remember.
This is the mind-set that will ride out the storm no matter what happens to us—just as Chrysostom did when he was brought before the Roman emperor and was threatened with banishment:

“Thou canst not banish me for this world is my father’s house.” “But I will slay thee,” said the Emperor. “Nay, thou canst not,” said the noble champion of the faith, “for my life is hid with Christ in God.” “I will take away thy treasures.” “Nay, but thou canst not for my treasure is in heaven and my heart is there.” “But I will drive thee away from man and thou shalt have no friend left.” “Nay, thou canst not, for I have a friend in heaven from whom thou canst not separate me. I defy thee; for there is nothing that thou canst do to hurt me.”

Our author quotes from Psalm 118:6 (LXX 117:6): “The Lord is my helper [boēthos]; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” The ancient psalmist, surrounded by enemies, confidently defeated them “in the name of the LORD” (Psalm 118:10-13). Hebrews has shown the length to which the Lord went to be our “helper,” undergoing suffering and temptation in order to “help” (boētheō) us in temptation (2:14-18) and to grant us access to the throne of grace, where we find “grace to help [boētheia] in time of need” (4:16).

This quotation from Psalm 118:6 points to the truth that real contentment comes only when we trust in God to meet our needs and to be our security. There will always be the temptation to believe that our security comes from our bank accounts and pension plans, from insurance and retirement accounts. But our help comes from God.

Psalm 118 us a Messianic Psalm, meaning that it is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. As Warren Wiersbe says, “It was a source of great peace to the early Christian to know that they were safe from the fear of man, for no man could do anything to them apart from God’s will, Men might take their goods, but God would meet their needs” (The Wiersbe Bible Commentary: New Testament, p. 843).

A woman once said to evangelist D. L. Moody, “I have found a promise that helps me when I am afraid. It is Psalm 56:3—‘What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.’” Mr. Moody replied, “I have a better promise than that! Isaiah 12:2—‘I will trust and not be afraid.’” Both promises are true and each has its own application to life circumstances. The important thing is that we know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Helper, and that we not put our trust in material things.

Our last two statements about God “never leaving or forsaking” and God is “my helper,” show us that theology—what we believe about God—is vitally relevant and practical for our daily lives. We are all theologians. We all believe something about God. Unfortunately, that something is not always accurate nor adequate.

To think accurately about God is to think about him exactly as the Scriptures have presented Him to us. Throughout history, even the Israelites of all people, worshipped gods other than the true God. God had warned them to “have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3), but throughout history until their return from Babylon, the Jewish people had a tendency to adopt the gods of the surrounding nations and worship them. That ruined their lives.

Late in the history of the Northern Kingdom, before they were taken into captivity in 722 B.C. by the Assyrians, Hosea warned, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…” (Hos. 4:6). In particular, they didn’t know their God and they disregarded His laws.

It is vital that we think accurately about God today. We have the advantage of the whole Bible and two thousand years of study and reflection upon the Word of God. We have commentaries and theological works to help us understand and worship the true God. There is no excuse for us. Yet today we still worship idols—idols of sexual pleasure and material accumulation. We mistakenly believe that they will “save” us from lives of disappointment, boredom, meaninglessness, powerlessness, victimhood, aloneness. Every addiction is our attempt to fill the holes in our souls through idols.

It is also vital that we think adequately about God today. What do I mean by that? Why is that important? We think accurately about God when we understand that He is holy—completely unique and totally set apart from sin. But we think adequately about God when it our hearts grasp that He is “holy, holy, holy,” holy to the highest extreme. It is important to know that God is merciful, but even more important that we know that He is “rich in mercy.”

So knowing God is vitally important and it is practically relevant to our lives today. Because God is always with us and promises to help us, we don’t have to fall into the trap of trusting in money to be our savior, we can trust in the only One who truly can deliver us.

Over the course of the last few weeks we’ve been looking at several imperatives that start off Hebrews 13, commands on how to live the Christian life: “Let brotherly love continue,” “do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers,” “remember those who are in prison,” then last week “let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled.”  Today we come to the last of the imperatives and the second of which identifies two of our most dangerous idols that we pursue for the sake of happiness—sexual fulfillment and a multiplicity of possessions.

4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. 5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”

I’m fairly confident in saying that regardless of the century in which a person lives, sex and money will always be at the top of the list when it comes to our greatest battles and the temptations we encounter.  Today we want to look at the temptation to greed and covetousness.

Decades ago Friedrich Nieztzsche wrote that with the absence of God in our culture, money would take His place.  Money would become our idol.

“What induces one man to use false weights, another to set his house on fire after having insured it for more than its value, a third to take part in counterfeiting, while three-fourths of our upper classes indulge in legalized fraud…what gives rise to all this? It is not real want, — for their existence is by no means precarious…but they are urged on day and night by a terrible impatience at seeing their wealth pile up so slowly, and by an equally terrible longing and love for these heaps of gold…What was once done “for the love of God” is now done for the love of money, i.e. for the love of that which at present affords us the highest feeling of power and a good conscience.”

But so few of us really think that we are greedy!  The other guy, sure, but not me. In fact, covetousness and greed are often admired in our culture.  It is part and parcel of ambition.  

The Bible also calls this covetousness and it is the last of the prohibitions in the Ten Commandments (Exod. 20:17) and the one that Paul says tripped him up (Rom. 7:7-8). John Owen has said that “covetousness is an inordinate desire to enjoy more money than we have, or than God is pleased to give us.”

Yet, love of money is a huge pitfall in the Christian life.  So here in Hebrews 13:4-6 our author links together these two prevalent idols in our culture—the desire for sexual fulfillment and the desire for more and more.

The sins of sexual impurity and covetousness are linked in several NT passages (e.g., 1 Cor 5:10-11; Eph 4:19; 1 Thes 4:3-6), probably because their prohibitions are given side by side as the seventh and eighth of the Ten Commandments.  Both the sexually immoral and those greedy for money pursue a myopic self-gratification that takes them outside the bounds of God’s provision.  Such greed amounts to accusing God of incompetence as a provider of one’s most basic needs and, therefore, is incompatible with commitment to God himself (cf. Mt 6:24).  Consequently, Christians are exhorted to keep their lives “free from the love of money” and to “be content” with what they have.  (George H. Guthrie, The NIV Application Commentary: Hebrews, 437)

The pagan culture at the time, and our modern, especially New York culture today; puts those two things (money and sex) in opposition.  For us today, sex is just a means to an end.  It is not a holy, sacred thing.  So you do it with whomever.  But, money is very, very sacred and so you don’t share it with anybody.  But you see, Christians are the opposite.  Because in Christianity, sex is seen as a holy thing in itself.  Something that you don’t share with anybody but your spouse.  But money is not big a deal.  You share it with whomever. (Tim Keller; Money and Your Faith)

Covetousness, either of another man’s wife, or someone else’s property, is a perilous snare.  The Christian believes that in his providential goodness the Lord will give him what is good for him.  He will work hard, be generous with his possessions, and leave the rest with God.  He certainly does not spend his precious time fretting about how he can collect more money, or acquire more valuable things.  This is the way the godless behave.  The believer is grateful for those material necessities he already possesses and rejoices in far more satisfying spiritual possessions.  His heart is set on those riches, not on the perishable things which have no value beyond death.  Covetousness is born of doubt; contentment is the child of faith.  (Raymond Brown, The Bible Speaks Today:  Hebrews, 254)

So our author tells us, “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have…”  We are to be content with “what we have.”  Although these are two separate statements, they are saying the same thing.  Not to be in love with money is contentment.  And if you are able to live in contentment with what you have, it means you are free from the love of money. 

To grumble about our circumstances is to challenge the love and goodness of our heavenly Father.  To be discontented implies that He has not provided us with what we need. Discontent was the sin of Israel in the wilderness.  God had just miraculously delivered them from slavery in Egypt and He was miraculously meeting their needs, yet they grumbled and complained about their hardships and even threatened to return to Egypt.

Notice first of all in our passage that it is not money that is the problem, but the “love of money,” the desire to have more and more of it, to make our wants our needs.  It is not sinful to have money, and some people God has blessed with greater wealth.  I believe that God gives people wealth when He knows He can trust them with it—that it will not become an idol and will be used to glorify God and bless others.  So money itself is not the problem.  Rather, loving money is.

And it is not only the rich who face this temptation.  Even poor people can be obsessed with getting money.  1 Timothy 6:9-10 expresses this danger that we all face:

9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

Money and possessions can be a snare that plunges us to ruin and destruction.  It is a craving that can cause us to doubt God and ruin our spiritual life.

Men who trap animals in Africa for zoos in America say that one of the hardest animals to catch is the ringtailed monkey.  For the Zulus of that continent, however, it’s simple.  They’ve been catching this agile little animal with ease for years.  The method the Zulus use is based on knowledge of the animal.  Their trap is nothing more than a melon growing on a vine.  The seeds of this melon are a favorite of the monkey.  Knowing this, the Zulus simply cut a hole in the melon, just large enough for the monkey to insert his hand to reach the seeds inside.  The monkey will stick his hand in, grab as many seeds as he can, then start to withdraw it.  This he cannot do.  His fist is now larger than the hole.  The monkey will pull and tug, screech and fight the melon for hours.  But he can’t get free of the trap unless he gives up the seeds, which he refuses to do.  Meanwhile, the Zulus sneak up and nab him.

The author of Hebrews does not want us to fall into the trap of being so greedy for more that we imperil our spiritual lives.

Again, it is “the love of money” that is so harmful.  And as such it is “a root of all kinds of evils.”  Materialistic cravings and greed are a great evil because they show dependence on money rather than on Christ.  Materialism is the antithesis of chapters 11-12, where a life pursuing heavenly rather than earthly rewards is extolled.  Materialism also demonstrates that someone cares more about items they can see than about spiritual promises that they cannot presently see.  (Bruce Barton, Life Application Bible Commentary: Hebrews, 233)

So terrible is this sin and so great is its power that, one who is governed by it will trample upon the claims of justice, as Ahab did in seizing the vineyard of Naboth (1 Kings 21); he will disregard the call of charity, as David did in taking the wife of Uriah (2 Sam. 11); he will stoop to the most fearful lies, as did Ananias and Sapphira; he will defy the express commandment of God, as Achan did; he will sell Christ, as Judas did.  This is the mother sin, for “the love of money is the root of all evil.”  (Arthur W. Pink, An Exposition of Hebrews, 1140)

Yet, most of us truly believe that if we had “just a little bit more” we would be happy.  Instead of being content, we long for more; we believe that we need more.  But the Scriptures say that this attitude will ruin us.

Leo Tolstoy once wrote a story about a successful peasant farmer who was not satisfied with his lot. He wanted more of everything.  One day he received a novel offer.  For 1000 rubles, he could buy all the land he could walk around in a day.  The only catch in the deal was that he had to be back at his starting point by sundown.  Early the next morning he started out walking at a fast pace.  By midday he was very tired, but he kept going, covering more and more ground.  Well into the afternoon he realized that his greed had taken him far from the starting point.  He quickened his pace and as the sun began to sink low in the sky, he began to run, knowing that if he did not make it back by sundown the opportunity to become an even bigger landholder would be lost.  As the sun began to sink below the horizon he came within sight of the finish line.  Gasping for breath, his heart pounding, he called upon every bit of strength left in his body and staggered across the line just before the sun disappeared.  He immediately collapsed, blood streaming from his mouth.  In a few minutes he was dead.  Afterwards, his servants dug a grave.  It was not much over six feet long and three feet wide. 

The title of Tolstoy’s story was: How Much Land Does a Man Need?  How much money is enough money?  For John D. Rockefeller the answer was “just a little bit more.” At the peak of his wealth, Rockefeller had a net worth of about 1% of the entire US economy. He owned 90% of all the oil & gas industry of his time.  Compared to today’s rich guys, Rockefeller makes Bill Gates and Warren Buffett look like paupers.  And yet he still wanted “just a little bit more.”

Forbes Magazine, February 19, 2024 issue reported: “For millennials, however, make that 480% more.  In a 2023 study by financial services company Empower, millennials reported needing to earn $525,000 a year to be happy.”

The author of Ecclesiastes informs us, “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income” (Ecclesiastes 5:10).  Our hearts resonate with the wisdom of these ancient words. C. H. Spurgeon amplifies this thought:

It is not possible to satisfy the greedy.  If God gave them one whole world to themselves they would cry for another; and if it were possible for them to possess heaven as they now are, they would feel themselves in hell, because others were in heaven too, for their greed is such that they must have everything or else they have nothing.

Jesus also warned us that, “the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word” (Mark 4:19).  Our spiritual growth is likely to be stunted by the desire for and the ownership of many possessions.

The sin is not in having more, the sin is being discontent with what God has given us.  The sin is not in having wealth, the sin is in what you do with it.  It’s not the amount, it’s the attitude… It’s not about what you have, it’s about how you feel about what you have.

The very first temptation in the history of mankind was the temptation to be discontent…that is exactly what discontent(ment) is – a questioning of the goodness of God.

The Scriptures tells us that desire for wealth is a danger. After Jesus’ encounter with the rich young man, Mark tells us:

And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”  And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”  And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?”  Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God.  For all things are possible with God.” (Mark 10:23–27)

Jesus’ point was that it is impossible for a man who trusts in riches to get into Heaven, because a rich man trusts in himself!  However, by the grace of God it is still possible.  God’s grace can change hearts. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus recommended:

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19–21)

So again, our author tells us, “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have…”  Choose contentment with what you have, over covetousness for what you don’t have.  Don’t let your possessions possess you.  “The avaricious man is never content: ungenerous and grasping, he always wants more and is always afraid of losing what he has” (Philip Edgecombe Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, p. 567)

An insatiable appetite to acquire possessions is a form of idolatry (Eph. 5:5; Col. 3:5), since it relies on created things to provide the satisfaction and security found only in the Creator (Rom. 1:25; cf. Jer. 2:11-13).  It’s idolatry because the contentment that the heart should be getting from God, it starts to get from something else.  The Lord Jesus warned against covetousness: “One’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15).

Paul talks about contentment in Philippians 4 as a “secret” that needs to be “learned.”  In other words, it doesn’t occur to us naturally.  Naturally, from infancy we learn to strive for more.  We cry out for more nourishment as babies, we fight for one more toy as infants,

10 I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. 11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Paul goes on to promise these potential givers, something that he and all of us need to remember, that “my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19).

So Paul learned to be content no matter what his external circumstances were, whether “facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need” and then reflected on the reality that this was not due to his own strength, but “through him who strengthens me,” through his personal relationship with Jesus Christ, in total dependence upon Him.

What is contentment?  It is an attitude of satisfaction with your present circumstances.  It doesn’t depend upon the circumstances.  Those circumstances could be good or bad.  Contentment is “a result of faith in God’s provision and is a supernatural gift that can be found in any situation” (John Piper).

“The contented person experiences the sufficiency of God’s provision for his needs and the sufficiency of God’s grace for his circumstances. He believes God will indeed meet all his material needs and that He will work in all his circumstances for his good “(The Practice of Godliness, NavPress, 1996, p. 85).  That is a contented person.

Don’t misunderstand what Paul is saying.  This is not laziness or fatalism or yielding passively to whatever comes our way.  This is not resignation.  That’s not what contentment is.  Rather it is a detachment from anxious concern by having learned to live immune from the poison of circumstances. It doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try to improve our lot in life, nor does it mean that we shouldn’t enjoy the material blessings God has given us.  It simply means that whether we have a lot of stuff or nothing at all, our confidence in God and our joy in life are unchanged!  We don’t transfer our trust from God to money, but continue to trust in God and enjoy Him no matter how much of this world’s “stuff” we have or don’t have.

John Ortberg concludes:

We keep thinking that a train called more will get us to a station called satisfaction.

What if trying to pursue satisfaction by having more is like trying to run after the horizon?  Why would we ever expect more to be enough here if this is not our home?

What if the train is called contentment?  What if the station is called heaven?

What if the station is real and is to be the object of our truest and deepest longings?  Then we will see God face-to-face.  Then our longings for glory, beauty, love, and meaning will be fully realized.  Then the restless human race will finally cry out, “Enough!”

And God will say, “More!”  (John Ortberg, When the Game is Over It All Goes Back in the Box, 200)

So far in our study of Hebrews 13 we’ve discussed two ways we show the depth in which God has changed our lives, from selfish individuals to people who truly love others—loving our siblings in Christ, and loving strangers (sometime outside of Christ).

1 Let brotherly love continue. 2Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. 3Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.

The third exhortation to love is towards the imprisoned.  “Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body” (Heb. 12:3).  These were people you could no longer invite into your home, so our author encourages us to go to them. These were not people in prison because they had committed crimes, but because they were Christians who stood up for Jesus Christ.  Our author is encouraging them to care about these people.  So  what about those who, robbed of their freedom, cannot visit our homes, but long for us to visit them?  Do we care?

R. Kent Hughes relates this story:

Herman Melville in his novel White Jacket has one of the ship’s sailors became desperately ill with severe abdominal pain.  The ship’s surgeon, Dr. Cuticle, waxes enthusiastic at the possibility of having a real case to treat, one that challenges his surgeon’s ability.  Appendicitis is the happy diagnosis.  Dr. Cuticle recruits some other sailors to serve as his attendants.

The poor seaman is laid out on the table, and the doctor goes to work with skillful enthusiasm.  His incisions are precise, and while removing the diseased appendix he proudly points out interesting anatomical details to his seaman-helpers who had never before seen the inside of another human.  He is completely absorbed in his work and obviously a skilled professional. It is an impressive performance, but the sailors—without exception—are not impressed but are rather appalled.  Why?  Their poor friend, now receiving his last stitch, has long been dead on the table! Dr. Cuticle had not even noticed (Eugene H. Peterson, Working the Angles (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1989), p. 74).

Cold Dr. Cuticle—a man with ice water in his veins—was insensitive and void of empathy.  We might lack empathy today, not because we are cold professionals, but because we have experienced compassion fatigue.

In the mid-’80s Neil Postman wrote Amusing Ourselves to Death, which explored how media affects public discourse.  He made the observation that before the telegraph, people found out about tragedies, fires or illness by word of mouth.  They felt empowered because they were responding to local situations.  They could express their compassion concretely and immediately.

Then, in 1906, when news of the San Francisco earthquake was telegraphed across the country, people were horrified but didn’t know what to do.  Since the turn of the last century, there has been an exponential increase in the amount of news we hear or read from every corner of the globe.  In turn, there is an increasing sense of disempowerment or impotency in the face of such suffering and pain because we don’t know what we can do.

Add to that our addiction to our phones and we find that our attention to others is eroded, our penchant for communicating our anger has increased, and even the fact that everyone is one their phones only serves to alienate us from one another.

So empathy and compassion are in short supply these days.  But our author wanted his original audience, who faced their own obstacles to empathy and compassion, as well as us today with our challenges, to…

Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.

“The prisoners” in view were evidently Christians who were suffering for their testimonies (cf. 10:34; Matt. 25:36, 40).  

Prisoners depended on relatives and friends to provide food, clothing, and other necessities. The numerous references to Paul’s experiences as a prisoner reveal that his friends came to take care of his needs (Acts 24:23; 27:3; 28:10, 16, 30; Phil 4:12; 2 Tm 1:16; 4:13, 21).  Prisoners, then, had to be remembered; otherwise they suffered hunger, thirst, cold, and loneliness  (William Hendriksen & Simon J. Kistemaker, NT Commentary: Hebrews, 409).

The existence of a significant number of prisoners (plural) supports a date of writing after A.D. 64, when an empire-wide persecution of Christians began.  In July of that same year Emperor Nero set fire to Rome and blamed the Christians. This resulted in much persecution of Christians.  

Remembering these people would involve praying for them and assisting them in any way possible.  Christians are to have eyes and ears and hearts open to those who are in need around them and do something about it.  This is true whether the needy are in prison or otherwise oppressed or mistreated.  As Christians, we are all called to the ministry of compassion  (Ray C. Stedman, How to Live What You Believe, 182).

Our author had expressed earlier that they had been assisting prisoners before.  In 10:32-34 we read:

But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated.  For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.

And how important their sympathetic caring had been, because those suffering the abuse of prison were virtually dependent on the church for survival.

Believers were always trying to find ways to smuggle food and themselves into the prisons.  Often it cost them their lives to reach and help an ailing brother.  The early Christians became so notorious for this that one Roman emperor, Licinius, passed a law forbidding anyone to show mercy to starving prisoners.  Anyone caught supplying food to them was to share the same fate as the one he was trying to help.  Yet that didn’t stop those early Christians.  They bribed guards, paid ransoms, anything to help their brethren  (C. S. Lovett, Lovett’s Lights on Hebrews, 323).  Some early Christians sold themselves into slavery to get money to free a fellow believer  (John MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur NT Commentary: Hebrews, 428).

Similarly, The Apology of Aristides describes Christians’ care for the incarcerated, saying: “If they hear that any of their number is imprisoned or oppressed for the name of their Messiah, all of them provide for his needs, and if it is possible that he may be delivered, they deliver him.  If there is among them a man that is poor or needy, and they have not an abundance of necessaries, they fast two or three days that they may supply the needy with their necessary food  (J. Rendel Harris, The Apology of Aristides, Vol. 1, 48-9)  (R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word: Hebrews, vol. 2, 211-2).

Lucian, again, has his bogus Christian, Proteus Peregrinus, tossed into prison, and, satirical as Lucian was, the sympathetic care of Christians shines through.  Says Lucian, the Christians

. . . left nothing undone in the effort to rescue him. Then, as this was impossible, every other form of attention was shown him, not in any casual way but with assiduity [diligent attention]; and from the very break of day aged widows and orphan children could be seen waiting near the prison, while their officials even slept inside with him after bribing the guards. The elaborate meals were brought in, and sacred books of theirs were read aloud (The Passing of Peregrinus , 12).

How beautiful the church had been and would continue to be!  Lights in a world gone dark.

They were to remember them “as though in prison with them.”  The unadorned empathy commanded here was not based on the esoteric truth that Christians are members of each other in Christ, but rather on the truth of shared humanity.  Project your humanity into the place where their humanity now is—in suffering or in prison.  “These believers knew that at any time any of them could be imprisoned for his or her faith.  They could become one another’s “fellow prisoners” in a very real sense.  Those who were sent to prison ought to be remembered by those who were still free” (Bruce Barton, Life Application Bible Commentary: Hebrews, 231).

When we do go through pain and trouble and heartache, it is easier for us to sympathize with others.  Charles Spurgeon says, “It must be a terrible thing for a man to have never to have suffered physical pain.  You say, ‘I should like to be that man.’  Ah, unless you had extraordinary grace, you would grow hard and cold; you would get to be a sort of cast iron man, breaking other people with your touch.  No, let my heart be tender, even be soft, if it must be softened by pain, for I would fain know how to bind up my fellow’s wound.  Let my eye have a tear ready for my brother’s sorrows, even if in order to that, I should have to shed ten thousand for my own.  As escape from suffering would be escape from the power to sympathize, and that were to be deprecated beyond all things.” 

Love to the brethren is to manifest itself in sympathy for sufferers.  Most reprehensible and un-Christlike is that selfish callousness which says, “I have troubles enough of my own without concerning myself over those of other people.”  Putting it on its lowest ground, such a spirit ministers no relief: the most effectual method of getting away from our own sorrows is to seek out and relieve others in our distress.  But nothing has a more beneficial tendency to counteract our innate selfishness than a compliance with such exhortations as the one here before us: to be occupied with the severer afflictions which some of our brethren are experiencing will free our minds from the lighter trials we may be passing through.  (Arthur W. Pink, An Exposition of Hebrews, 1121)

“Sympathy is a shallow stream in the souls of those who have not suffered” (William E. Sangster).  Sympathy sees and says, “I’m sorry.”  Compassion sees and says, “I’ll help.”  Jesus says to minister to such people “in prison” is to minister to Him (Matthew 25:36, 40).

This is intended to mean more than simply to call to mind: it involves the idea of identification with them.  This would require deep Christian understanding and sympathy; to sit as it were with those who are afflicted (Donald Guthrie, Tyndale NT Commentaries: Hebrews, 268).  The words “since you are also in the body” are added to remind the readers that they too could be exposed to the same treatment.  The readers themselves might one day suffer the same fate as these prisoners, since they were still leading a mortal existence (“are in the body”).  

They were to FEEL the hurt, the same as God feels it when any of us is in trouble.  Only in this way could they be an extension of God’s love.  Believers are able to express this kind of sympathy inasmuch as they are still in the body and exposed to similar testings themselves.  In those days no one knew when it might be his turn to suffer for Jesus.  The times were perilous indeed.  The ability to put yourself in the shoes of an imprisoned brother and feel his suffering was a part of “brother-love.”  (C. S. Lovett, Lovett’s Lights on Hebrews, 323)

Paul urged Timothy not to be ashamed of him when he was a prisoner (2 Tim. 1:8).  All the Christians in the province of Asia had abandoned Paul at that time, except for those in Onesiphorus’ household (2 Tim 1:15-18).  

Nothing is more pleasing to parents than to see their children caring for each other.  “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!” (Ps 133:1).  When His children care for each other, help each other, and live in harmony with each other, God is both delighted and glorified.  (John MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur NT Commentary: Hebrews, 424)

Because of our compassion fatigue and distractions through our Smart Phones, we have need of this reminder to think of, feel with and assist those who are imprisoned and mistreated.  We must will to identify with the imprisoned and mistreated.  None of us can excuse ourselves by rationalizing that we are not empathetic by nature.  We are to labor at an imaginative sympathy through the power of God!

And let’s go beyond those who are in prison.  Raymond Brown reminds us, “Some patients in geriatric units would welcome regular visits from a Christian.  Are not such ‘isolated” people in greater need of the good news of Christ at the end of their lives than others who may often hear of him through everyday contacts with believers?  But shut-in people will hear only if they are remembered and visited by Christians who discern this neglected area of work as their opportunity for pastoral service and compassionate witness” (Raymond Brown, The Bible Speaks Today:  Hebrews, 252).

Honestly, it is far too easy to forget such people, whether people in prison or people in nursing homes or shut in at their own homes.  “Out of sight, out of mind,” we say.  But we should care for them because we are linked to them as brothers in Christ, because we share the same humanity and likely we also will share much of the same experiences.  Today it is them, tomorrow it may be us.

There is no way you can love others with this kind of sacrifice, commitment, compassion and grace without having your heart changed by Jesus Who exemplified it all.   Human nature simply does not have the capacity to do this without the presence of the Spirit of the Living God given through Jesus.  (Acts 16:33; Gal 5:6, 22; 2 Pt 1:7; 1 Jn 3:10-11, 14, 17; 4:7-21)

We have the capacity to love like this only because Jesus first loved us (1 John 4:19).  His infinite love for us is the source and stimulus of our love for each other.  Hence the precept given by the Master in the upper room: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (Jn 13:34; cf. 15:12, 17; 2 Jn 5; 1 Jn 3:11, 14, 16-18; 4:7-12).  (Philip Edgcumbe Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 562)

To understand Jesus’ teachings, we must realize that deep in our orientations of our spirit we cannot have one posture toward God and a different one toward other people.  We are a whole being, and our true character pervades everything we do.  We cannot, for example, love God and hate human beings.  As the apostle John wrote, “Those who do not love their brother who is visible cannot love God who is invisible” (1 Jn 4:20).  And: “The one who does not love does not know God, who is love” (4:8).

Similarly, James rules out the blessing of God and the cursing of human beings, “made in the likeness of God,” coming from the same mouth (3:9).  He also indicates that humility before God and humility before others go together.  Those humble before God do not “judge” their brothers and sisters (4:6-12).

The same basic point of the necessary unity of spiritual orientation is seen in Jesus’ teachings about forgiveness and about forgiveness and prayer.  “If you forgive men the wrongs they do you, your Father in the heavens will also forgive you.  But if you don’t, neither will he (Mt 6:14-15).  (Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, 232)

In summary, we are to stand at the foot of the two mountains—Sinai and Zion–and gaze reverently at God’s consuming fire and consuming love.  We are to drink it in with all its mysterious paradox—for in it lies the vision of God.

But having gazed upward we turn from the vertical to the horizontal, from the indicative to the imperative —the ethics of a life aglow with God.  And here we must will to obey the imperatives—God’s commands.

We must will to practice brotherly love, philadelphia: “Let brotherly love continue” (v. 1). We must will to contemplate the fact of our mutual generation, its profundity and eternity. Our words and actions must be committed to enhancing brotherly love.

We must will to practice love of hospitality, philozenia —a love for strangers: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (v. 2). Open hearts and open houses are the Christian way.  Hospitality builds the Body of Christ and opens the door to a lost world.

We must will to be empathetic, to be imaginatively sympathetic: “Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body” (v. 3).  The will to have imaginative sympathy will make our hearts like that of the Master and will encourage an authentic Christian walk.

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