S33 || How Love and Contentment Shape Daily Christian Living || Hebrews 13:1-7 || Session 33

What if the most practical life you could live begins with love you can measure? We begin our walk through Hebrews chapter 13 and translate towering truths into choices you can make today: loving the church family with warmth and integrity, welcoming strangers with generous wisdom, and remembering prisoners as if chained beside them. This is everyday faith with traction, not theory—an approach that changes how we see people, spend time, and open our doors.

We also pause to thank those who taught us the word and to learn from their example. Imitating tested faith keeps us steady while we fix our eyes on Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. That unchanging center helps us spot strange teachings that overpromise and underdeliver, swapping grace for gimmicks. Grace strengthens the heart where rituals cannot. If you’re longing for a faith that meets you where you live—at your table, in your budget, in your relationships—Hebrews 13 offers a clear path.

If this conversation helped you take a step toward practical, joyful obedience, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review. Tell us which verse from Hebrews 13 you’re putting into practice this week.

Chapters

• 0:00 From Doctrine To Daily Living
• 1:16 Love As The Highest Ethic
• 5:17 Hospitality And Entertaining Angels
• 12:06 Compassion For Prisoners And The Ill‑Treated
• 15:25 Sex, Marriage, And Holiness
• 20:04 Contentment Versus The Love Of Money
• 25:05 Trusting God To Defeat Fear
• 26:05 Honor Leaders And Imitate Faith
• 28:06 Christ Unchanging And Strange Teachings
• 30:45 Listener Feedback And Closing Blessing

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:19

Many Christians struggle with the idea of how to live the Christian life on a practical everyday basis. How do we take the lofty morals given to us by the Word of God and turn it into shoe leather that we can walk on a daily basis? Well, today in Hebrews chapter 13, we're going to find out some practical advice on how to live the Christian life. Hi, my name's Glenn. I'm here with Steve. We are reasoning through the Bible. And today, if you have your copy of the Word of God, open it to Hebrews chapter 13. This is the practical how to live section of the book, as is many of the books in the New Testament. The book of Hebrews starts off with doctrinal teachings. And before it gets out, it's going to tell us about how do we turn these ideas into practical things that we should live on a daily basis. Let's go ahead and dive in. We'll find out right off the bat in verse one what the highest ethic is. Steve, can you read the first three verses of Hebrews chapter 13?

SPEAKER_01: 1:25

Let love of the brethren continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember the prisoners as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body.

SPEAKER_00: 1:46

The first verse there says, Let love of the brethren continue. The highest ethic is love. Love is the measure of all morality. That's what our Lord Jesus taught us. The apostle Paul said that if we have not love, and the words he'd used were we are a noisy gong or a clanging symbol in 1 Corinthians 13 1. When Jesus was asked, what is the greatest commandment? He said it was to love God and love our neighbor. The highest ethic is love. Steve, why is it that love becomes the measure of all things?

SPEAKER_01: 2:26

Well, whenever we love others as ourselves, then we don't want to mistreat ourselves. It's a way to bring people together. It's a way to show respect for them, just like you want them to respect you. It is something that reciprocates the outflow of what you have. You're going to receive that back. If you're confrontational with somebody, they're going to be confrontational back with you, most likely. I think that is the basis for that. The Greek word that is used here for love is philadelphia, which means brotherly love. I think it's a very good case here of Paul as he is ending this letter to these Hebrew believers, of encouraging them to stay together and love their fellow Christians that they meet with, they associate with, and keep this community of believers around them to encourage them and to keep them going forward on the correct path.

SPEAKER_00: 3:28

Love is the highest ethic simply because if you love someone, you're never going to do anything that would hurt them. Love gives us a measure of all other actions and all other areas of morality. If we act lovingly towards someone, you're always going to do what's right. You may end up doing something, for example, if you have a sick child, you love them enough to take them to the doctor. And the doctor may do something that causes pain, but it is for an ultimate good. Therefore, we always do what is loving. And that is how we can measure about are we treating others correctly in a biblical manner. Christians should love our neighbor, but verse one, we should especially love other believers. We should be known as people that love each other. The next verse, verse two, Christians should show discernment in where they give their money and make sure we're not taken advantage of by scam artists. Verse two says, do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers. And we should be generous people. But our Lord has given us a mind, and we know that there are thieves and con artists in the world. We should be discerning about who we give to and who we should not. Once we've verified a true need, we should be generous people helping those that are in need. In the books of 1st and 2 Timothy, the Apostle Paul makes it quite clear. He spends at length telling the church how to discern between people that are in true need and those that, the way he phrases it, you don't want to teach them to be idle by giving away money when they could go earn it themselves. Here in Hebrews 13, 2, it says, do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers. We should be welcoming to strangers. We should be known as people that are generous towards others, but we should do so wisely because of the other commands in the scripture. It says, do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers for or because by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. Now that, Steve, always piqued my attention. Is it possible that people could have someone come up to them and it's really an angel?

SPEAKER_01: 5:59

I think it is possible. We see those stories from the Old Testament where angels come to various patriarchs and others, and they are in the form of a man, a human being. What comes to my mind is the angels that came and visited Abram as they were on their way down to the city of Sodom to see what was going on. And of course, that famous time there when it's with the angel of the Lord and the other angels that went on into Sodom. Yes, I believe that it's possible for that to happen. Now, the word angel here means messenger, just like it did in the Old Testament Hebrew word. It's a messenger. So this could be a heavenly messenger, it could be an earthly messenger. But this principle here of being hospitable to the strangers or to the sojourner, this is something that is also embedded in the Mosaic law and the Torah, that they were to do these things. On some of these things that Paul is giving them, he's giving them different social obligations in the practical section, as you mentioned, of this epistle. The first social obligation that we saw there was brotherly love. The second social obligation is hospitality to the strangers. In those days, you didn't have all of the hotels and areas when people traveled around, especially out in the rural area where they were. This idea of being hospital to the strangers is something that is carried over here, even now that they're Christians, it's still a principle that is carried forward. It's a principle of God. We also saw this in the Old Testament, especially when we went through Judges. There were a couple of stories there, whenever the people would go into the center of town square there, and they were invited to stay in people's houses and things like that. This is another area that Paul is encouraging them to continue with hospitality to the stranger.

SPEAKER_00: 8:02

As you well mentioned, Steve, it could be either human messengers or divine supernatural messengers that appear as men, but the main thrust is exactly what you're saying. No matter, we should be hospitable towards others, hospitable towards strangers. Oftentimes, strangers are in great need. They've had to travel for one reason or another, and oftentimes it's quite difficult. Oftentimes they're in hardship. We should be loving towards strangers. It's also a great way to spread the gospel. If you meet the physical needs of people, then now they're going to listen to the gospel message. But this whole idea of entertained angels unawares or without knowing it, you mentioned, Steve, the angels that came and destroyed Sodom. That was in Genesis 18.2, are said to be appeared as men. An angel appeared to Daniel as, quote, a man clothed in linen in Daniel chapter 10. The angel that appeared at Jesus' empty tomb was described as a young man. At Jesus' ascension into heaven in Acts 1.10, it says, quote, two men stood by them in white apparel, unquote. Oftentimes these angels are said to have appeared as men. So therefore, could be a regular human man or a supernatural messenger from God that is appearing as a man, but we should be hospitable towards strangers. And it gets increasingly difficult when we live in a society that constantly teaches us to be afraid of others because of the calamitous nature of our society. But nevertheless, whatever society we're in is not any more calamitous than what was in ancient Rome. The writer here is telling us to beware we do not neglect the stranger. It is possible for angels to appear to us and lie to us. That's also possible. Satan appeared as an angel of light in 2 Corinthians 11:14. Revelation 12:9 says the devil has angels under him. Just because it's an angel doesn't mean that it's a true angel. There was a cultist named William Branham who had an angel of light appear to him, but it was a lying angel that was actually a demon that he was deceived by. Hebrews 13, 2 here is telling us to be loving and hospitable to all men because we don't know when God has sent us a messenger. Could be a regular human or a divine one that is appearing. God may be sending us a human messenger or a divine one, but nevertheless, we should be hospitable towards others. Then in verse three, remember the prisoners as though in prison with them. I find this to be a great way to see God's morality. We're told to have compassion on prisoners. Jesus said that if we visit prisoners, we are visiting him. He said that in Matthew 25, 36. We should view the people that we're reaching out to help as though we were in their place. Steve, what difference would it make on our compassion for others if we truly thought about ourselves being in the same position?

SPEAKER_01: 11:30

Well, this is the third social obligation that he's laying out here of sympathy. And I think it goes hand in hand with love. As I mentioned, if you love somebody, they're going to reciprocate with that love versus if you're antagonistic towards them. I think the same thing here. If we are aware of the prisoners and have sympathy for the situation that they're in, then that makes us appreciate the situation that we have of not being in prison even better. But it also, especially in this time, these people, some of them were being persecuted, possibly some of their local gathering, had been put into prison for a short while. So it's showing encouragement for them, and it gets a way of having sympathy for others for you to place yourself in their place and to have empathy for them so that if something happens to come upon you, it's something that you are already aware of. It's something that you're prepared for. And it's something that you just haven't forgotten about your fellow uh Christians as they've been taken off. There's different types of sympathy. I think most often is that we're very quick to rally around our fellow brethren and believers whenever there is some sort of a sickness, illness, some type of tragedies, hardship that comes along. We're very quick to rally around those. But are we quick to rally around those who find themselves in a situation where they're in prison? In the small group that I attend, one of our leaders is very much involved in the prison ministry. And our church that I attend is also involved in a prison ministry. We recently, a few weeks back, had someone visit our life group and give her testimony of being in prison and how the prison ministry helped her to be able to go to like a halfway house after prison so that she wouldn't fall into a situation where she would reciprocate and go back to possibly prison again. Now she has become a leader within that prison ministry. It was uplifting for us in that class to hear her story and see how God had been working in her life, even though she had taken a wrong turn, found herself on the wrong side of society, yet Jesus had been reaching out to her and her other fellow prisoners through that ministry to bring himself to her and for her to give his her life to him. And her life had been completely changed. And part of her story was that some of her family had completely abandoned her, but Christians had not abandoned her and found her there in that prison. So it helps us to be able to hear those type of stories and to have sympathy for not only ones who fall on hard times, but also those who fall on hard times and are incarcerated.

SPEAKER_00: 14:46

The verse three here tells us again to remember the prisoners and to remember those who are ill-treated. I always think of that. We are commanded to reach out to those around us that are lonely, in need, strangers, in prison, things of this nature. A lot of times, especially in our big cities, all these people around, but there's very lonely people as well. If we just open our eyes and look around, sometimes we'll see some very lonely people that all they really need is a friend to come and talk to them. Great way to spread the good news about the Lord. Let's go ahead and read the next verses. The next one cautions us against the sins of sex and money. Starting in verse 4 says this marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled. For fornicators and adulterers, God will judge. Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have. For he himself has said, I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you, so that we confidently say, The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me? Here the writer is cautioning us against two of the passions that inspire a great number of sins. The two passions are lust and greed. Make no mistake, from these verses, God will judge the sexually immoral, including fornication and adultery. Sex is to be restricted to marriage between one man and one woman for one lifetime. When a society accepts widespread sexual relations outside of marriage, that society will always fail. That's why our society that has let the lust run rampant is in decline. Steve, what do you think of when you hear these verses?

SPEAKER_01: 16:45

I think of the sanctity of marriage, that it is something that is blessed by God and it's therefore a reason to raise families, to procreate. It is a covenant between the husband and the wife. We see through scripture that it is something to be held as a higher standard. That is what it's talking about here, that the marriage bed should be honored and should be blessed and should not be defiled. I think that sometimes in our society today, they really push marriage aside. They say Jesus never talked about marriage, scripture in the New Testament really doesn't talk about marriage because they want to belittle it. They don't want to hold it in the high honor where it should be. But we see here in passages like this that marriage and the respect between the spouses are ones that are held in high regard and should be honored and um thought about in that way within the marriage itself.

SPEAKER_00: 17:56

It says in verse 4 marriage is to be held in honor amongst all. There it's saying marriage is a very honorable thing. It is specifically condemning the idea that it is holier to be single or holier to be celibate. Here it's holding marriage as an honorable position. It's honorable for every Christian to get married and raise godly children for the Lord. We should not condemn those that are single. Some are indeed called to singlehood or for whatever life reason, they're just single. But neither should we view celibacy as more honorable than marriage. It is not. Marriage is a very honorable thing. And it's saying here to hold marriage in high honor. We're never told to honor celibacy. The Apostle Paul says, I wish that all of you were like me, implying that he was single. I think that's because of the nature of his work in the field as a missionary. We have here in verse four, marriage is to be held in honor among all. There is not a superior nature to celibacy, but the marriage bed is to be undefiled. It is to be a very holy place for intimate relations, again, between one man and one woman. It goes on to not only condemn sexual immorality, but greed regarding money. Verse five says, quote, being content with what you have, unquote. How should we apply that in everyday life, Steve? If it says be content with what you have, I think of two extremes. One extreme is the person that is so greedy, and I think this is the main thrust of this, saying that that, okay, the greedy person is never satisfied. They can get very, very wealthy, but it's never enough. It's never enough. They're never satisfied. They're always wanting more, always greed. That tends to create sin simply because they'll they'll ignore. The other parts of life, they'll lie, they'll cheat, they'll do whatever it is to get the money. That's one extreme, is that you're never happy, even though you might be quite successful. The other extreme is that it's also a sin just to be lazy and to be poor just because I don't have enough energy to get up and go to work. The answer is somewhere in the middle, is it not?

SPEAKER_01: 20:21

Yes, with most things, moderation is where we want to end up between those two extremes that you talked about. But when I hear the word greed or a greedy person, I think of somebody just as you described it. They're always plotting, they're always calculating, looking at what other people have, and they get jealous many times of what other people have because they see maybe contentment with people having some things and they say, Well, I'm not content. Why am I not content? And that's really what this verse is saying is that we should be free of materialism. We should be content with what God has given to us. And the reasons why is because God says, I will never leave you. The other thing that Paul points out here is from the psalm is that what harm can men really do to us? Again, there's physical things that can happen to us. Obviously, we can be hurt by man, but ultimately we're gonna have an eternal life. We're gonna have a glorified body. So that's really what this psalm is talking about and what Paul's referring to as far as men being able to have an effect on us. Ultimately, we're not gonna have any type of situation where mankind can really hurt us in a long-term way. Our eternal abode is gonna be with God, and it's gonna be something that's just gonna be so great. But getting back to this idea of greed, you know, Glenn, as Paul, we see kind of a little progression there. He starts with, love your fellow Christians and don't forget about the ones who are in the prison and the ones who are under hardship. Now he's kind of progressed to this area, be content with what you have, because it does possibly lead to you doing things that are illegal or doing things that are hurtful to someone else because you're trying to covet or get other things that don't belong to you. It's a pursuit of trying to find happiness and contentment. But really, if you don't have the Lord Jesus Christ in your life, I don't think anybody's ever really going to be content. I think that's a good foundation to come back to is have the Lord Jesus Christ in your life, and you'll find out that all of these social obligations here that Paul is talking about will just fall in line.

SPEAKER_00: 22:50

I think what you just said, Steve, is really the root of this. He's saying that you should get to a place where you are content. Greedy people are never content. There's never enough. They could have every bit of money in the world, they would still not be happy because they're greedy. That's by definition. It is not a sin to want to be more successful financially and provide for your family. It is a sin to be greedy and to never be happy with what you have. The greed is the problem here. Again, if we look at verse five, make sure that your character is free from the love of money. He's not saying be free from money. He's not saying be poor. He's saying be free from this greed, this never able to be satisfied lust for money. The end of verse five, God promises he will not desert us. We can relax in him, knowing that he's going to take care of us. He's going to take care of our family. He knows our needs. Often the greed is due to fear that we're not going to have enough money either now or someday. Verse 6 says that God will help us and we should not fear. What we should each ask ourselves is do I trust God? Do I trust God? If so, you can be satisfied with what you have and not be greedy. We can be free from the love of money and still be able to go out and work and make enough to provide for a family. Greed is the love of money. Steve, what happens to people who let the love of money take over their lives? Are these people happy? Ultimately, no.

SPEAKER_01: 24:32

They might be happy for a short time of while they have the new things that they are looking for: a new house, new car, new relationship. But that newness wears off at some point if you're always pursuing something that is a void in your life. As I mentioned before, being content with what you have, under the principle that Paul is pointing out here, he says, be content with what you have. Why? He says, because God will never forsake you, nor will he ever desert you. The basis of that contentment is having a relationship with God, a relationship with Jesus Christ. A person that is void of that relationship with Jesus, I don't think Glenn is ever really truly going to be happy. They can say that they're happy, but there's always going to be something missing in their life that they're going to be looking to obtain. And they might find temporary happiness, but it's not going to be a long-lasting one that they can settle on and be content with.

SPEAKER_00: 25:40

Again, notice it says, be free from the love of money. People who let the love of money take over their lives become very miserable people. It tells us elsewhere in the New Testament that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. These are miserable people. Their families suffer and they suffer. They are never content. Steve, can you read the next few verses, verses seven, eight, and nine? It continues to give this very practical advice.

SPEAKER_01: 26:08

Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you, and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited.

SPEAKER_00: 26:36

So it tells us here in verse 7, remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you. It implies that this happened in the past. I think what it's saying here is remember those who first gave you the good news of Christ, and then possibly those who were your spiritual leaders, your former teachers, your pastors, your elders, remember them. Thank God for them because they were the ones who led you. Christians in our day should have a heart for the ministries that have taught them. If you've gotten spiritual growth from a teacher or a ministry or a pastor, then you should thank God for that person. You should pray for them. You should financially support them. You should tell them personally that, hey, I've gotten a lot out of your teaching, or I really appreciate the way you've led this church or this organization. Oftentimes they don't get enough thanks. Verse seven tells us to imitate the faith of those who had been their leaders. Sadly, very few of us in our day can tell others to imitate me. At least five times in the Bible, the apostle Paul said to follow his example, quote, imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ in 1 Corinthians 4.16 and 11.1. Join in following my example, he said in Philippians 3.17. The things you saw in me, these do, Philippians 4.9. And quote, you ought to follow us, 2 Thessalonians 7 through 9. Steve, it's I think a telling thing in our day that we can't more often tell the people around us, follow my example. Because my friends, even I would say, follow Christ. I'm oftentimes a very poor example.

SPEAKER_01: 28:32

I know that I am. And especially in my earlier life, there's things I look back on and realize that I was not a good example, really, at all. Much of that is regretful. Nevertheless, whenever someone comes to a belief and trust in Jesus Christ, as Paul tells us, we become a new creation. We're a new person, and that we are to put on that new person every day. Paul is moving on here from those social obligations now into some religious obligations. And this first one here is as what you've pointed out, is to honor and remember the former pastors or teachers or ones who had some sort of an oversight over them as before. The word remember there in Greek means to observe carefully. And I think of the word remember itself. That is an active thing to do for somebody to remember because it's bringing to mind in this case. And as you just pointed out, and the word itself means it's observing others as well. Hopefully we can move into a situation where somebody that is watching us will get some benefit out of it and see the life of Christ living through us to be an inspiration to them. That's a tall order for us to carry. We've often mentioned before that you are the best Christian that somebody else knows. So the way that you conduct yourself, especially if you call yourself a Christian, can have a huge and does have a huge impact on other people, both in a positive way and possibly in a negative way. The bottom line is to remember the former rulers that you had and to be an imitator of them, to imitate their faith. That is something that we should do as a group of people. Individuality is not something that is promoted. It's for us to be with other fellow believers because we all are in the body of Christ together.

SPEAKER_00: 30:46

Again, verse seven tells us remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you. If you've gotten things out of our ministry, we would encourage you to send us a note and tell us about it. You can reach us at info, that's I N F O at reasoningthruthebible.com. We'd love to hear your comments, your feedback if you've gotten something from our ministry. A lot of what we do is one way going out to you, and we love to hear from our listeners. With that, we'll stop for today, but we will be back next time reasoning through the book of Hebrews.

SPEAKER_01: 31:22

Thank you so much for watching and listening. May God bless you.