October 10
Hebrews, Chapter 13 is a long list of lifestyle choices. It begins with the admonition that believers allow ‘brotherly love’ to continue. That inaugural statement affirms the priority that love plays in the day-to-day lives of Christians. Because God is love (I John 4:16) we who are His must walk in love.
That love is to pervade our actions and our prayers. It is to cover everyone that we can imagine. Paul lists those who are in bondage and those who suffer adversity as being among those who are to be covered by our prayers. We may assume that means those imprisoned as well as those bound by sin.
It tasks the believer to pray for marriages—that the honor of the institution be maintained. It admonishes that we be content with what we have rather than coveting the possessions or the prestige of others. We are to pray for those who exert leadership over us. We are to pray for the integrity of the church—that believers be not led away by false doctrine.
We must ever be mindful of the great sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and we must live honorably in order that we represent Him faithfully before others. As Paul states in Hebrews 13:18, we will then be “convinced that we have a clear conscience, wanting to conduct ourselves honorably in everything,” so Jesus will be lifted up, not disparaged, by the living epistle of our lives.
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