Albert Barnes Commentary Hebrews 13

ANALYSIS OF CHAPTER 13

The closing chapter of this epistle is made up almost entirely of exhortations to the performance of various practical duties. The exhortations relate to the following points:

• brotherly love (Hebrews 13:1)
• hospitality (Hebrews 13:2)
• sympathy with those in bonds (Hebrews 13:3)
• fidelity in the marriage relation (Hebrews 13:4)
• contentment (Hebrews 13:5–6)
• submission to those in authority (Hebrews 13:7–8)
• stability in the doctrines of religion (Hebrews 13:9–15)
• benevolence (Hebrews 13:16)
• obedience to those entrusted with office (Hebrews 13:17)
• special prayer for him who wrote this epistle (Hebrews 13:18–19)

The epistle then closes with a beautiful and impressive benediction (Hebrews 13:20–21); with an entreaty that they would receive with favor what had been written (Hebrews 13:22); with the grateful announcement that Timothy, in whom they doubtless felt a great interest, was set at liberty (Hebrews 13:23); and with a salutation to all the saints (Hebrews 13:24–25).

Let brotherly love continue (Hebrews 13:1). This implies that it now existed among them. The apostle had no occasion to reprove them for the lack of it, as he had in regard to some to whom he wrote, but he aims merely to impress on them the importance of this virtue, and to caution them against the danger of allowing it ever to be interrupted. See the notes on John 13:34.

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers. For a full explanation of the duty of hospitality, see Barnes on Romans 12:13.

For thereby some have entertained angels unawares. This means without knowing that they were angels, as Abraham (Genesis 18:2 and following) and Lot did (Genesis 19).

The motive urged here for doing this is that by entertaining the stranger, we may perhaps be honored with the presence of those whose society will be an honor and a blessing to us.

It is not good for us to miss the opportunity for the presence, conversation, and prayers of good people. The influence of such guests in a family is worth more than it costs to entertain them. If there is a risk that we may sometimes receive those of an opposite character, yet it is not wise, due to such a possible risk, to lose the opportunity of entertaining those whose presence would be a blessing.

Many a parent owes a child's conversion to the influence of a pious stranger in his family; and the hope that this may occur, or that our own souls may be blessed, should make us ready at all proper times to welcome the feet of the stranger to our doors.

Many a man, if he had been accosted by strangers as Abraham was at the door of his tent, would have turned them rudely away. Many a one in Lot's situation would have rudely sent the unknown guests from his door. But who can estimate what the results of such a course would have been on the destiny of those good men and their families? For a great number of instances in which the pagans of antiquity were thought to have entertained the gods unknowingly, see Wetstein on this passage.

Remember them that are in bonds. This refers to all who are bound: whether prisoners of war, captives in dungeons, those detained in custody for trial, those imprisoned for the sake of righteousness, or those held in slavery. The word used here includes all instances where bonds, shackles, or chains were ever used. Perhaps there is an immediate allusion to their fellow Christians who were suffering imprisonment on account of their religion, of whom there were doubtless many at that time. However, the principle applies to every case of those who are imprisoned or oppressed. The word remember implies more than merely thinking of them (Ecclesiastes 12:1). It means that we are to remember them with appropriate sympathy, or as we would wish others to remember us if we were in their circumstances. That is, we are:

1. To feel deep compassion for them;
2. To remember them in our prayers;
3. To remember them, as far as practicable, with aid for their relief.

Christianity teaches us to sympathize with all the oppressed, the suffering, and the sad. There are more people in this class than we commonly suppose, and they have stronger claims on our sympathy than we commonly realize.

In this land, there are not far from ten thousand people confined in prison: the father separated from his children, the husband from his wife, the brother from his sister, and all cut off from the living world. Their food is coarse, their beds are hard, and the ties that bound them to the living world are rudely snapped apart.

Many of them are in solitary dungeons; all of them are sad and melancholy. True, they are there for crime, but they are human beings—they are our brothers. They still have the feelings of our common humanity, and many of them feel their separation from wife, children, and home as keenly as we would.

That God who has mercifully made our lot different from theirs has commanded us to sympathize with them—and we should sympathize all the more when we remember that, but for His restraining grace, we might have been in the same condition.

In this land of "liberty," there are also nearly three million people held in the hard bondage of slavery.

Among them are fathers, mothers, children, brothers, and sisters. They are held as property, liable to be sold, having no right to the proceeds of their own labor, and exposed to the danger of having the tenderest ties severed at the will of their master. They are shut out from the privilege of reading the Word of God, fed coarse food, live in wretched hovels, and are often subjected to painful lashings at the whim of a passionate driver.

Wives and daughters are made victims of degrading sensuality, without the power of resistance or redress. The security of home is unknown, and they are dependent on the will of another man whether they may worship their Creator. We should remember them and sympathize with them as if they were our fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, or sons and daughters.

Though of a different color, the same blood flows in their veins as in ours (Acts 17:26); they are bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. By nature, they have the same right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" that we and our children have. To deprive them of that right is as unjust as it would be to deprive us and our children of it.

They have a claim on our sympathy, for they are our brethren. They need it, for they are poor and helpless. They should have it, for the same God who has kept us from that hard lot has commanded us to remember them. This kind remembrance of them should be shown in every practicable way.

By prayer, by plans contemplating their freedom, by efforts to send them the gospel, by spreading the principles of liberty and human rights, and by using our influence to arouse public awareness on their behalf, we should endeavor to relieve those who are in bonds and hasten the time when "the oppressed shall go free." On this subject, see Barnes on Isaiah 48:6.

As bound with them. There is great force and beauty in this expression. Religion teaches us to identify ourselves with all who are oppressed and to feel what they suffer as if we endured it ourselves. Infidelity and atheism are cold and distant; they stand aloof from the oppressed and the sad. But Christianity unites all hearts into one, binds us to the entire human race, and reveals to us, in the case of each oppressed and injured person, a brother.

And those who suffer adversity. The word used here refers, properly, to those who are maltreated or injured by others. It does not properly refer to those who merely experience calamity.

As being yourselves also in the body. This means being yourselves exposed to persecution and suffering, and liable to be injured. That is, do to them as you would wish them to do to you if you were the sufferer. When we see an oppressed and injured person, we should remember that it is possible that we may be in the same circumstances, and then we will need and desire the sympathy of others.

Marriage is honourable in all. The object here is to state that honor is to be shown to the marriage relation. It is not to be undervalued by the pretense of the superior purity of a state of celibacy, as if marriage were improper for any class of men or any condition of life; and it should not be dishonored by any violation of the marriage contract.

The course of things has shown that there was abundant reason for the apostle to assert, with emphasis, that "marriage was an honorable condition of life." There has been a constant effort made to show that celibacy was a more holy state; that there was something in marriage that rendered it dishonorable for those who were in the ministry and for those of either sex who would be eminently pure.

This sentiment has been the cause of more abomination in the world than any other single opinion claiming to have a religious sanction. It is one of the supports on which the Papal system rests and has been one of the principal upholders of all the corruptions in monasteries and nunneries. The apostle asserts, without any restriction or qualification, that marriage is honourable in all; and this proves that it is lawful for the ministers of religion to marry and that the whole doctrine of the superior purity of a state of celibacy is false (see this subject examined in the commentary on 1 Corinthians 7).

And the bed undefiled. This refers to fidelity to the marriage vow. But whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. This means that all licentiousness of life and all violations of the marriage covenant will be severely punished by God (see the commentary on 1 Corinthians 6:9).

The sins referred to here prevailed everywhere, and for this reason, there was all the more reason for the frequent and solemn injunctions to avoid them that we find in the Scriptures.

Let your conversation. Your conduct—for that is how the word 'conversation' is used in the Scriptures. See Barnes on Philippians 1:27.

Be without covetousness. See Barnes on Ephesians 5:3 and Colossians 3:5.

And be content with such things as ye have. See Barnes on Philippians 4:11-12 and Matthew 6:25 and following. The particular reason given here for contentment is that God has promised never to leave his people. Compare with this the beautiful argument of the Saviour in Matthew 6:25 and following.

For he hath said. That is, God has said.

I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. See Deuteronomy 31:6; Joshua 1:5; 1 Chronicles 28:20; Genesis 28:15. Substantially the same expression is found in each of those places, and all of them contain the principle on which the apostle here relies: that God will not forsake his people.