Read for This Week’s Study: Hebrews 13, Rom. 12:13, Eph.
5:3–5, 1 Pet. 5:1–4, Heb. 2:9, Heb. 4:16, Gal. 2:20.
Memory Text: “Let brotherly love continue” (Hebrews 13:1).
H
ebrews 13 presents the apostle’s concluding admonition: “Let
brotherly love continue” (Heb. 13:1). He has affirmed through-
out the epistle that we are of the household of the King–High
Priest, Jesus, His brothers and sisters. The author does not conceive of
the audience only as a group of individuals who work on their salvation
in a one-on-one relationship with Jesus, but as a family, or household,
saved together. Paul has characterized the work of Jesus for us as
“brotherly love”: He was “not ashamed to call them brothers” (Heb.
2:11, ESV). Thus, believers should do for one another what Jesus did
for them.
Throughout the letter, brotherly love involved “exhorting one another”
so that no one would fall short of the grace of God (Heb. 3:13; Heb.
10:24, 25; Heb. 12:15–17). In chapter 13 it involves numerous ele-
ments: hospitality (Heb. 13:2), visiting and supporting prisoners and
those who have been mistreated (Heb. 13:3), honoring marriage (Heb.
13:4), avoiding covetousness (Heb. 13:5, 6), remembering and obeying
the leaders of the church (Heb. 13:7–17), and praying for the author
himself (Heb. 13:18, 19).