Sabbath: Let Brotherly Love Continue

Image © Pacific Press

Sabbath Afternoon

Read for This Week’s Study: Hebrews 13:1-25, Romans 12:13, Ephesians 5:3–5, 1 Peter 5:1–4, Hebrews 2:9, Hebrews 4:16, Galatians 2:20.

Memory Text: “Let brotherly love continue” (Hebrews 13:1).

Hebrews chapter 13 presents the apostle’s concluding admonition: “Let brotherly love continue” (Hebrews 13:1). He has affirmed throughout 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-to-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” (Hebrews 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 (Hebrews 3:13; Hebrews 10:24-25; Hebrews 12:15-17). In chapter 13 it involves numerous elements: hospitality (Hebrews 13:2), visiting and supporting prisoners and those who had been mistreated (Hebrews 13:3), honoring marriage (Hebrews 13:4), avoiding covetousness (Hebrews 13:5-6), remembering and obeying the leaders of the church (Hebrews 13:7-17), and praying for the author himself (Hebrews 13:18-19).