Hebrews 13:18

Hebrews 13:18. The writer now speaks of himself and of his colleagues, all watchers over them, and asks the prayers of his readers, as Paul does in all his Epistles. Pray for us, for we are persuaded (the perfect tense, ‘we trust,' gives place to the present passive) that we have a good conscience. He was conscious of no evil. He had exhorted them, rebuked them, and instructed them. He had also suffered. And he felt he was blameless in all. The feeling, however, may be a delusion; and yet it rests on the teaching of God's Word, and is confirmed by God's blessing and by our higher consciousness that we are really desiring (striving, having a will) to behave, to live, honourably in all things. The Greek words for ‘a good' conscience and ‘honourably,' are forms of the same word, and express the beauty, the nobleness of goodness. To live a good and noble life in all things is an earnest purpose, and the conscience which affirms this is our purpose, is itself worthy of the life we desire to live; not blind or perverted, but noble and true. His life and his teaching had probably both been subjects of distrust among the Hebrews. Paul's gospel, which this Epistle certainly represents, was still in disrepute. He therefore asks their prayers as helpful both to himself and to themselves.