Hebrews 13:14

For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. HERE - on earth. Those who clung to the earthly sanctuary represent all who cling to this earth. The earthly Jerusalem proved to be no "abiding city," having been destroyed shortly after: with it fell the Jewish civil and religious polity: a type of the whole earthly order of things soon to perish. ONE TO COME (; ; ; ; ; )....

14._For here we have no continuing city, etc. _He extends still further the going forth which he had mentioned, even that as strangers and wanderers in this world we should consider that we have no fixed residence but in heaven. Whenever, therefore, we are driven from place to place, or whenever any change happens to us, let us think of what the Apostle teaches us here, that we have no certain shade on earth, for heaven is our inheritance; and when more and more tried, let us ever prepare ourselves for our last end; for they who enjoy a very quiet life commonly imagine that they have a rest in this world: it is hence profitable for us, who are prone to this kind of sloth, to be often tossed here and there, that we who are too much inclined to look on things below, may learn to turn our eyes up to heaven....

7-15 The instructions and examples of ministers, who honourably and comfortably closed their testimony, should be particularly remembered by survivors. And though their ministers were some dead, others dying, yet the great Head and High Priest of the church, the Bishop of their souls, ever lives, and is ever the same. Christ is the same in the Old Testament day. as in the gospel day, and will be so to his people for ever, equally merciful, powerful, and all-sufficient. Still he fills the hungry, encourages the trembling, and welcomes repenting sinners: still he rejects the proud and self-righteous, abhors mere profession, and teaches all whom he saves, to love righteousness, and to hate iniquity. Believers should seek to have their hearts established in simple dependence on free grace, by the Holy Spirit, which would comfort their hearts, and render them proof against delusion. Christ i...

Verse 14. _FOR HERE HAVE WE NO CONTINUING CITY_] Here is an elegant and forcible allusion to the approaching destruction of Jerusalem. The Jerusalem that was _below_ was about to be burnt with fire, and erased to the ground; the Jerusalem that was _from_ _above_ was that alone which could be considered to be μενουσαν, _permanent_. The words seem to say: "Arise, and depart; for this is not your rest: it is polluted:" About seven or eight years after this, Jerusalem was wholly destroyed....

FOR HERE WE HAVE NO CONTINUING CITY ... - We do not regard this as our final home, or our fixed abode, and we should be willing to bear reproaches during the little time that we are to remain here; compare notes, Hebrews 11:10, Hebrews 11:13. If, therefore, in consequence of our professed attachment to the Saviour, we should be driven away from our habitations, and compelled to wander, we should be willing to submit to it, for our permanent home is not here, but in heaven. The object of the writer seems to be to comfort the Hebrew Christians on the supposition that they would be driven by persecution from the city of Jerusalem, and doomed to wander as exiles. He tells them that their Lord was led from that city to be put to death, and they should be willing to go forth a

CONCLUDING EXHORTATIONS EXPOSITION As in St. Paul's Epistles, practical directions as to conduct conclude the treatise, such as the readers may be supposed to have especially needed. They are urged to evince and confirm the faith which was the subject of Hebrews 11:1, and to maintain their communion with the world invisible spoken of in Hebrews 12:1, by attending especially to those daily duties which they might be in danger of forgetting. By perseverance in a life consistent with profession faith is not only evidenced, but also kept from faltering. In the course of these hortations (Hebrews 12:10), being suggested by one of them, there is introduced a ye

FOR HERE HAVE WE NO CONTINUING CITY,.... Neither for religious worship, the city of Jerusalem being quickly to be destroyed, nor for civil life to dwell in; and so may have a peculiar regard to the Hebrews, whose temple and city would, in a short time, become desolate; though it was the general case of the saints, in those times, to be obliged to flee from one city to another, having no certain dwelling place: and it may respect the common instability of this world, and of the state of the saints in it: this world, and all things in it, are unstable and transitory, the riches, honours, pleasures, and profits of it, and the persons in it, and even the world itself; the fashion of it passes away: the saints have no settlement and abiding here; they are not of it, though in it; and though they are in it, it is but for a time; and, when they have done the will of God, they are taken out of i...

This is a practical chapter at the close of this most instructive Epistle. Hebrews 13:1. _Let brotherly love continue._ The word «continue» implies that the «brotherly love» exists, there are many things which might put an end to it, so see to it that, as far as you are concerned, it continues. Under all provocations, and under all disappointments, «let brotherly love continue.» Hebrews 13:2. _Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body._ And being likely therefore to take your own turn of suffering, and to need the sympathy of your fellow-Christians. Show sympathy to others while they

CHAPTER 13 _ 1. The practical walk (Hebrews 13:1)_ 2. The call to separation (Hebrews 13:7) 3. Conclusions (Hebrews 13:17) Hebrews 13:1 No comment is needed on the simple exhortations with which this concluding chapter of this Epistle begins. Brotherly love stands in the foreground. Hospitality and loving kindness to prisoners and those who suffer adversity is especially enjoined. The great high priest in glory sympathizes with such a condition of His saints and we too are to be sympathizers as well as intercessors with Him. The life is to be clean and undefiled. Walking in faith there should be

Admonitions concerning Church discipline. The brethren are to cherish the memory of their former leaders, who instructed them in the truth of God and exemplified it in their life and death. Jesus Christ, in whom those departed leaders found their strength, is the same still, and will be the same for ever (Hebrews 13:7 f.)_._ The mention of those revered teachers who have passed away suggests a warning against forgetfulness of the doctrines they had taught. Some peculiar form of error was threatening the Church; the nature of it cannot be precisely determined, but it seems to have laid stress on certain rules of eating and drinking, like the heresy at Colossæ (_cf._ Colossians 2:16). The writer declares that external devices of this kind have never helped those who trusted in them, and all strength