Hebrews 13:18

Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly. PRAY FOR US. Paul usually requests the church's intercessions in closing his letters, as he begins with assuring them of his having them at heart in his prayers (but in this letter not until Hebrews 13:20) (Romans 15:30). "Us" includes himself and his companions; he passes to himself alone, Hebrews 13:19. WE TRUST WE HAVE A GOOD CONSCIENCE - in spite of former jealousies, and the charges of my Jewish enemies at Jerusalem, which are the occasion of my imprisonment at Rome. In refutation of the Jews' aspersions, he assert...

18._For we trust, etc. _After having commended himself to their prayers, in order to excite them to pray, he declares that he had a _good conscience. _Though indeed our prayers ought to embrace the whole world, as love does, from which they flow; it is yet right and meet that we should be peculiarly solicitous for godly and holy men, whose probity and other marks of excellency have become known to us. For this end, then, he mentions the integrity of his own conscience, that is, that he might move them more effectually to feel an interest for himself. By saying, I am persuaded, or I _trust, _he thus partly shows his modesty and partly his confidence. _In all, _may be applied to things as well as to men; and so I leave it undecided. (290)...

16-21 We must, according to our power, give to the necessities of the souls and bodies of men: God will accept these offerings with pleasure, and will accept and bless the offerers through Christ. The apostle then states what is their duty to living ministers; to obey and submit to them, so far as is agreeable to the mind and will of God, made known in his word. Christians must not think themselves too wise, too good, or too great, to learn. The people must search the Scriptures, and so far as the ministers teach according to that rule, they ought to receive their instructions as the word of God, which works in those that believe. It is the interest of hearers, that the account their ministers give of them may be with joy, and not with grief. Faithful ministers deliver their own souls, but the ruin of a fruitless and faithless people will be upon their own heads. The more earnestly the...

Verse 18. _PRAY FOR US_] Even the success of apostles depended, in a certain way, on the prayers of the Church. Few Christian congregations feel, as they ought, that it is their bounden duty to pray for the success of the Gospel, both among themselves and in the world. The Church is weak, dark, poor, and imperfect, because it prays little. _WE TRUST WE HAVE A GOOD CONSCIENCE_] We are persuaded that we have a conscience that not only acquits us of all fraud and sinister design, but assures us that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have laboured to promote the welfare of you and of all mankind. _TO LIVE HONESTLY._] Εν πασι καλως θελοντες αναστρεφεσθαι· _Willing in all things to conduct ourselves well_-to behave with decency and propriety....

PRAY FOR US - This is a request which the apostle often makes in his own behalf, and in behalf of his fellow laborers in the gospel; see 1 Thessalonians 5:25. notes, Ephesians 6:18. FOR WE TRUST WE HAVE A GOOD CONSCIENCE ... - see the notes on Acts 24:16. The apostle here appeals to the uprightness of his Christian life as a reason why he might claim their sympathy. He was conscious of an aim to do good; he sought the welfare of the church; and having this aim he felt that he might appeal to the sympathy of all Christians in his behalf. It is only when we aim to do right, and to maintain a good conscience, that we can with propriety

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

PRAY FOR US,.... Who are in the ministry; your guides and governors; since the work is of so much moment, and so arduous and awful, and you have such a concern in it; 2 Thessalonians 3:1. FOR WE TRUST WE HAVE A GOOD CONSCIENCE; there is a conscience in every man, but it is naturally evil: a good conscience is a conscience sanctified by the Spirit of God, and sprinkled by the blood of Jesus; here it chiefly respects the upright discharge of it in the ministerial work: this the apostle often asserts, and appeals to, and which he here expresses with modesty, and yet with confidence; and which he uses as an argument for prayer for them: IN ALL THINGS WILLING TO LIVE HONESTLY; not only as men, but as ministers; faithfully dispensing the word of truth, without any regard to the favour or frowns of men, as good stewards of the mysteries of God; wh

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