Hebrews
Chapter 13: 1-16
Concluding Exhortations
1Keep on
loving each other as brothers. 2Do not forget
to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without
knowing it. 3Remember those in prison as if you
were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were
suffering.
4Marriage
should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer
and all the sexually immoral. 5Keep your lives
free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,
"Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you." 6So we say with confidence,
"The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can man do to me?"
7Remember
your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life
and imitate their faith. 8Jesus Christ is the
same yesterday and today and forever.
9Do not
be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be
strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those who eat
them. 10We have an altar from which those who
minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat.
11The
high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but
the bodies are burned outside the camp. 12And
so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own
blood. 13Let us, then, go to him outside the
camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. 14For here
we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.
15Through
Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of
lips that confess his name. 16And do not forget
to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
