Live Responsibly

KEY VERSE: “Do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” —Hebrews 13:16, New International Version

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Hebrews 13:1-16

IN THIS LESSON, the Key Verse emphasizes our responsibility of sharing with others the gifts of God. The King James Version of this verse has the word ‘communicate’, but the Greek word, koinonia, is more appropriately translated ‘sharing’. Just as God demonstrated his love for us by giving his Son to be our Redeemer (John 3:16), our sacrifice is to be laid down not only to “seek for glory and honor and immortality” (Rom. 2:7), but to allow us to share in the privilege of blessing all the families of the earth in God’s promised kingdom.—Gen12:3

Our motivation is given in Hebrews 13:1, New International Version: “Keep on loving each other as brothers.” The Greek word translated ‘love’ in this text is Philadelphia, which means ‘brotherly love’. It means being hospitable to our brethren even though we may not know them. (vs. 2) It means putting ourselves at risk if our brethren suffer for the faith. “We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” (I John 3:16) This love demonstrates our love for God through the support of the body of Christ, for if one suffers, we all suffer.—I Cor. 12:26

We keep this brotherly love vibrant by remembering those who were raised up by God to establish and keep order in the church. We are enjoined to pay attention to the legacy which they have left us. (Heb. 13:7) We are to consider their way of life, their teachings, and their example of faithfulness to God’s Word. We are to imitate them and their defense of the Truth, their faithfulness unto death. The truth never changes, nor does our Master, as Paul states in Hebrews 13:8: “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” Therefore he warns us not to “be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings.”—Heb. 13:9, NIV

To further impress the importance of this brotherly love, Paul turns our attention to the typical Atonement Day sacrifices, and shows how the church is also pictured with Jesus in “the bodies of those beasts” (vs. 11) which were burned outside the camp. Jesus, the antitypical bullock, “suffered outside the city gate” (vs. 12, NIV), suffering as an outcast from the social and religious systems of the time. The Apostle said, “Jesus … who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame. … Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself.” (Heb. 12:2,3) Now “let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp [outside the camp, where the refuse of the sacrificial animals was burned], bearing his reproach.”—Heb. 13:13

As Paul wrote in another place concerning Christ, “The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me.” (Rom. 15:3) As Jesus said, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” (John 15:18,19) We, as the antitypical Lord’s goat, are admonished to “fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ.”—Col. 1:24

When we consider the privilege of sharing these reproaches as members of his body, it is proper and reasonable that we should fulfill Hebrews 13:16. We are to live responsibly, do good, and share what we have—especially with our brethren, those with whom we hope to live and reign a thousand years.

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