Note: Last
Sunday morning we completed our series through Hebrews. You can listen to the 46
sermons in the series here. The devotion
is taken from the last Sunday’s sermon
on Hebrews 13:22-25.
And I beseech you, brethren, suffer the word of
exhortation: for I have written a letter unto you in few words (Hebrews 13:22).
Hebrews
ends with an exhortation to “suffer [anechomai: to sustain, bear, endure] the word [logos] of exhortation [paraklesis].”
What
is the “word of exhortation”? It is the
entire book of Hebrews. I noted at the
very beginning of this series the question of the genre of Hebrews. Is it a sermon or a letter? In v. 22 we have evidence it is both. It is a sermon, a word of exhortation (v.
22a). It is also a letter: “for I have written a letter (epistello: the root of “epistle”) unto you in a few
words” (v. 22b).
Though
the inspired author is speaking here of the book of Hebrews, in particular, he
is also speaking of the entirety of the Scripture. The whole Bible, the whole
counsel of God, is to us a word of exhortation.
Sometimes it is a word of admonishment.
And sometimes it is a word of comfort.
Compare:
Romans 15: 4 For whatsoever
things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through
patience and comfort [paraklesis] of
the scriptures might have hope.
Sometimes
we think people don’t read the Bible or like to hear it preached and taught
because it is too difficult for them to understand. It only needs translation into our modern
idiom. The poet T. S. Eliot in a review
of the New English Bible observed that the writings of Paul are indeed hard to
understand. He added that there can be
no easy translation of the concepts in Paul anymore than there can be an easy
translation of the philosopher Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, a notoriously difficult to understand work
of philosophy. Perhaps we don’t like the
intake of the word because we don’t like being offended by what it has to say,
by the changes that it demands and expects, or by the challenges it poses.
But the inspired author of Hebrews says, “suffer the word of exhortation.”
This is a key to the Christian life.
When one becomes a Christian he must become not only a believer in Jesus
but also, correspondingly, a believer in the Scriptures. To trust Christ is to trust his Word.
Compare
chapter 14 in the Second London Baptist Confession “Of Saving Faith” and
paragraph 2:
By this faith a Christian believes to be true whatsoever is
revealed in the Word for the authority of God himself, and also apprehends an
excellency therein above all other writings and all things in the world, as it
bears forth the glory of God in his attributes, the excellency of Christ in his
nature and offices, and the power and fullness of the Holy Spirit in his
workings and operations: and so is enabled to cast his soul upon the truth
consequently believed; and also acts differently upon that which each
particular passage thereof contains; yielding obedience to the commands, trembling
at the threatenings, and embracing the promises of God for this life and
that which is to come; but the principle acts of saving faith have
immediate relation to Christ, accepting, receiving, and resting upon him alone
for justification, sanctification, and eternal life, by virtue of the covenant
of grace.
Indeed,
to be a believer is to suffer (receive with reverence and submission) his
revealed truth in Hebrews and in the rest of Scripture also.
Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle
Well done
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