Hebrews 13: 20 Now the God of peace, that
brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep,
through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 Make you perfect in every
good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his
sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be
glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Here at the close of Hebrews (13:20-21) we find a
prayer. It may be broken down into three
simple parts:
First, there is the subject or actor: The God of peace (v. 20).
Second, there is the action that is
requested: make you perfect (v. 21).
Third, there is the object of the
verb: you (v. 21). The “you” here originally referred to wavering
Hebrew Christians and, through the miracle of the inscripturation of the Word, it
is applied to every generation of believers down to this present time.
Let’s
meditate on this petition: “Now the God
of peace … make you perfect…”
The
verb here is interesting. There is
another verb which means to perfect or be perfected. It is teleio-o. It has the sense of to be mature or to reach
moral perfection.
But the
verb here in Hebrews 13:21 is katartiz-o. You can hear the root of the English word
“artisan” in there. It means to render,
to make sound, to make complete. It is
also used in Greek to refer to mending or repairing something that has been
broken or rent. In those cases it means
to make complete or to restore.
This
verb is used in Matthew 4:21 and Mark 1:19 to describe how James and John were
mending their broken nets.
In 1
Corinthians 1:10 Paul uses this verb to speak of his desire that the fractious
Corinthians have no divisions among them and be “perfectly joined together in
the same mind and in the same judgment.”
In
Galatians 6:1 Paul uses this verb to urge that “if a man be overtaken in a
fault” that those who are spiritual among them should “restore such an one in
the spirit of meekness.”
In 1
Thessalonians 3:10 Paul speaks of having prayed night and day for those
brethren that God might “perfect what is lacking in your faith.”
Think
again now of the context of this book and of the original recipients: wavering Jewish Christians.
Their
profession of faith might have appeared in their own eyes and in the eyes of
others as something broken, torn, un-useable.
But the inspired author prays to a God who told the prophet Ezekiel to
prophesy to a valley of dry bones, to a Christ who told a lame man to take up
his bed and walk and who told dead Lazarus to come forth from the tomb, to the
Father who raised Jesus, that Great Shepherd of the Sheep, from the dead.
He
prays that that same God will “make perfect” these hearers. The God of peace is a God who mends,
completes, and repairs beleaguered disciples.
Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle
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