Words of encouragement
1 Let mutual love continue.
2 Do not neglect to offer hospitality; you know that some people have entertained angels without know ing it.
3 Remember prisoners as if you were with them in chains, and the same for those who are suffering. Remember that you also have a body.
4 Marriage must be respected by all and husband and wife faithful to each other. God will punish the immoral and the adulterous.
5 Do not depend on money. Be con tent with having enough for to day for God has said: I will never forsake you or abandon you,
6 and we shall confidently answer: The Lord is my helper, I will not fear; what can man do to me?
7 Re mem ber your leaders who taught you the word of God. Consider their end and imitate their faith.
8 Christ Jesus is the same today as yesterday and forever.
9 Do not be led astray by all kinds of strange teachings. Your heart will be strengthened by the grace of God rather than by foods of no use to any one.
10 We have an altar from which those still serving in the Temple cannot eat.
11 After the High Priest has offered the blood in the Sanctuary for the sins of the people, the carcasses of the animals are burnt outside the camp.
12 For this same reason Jesus, to purify the people with his own blood, suffered his Passion outside the holy city.
13 Let us, therefore, go to him outside the sacred area, sharing his shame.
14 For we have here no lasting city and we are looking for the one to come.
15 Let us, then, continually offer through Jesus a sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of lips celebrating his name.
16 Do not neglect good works and common life, for these are sacrifices pleasing to God.
17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are concerned for your souls and are accountable for them. Let this be a joy for them rather than a burden, which would be of no advantage for you.
18 Pray for us, for we believe our intentions are pure and that we only want to act honorably in all things.
19 Now I urge you all the more to pray for me that I may be given back to you the sooner.
20 May God give you peace, he who brought back from among the dead Jesus our Lord, the Great Shepherd of the sheep, whose blood seals the eternal covenant.
21 He will train you in every good work, that you may do his will, for it is he who works in us what pleases him, through Jesus Christ, to whom all glory be for ever and ever. Amen!
22 Brothers, I beg you to take these words of encouragement. For my part, I will add few words.
23 Know that our brother Timothy has been released. If he comes soon I will visit you with him.
24 Greetings to all your leaders and to the saints. Greetings from those in Italy.
25 Grace be with you all.
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Comments , Chapter 13
• 13.1 Faith is great, but it is lived in the little things of daily life. The persecuted people to whom this letter is addressed need not undertake new tasks. They will manifest their faith through an upright and generous life. They will also have to accept their situation of being marginalized, sharing the shame of Christ.
Jesus suffered his Passion outside the holy city (v. 12). The Bible required that victims sacrificed for the forgiveness of sins be burned outside the sacred area of the Temple: that was a way of showing that the sin of the people had been transferred to those victims, then thrown out to take all evil and sin away from the people. This rite somehow already an nounced what was to hap pen with Jesus who died outside the holy city of Jerusalem: he was the true victim for sin.
We can draw another lesson, as well: believers must leave the holy area, that is, a comfortable and respected life, in order to seek the Kingdom of Justice to which little care is given. Believers oppose the present world, and “are not of this world”; and they refuse to enjoy this world as if it were their final homeland.