Let’s therefore go out to him outside of the camp, bearing his reproach. For we don’t have here an enduring city, but we seek that which is to come. Through him, then, let’s offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips which proclaim allegiance to his name.
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Hebrews 13:13-15 sits inside this longer paragraph.
We have an altar from which those who serve the holy tabernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside of the camp. Therefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside of the gate. Let’s therefore go out to him outside of the camp, bearing his reproach. For we don’t have here an enduring city, but we seek that which is to come. Through him, then, let’s offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips which proclaim allegiance to his name. But don’t forget to be doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
Parallel Translations
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Let’s therefore go out to him outside of the camp, bearing his reproach.
For we don’t have here an enduring city, but we seek that which is to come.
Through him, then, let’s offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips which proclaim allegiance to his name.
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Let vs goo forth therfore out of the tentes and suffer rebuke with him.
For here have we no continuynge citie: but we seke one to come.
For by him offer we the sacrifice of laude allwayes to god: that is to saye the frute of those lyppes which confesse his name.
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Let vs goe foorth to him therefore out of the campe, bearing his reproch.
For here haue we no continuing citie: but we seeke one to come.
Let vs therefore by him offer the sacrifice of prayse alwaies to God, that is, the fruite of the lippes, which confesse his Name.
Cross-references (61)
- Psalms 107:21-22 (v15) Let them praise Yahweh for his loving kindness, for his wonderful deeds to the children of men! Let them offer the sacrifices of…
- Psalms 50:14 (v15) Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Pay your vows to the Most High.
- Philippians 3:20 (v14) For our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
- Romans 12:1 (v15) Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your…
- Psalms 145:1-21 (v15) I will exalt you, my God, the King. I will praise your name forever and ever. Every day I will praise you. I will extol your name forever…
Show all 61 cross-references
- 1 Peter 2:5 (v15) You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God…
- Hosea 14:2 (v15) Take words with you, and return to Yahweh. Tell him, “Forgive all our sins, and accept that which is good: so we offer our lips like bulls.
- Colossians 3:1-3 (v14) If then you were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. Set your…
- Ephesians 5:19-20 (v15) speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always…
- Hebrews 11:12-16 (v14) Therefore as many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as innumerable as the sand which is by the sea shore, were fathered by one man,…
- Hebrews 11:26 (v13) considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he looked to the reward.
- Hebrews 12:22 (v14) But you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable multitudes of angels,
- Psalms 50:23 (v15) Whoever offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me, and prepares his way so that I will show God’s salvation to him.”
- Isaiah 57:19 (v15) I create the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace, to him who is far off and to him who is near,” says Yahweh; “and I will heal them.”
- 2 Peter 3:13-14 (v14) But, according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, seeing that you…
- 2 Chronicles 33:16 (v15) He built up Yahweh’s altar, and offered sacrifices of peace offerings and of thanksgiving on it, and commanded Judah to serve Yahweh, the…
- Ephesians 2:19 (v14) So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God,
- 1 Peter 4:14-16 (v13) If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed; because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. On their part he is…
- Psalms 116:17-19 (v15) I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call on Yahweh’s name. I will pay my vows to Yahweh, yes, in the presence of…
- Matthew 16:24 (v13) Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
- Luke 6:22 (v13) Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude and mock you, and throw out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake.
- Acts 5:41 (v13) They therefore departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for Jesus’ name.
- 2 Corinthians 4:17–5:8 (v14) For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory, while we don’t look…
- Revelation 5:9-14 (v15) They sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the book and to open its seals: for you were killed, and bought us for God with your…
- Revelation 19:1-6 (v15) After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Hallelujah! Salvation, power, and glory…
- Leviticus 7:12 (v15) If he offers it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened…
- Micah 2:10 (v14) Arise, and depart! For this is not your resting place, because of uncleanness that destroys, even with a grievous destruction.
- 1 Corinthians 4:10-13 (v13) We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You have honor, but we have dishonor. Even to…
- Hebrews 11:9-10 (v14) By faith, he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him…
- 2 Chronicles 7:6 (v15) The priests stood, according to their positions; the Levites also with instruments of music of Yahweh, which David the king had made to…
- Psalms 69:30-31 (v15) I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. It will please Yahweh better than an ox, or a bull that…
- Matthew 5:11 (v13) “Blessed are you when people reproach you, persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
- Matthew 11:25 (v15) At that time, Jesus answered, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and understanding,…
- Matthew 27:39-44 (v13) Those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads, and saying, “You who destroy the temple, and build it in three days, save…
- 1 Corinthians 7:29 (v14) But I say this, brothers: the time is short, that from now on, both those who have wives may be as though they had none;
- 2 Corinthians 12:10 (v13) Therefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, and in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am…
- Hebrews 4:9 (v14) There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God.
- 1 Peter 4:7 (v14) But the end of all things is near. Therefore be of sound mind, self-controlled, and sober in prayer.
- Nehemiah 12:43 (v15) They offered great sacrifices that day, and rejoiced; for God had made them rejoice with great joy; and the women and the children also…
- Psalms 18:49 (v15) Therefore I will give thanks to you, Yahweh, among the nations, and will sing praises to your name.
- Psalms 118:19 (v15) Open to me the gates of righteousness. I will enter into them. I will give thanks to Yah.
- Ephesians 2:18 (v15) For through him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.
- Colossians 3:16-17 (v15) Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs,…
- 1 Peter 4:11 (v15) If anyone speaks, let it be as it were the very words of God. If anyone serves, let it be as of the strength which God supplies, that in…
- Genesis 4:3-4 (v15) As time passed, Cain brought an offering to Yahweh from the fruit of the ground. Abel also brought some of the firstborn of his flock and…
- 2 Chronicles 29:31 (v15) Then Hezekiah answered, “Now you have consecrated yourselves to Yahweh. Come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings into Yahweh’s…
- Ezra 3:11 (v15) They sang to one another in praising and giving thanks to Yahweh, “For he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever toward Israel.”…
- Nehemiah 12:40 (v15) So the two companies of those who gave thanks in God’s house stood, and I, and the half of the rulers with me;
- Psalms 136:1-26 (v15) Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good; for his loving kindness endures forever. Give thanks to the God of gods; for his loving kindness…
- Isaiah 12:1-2 (v15) In that day you will say, “I will give thanks to you, Yahweh; for though you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you comfort…
- Matthew 10:24-25 (v13) “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be like his teacher, and the…
- John 10:9 (v15) I am the door. If anyone enters in by me, he will be saved, and will go in and go out, and will find pasture.
- Romans 6:19 (v15) I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh, for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to…
- Colossians 1:12 (v15) giving thanks to the Father, who made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light,
- Hebrews 7:25 (v15) Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, seeing that he lives forever to make…
- Hebrews 12:3 (v13) For consider him who has endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, that you don’t grow weary, fainting in your souls.
- Revelation 7:9-12 (v15) After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could count, out of every nation and of all tribes, peoples, and…
- Luke 10:21 (v15) In that same hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, and said, “I thank you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these…
- John 14:6 (v15) Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.
- 1 Peter 4:4 (v13) They think it is strange that you don’t run with them into the same excess of riot, blaspheming.
- Revelation 4:8-11 (v15) The four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within. They have no rest day and night, saying,…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (22 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv13–15 13. Let us go forth, therefore, etc. That the…
13. Let us go forth, therefore, etc. That the preceding allegory or mystical similitude might not be frigid and lifeless, he connects with it an important duty required of all Christians. And this mode of teaching is what Paul also usually adopts, that he might show to the faithful what things God would have them to be engaged in, while he was endeavoring to draw them away from vain ceremonies; as though he had said, “This is what God demands from you, but not that work in which you in vain weary yourselves.” So now our Apostle speaks; for while he invites us to leave the tabernacle and to follow Christ, he reminds us that a far different thing is required of us from the work of serving God in the shade under the magnificent splendor of the temple; for we must go after him through exiles, flights, reproaches, and all kinds of afflictions. This warfare, in which we must strive even unto blood, he sets in opposition to those shadowy practices of which alone the teachers of ceremonies boasted.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv13, 15 He goeth on further in this comparison, and showeth…
He goeth on further in this comparison, and showeth that this also signified unto us, that the godly followers of Christ must as it were go out of the world, bearing his cross.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv13–15 13 Let us go forth therefore unto him without…
13 Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.
Ver. 13. Bearing his reproach] The reproach of saints is the reproach of Christ, and their sufferings his, Col 1:24; Neh 4:3-5. God is more provoked than Nehemiah. He that saith, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay," repays ofttimes, when we have forgiven, when we have forgotten; and calls to reckoning after our discharges.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv13–15 Therefore shows this to be a necessary duty, inferred…
Therefore shows this to be a necessary duty, inferred from the former privilege; That since we have such an altar and sacrifice as Jesus, sanctifying us by his own blood, which he entered with to God, when he suffered without the gate; we ought and must
go forth (from tabernacle service, consisting of meats and ceremonies, from Judaism, in all its parts abolished, and all erroneous doctrines, how numerous and strange soever, and all worldly things) unto Jesus, who was cursed for us, that we might be blessed, Gal 3:13, in faith and love; not ashamed of, but glorying in his sufferings, and following and imitating of him, patiently and boldly bearing mockings, revilings, scourgings, crucifyings, and all other persecretions, which are parts of his cross, for his sake, Heb 11:9; Rom 6:5,6; 1Co 1:30; Gal 2:20; Phi 3:8-10; making him in all our example, 1Pe 2:21; 4:12-19.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv14–15 These words may be considered either relatively or absolutely:…
These words may be considered either relatively or absolutely: consider them with relation to the context, and their sense is this: "How cheerfully ought believers, according to the advice in the foregoing verse, to go forth to Christ without the camp, bearing his reproach, when they consider their present state and condition, that they have no city here below, that was now the seat of divine worship whereunto it was confined, as the Jews had at Jerusalem before the abolishment of their ceremonial worship; but they seek one to come, even the heavenly Jerusalem, where they shall worship God in his temple day and night?"
Consider the words absolutely in themselves, and two things seem to be intended and designed by them:
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1. That our condition in this world is very uncertain and unsettled, We have no continuing city here.
2. It implies a tendency to a future settling, and the hopes and expectations we have of a happier condition, into which we shall enter when we go out of this world.
Learn hence, 1. That the world never did, nor ever will, give a state of satisfactory rest unto believers; it will not afford them a city of rest, hardly a place of refuge; they must therefore arise and depart, for this is not their rest.
Learn, 2. That as God has prepared a city of rest for believers, so it is their duty to seek and secure it, and continually endeavour the attainment of it, in the way of his own appointmen: We have not, but we seek.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv13–15 Let us go forth therefore unto him without the…
Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp,.... Either of legal ceremonies, which are to be quitted; or of this world, which may be compared to a "camp"; for its instability, a camp not being always in one place; and for its hostility, the world being full of enemies to Christ and his people; and for the noise and fatigue of it, it being a troublesome and wearisome place to the saints, abounding with sins and wickedness; as also camps usually do; and for multitude, the men of the world being very numerous: and a man may be said to "go forth" from hence, when he professes not to belong to the world; when his affections are weaned from it; when the allurements of it do not draw him aside; when he forsakes, and suffers the loss of all, for Christ; when he withdraws from the conversation of the men of it, and breathes after another world; and to go forth from hence, "unto him", unto Christ, shows, that Christ is not to be found in the camp, in the world: he is above, in heaven, at the right hand of God; and that going out of the camp externally, or leaving the world only in a way of profession, is or no avail, without going to Christ: yet there must be a quitting of the world, in some sense, or there is no true coming to Christ, and enjoyment of him; and Christ is a full recompence for what of the world may be lost by coming to him; wherefore there is great encouragement to quit the world, and follow Christ: now to go forth to him is to believe in him; to hope in him; to love him; to make a profession of him, and follow him:
bearing his reproach; or reproach for his sake: the reproach, which saints meet with, for the sake of Christ, and a profession of him, is called "his", because of the union there is between them, and the sympathy and fellow feeling he has with them in it; he reckons what is said and done to them as said and done to himself; and besides, there is a likeness between the reproach which Christ personally bore, and that which is cast upon his followers; and this is to be bore by them willingly, cheerfully, courageously, and patiently.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv13–15 Let us then go forth without the camp -…
Let us then go forth without the camp - Out of the Jewish dispensation. Bearing his reproach - All manner of shame, obloquy, and contempt for his sake.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv13–15 Verse 13. Let us go forth therefore unto him]…
Verse 13. Let us go forth therefore unto him] Let us leave this city and system, devoted to destruction, and take refuge in Jesus alone, bearing his reproach-being willing to be accounted the refuse of all things, and the worst of men, for his sake who bore the contradiction of sinners against himself, and was put to death as a malefactor.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v15 Heb 13:15-16. Having mentioned the altar, the apostle now…
Heb 13:15-16. Having mentioned the altar, the apostle now proceeds to speak of the sacrifice. By him therefore — Our great High-Priest, though persecuted by our unbelieving brethren, and exposed to many sufferings; let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually — For surely we have continual reason, having before us a prospect of such unutterable felicity and glory; that is, the fruit of our lips — It is generally granted that this expression is taken from Hosea, where the same duty is called the calves, or sacrifices, of our lips; for the sense is the same, and praise to God is intended in both places. But to do good, &c. — As if he had said, But while we present this verbal tribute, let us remember that another yet more substantial sacrifice is required, namely, to do good to our fellow- creatures, and that in every way in our power, to their souls as well as to their bodies, supplying, as we have ability, both their spiritual and temporal wants; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased — As his inspired servants have abundantly testified. Indeed they have been always more pleasing to him than any victims which, in the neglect of these, could be brought to his altar.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv13–15 Let us go forth therefore unto him without the…
Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp - As if we were going forth with him when he was led away to be crucified. He was put to death as a malefactor. He was the object of contempt and scorn. He was held up to derision, and was taunted and reviled on his way to the place of death, and even on the cross. To be identified with him there; to follow him; to sympathize with him; to be regarded as his friend, would have subjected one to similar shame and reproach. The meaning here is, that we should be willing to regard ourselves as identified with the Lord Jesus, and to bear the same shame and reproaches which he did. When he was led away amidst scoffing and reviling to be put to death, would we, if we had been there, been willing to be regarded as his followers, and to have gone out with him as his avowed disciples and friends? Alas, how many are there who profess to love him when religion subjects them to no reproach, who would have shrunk from following him to Calvary!
Bearing his reproach - Sympathizing with him; or bearing such reproach as he did; see 1Pe 4:13; compare Heb 12:2 note; Phi 3:10 note; Col 1:24 note.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv13–14 Let us go forth, therefore, to him without the…
Let us go forth, therefore, to him without the camp. It is an exhortation to them to be willing to suffer with Christ reproaches, persecutions, and death itself, if they desire to partake of the benefit of Christ’s redemption. (Witham) --- Bearing his reproach. That is, bearing his cross. It is an exhortation to them to be willing to suffer, with Christ, reproaches, persecutions, and even death, if they desire to partake of the benefit of his suffering for man’s redemption. (Challoner)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv13–15 therefore--This "therefore" breathes the deliberate fortitude of believers [BENGEL].
therefore--This "therefore" breathes the deliberate fortitude of believers [BENGEL].
without the camp--"outside the legal polity" [THEODORET] of Judaism (compare Heb 13:11) "Faith considers Jerusalem itself as a camp, not a city" [BENGEL]. He contrasts with the Jews, who serve an earthly sanctuary, the Christians to whom the altar in heaven stands open, while it is closed against the Jews. As Jesus suffered without the gate, so spiritually must those who desire to belong to Him, withdraw from the earthly Jerusalem and its sanctuary, as from this world in general. There is a reference to Exo 33:7, when the tabernacle was moved without the camp, which had become polluted by the people's idolatry of the golden calves; so that "every one who sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation (as Moses called the tabernacle outside the camp), which was without the camp"; a lively type of what the Hebrews should do, namely, come out of the carnal worship of the earthly Jerusalem to worship God in Christ in spirit, and of what we all ought to do, namely, come out from all carnalism, worldly formalism, and mere sensuous worship, and know Jesus in His spiritual power apart from worldliness, seeing that "we have no continuing city" (Heb 13:14).
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bearing--as Simon of Cyrene did.
his reproach--the reproach which He bare, and which all His people bear with Him.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv13–15 13. Let us—The followers of the Crucified. Go—As he…
13. Let us—The followers of the Crucified. Go—As he went. He went out of the material city, Jerusalem; we go out of the mystical city, Judaism.
This is a striking proof that our epistle was addressed to Jerusalem.
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Bearing his reproach—The scorn, oppression, and persecution of the Jerusalem hierarchy and its partisans, under which our author’s beloved “Hebrews” were suffering. Let us go, is his cheering word of command; bearing his reproach, are his words of holy patience and defiance.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv13–15 13. Let us go forth therefore unto him] Let…
13. Let us go forth therefore unto him] Let us go forth out of the city and camp of Judaism (Rev_11:8) to the true and eternal Tabernacle (Exo_33:7-8) where He now is (Heb_12:2). Some have imagined that the writer conveys a hint to the Christians in Jerusalem that it is time for them to leave the guilty city and retire to Pella; but, as we have seen, it is by no means probable that the letter was addressed to Jerusalem.
bearing his reproach] “If ye be reproached,” says St Peter, “for the name of Christ, happy are ye” (comp. Heb_11:26). As He was excommunicated and insulted and made to bear His Cross of shame, so will you be, and you must follow Him out of the doomed city (Mat_24:2). It must be remembered that the Cross, an object of execration and disgust even to Gentiles, was viewed by the Jews with religious horror, since they regarded every crucified person as “accursed of God” (Deu_21:22-23; Gal_3:13; see my Life of St Paul, ii. 17, 148). Christians shared this reproach to the fullest extent. The most polished heathen writers, men like Tacitus, Pliny, Suetonius, spoke of their faith as an “execrable,” “deadly,” and “malefic” superstition; Lucian alluded to Christ as “the impaled sophist;” and to many Greeks and Romans no language of scorn seemed too intense, no calumny too infamous, to describe them and their mode of worship. The Jews spoke of them as “Nazarenes,” “Epicureans,” “heretics,” “followers of the thing,” and especially “apostates,” “traitors,” and “renegades.” The notion that there is any allusion to the ceremonial uncleanness of those who burnt the bodies of the offerings of the Day of Atonement “outside the camp” is far-fetched.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv13–15 (13) The suffering “without the gate” was a symbol…
(13) The suffering “without the gate” was a symbol of His rejection by the Jews. All who would be His must share the reproach which came upon Him, who was cast out by His people and crucified (Heb_11:26): they also must go forth “without the camp,” forsaking the company of His foes. Each one must for himself make choice either of the synagogue or of the church of Christ; between the two there can be no fellowship.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv13–15 Let us go forth therefore unto him without the…
Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. By a happy turn of thought Christ"s having suffered without the gate is viewed as representing his exclusion from the Jewish Church and polity, outside which we are now to follow him, though we with him be reproached by the Jews as outcasts. There may be a tacit reference, such as Bengel sees in the word ferontev , to our bearing our cross after him.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv14–15 Here have we no continuing city
Heb_13:14
Here have we no continuing city
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An ever-changing scene:
These words sum up what was certainly the apostolic mind as to the position of Christians in the world.
They were members, as we are, of a vast and complex association which we call human society; but, with all its great attributes, it wants permanence. The world passes away as we work and speak. Here we have no continuing city. We have, indeed, a city; we have a wonderful and beneficent citizenship; we could not live without it; we owe it debts beyond repayment, duties of the most sacred kind; but society is with us and about us to-day, and to-morrow we and it are to be so much farther on in our round of successive changes, by which it becomes something quite different from what it is now, something, perhaps, which now we cannot imagine, and we disappear from life and from the visible world. But though here we have no continuing city, we do seek one to come. Born amid change, knowing nothing by experience but change, the human heart yet obstinately clings to its longing for the unchangeable and eternal. Christian souls not only long for it, but look for it. We seek that which is to come--seek it, believing that we shall one day reach it. We do not need Scripture to teach us that we have no continuing city, that the fashion of this world passeth away, that nothing continueth in one stay. But only Scripture can teach us to seek with hope for that which is to come. I need not remind you how, throughout the Psalms, we meet the impressive recognition of this aspect of life and of the world. They are full of the presence, of the greatness, of the eventfulness Of change--change going on for good and evil, for joy and sorrow, in Outward circumstances, in the inward life--changes visible, material, political, moral, and vicissitudes in the fortunes of men and nations; and there are recorded the most rapid alternations and successions of feeling in the soul within, in its outlook towards God and things outside it. The idea of the sovereignty of God is the counterpart throughout the Psalms set over against all that is unsatisfying, disastrous, transitory, untrustworthy, not only in mans condition, but in the best that be can do. The psalmists realised that they had no continuing city in a way that is far beyond our experience. They knew a state of society which could rely on nothing settled. It was liable at any moment to be tormented by insolent and lawless wickedness, to be shaken to its foundations by the fever and passion of false religions, to be crushed down into utter ruin by some alien conqueror. They believed that they were the people of God; they believed that they had His promises; and yet what they saw was these promises still unfulfilled, recalled, apparently passing away to nothingness; they, the people of Gods holiness, saw in the midst of them, trampling on all light and purity, the bloodthirsty and deceitful man; they, the elect of the Lord of Hosts, saw the enemy master among the ruins of Gods holy place, and for generation after generation felt themselves the slaves and spoil of the heathen. What wonder, then, that the voice of grief and humiliation sounds with such tragic repetition in the Book of Psalms? Hath God indeed forgotten to be gracious, and wilt He shut up His loving-kindness in displeasure? But what is the other side of all this? It is that perhaps with one, and that only an apparent exception, the voice of unalloyed and uncomforted despair is never heard there. At the very moment that the heart is rent with shame and agony comes the remembrance of the Eternal King of Mercy and Righteousness, whose kingdom endured from end to end, while empires rose and fell, and whose ear heard with equal certainty the cry of the poor, and the blasphemer, and the cruel. In spite of the daily evidence of experience, the wicked flourishing like a green bay-tree, the power of the oppressor, the mocking tongue of the blasphemer--in spite of all, the foundations stand sure and unshaken by any accidents of mortal condition. Thou art set in the throne that judgest right. The Lord shall endure for ever; He hath also prepared His seat for judgment. The Lord also will be a defence for the oppressed, &c. And so with the transitoriness of the lives and generations of men. Nowhere is a keener sense shown of it than in the Psalms. For man walketh in a vain shadow, and disquieteth himself in vain. As soon as Thou scatterest them they are even as a sleep, and fade away suddenly like the grass. For, when Thou art angry, all our days are gone; we bring our years to an end as a tale that is told. What is there to comfort and compensate for this dreary prospect? Nothing but unlimited trust in Gods power and goodness and ever-watchful care. My days have gone like a shadow, and I am withered like grass. There is the consciousness which must come to all men sooner or later--a consciousness in the Psalmists case that these great changes in his lot were not undeserved by a sinner. And that because of Thy indignation and wrath; for Thou hast taken me up, and cast me down. The great revelation of forgiveness and immortality was yet to come, but the Psalmists faith in the Eternal King of the world never wavered. The days of man are bat as grass, for lie flourisheth as a flower of the field. For as soon, etc. But the merciful goodness, &c. When the breath of man goeth forth, &c. The waste, the throwing away of human souls, of human affection--is there anything more strangely perplexing in the ruin of death? But the answer is at hand: Blessed is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, &c. Men died and were buried, and their children after them; they knew that they must die and be as though they had never been. They walked like shadows in the midst of shadows. They felt to the full the shortness of life, how soon it was over, how awful its inevitable changes; yet they did not faint. They knew that over them was the ever-continuous rule of Him who made heaven and earth and all things. They doubted not that He keepeth His promise for ever; and so, with change and mortality in them and around them, written on the solid earth and on the distant heaven, they broke into the exulting song (Psa_102:25-28): Here we have no continuing city; but we know, with a distinctness which all men have not, of the city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. But where is that passionate, delighted, triumphant faith of those men of old? What have we got of their joy and gladness at the very thought of God? (Dean Church.)
Mutability of mans present condition
I. HERE WE HAVE NO CONTINUING CITY.
1. We may be said to have here no continuing city, by reason of the changes to which our circumstances are liable.
2. The same truth will appear evident if we consider the dissatisfaction with which every condition in life is attended.
3. The truth of the apostles declaration will appear still more manifest when we consider the change to which we ourselves are liable. Every step that we take, while it may bring us nearer to some object of pursuit, at the same time brings us nearer to that misty ocean upon which we must all embark, and bid adieu to all upon its shore.
II. BUT WE SEEK ONE TO COME.
1. This presupposes, on the part of Christians, an idea of the existence of another city yet to be discovered.
2. The language of the apostle implies not only a conviction of the existence of heaven, but of its excellence, its decided superiority to the place of mans present habitation.
3. The language here employed implies a belief that this city may be gained.
4. It implies, more particularly, that Christians have abandoned the world.
5. It implies an actual entrance upon the way to heaven by an engagement in Christian duty. (James Clason.)
The final home of the Christian not on earth, but in heaven
I. MAN HAS NO PERMANENT HOME ON EARTH.
1. The inconstancy of human life.
2. The inevitable event of death.
3. The doom which awaits the earth.
II. THE PERMANENT HOME OF THE CHRISTIAN IS IN HEAVEN.
1. Heaven is a place.
2. Heaven is a permanent place.
3. Heaven is sure to the faithful believer.
III. To ATTAIN HEAVEN IS THE CHRISTIANS SUPREME CONCERN.
1. Heaven is secured to the believer conditionally.
2. That condition must be fulfilled on earth.
3. Its fulfilment requires the vigorous application of the whole mind.
4. The hope of heaven inspires Christian courage. (Homilist.)
Men sojourners upon earth
I. No sooner are we capable of looking round us, and considering the frame of our nature, and the condition of our being, than we may observe THAT, DERIVED FROM DUST, WE NATURALLY HASTEN TO DUST AGAIN; that none can claim the privilege of an exemption from the common necessity; that the human, like the vegetable race, have their periods of growth and declension, and are either cut down by the hand of violence, or soon fade and drop of themselves. Strangers and sojourners here, as were all our fathers, we soon pass away, and are gone.
II. I proceed to deduce SOME REFLECTIONS AND INFERENCES FROM THE SHORT DURATION AND TRANSITORY: CONDITION OF HUMAN LIFE.
1. Melancholy indeed would be the reflection that we pass away as a shadow if this life were the whole of our existence, and we had no hope beyond it, But, setting aside other considerations, the short term of our existence here may give us grounds to hope that it will be renewed and prolonged hereafter. For can we think that man was not designed by his Maker to attain that perfection in wisdom, and virtue, and happiness of which his nature is susceptive?
2. Meditation on our short and uncertain state in this world may wean us from an over-fondness for anything in it.
3. The consideration of the shortness of life may assist us in supporting us under its afflictions.
4. If the time of our sojourning in this world be but short, let the great and habitual object of our attention be that state which may soon begin but can never end. If we have here no continuing city, let us seek one to come. (G. CarT, B. A.)
Present change and future continuance:
Changeableness is one characteristic of all that is earthly. What is history? Largely the record of a succession of vapours which have appeared for a little time, and then have vanished away. What is philosophy but knowledge of the rise and progress, the extent and duration of shadows? What is poetry but the expression of the deep emotions awakened by earthly vicissitudes? And what is this world as we now all see it but a system of globes having a double revolution? Nothing abides in the same place, or exhibits two days together the same aspect. Changeableness is one feature of all that is earthly; human nature being no exception. Personally, relatively, in body, in spirit, within, without, there is no continuance. Some of the changes to which men are subject are manifestly good in themselves, good in all respects, and in the case of those who love God, and who are the called according to His purpose, all things work together for good. Here have we no continuing city. In what position are we left? Are we never to have continuance? Yes, we are to look upon things abiding, for while here we have no continuing city, we, Christians, seek one to come.
I. Look at THIS CHANGEABLENESS HERE FELT AND ACKNOWLEDGED. Here have we no continuing city. This seems discordant with the closing verse of the former chapter, where it is said--We receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. But you remember, that kingdom is within us; and that kingdom is continued. The apostle is speaking in the text rather of that which is outside of us. Here, too, have we no fixed temporal condition. The rich often become poor; the elevated are brought low; and the men of many friends are made desolate. Here, too, have we no ultimate stage of existence. We begin with babyhood, rise into childhood, and oh, how soon do we get through manhood! And here have we no permanent visible Church. The persons constituting the Churches of Christ die; the members of particular congregations change; they pass from one community to another; and our Church forms and modes alter. Here, too, have we no fixed and unalterable demand upon our resources and powers. Duties and responsibilities, they all vary. Here, too, have we no fixed state of the emotions. To-day we are in joy; to-morrow in sorrow. Here, too, have we not the consummation of redemption. There are some things in our salvation now complete. Our pardon is complete; our justification is complete; but the inner salvation is being wrought out. There is no continuance in the experience of a true Christian. Here, too, have we not the everlasting Jerusalem. So that we may say, looking at all these facts, Here have we no continuing city.
II. WE CHRISTIANS SEEK ONE TO COME. We desire that which is unchangeable, and we seek it. One to come--a higher and a settled dwelling-place--a final home. It is love that makes a home. To love, and to be loved, though it be in the peasants cot, is to be at home; and often you find homes in the rudest dwellings, and none in the most splendid palaces. But where love is likely to be disturbed--where some rude hand can take the threads that love is ever spinning and tying and fastening, and cut them and sever them, the home feeling must of course be partial. And we long for a place and a state where we shall abide eternally in the presence of those who love us. We seek one to come. A higher and a settled dwelling-place, a final home, a permanent state of being--not a stereotyped state of being, but still a permanent state of being, as distinguished from a mere probational state. And we long for, we seek a permanent state of being, and an undisturbed condition. Society, for example, just to take two or three illustrations--society without interruption or separation. Now, as soon as we know one another, we are taken away from each other. Occupation pursued for ever. The man who looks at this world as he should look at it almost trembles to undertake anything great or anything grand. But think of immortality as the day of your work. What broad foundations of enterprises may you lay, when you shall feel that you have the for-ever before you in which to execute those enterprises! One to come--not only occupations to be pursued for ever, but pleasure to be enjoyed for ever, and honours to be worn for ever, and worship to be continued for ever, and communion to be unbroken for ever, and the Church to be glorious and perfect for ever. Now, we Christians desire this for comforts sake, for progress sake, and above all for righteousness sake. Acknowledge, then, that here have we no continuing city; acknowledge it. Acknowledge it by expecting change. Do not busy yourself in trying to fix permanently all the arrangements of your households, and to say, as I sometimes hear some of you say, and hear you say occasionally with trembling, Now we are settled. Settled? Settled this side of the grave? Settled--where change is the very law of life? Settled? Oh, never say with the spirit that we are now condemning, Now we are settled. When God requires you to make changes, make them, and be ready for them, and then they will not hurt you. Here have we no continuing city. Acknowledge this fully and cordially. Then seek one to come--by union with Jesus Christ, and by spiritual preparedness. There is a city to come--a collection of the saved children of Adam in one place--a holy place, a city. It is beautiful for situation, like Jerusalem of old,but built upon everlasting hills which shall never bow, and upon mountains which shall never be moved. It is a holy city, into which shall not enter anything that defileth or worketh abomination, or maketh a lie. (S. Martin.)
No continuing city here
I. THE AFFECTING VIEW WHICH THE TEXT PRESENTS OF THE PRESENT WORLD.
1. Our earthly possessions do not continue.
(1) Our life--the chief of them--is not permanent. We know not what a day may bring forth.
(2) Our connections are not permanent. We may flatter ourselves in the hope that they will remain, and avail us, all along the journey of life; that we shall never want a relative to feel an identity of interests with us; but, probably, amidst all these self-gratulations, events may arise to dissolve our pleasing reverie, and to compel us to mourn over lost relations, never to be regained.
(3) Our health, property, respectability, do not always continue. What reverses of this kind does the page of history record! We read of constitutions broken, estates lost, fortunes ruined--of thrones subverted.
2. Our opportunities do not continue. There is a tide in our affairs, both temporal and spiritual.
3. Our religious peace and joy do not continue. There are disturbing forces in the kingdom of grace, as well as in that of nature: there are alternations in the affections of the soul, as well as in the seasons and the elements; and it would be strange if our minds were liable to no fluctuations, since there are different states in the health of our bodies.
II. THE CONDUCT WHICH THE APOSTLE DESCRIBES IN REFERENCE TO ANOTHER WORLD--but we seek one to come.
1. Observe the figure under which the place of the future abode of godly persons is represented--it is a city. A city means a place of concourse, in which is intelligent and agreeable society; a place of protection, a place of entertainment, where there is much to delight the eye, the ear, the taste--a place of refinement, where the minds, and manners of the inhabitants are removed from what is coarse--a place of wealth and comfort, affording a confluence of the supplies and enjoyments of life.
2. This peerless place is yet to come. That is, it is yet to appear, to be enjoyed--it is future. Hannibals soldiers had no adequate idea of the
Italian plains, before they descried them from the Alpine heights. The Israelites must have had a very imperfect notion of the Land of Promise, before they had crossed the Jordan, and traversed its mountains and valleys, entered its cities, walked amongst its vineyards, and partook of its milk and honey. And our highest attainments of grace upon earth leave us painfully ignorant of the perfect realisations of glory which await us in heaven.
3. Real Christians are now seeking this city which is to come. Seeking it implies earnest desire, assiduous diligence, and progressive advancement. (J. Davies.)
No continuing city:
In Chili, where the ground is subject to frequent shocks of earthquake, the houses are built of lowly height and of unenduring structure; it is of little use to dig deep foundations, and pile up high walls, when the very earth is unstable; it would be foolish to build as for ages when the whole edifice may be in ruins in a week. Herein we read a lesson as to our worldly schemes and possessions; this poor fleeting world deserves not that we should build our hopes and joys upon it as though they could last us long. We must treat it as a treacherous soil, and build but lightly on it, and we shall be wise. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
A frail habitation:
Mr. Ruskin speaks in his Loves Meinie of the Little Crake, a bird which lays her eggs on an inartificially constructed platform of decayed leaves or stalks of marsh plants, slightly elevated above the water. How elevated I cannot find proper account, that is to say, whether it is hung to the stems of growing reeds, or built on hillocks of soil, but the bird is always liable to have its nest overflown by floods (H. O.Mackey.)
We seek one to come
The abiding city of Gods people
I. I shall trace in these words THE OBJECT YEARNED AFTER BY EVERY MANS HEART, VIZ., A SETTLED AND SECURE CONDITION. Fully to enter into the beauty and force of this expression, it is necessary to imagine ourselves transported to a country exposed to the frequent devastation of war. Imagine yourselves in a land where the broken framework of the law cannot restrain each castle and town from pouring forth its band of marauding ruffians; or, suppose an enemys host landed and spreading fire and ruin far and wide--you will then partly estimate the desirableness of dwelling in a continuing city.
II. Therefore, secondly, GOD CONDESCENDS TO GIVE MAN A WARNING RESPECTING IT, drawing at one stroke a picture of this world, by saying that no such permanent security is to be found here--here we have no continuing city. Are riches secure? Your city has no bolts and bars to confine them. Friends, the nearest and dearest--what risk of their becoming estranged and chilled by misunderstanding. Earthquake, and hurricane, and plague, and war, are not necessary to brand instability on our comforts of this life. In the form of a slight cold Death lays its imperceptible touch upon the frame, and ere long comes to claim his own. Yet men will seek for these things, as if they were to endure, and will confide in their continuance to the last hour. It is necessary, then, that ye be warned by no less than the voice of God Himself, that here ye have no continuing city.
III. But, thirdly, GOD ASSURES US THAT THERE IS SUCH A STATE TO BE ATTAINED UNTO ELSEWHERE--there is one to come. The original is more explicit, for the existence of such a state is expressly affirmed. It is spoken of not as a hope, an imagination, like those which man sets before his own eyes, but as a reality. The true force of the expressions, the one to come, is, the city that is to come. Yes, revelation sets before us a place of security beyond the utmost dream of human hope--a continuing city, more complete than it hath entered into the heart of man to conceive, hath God prepared for them that love Him. It is figured forth as a city Heb_11:16): God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He hath prepared for them a city. It hath walls and gates: Thou shalt call thy walls salvation, and thy gates praise. It is set forth specially under the figure of the holy city, the New Jerusalem: the city had no need of the sun, nor of the moon. The majesty of God is security for the peace and safety of that place.
IV. But, fourthly, THE APOSTLE LETS FALL BY THE WAY A SHORT CHARACTERISTIC DESCRIPTION OF EVERY TRUE CHRISTIAN, VIZ., THAT HE IS A SEEKER OF THAT HEAVENLY CONDITION: We seek one to come. Recognise in this description that earnestness is an implied characteristic of the people of God. As an exile seeks his fathers land, or his native city, where the great majority of his kindred dwell, so the Christian soul feels towards heaven. He need not affect stoic indifference to the stations and duties on earth. St. Paul said, I am of Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city. But let earthly things clash with heavenly, and you will see where his heart is, that he is earnestly seeking his native city, into whose privileges he was new born, though at a distance, precisely as Paul was born into the privileges of Rome, though his native place was in Cilicia. The earnestness of a Christian will show itself in all he does; and in proportion as he is earnest, is the development of his Christianity. Another remark to which this characteristic description of a Christian gives rise, is an encouraging one to those Christians who, though earnest, are cast down. A Christians character is evidently that of an expectant, not a possessor. Ye are not yet come into the place which the Lord hath said He will give unto you. Be not therefore discouraged at being only an expectant of coming blessings. I would now fain bind this subject yet closer upon your individual hearts, by addressing three classes of persons. First, those that have suffered much from the mutability of earthly things; secondly, those that have been prosperous hitherto; and, thirdly, those that are entering on the trials of life. (G. Hebert, M. A.)
Only one Paradise for man
It is said that Mahomet approached Damascus, and when he stood to view the dazzling spectacle of that royal city, amid the beautiful plain, he turned aside and left the prospect, saying, It is given to man to enjoy Paradise but once. If I possess Damascus I lose heaven.
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv13–15 13. Let us go forth therefore unto him. Go…
13. Let us go forth therefore unto him. Go forth from the unbelieving and rebellious camp which sent him forth to die. Let us follow him. Bearing his reproach. The reproach of the cross of Christ.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv13, 15 Heb 13:13-14
Hebrews
WITHOUT THE CAMP
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Heb 13:13-14
CALVARY was outside Jerusalem. That wholly accidental and trivial circumstance is laid hold of in the context, in order to give picturesque force to the main contention and purpose of this Epistle. One of the solemn parts of the ritual of Judaism was the great Day of Atonement, on which the sacrifice that took away the sins of the nation was berne outside the camp, and consumed by fire, instead of being partaken of by the priests, as were most of the other sacrifices. Our writer here sees in these two roughly parallel things, not an argument but an imaginative illustration of great truths. Though he does not mean to say that the death on Calvary was intended to be pointed to by the unique arrangement in question, he does mean to say that the coincidence of the two things helps us to grasp two great truths-one, that Jesus Christ really did what that old sacrifice expressed the need for having done, and the other that, in His death on Calvary, the Jewish nation, as one of the parables has it, ‘cast Him out of the vineyard.’ In the context, he urges this analogy between the two things. But a Christ outside the camp beckons His disciples to His side. If any man serve Him, he has to follow Him, and the blessedness, as well as the duty, of the servant on earth, as well as in heaven, is to be where his Master is.
So the writer finds here a picturesque way to enforce the great lesson of his treatise, namely, that the Jewish adherent to Christianity must break with Judaism. In the early stages, it was possible to combine faith in Christ and adherence to the Temple and its ritual. But now that by process of time and experience the Church has learnt better who and what Christ is, that which was in part has to be done away, and the Christian Church is to stand clear of the Jewish synagogue.
Now it is to be distinctly understood that the words of my text, in the writer’s intention, are not a general principle or exhortation, but that they are a special commandment to a certain class under special circumstances, and when we use them, as I am going to do now, for a wider purpose, we must remember that that wider purpose was by no means in the writer’s mind. What he was thinking about was simply the relation between the Jewish Christian and the Jewish community. But if we take them as we may legitimately do - only remembering that we are diverting them from their original intention - as carrying more general lessons for us, what they seem to teach is that faithful discipleship involves detachment from the world. This commandment, ‘Let us go forth unto Him without the camp,’ stands, if you will notice, between two reasons for it, which buttress it up, as it were, on either side. Before it is enunciated, the writer has been pointing, as I have tried to show, to the thought that a Christ without the camp necessarily involves disciples without the camp. And he follow, it with another reason, ‘here we have no continuing city, but we seek that which is to come.’ Here, then, is a general principle, supported on either side by a great reason.
Let me first try to set before you,
I. What this detachment is not.
The Jewish Christian was obliged utterly and outwardly to break his connection with Judaism, on the peril, if he did not, of being involved in its ruin, and, as was historically the case with certain Judaising sects, of losing his Christianity altogether. It was a cruel necessity, and no wonder that it needed this long letter to screw the disciples of Hebrew extraction up to the point of making the leap from the sinking ship to the deck of the one that floated. The parallel does not hold with regard to us. The detachment from the world, or the coming out from the camp, to which my text exhorts, is not the abandonment of our relations with what the Bible calls ‘the world,’ and what we call - roughly meaning the same thing - society. The function of the Christian Church as leaven, involves the necessity of being closely associated, and in contact with, all forms of human life, national, civic, domestic, social, commercial, intellectual, political. Does my text counsel an opposite course? ‘Go forth without the camp,’ - does that mean huddle yourself together into a separate flock, and let the camp go to the devil? By no means. For the society or world, out of which the Christian is drawn by the attraction of the Cross, like iron filings out of a heap by a magnet, is in itself good and God-appointed. It is He ‘that sets the solitary in families.’ It is He that gathers humanity into the bonds of civic and national life. It is He that gives capacities which find their sphere, their education, and their increase in the walks of intellectual or commercial or political life. And He does not build up with one hand and destroy with the other, or set men by His providence in circumstances out of which He draws them by His grace. By no means. To go apart from humanity is to miss the very purpose for which God has set the Church in the world. For contact with the sick to be healed is requisite for healing, and they are poor disciples of the ‘Friend of publicans and sinners’ who prefer to consort with Pharisees. ‘Let both grow together till the harvest’ - the roots are intertwined, and it is God that has intertwined them. Now, I know that one does not need to insist upon this principle to the average Christianity of this day, which is only too ready to mingle itself with the world, but one does need to insist that. in so mingling, detachment from the world is still to be observed; and it does need to be taught that Christian men are not lowering the standard of the Christian life, when they fling themselves frankly and energetically into the various forms of human, activity, if and only if, whilst they do so, they still remember and obey the commandment, ‘Let us go forth unto Him without the camp.’ The commandment misinterpreted so as to he absolutely impossible to be obeyed, becomes a snare to people who do not keep it, and yet sometimes feel as if they were to blame, because they do not. And, therefore, I turn in the next place to consider -
II. What this detachment really is.
Will you let me put what I have to say into the shape of two or three plain, practical exhortations, not because I wish to assume a position of authority or command, but only in’ order to give vividness and point to my thoughts?
First, then, let us habitually nourish the inner life of union with Jesus Christ. Notice the words of my text, and see what comes first and what comes second. ‘Let us go forth unto Him’ - that is the main thing: ‘Without the camp’ is second, and a consequence; ‘unto Him,’ is primary, which is just to say that the highest, widest, noblest, all-comprehensive conception of what a Christian life is, is that it is union with Jesus Christ, and whatever else it is follows from that. The soul is ever to be looking up through all the shadows and shows, the changes and circumstances, of this fleeting present unto Him, and seeking to be more closely united with Him. Union with Him is life, and separation from Him is death. To be so united is to be a Christian. Never mind about camps or anything else, to begin with. If the heart is joined to Jesus, then all the rest will come right. If it is not, then you may make regulations as many as you like, and they will only be red tape to entangle your feet in. ‘Let us go forth unto Him’; that is the sovereign commandment. And how is that to be done? How is it to be done but by nourishing habitual consciousness of union with Him and life in Him, by an habitual reference of all our acts to Him? As the Roman Catholics put it, in their hard external way, ‘the practice of the presence of God’ is the keynote to all real, vigorous Christianity. For, brethren, such an habitual fellowship with Jesus Christ is possible for us. Though with many interruptions, no doubt, still ideally is it possible that it shall be continuous and real. It is possible, perfectly possible, that it shall be a great deal more continuous than, alas! it is with many of us.
Depend upon it, this nourishing of an inward life of fellowship with Jesus, so that we may say, ‘our lives are hid’ - hid, after all vigorous manifestation and consistent action - ‘ with Christ in God,’ will not weaken, but increase, the force with which we act on the things seen and temporal. There is an unwholesome kind of mysticism which withdraws men from the plain duties of everyday life; and there is a deep, sane, wholesome, and eminently Christian mysticism which enables men to come down with greater force, and to act with more decision, with more energy, with more effect, in all the common deeds of life. The greatest mystics have been the hardest workers. Who was it that said, ‘I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me’? That man had gone far, very far, towards an habitual consciousness of Christ’s presence, and it was the same man that said, ‘That which cometh upon me daily is the care of all the churches.’ The greatest mystic of the Middle Ages, the saint that rode by the lake all day long, and was so absorbed in contemplation that he said at night, ‘Where is the lake?’ was the man that held all the threads of European politics in his hands, and from his cell at Clairvaux guided popes, and flung the nations of the West into a crusade. John Wesley was one of the hardest workers that the Church has ever had, and was one of those who lived most habitually without the camp. Be sure of this, that the more our lives are wrapped in Christ, the more energetic will they be in the world. They tell us that the branches of a spreading tree describe roughly the same circumference in the atmosphere that its roots do underground, and so far as our roots extend in Christ, so far will our branches spread in the world. ‘Let us go forth unto Him, without the camp.’
Again, let me say, do the same things as other people, but with a difference. The more our so-called civilisation advances, the more, I was going to say, mechanical, or at least largely released from the control of the will and personal idiosyncrasy, become great parts of our work. The Christian weaver drives her looms very much in the same fashion that the non-Christian girl who is looking after the next sot does. The Christian clerk adds up his figures, and writes his letters, very much in the same fashion that the worldly clerk does. The believing doctor visits his patients, and writes out his prescriptions in the fashion that his neighbour who is not a Christian does. But there is always room for the personal equation - always! and two lives may be, superficially and roughly, the same, and yet there may be a difference in them impalpable, undefinable, and very obvious and very real and very mighty. The Christian motive is love to Jesus Christ and fellowship with Him, and that motive may be brought to bear upon all life -
‘A servant with this clause
Makes drudgery divine.’
He that for Christ’s sake does a common thing it outer the fatal region of the commonplace, and makes it great and beautiful We do not want from all Christian people specifically Christian service, in the narrow sense which that phrase has acquired, half so much as we want common things done from an uncommon motive; worldly things done because of the love of Jesus Christ in our hearts. And, depend upon it, just as, from some unseen bank of violets, there come odours in opening spring, so from the unspoken and deeply hidden motive of love to Jesus Christ, there will be a fragrance in our commonest actions which all men will recognise. They tell us that rivers which flow from lakes are so clear that they are tinged throughout with celestial blue, because all the mud that they brought down from their upper reaches has been deposited in the still waters of the lake from which they flow; and if from the deep tam of love to Jesus Christ in our hearts the stream of our lives flows out, it will be like the Rhone below Geneva, distinguishable from the muddy waters that run by its side in the same channel. Two people, partners in business, joined in the same work, marching step for step in the same ranks, may yet be entirely distinguishable and truly separate, because, doing the same things, they do them from different motives.
Let me say, still further, and finally about this matter, that sometimes we shall have to come actually out of the camp. The world as God made it is good; society is ordained by God. The occupations which men pursue are of His appointment, for the most part. But into the thing that was good there have crept all manner of corruptions and abominations, so that often it will be a Christian duty to come away from all outward connection with that which is incurably corrupt. I know very well that a morality which mainly consists of prohibitions is pedantic and poor. I know very well that a Christianity which interprets such a precept as this of my text simply as meaning abstinence from certain conventionally selected and branded forms of life, occupation, or amusement, is but a very poor affair. But ‘Thou shalt not’ is very often absolutely necessary as a support to ‘Thou shalt.’ If you go into an Eastern city, you will find the houses with their fronts to the street, having narrow slits of windows all barred, and a heavy gate, frowning and ugly. But pass within, and there are flower-beds and fountains. The frowning street front is there for the defence of the fountains and the flower-beds within, from the assaults of foes, and speaks of a disturbed state of society, in which no flowers can grow and no fountains can bubble and sparkle, unless a strong barrier is round them. And so ‘thou shalt not, in a world like this, is needful in order that ‘ thou shalt’ shall have fair play. No law can be laid down for other people. Every man must settle this matter of abstinence for himself. Things that you may do, perhaps I may not do; things that you may not do, I very likely may. ‘A liberal Christianity,’ as the world calls it, is often a very shallow Christianity. ‘A sour Puritanical severity,’ as loose-living men call it, is very often plain, Christian morality. An inconsistent Christian may he hailed as ‘a good fellow,’ and laughed at behind his back. Samson made sport for the Philistines when he was blind. The uncircumcised do often say of professing Christians, that try to be like them, and to keep step with them, ‘What do these Hebrews here?’ and God always says to such, ‘What dost thou here, Elijah?’
Lastly -
III. Why this detachment is enforced.
‘For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come.’ That translation does not give the full force of the original, for it suggests the idea of a vague uncertainty in the seeking, whereas what the writer means is, not ‘one to come,’ but one which is coming. The Christian object of seeking is definite, and it is not merely future but present, and in process of being realised even here and now, and tending to completion. Paul uses the same metaphor of the city in one of his leisure, ‘Your citizenship is in heaven.’ He says that to the Philippians. Philippi was a colony; that is to say, it was a bit of Rome put down in a foreign land, with Roman laws, its citizens enrolled upon the registers of the Roman tribes, and not under the jurisdiction of the provincial governor. That is what we Christians are, whether we know it or not.’ We are here in an order to which we outwardly belong, but in the depths of our being we belong to another order of things altogether. Therefore the essentials of the Christian life may be stated as being the looking forward to the city, and the realising of our affinities to it and not to the things around us. In the measure in which, dear brethren, we realise to what community we belong, will the things here be seen to be fleeting and alive to our deepest selves. ‘Here we have no continuing city’ is not merely the result of the tran-siency of temporal things, and the brevity of our earthly lives, but it is much rather the result of our affinity to the other order of things beyond the seas.
Abraham dwelt in tents, because he ‘looked for a airy,’ and so it was better for him to stop on the breezy uplands, though the herbage was scant, than to go with Lot into the vale of Sodom, though it looked Hire the garden of the Lord. In like manner, the more intensely we realise that we belong to the city, the more shall we be willing to ‘go forth without the camp.’ Let these two thoughts dominate our minds and shape our lives; our union with Jesus Christ and our citizenship of the heavenly Jerusalem. In the measure in which they do, it will be no sacrifice for us to come out of the transient camp, because we shall thereby go to Him and come to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, ‘which hath the foundations.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v13 Bearing Christ’s reproach and working for His glory:
Bearing Christ’s reproach and working for His glory:
v. 13. Let us go forth, therefore, unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach.
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v. 14. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.
v. 15. By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
v. 16. But to do good and to communicate forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
v. 17. Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves; for they watch for your souls as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy and not with grief; for that is unprofitable for you.
Here the natural consequence of our having cast our lot with the crucified Christ is brought out: Let us, therefore, go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. The author wants his readers to consider it a privilege to be branded outcasts and traitors to the Jewish cause. Having chosen Jesus as their Lord and Master, they should freely confess that they were willing to join Him in His shame and reproach as a malefactor and criminal in the eyes of the Jews. True believers will have nothing to do with the Law and its ordinances as necessary for their salvation, they will have nothing to do with legalistic practices. Having cast their lot with Jesus and His salvation by grace alone, they will be glad to bear the shame and reproach which fell upon Him, for His sake.
Surely this step is one which should not cause regret in the heart of any one that has accepted Jesus in truth: For not have we a lasting city here below, but we seek earnestly the one to come. The believers are strangers, sojourners, in this world; they are the Lord’s pilgrims, Psa 39:12. The short span of life which is granted them in this world is but a time of preparation for the world to come. Our real home, where we have our true citizenship, is in heaven, Php 3:20. Only that which is spiritual and eternal can truly satisfy the ambition and fill the heart with that peace which passes all understanding. We strive earnestly, therefore, for the city which abides forever; we keep our attention centered on its glorious advantages, on its bliss inestimable.
Thus we are enabled also to do what the inspired author urges: Through Him, then, let us offer the sacrifice of praise continually to God, that is to say, the fruit of lips celebrating His name. We believe in the virtue of Christ’s atoning sacrifice, we have openly taken the part of Him who was condemned as a criminal by men; but through Him we are also identified with the Father as His children and worshipers. As such it is our cheerful duty, our glad privilege, to bring sacrifices to Him through Christ. Not only occasionally and periodically, but continually we offer to God, our heavenly Father, the fruit of our lips in the praise and celebration of His holy name. Hos 14:3; Psa 50:14-23; Isa 57:19.
At the same time we do not lose sight of the fact that our faith, expressed in the sacrifice of the lips, will also express itself in the fruit of the hands: But do not forget beneficence and charity; for those are the sacrifices which are well-pleasing to God. A heart that is enjoying the certainty of salvation through the redemption of Christ cannot but feel some of the deep and wonderful love which the Savior showed all men in His vicarious suffering and death. All acts of beneficence, therefore, all forms of doing good, of communicating to the brethren and to all men in need, are the sphere of the Christian’s activity. And such good works, growing out of a heart filled with faith, imperfect as they are in themselves, nevertheless are looked upon by the heavenly Father with all good pleasure, since the merits of Christ cover up all their shortcomings. Thus we Christians are living under the good pleasure of God.
But in this connection there is one more point to which the holy writer deems it necessary to call attention: Obey your leaders and submit yourselves; for it is they that watch for your souls, as men that will have to render an account of their trust; that with joy they do this and not groaning, for this would be a loss to yourselves. Of the example of the former leaders the author has spoken above, v. 7. Here he speaks of the teachers, pastors, ministers that have charge of their spiritual welfare at the present time. They should yield themselves trustfully to their teaching, as long as they teach the Word of God, the pure Gospel of the salvation of all men, as this was being done by the teachers in Judea. Christians should always remember what a great responsibility was resting upon these men and is resting upon the true pastors today, that they must render an account to the Lord on the last day for every soul that was entrusted to their pastoral care. It is a solemn word for both the teachers and the hearers. Since it is in the interest of the souls of the people that faithful pastors discharge their duty, therefore the parishioners should make it their object thus to conduct themselves toward their pastors at all times that the latter may perform the work of their office cheerfully and joyfully and not groaningly, with sighs and laments; for such a condition of affairs would surely react in such a manner upon the hearers as to deprive them of at least some of the benefit which God intends for them through the ministry of the Word, Luk 10:16; Eze 3:17-21. This word of warning should be heeded also in our days when men are inclined to look with suffering compassion upon the pastors and to disregard their teaching and warning from the Word of God. On the other hand, it should be remembered that this passage does not give the ministers absolute power over the souls of the parishioners, as the Romanists falsely claim.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v15 sacrifices of praise
sacrifices of praise
Praise is spoken of as if it were a sacrifice of animals or incense. (See: Metaphor)
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praise that is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name
Praise is spoken of as if it were fruit produced by the lips of people. AT: "praise that is produced by the lips of those who acknowledge his name" (See: Metaphor)
lips that acknowledge his name
Here "lips" represents people who speak. AT: "the lips of those who acknowledge his name" or "those who acknowledge his name" (See: Synecdoche)
his name
A person's name represents that person. AT: "him" (See: Metonymy)
Let us not forget doing good and helping one another
This can be stated in positive form. AT: "Let us always remember to do good and help others" (See: Litotes)
with such sacrifices
Doing good and helping others is spoken of as if they were sacrifices on an altar. (See: Metaphor)
keep watch over your souls
The believers' souls, that is, the believers' spiritual well-being, are spoken of as if they were objects or animals that guards could keep watch over. (See: Metaphor)
not with groaning
Here "groaning" stands for sadness or grief. (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
praise
fruit
acknowledge
obey
submit
watch
soul
joy
groan
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv13–15 13:13 let us go out to him, outside the…
13:13 let us go out to him, outside the camp: We should stand with Jesus, identifying with him and rejecting the apparent safety and comfort of standing with the world against him. In standing with Christ, we bear the disgrace he bore (6:5-6; 12:1-3).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.