Today, I am reading and commenting on Hebrews 12-13.

I want to write about a couple of different elements in today’s passage, but I am not sure that what I write will link together.  At the beginning of today’s passage the writer tells us to focus our attention on imitating Jesus.  In doing so we will face opposition from those who refuse to accept righteousness, we should follow Jesus’ example and struggle against sin.  We should be willing to remain faithful even up to the point of facing death, just as Jesus did.  The hardships we face are God disciplining us as a father disciplines his son in order to develop his son into a better person.  God applies such discipline because He loves us, facing hardship provides us with evidence of God’s love.  Part of that struggle is striving to live in peace with everyone.  Interestingly, the writer links doing everything we can to live at peace with others to being holy.  As if we cannot be holy if we don’t do whatever is in our power to live at peace with others.  Of course, that link also creates a limit on what the writer thinks we should do in order to live at peace with others.  In particular, he does not, and tells us that God does not, expect us to do anything which is not holy in order to live at peace with others.  Which brings me to another thought: the areas where we fail at being holy are the areas where we fail to live at peace with others.  The final piece to focusing on Jesus, which will lead us to strive to be at peace with others and to be holy, is showing hospitality to strangers.  The writer reminds us that we never know what blessings we might receive when we show hospitality to strangers and we should be careful to never pass up such blessings.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.