Devotional 09 August 2025

August 09, 2025 • Steve Torres

Hebrews 13:1.jpg

"Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:1–6, ESV)

The writer of Hebrews moves from theological heights to practical obedience. After calling us sons, heirs, and citizens of the unshakable Kingdom (Heb. 12:28), he now shows us what it looks like to live like that is true. The mark of Kingdom citizens is not just right belief: it is faith made visible through love, holiness, and contentment.

“Let brotherly love continue” (v.1) is not just sentiment, it is a command rooted in our new family identity. We are sons of God (Heb. 12:5–7), and that makes us brothers and sisters in Christ. As such, we welcome strangers (v.2), suffer with the persecuted (v.3), and honor our marriages (v.4) not as disconnected moral choices, but as signs of who we are and whose we are.

Verse 5 ties it together: the love of money is not merely a vice, it is a failure to trust that God is our provider. When we live for wealth, we deny that “He will never leave us nor forsake us” (Deut. 31:6). Faith without action is dead (James 2:17). Hebrews agrees: faith acts, faith obeys, and faith shows up in the ordinary and the costly alike.

We are not those who claim to believe but remain on the banks of the Jordan. We cross over. We love. We give. We honor. We trust. Because we are already citizens of the Kingdom, and the Kingdom has broken into the world through Christ.