Hebrews Chapter Thirteen, Suffering In The Body

 

Hebrews 13:3 Remember the prisoners as if chained with them—those who are mistreated—since you yourselves are in the body also.

 

It becomes clear by this point that the author’s theme is brotherly love for this series of verses. Beginning with the succinct command to let brotherly love continue, he explores the topic of what constitutes brotherly love among the saints.

Verse 2 spoke of strangers, and how we are to love them. If we take them into our home they are to be treated graciously and with Christian love. Now, focusing on verse 3 the writer recalls those persecuted for their faith to the point of being in chains. Hebrews’ author admited earlier in the epistle to being one of these, Hebrews 10:34. There is manuscript disagreement in the rendering of verse 34, between the NU and Textus Receptus (received text) the NKJV employs. But the idea remains firm in either case. Do not forget the prisoners. In Hebrews 10:34 the author commends the Hebrew Christians for their exemplary compassion; an action he wishes for them to continue.

 

The author describes the prisoners so chained very directly: those who are mistreated. What does it mean to be mistreated? Oxford’s definition fails a trifle. “Treat a person or animal badly.” Synonyms include oppress, abuse, or victimize, which lends a stronger clarity to what the writer is conveying. The KJV has the better rendering, using the phrase, “suffer adversity.” Peter writes of such adversity, “For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully,” 1 Peter 2:19. Here is probably an even better definition of mistreatment: suffering wrongfully. We all know what it means to suffer either physically or emotionally. Now to increase the suffering, it is done wrongfully. In other words, the Christian suffers something unjust, and that simply because of whom they affiliate themselves with.

 

The Hebrew Christians are commended to the notion of remembering such suffering saints as if chained right beside them. Why? The writer answers that question by adding, “since you yourselves are in the body also.” Paul explains the topic of Christians being a part of the same body to the Corinthian church when he wrote, “For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ,” 1 Corinthians 12:12. “But now indeed there are many members, yet one body,” 1 Corinthians 12:20. “And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it,” 1 Corinthians 12:26.

 

All members of the true Church are part of the body of Christ; we comprise His body as it is being built up throughout the generations, having begun at Pentecost and being completed at the Rapture of the saints. Paul employs terminology that is timeless and simple to relate to. If I become ill, my entire body suffers from illness. If it is a head cold, it isn’t as if my lower body operates normally while my upper hemisphere suffers sickness. The body is incapable of compartmentalizing. Have you ever endured a severe toothache? Think of the lovely duress such a seemingly small and forgotten member of the body can inflict from head to toe. When a fellow believer suffers, we ought to practice compassion, suffer beside them, provide for them, and pray for them that God will intercede, or at the least enable them to conduct their ministry in the midst of this God-permitted circumstance. In short, we ought to love them as we love ourselves. “In lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others,” Philippians 2:3, 4.