(The following questions have been developed as a way of getting at the concerns of Law and Gospel preachers, especially concerns around how the Word is functioning in a text. These questions are meant to be used with other sets of questions that help open up a text in other ways. For more on Law and Gospel preaching, see my brief guide, Afflicting the Comfortable, Comforting the Afflicted, available from wipfandstock.com or amazon.)
1. How does the Word function in the text? There is little doubt that this text is almost purely a call to obedience, which is the Word functioning to invite us to live in a certain way in response to God's work in Christ. The writer of Hebrews has just finished announcing to all that we have received "a kingdom that cannot be shaken." (12:28) We are now invited to live in grateful response to God's amazing abundance.
2. How is the Word not functioning in the text? There is almost no hint of the Law here. We might well understand that beneath all these admonitions is the implicit acknowledgement that sin lies close at hand and "the devil prowls about as a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour," but no such thing is said here. Also a Gospel word which announces what God has done in Christ seems also to have been omitted. While it is true that the text is not here functioning primarily as Gospel, several verses could certainly be considered announcements of the good news: "I will never leave you or forsake you," (vs. 5c) and "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." (vs. 8). Both those verses are good news to be sure.
3. With whom are you identifying in the text? As always we want to identify with those being addressed by the Word. We then are those who are being reminded to "let mutual love continue" in all the various ways it does.
4. What Law/Gospel couplet is suggested by this text? Since this is primarily a call to obedience, we must stretch a bit to find couplets that are law and gospel related. Using some of the language in the text as a launching point, several ideas come to mind: strangers/friends; in prison/freed; defiled/made clean; forsaken/embraced forever.
5. Exegetical work: It is instructive to understand that all the imperatives in the text are present tense imperatives. That is to say, they are reminders to continue doing what you are already doing, or in the case of prohibitions, to stop doing the things that you are doing. If these imperatives had been aorist in form, they would have signaled the command to start something new. The present tense suggests that these admonitions are reminders of things the listeners already know. Another grammatical detail is lifted up by the Swiss-German reformer, Oecolampadius, who calls our attention to the strong future denial constructions in verse 5: "I will never leave you or forsake you." A literal translation of this verse might be "By no means will I ever abandon you and not by any means will I ever forsake you." Oecolampadius notes that "the Lord said this to Joshua, when he charged him to take up the leadership of his people. But because the Lord purposes not to leave anyone who wholeheartedly entrusts himself into his care, the apostle rightly cites this promise as belonging to all believers in general. For he is near to all who call on him in truth." (Reformation Commentary on Scripture, NT, Vol. XIII, p. 190).
6. How does the Crossings Community model work with this text? Douglas Chamberlain tackles this text in an interesting way, lifting up the way that our inhospitable habits, eventually lead us to rejection of God as well. Thankfully, God's promise to never match our inhospitality with more of the same, but rather to go above and beyond being hospitable to us strangers, is fully seen in Christ. Go to crossings.org/text-study to see the entire analysis archived under the reference.
Blessings on your proclamation!
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