Hebrews 13:15,16 - Living The Sacrifice Of Praise To God Continually!
Heb.13:15,16; Living The Sacrifice Of Praise To God Continually!
Heb 13:15 (KJV) 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.
Heb 13:16 (KJV) But to do good and to communicate forget not:
for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
Heb 13:15 (NIV) Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually
offer to God a sacrifice of praise--the fruit of lips that confess his
name.
Heb 13:16 (NIV) And do not forget to do good and to share with
others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
Heb 13:15 (NLT) With Jesus' help, let us continually offer our
sacrifice of praise to God by proclaiming the glory of his name.
Heb 13:16 (NLT) Don't forget to do good and to share what you
have with those in need, for such sacrifices are very pleasing to
God.
Heb 13:15 (CWB) Through Christ, let's bring to God a continual
sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. Let's confess with our lips the
reality of what Christ has done and praise His holy name.
Heb 13:16 (CWB) Let's not forget to do good and to understand
and help one another. This is the most pleasing sacrifice you can
give to God.
"Sacrifice" is used metaphorically here to represent an offering
to God. [NIV SB]
The phrase "fruit of the lips." is a Hebraism, meaning what the
lips produce; that is, words; (Barnes' Notes)
Christians are to provide a continual sacrifice of praise, which
is the fruit offered to God through speaking praises to him.
[Jamieson, Fausset, And Brown Commentary]
"Praise" is the appropriate response to what God has
accomplished for us through the blood of Jesus. [College Press NIV
Commentary]
While Christ's one sacrifice for sin stands for all time, other
kinds of sacrifices continue - praise, good works, and obedience. [New
Bible Companion]
The believers' sacrifices are praise, doing good, and sharing.
[Ryrie SB]
Praise, prayer, and thanksgiving to God, with works of charity
and mercy to man, are the sacrifices which every genuine follower of
Christ must offer: and they are the proofs that a man belongs to
Christ; (Adam Clarke Commentary)
The sacrifices of verbal praises must be accompanied by
self-sacrificial acts of goodness. [Jamieson, Fausset, And Brown Commentary]
Praise and practice work together as proper offerings. [Disciple
SB]
Praise is a spiritual offering. God is pleased with our genuine
praise and receives it as a sacrifice. A "sacrifice of praise" today
would include thanking Christ for his sacrifice on the cross and
telling others about it. Acts of kindness and sharing are particularly
pleasing to God, even when they go unnoticed by others. [Life Application
SB]
Christians are to offer spiritual sacrifices (1 Peter 2:5). A
spiritual sacrifice is something done or given in the name of Christ and
for His glory. In v. 15, he states that praise is such a sacrifice;
see Eph. 5:18-19, Pss. 27:6 and 69:30-31. Good works and sharing
material blessings are also spiritual sacrifices (v. 16). Other spiritual
sacrifices include the believer's body (Rom. 12:1-2); offerings (Phil.
4:18); prayer (Ps. 141:2); a broken heart (Ps. 51:17); and souls won to
Christ (Rom. 15:16). [Wiersbe Expository Outlines]
Let's not come empty-handed to the LORD. And let's not rush into
His presence, shouting out our needs and demanding attention without
first paying attention to Him. What we bring Christ as our sacrifice
today is praise. And He is worthy to be praised. [The 365-Day
Devotional Commentary]
The writer of the letter to the Hebrews explained that Jesus
suffered in order to set apart for God a people to serve Him. This
setting apart came through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Because of
this, the writer says we should constantly be praising God. Do we
constantly praise God? We know we don't. Even so, the Scripture
frequently tells us to do so. There are times when it is very difficult to
praise God. That is why it is called "a sacrifice of praise." But we
must practice this attitude of constant praise. It occurs when we
confess His name. That confession is not a formula of words. Rather it
is literally our life style. This is why the writer of Hebrews
concludes our verse with the comment about not neglecting to do good and
to share. Those who confess Jesus as Savior and Lord will act out
their praise in church when they worship and during the rest of the
week through their actions. Let's all purpose to please God by such
sacrifices. [In His Time; Walk With Wisdom]
In recent decades the phrase "easy believism" has surfaced.
Unfortunately, it describes a large number of contemporary Christians who have
received Christ as Savior but do not, in practice, regard Him as Lord.
They seem to have received Him in order to reach heaven some-day or
to get help for their problems, but they have never fully committed
to trust, obey, honor and serve Him as a way of life.
Our Lord never intended that we be His casual acquaintances. He
wants us to be His disciples, fully dedicated to following Him and
lifting up His holy name to the world ..... Our Lord is repulsed by
mediocre commitment....
When we acknowledge Christ as our Lord, we affirm that He is our
Master for life and that we are dedicated to serving and glorifying
Him. In all things, large and small, our deepest desire is to do what
our Lord would want us to do. We ask for His guidance--not for our
gain, but for His glory. We discipline ourselves in studying and
obeying His written Word. We proclaim His love to the world around us.
We try to think, speak and act in a way that will attract others to
Him.
The misguided person who thinks all this is too difficult or
irrelevant misses the point. The Christian life is far more than a fire
escape from hell; it is the life of submission and obedience which
result in joy and victory. Bill Bright [Time With God SB]
Hebrews challenges us to speak up about our faith and give
evidence of our relationship with God through the Fruit of our lips (v
15): A spiritual enemy in our time is privatization of personal
faith. For too many so-called "committed Christians" their reationship
with Jesus is like an extra-marital affair. It's a secret
relationship. The love affair is real but hidden from the public eye. Some
Christians become so skilled at concealing their personal faith in Christ
that it takes the talent of an undercover agent to reveal their
clandestine activity. The tragedy for those individuals is that undisclosed
personal faith eventually produces an inner sense of psychological
illegitimacy. The tragedy for the Kingdom is that God is silenced in the open
forum so that people who ought to know Him do not even see Him as an
option. Donald C. Posterski, Reinventing Evangelism [Word In Life SB]
Running by the Rules: Ben Johnson of Canada was stripped of the
Olympic gold medals he won at Seoul in 1988 because he broke the rules
about drug use. Similarly, the Christian's faith-race is much more
than a sprint to the finish line. It's a race which brings glory to
God by the way the runners behave. In the concluding chapter, the
writer to the Hebrews sketches a variety of duties to God and humanity.
Together they reveal an exalted level of personal morality and duty.
[Quiet Time SB]
An inner-city missionary, stumbling through the trash of a dark
apartment doorway, heard someone say, "Who's there, Honey?" Lighting a
match, he caught sight of earthly needs and suffering, amid saintly
trust and peace. Calm, appealing eyes, etched in ebony, were set
within the wrinkles of a weathered black face. On a bitterly cold night
in February, she lay on a tattered bed, with no fire, no heat, and
no light. Having had no breakfast, lunch, or dinner, she seemed to
have nothing at all, except arthritis and faith in God. No one could
have been further removed from comfortable circumstances, yet this
favorite song of the dear lady played in the background:
Nobody knows the trouble I see,
Nobody knows but Jesus;
Nobody knows the trouble I see--
Sing Glory Hallelu! Sometimes I'm up, sometimes I'm down,
Sometimes I'm level on the groun', Sometimes the glory shines aroun'--
Sing Glory Hallelu!
And so it continued: "Nobody knows the work I do, Nobody knows
the griefs I have," the constant refrain being, "Glory Hallelu!"
until the last verse rose:
Nobody knows the joys I have, Nobody knows but Jesus!
"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed,
but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but
not destroyed" (2 Cor. 4:8-9). It takes these great Bible words to
explain the joy of this elderly black woman.
Do you remember the words of Martin Luther as he lay on his
deathbed? Between groans he preached, "These pains and troubles here are
like the type that printers set. When we look at them, we see them
backwards, and they seem to make no sense and have no meaning. But up
there, when the Lord God prints out our life to come, we will find they
make splendid reading. "Yet we do not have to wait until then. The
apostle Paul, walking the deck of a ship on a raging sea, encouraged the
frightened sailors, "Be of good cheer" (Acts 27:22 KJV).
Paul, Martin Luther, and the dear black woman were all human
sunflowers, seeking and seeing the Light in a world of darkness. William C.
Garnett [Streams In The Desert By Cowman]
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