+Points to ponder

1. What is your initial reaction to being given an ‘imperative’?
2. How would you answer this question – “What’s imperative for Christian living?
3. How can we faithfully follow God’s imperatives for us?

+Sermon Transcript

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto each of you from God our Father and our Lord and King, Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Let us pray: Almighty and merciful God, by whose grace alone Your faithful people offer You service and praise: grant that we may hasten without stumbling towards the things that you promise; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.

We all have a general idea what the word imperative means. We hear it in somebody’s sentence, and we know what he’s talking about. But maybe we haven’t noticed two subtly different ways the word is used.

Grammatically, an imperative is a command, something “you!” have to do. Someone who loves us says, “Get an annual checkup!” and we know we ought to do that. That’s an imperative, a command. “Don’t play in the street!” An imperative, a command. Even something very gentle, polite, can be an imperative: “Pass the butter, please.” Or God says, “Love your neighbor,” and we must do it. It’s a commandment, an imperative.

But imperative can also simply mean “very important, necessary.” It’s imperative that we have clear weather if we want to go sailing. It’s imperative that children get a good night’s sleep for school the next day. It’s imperative that your favorite football team get a few breaks if they’re going to make the playoffs this year. Imperative in that sense isn’t a command; it may not be something you’re supposed to do at all. It’s just something that’s necessary for some other good result. It may even be something we need someone else to do for us.

Our text today from Hebrews 13 is loaded with imperatives. Some of them are grammatical, commands. Others are just very important, necessary, nothing we do at all – in fact, necessary that God does for us. All of them are about Christian living. What sorts of things?

WHAT’S IMPERATIVE FOR CHRISTIAN LIVING?

It’s imperative for Christian living that we abide by and obey the imperatives God commands us. Our text begins with, “Let brotherly love continue.” Here we are commanded to regularly practice fraternal love towards our brothers and sisters in Christ.

The author continues: “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.” Here the imperative – the command – is that we are to regularly show concern for fellow Christians whatever their situation may be.

But wait, there’s more! “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 …” We are commanded to regularly keep the marriage covenant pure, and we are commanded to assiduously avoid covetousness.

Next, we hear, “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come [and] Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” The imperative – the command – is for you and I to maintain the proper focus – focus on the eternal, not temporal, things.

Following this imperative to maintain proper focus leads, according to the writer of Hebrews to an imperative describing the outcome of this proper focus. “Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them… Through Him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge His name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” The command – the imperative here is for us to present the worthy sacrifice of praise and speak the confession of the true Christian faith.

“A rabbi once summoned the townsfolk to meet in the town square for an important announcement. The merchant resented having to leave his business. The housewife protested against leaving her chores. But obedient to the call of the spiritual leader, the townspeople gathered together to hear the announcement their teacher was to make. When all were present, the rabbi said, ‘I wish to announce that there is a God in the world.’ That was all he said, but the people understood. They had been acting as if God did not exist. While they observed ritual and recited the correct order of prayers, their actions did not comply with the [imperatives] of God. Their daily bread was sought and taken with little thought and reverence for God.

This parable is timely for our day. We may not openly deny God so much as try to confine Him to some remote corner of life away from our daily doings, associations, experiences, joys, heartaches, and all commonplace things.”

The truth is that if we are left with only that fairly extensive list of imperatives – commands, they would easily fade into the background of our lives – yes, even if we aren’t crassly or grossly circumventing them.

And even more so, what’s imperative for Christian living is what God has done so that we Christians have life.

The writer of Hebrews reminds us that “We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So, Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore, let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured… Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

Our gracious, heavenly Father has given to us Christians life by Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection.

Receiving this life from Him we then hear, “Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”

In short, our generous Father equips our Christian life and forgives our fleshly shortcomings by His Means of Grace.

“During the memorable retreat of the French from Moscow, the soldiers froze to death by the hundreds. It is said that at night they gathered together such combustible material as they could find and made a fire. Then, gathering round it as closely as possible, they lay down to sleep. In the morning, after a bitter night, those in the outer circles would be found dead, frozen to death. They were too far away from the source of the heat. So, the Christian’s strength in the warfare of life lies in close and constant communion with Christ by the means of grace. To withdraw from them may – and will eventually – prove fatal.”

And so, the author of Hebrews tells us: “[B]e 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?’” God strengthens us Christians for lives of good works with the promise that He is always present for us.

He goes on: “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith… Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.”

Our Lord sustains our lives of Christian faith through His chosen leaders. Martin Luther spoke to this saying, “I have the commission and charge, as a preacher … to see to it that no one is misled, so that I may give account of it at the Last Judgment” Nothing brings more joy to a pastor than when his hearers believe God’s Word and lead godly lives.

What’s imperative for Christian living? Imperatives of both kinds. God commands us to practice brotherly love, extend hospitality, keep our marriages pure, avoid the love of money, focus on the eternal, and present worthy sacrifices of faithful confession and actions. But we couldn’t do any of that if God didn’t give us life in Christ Jesus’ cross and resurrection and then equip and strengthen and sustain us for Christian living by his presence, his forgiving Means of Grace, and his faithful servants who bring them to us. It’s imperative He does all that for us! Amen.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”