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PERFECTION
PERDITION
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OR
When we remember that the glorious doctrine of Ephesians is linked by the apostle with its practical outworking
expressed in the relationship of husband and wife, parent and child, master and servant, and that similar warnings
concerning immoral acts are included (see Eph. 5 and 6), we are the more prepared to learn that our whole life, with
its complete circle of outgoings, is involved in this blessed and glorious service. Carnal ordinances, baptisms, fasts,
feasts and ceremonies have given place to hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, bodies washed with pure water,
and heart-service in every sphere of life.
Brotherly love and the entertaining of strangers are a part of acceptable service to God. This is seen by a further
reference to 13:15,16: `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'. lf we stop here, however, we are not rendering acceptable service. Brotherly
love and hospitality must be added; therefore the passage continues: `But to do good and to have fellowship, forget
not'. The words `forget not' are the structural link with Hebrews 13:1,2:
`Be not forgetful' (verse 2).
`For with SUCH sacrifices God is well pleased' (verse 16).
This close connection between God and the brotherhood in service has been expressed in Hebrews 10:22-24:
`Let us draw near ... Let us hold fast ... Let us consider one another'.
While we have no room for humanism, we are also sure that a mere doctrinal exactness is not acceptable with
God. The true service embraces the Lord and His people, and is sound both in doctrine and practice. So the third
reference to `acceptable' stresses `doing':
`Now the God of peace (literally `of the peace', something already mentioned and understood, Heb. 7:2; 12:11,14), that
brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the
everlasting (age-abiding) covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working (doing) in you
that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ' (Heb. 13:20,21).
Philippians, the parallel epistle in the dispensation of the Mystery, has the same emphasis:
`It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do'.
`Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, DO: and the God of peace shall be
with you' (Phil. 2:13; 4:9).
Hospitality (philoxenia), `the entertaining of strangers', is urged upon the believer more than once in the epistles.
Romans 12:10 and 13 unite `brotherly love' with `hospitality' as does Hebrews 13:1,2. One of the qualifications of
the bishop was that he should be `given to hospitality' (1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:8), and 1 Peter 4:9 says: `Use hospitality
one to another without grudging', for an element of unwillingness blights service to the Lord. The onus of
hospitality in our present mode of life often falls upon the woman. Here is an act of acceptable service which can be
truly rendered to God as the prayer, praise and pulpit utterance of her husband. Indeed, Hebrews 13:15,16 shows
that worship in the assembly may be vitiated by the lack of consideration for others afterwards. The times for true
acceptable service are not only Sundays at 11 a.m. and 6.30 p.m., but they may have as much to do with clean sheets
as with robes of righteousness, and in dispensing the bread that perisheth as with the Word of truth.
We have had brotherly love and love of strangers (philadelphia and philoxenia). We are now reminded of love
that goes out to those who, though not present with us, need our sympathy: `Remember them which are bound'
(Heb. 13:3). God is ever `mindful' (same word) of man `and visited him' (Heb. 2:6). We are neither to forget
hospitality nor to omit sympathy, for the full quotation of verse 3 is much beyond mere remembrance.
`Remember them which are in bonds (bound),
AS BOUND WITH THEM,
and them which suffer adversity,
AS BEING
YOURSELVES ALSO IN THE BODY'.
This sympathy has been spoken of earlier: `becoming partakers with them that were so used. For ye ... had
compassion on them that were in bonds' (Heb. 10:33,34 R.V.). The intimate relationship between believers has
been expressed in 1 Corinthians 12:13,14,26: `Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it'. So
sympathy goes out to those in bonds, as bound with them, and to those in adversity, as being equally in the body.