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(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 I Cor. 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. There is much to be said for the interpretation that makes the passage equivalent
to, "For you also are still in the flesh, and liable at any moment to similar adversity".
The statement in verse 4 that marriage is honourable, and its most intimate
relationships undefiled, seems to have been necessitated by the presence of those who,
like the Essenes, taught that marriage should be shunned. The word "undefiled" in this
particular is noteworthy, for it occurs in but one other place in Hebrews, namely 7: 26,
where it speaks of our "undefiled" High Priest. This is a sufficient answer to those who
would impose celibacy upon God's ministers, and is a word in season for us on whom the
night of I Tim. 4: 1-3 is fast descending. The danger is all the other way. The decrying
of marriage cannot but lead many into the paths of Baal-Peor, the doctrine of Balaam and
the teaching of that woman Jezebel. George Bernard Shaw writes in John O'London's
Weekly under the heading The Right to Motherhood:
"No political constitution will ever succeed unless it includes the recognition of an
absolute right to sexual experience and is untainted by the Pauline or romantic view of
such experience as simple in itself . . . . . legalizing polygamy, because there are more
adult women in the country than men."
Over against this insidious propaganda that fills the columns of certain periodicals, we
must place with the utmost resolution the words of Holy Scripture, remembering that
Heb. 13: 4 is not "Pauline", but "given by inspiration of God". And however the evils
that are advocated may be glossed under the titles "free love", "liberty of the sexes" etc.,
it still stands written: "Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge". We are still in
sight of the heavenly city, the new Jerusalem, and there, we have already seen, is "God,
the Judge of all". And of that city it is written:
"The fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and
whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolators, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake
which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death . . . . . And there shall
in no wise enter into it anything that defileth . . . . . but they which are written in the
Lamb's book of life" (Rev. 21: 8, 27).
"The church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven" (Heb. 12: 23).
"Our God is a consuming fire" (Heb. 12: 29).
For certain purposes we speak of some sins as social sins. Some acts are crimes, some
are civil offences, but for the believer (as in the case of David) murder and adultery