Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.
All Commentaries on Hebrews 13:8 Go To Hebrews 13
Thomas Aquinas
AD 1274
726. – Having instructed them how to bear with evil, the Apostle now tells them how to act in doing good. Hence, according to a Gloss he is beginning his moral instruction after commending and urging them to imitate him. in regard to this he does two things: first, he urges them to good; secondly, he prays for them (v. 20). In regard to the first he does three things: first, he shows them how to do good to their neighbor; secondly, to themselves (v. 4); thirdly, to prelates (v. 7).
727. – He says, therefore: Thus, we have said that an immovable kingdom has been promised to us. If we would enter it, we must have charity: Let brotherly love continue: ‘He that does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God whom he does not see’ (1 Jn. 4:20); ‘Honor one another; love the brotherhood’ (1 Pt 2:17). But because charity is not idle, as Gregory says, he urges them to acts of charity: ‘Let us love not in tongue but in deed and in truth’ (1 Jn. 3:18). Hence, he says that we should show charity to travelers by hospitality, to those in bands by compassion, to the poor by coming to their aid. In regard to the first he says, do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers.
728. – He says, do not neglect, because formerly, when they were prosperous, they were very hospitable; but now that they were poor and could not do so much, he exhorts them to continue to do as much as possible: ‘Pursue hospitality’ (Rom. 12:13). He makes special mention of hospitality, because a person who receives travelers does three acts of charity at once, because he receives and feeds and gives them drink: ‘Using hospitality one towards another without murmuring’ (1 Pt 4:9). He gives the reason when he says, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares, as in the case of Abraham and Lot (Gen. 18 & 19). Another version reads: ‘By this, as unawares, they entertained angels,’ because they did not believe that they were angels. This was also true in the beginning; hence, Abraham adored them, thinking that they were holy men sent from God. But he adored them with adoration called dulia, which is shown to saints; and he offered them food, as though they were men. But after he understood that they were angels in whom God was speaking, he spoke to them as to God, saying: ‘This is not beseeming you who judge all the earth’ (Gen. 18:25); and Lot in like manner.
729. – In regard to the second he says, Remember them that are in prison, i.e., those who for the love of God were sent to prison. Remember them by visiting and redeeming, as though in prison with them: ‘I was in prison and you visited me’ (Mt. 25:36). Against this Isaiah (14:27) says: ‘I opened not the prison to his prisoners.’ But they did this sometimes, as is clear from Hebrews (10:34). But it particularly pertains to a work of mercy to regard another’s suffering as one’s own.
730. – In regard to the third he says, and those that are ill-treated [labor] either with bodily labor: ‘You shall eat the labors of your hands’ (Ps. 127:2) or with spiritual solicitude: The farmer that labors must first partake of the fruits’ (2 Tim. 2:6); or in enduring evils: ‘I have perceived that in these also there was labor, and vexation of spirit’ (Ec 1:17). In short, our whole life is a labor: ‘Man is born to labor as a bird to fly’ (Jb. 5:7). Remember, since you are also in the body, by which you have experienced what those who labor need: ‘Judge of the disposition of your neighbor by yourself’ (Sir. 31:18); ‘All things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you also to them’ (Mt. 7:12).
731. – Then (v. 4) he urges them to do good to themselves. In regard to this he does two things: first, he gives an admonition against the concupiscences of carnal pleasures; secondly, against coveting external things (v. 5).
732. – It should be noted that sin in regard to sex occurs in two ways: in one way by the illicit union of one married person with another; as to this he says, Let marriage be held in honor among all who would not be continent: not fornication. It is called honorable, when it takes place with all the circumstances owed to marriage. This shows that the marriage act can exist without sin; which is against certain heretics: ‘If a virgin marry, she does not sin’ (1 Cor. 7:28). Hence, to show that the marriage act is good, the Lord performed His first sign during a marriage and ennobled marriage by His bodily presence and willed to be born of a married woman. In another way by violating the marriage bed, as when a husband approaches another man’s wife, or a woman another’s husband. In regard to this he says, and the marriage bed undefiled: ‘So that now they neither keep life, nor marriage undefiled, but one kills another through envy, or grieves him by adultery’ (Wis. 14:24); ‘Happy is the barren, and the undefiled that has not known bed in sin; she shall have fruit in the visitation of holy souls’ (Wis. 3:13).
733. – Then the Apostle adds the reason when he says: for fornicators and adulterers God will judge. In this he escapes the error of those who say that God neither punishes nor is concerned about carnal sins: ‘Let no man deceive you with vain words. For because of these things (namely, because of carnal sins) the anger of God comes upon the children of unbelief’ (Eph. 5:6). Therefore, he says, fornicators, on account of which he said, marriage honorable; and adulterers on account of which he said, and the bed undefiled; God will judge, i.e., condemn: ‘No fornicator or unclean or covetous person (which is a serving of idols) has inheritance in the kingdom of God and of Christ’ (Eph. 5:5).
734. – Then (v. 5) he forbids them to covet external goods, in regard to which one might sin in two ways: in one way by being niggardly; in another way by being covetous. For liberality is a virtue which inclines one to the happy medium between giving and retaining money. As to the first, i.e., niggardliness, he says: Keep your life from love of money [covetousness]. For a covetous person is tenacious; hence, Sirach (10:9) says: ‘Nothing is more wicked than the covetous man.’ As to the second he says, and be content with what you have. Those who desire to have more than they have, wish to heap up other things, not being content with what they have: ‘Having food and clothing, with these we are content’ (1 Tim. 6:8). Or in saying, let you life be free of covetousness, he is forbidding avarice in regard to covetousness and niggardliness; but in saying, be content with what you have, he is excluding the root of avarice, namely, anxiety: ‘Be not anxious’ (Mt. 6:31). For men are not forbidden to be solicitous about things needed for the future, but care and anxiety should not preoccupy their mind. For one who is so preoccupied with anxiety about the future is ‘solicitous of the morrow.’
735. – Then (v. 5b) he gives the reason for this advice, and it is the reason why we should not be excessively anxious, but should do what lies in our power with trust in God’s help: for he has said (Jos. 1:5): ‘I will not leave you, without giving you what you need; neither will I forsake you, lest you perish from hunger’; ‘I have not seen the just forsaken, not his seed seeking bread’ (Ps. 36:25). Or I will not forsake you without freeing you from evil. This causes confidence in the heart so that we can confidently say, ‘I will deal confidently and will not fear’ (Is. 12:2).
736. – And what shall we say? The words of Ps. 117 (v. 6): ‘The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid; what can man do to me.’ He is a helper inasmuch as He delivers from evil: ‘A helper in troubles, which have found us exceedingly’ (Ps. 45:2); therefore, I will not fear what man shall do to me, i.e., any carnal adversary: ‘Who are you to be afraid of a mortal man?’ (Is. 51:12); or the devil who is called a man overcome by a man, as Scipio was called African, because he was defeated in Africa: ‘A hostile man has done this’ (Mt. 13:28).
737. – Then (v. 7) he shows they should do good to their prelates. In regard to this he does two things: first, he shows how they should act in regard to their dead prelates, namely, follow their example; secondly, in regard to those living, namely, obey them (v. 17). In regard to the first he does two things: first, he shows how they should follow the teachings of the good; secondly, how to avoid the doctrine of evil (v. 9).
738. – He says, therefore: Remember your leaders [prelates], those who spoke to you the word of God, i.e., the apostles, who have preached to you: ‘Look unto Abraham, your father, and to Sarah that bore you’ (Is. 51:2). But they not only preached by word, by showed what to do by action: ‘The Lord confirming the word with signs that followed’ (Mk 16:20). Remember not only their words, but look to their end: ‘Remember the works of the fathers which they have done in their generations: and you shall receive great glory and an everlasting name’ (1 Macc. 2:51); ‘Take, my brethren, for an example of suffering evil, of labor and patience, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord (Jas. 5:10). But imitate not only the outcome of their life, so as to suffer patiently for Christ, but also their manner of life: for a good life leads to a good death: Whose faith follow and do not depart from it.
739. – He continues: Jesus Christ, yesterday, and today: and the same forever. According to a Gloss this is the way this section is introduced. For he had said before, I will not leave you or forsake you. But they could say: The one to whom this was said can well trust in God’s help, but not we to whom it was not spoken. But the Apostle rejects this, saying that Christ remains forever; hence, he says, Jesus Christ, yesterday, and today: and the same forever. Or it can be referred to what he had just said, namely, that they should imitate the apostles. They could say that the case is not the same, because they were instructed by Christ and served Him, but we not so. Therefore, the Apostle says that Christ remains; hence, he says that we should serve Him. And so he says, Jesus Christ, yesterday, namely, in the time of the first apostles, and today, namely, in their time, and the same forever: ‘I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world’ (Mt. 28:20); ‘Says the Lord, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty’ (Rev. 1:8); ‘But you are always the selfsame, and your years shall not fail’ (Ps. 101:28). In these words he shows the eternity of Christ.
