HEB 13:1 Keep on loving each other as brothers. 2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. 3 Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.

After more than 3 years, we are now finally at the last chapter of Hebrews. Chapter 11 deals with faith, chapter 12 deals with hope, and now chapter 13 closes the book by dealing with love. Faith allows us to have victory over the world. Hope enables us to look clearly into another world to come. Love compels us to turn around and save this world of sin. And so while we are on earth, our responsibility is for us to be a witness and co-worker with our LORD in bringing sinners back to Him. This is the glory of Christ, the cross of the Christian, being salt and light to the world.

Where then should we start? We start by first enjoying the salvation and love that God has given to us, and then by what He has given to us, we learn to love one another. Jesus Christ said that we are to love one another as He has loved us (John 15:12). Therefore, the order and direction are clear; God's love comes from the top down, and then we share this sort of love with others. We imitate Christ and share this love with those who have less than us. Typically, we want to love upwards, and not downwards. We envy better things, seek after more perfection; in so doing, we become better. But we need to understand another time of love, one that came from above to below. This upside down model is what Christ exemplified, leaving His heavenly glory to come in humility down below, exemplifying a heavenly wisdom.

Jesus Christ did not say that we should love one another the way we love Him. It would seem right that we should love one another the way we love Him. We all want to love the LORD because He is so good to us but we would not be willing to love men because people are usually mean; so it would seem right that we should aim to love one another the way we love Christ. The differences may be subtle, but of great significance. If we were to love each other the way we love Christ, we are moving from a man-centered motive (anthropo-centric). But if we were to love each other the way Christ loves us, we will be doing things in a God-centred (Theo-centric) manner.

These two approaches would result in completely different results. A man-centred approach to church, Bible exposition, doctrine, etc would result in completely different things than a God-centred approach. As sinners, our love for God cannot be consistent. Some times we would love Him so fervently; but at other times, we would be so cold. Dr Tong said that if we were to love others in this manner, than they have to go through the various 'seasons' of love. The Bible is so precise that not a single word or order can be changed. We need to love one another the way He loves us because we are made in His image, and need to learn His image of love. After we have sinned, we have already lost the original image. This is precisely why we need to model our brotherly love on His love for us, and not ours for Him. We love one another in the same manner as the Father loves us through His son, a brotherly love mentioned already in Hebrews 2 (philadelphia in Greek).

What then are the marks of this love? How would we know that we are His followers? Many people think that by having marks of faith around them, like wearing a crucifix, people would know that we are Christians. Dr Tong said that he personally witnessed a pickpocket who was arrested in San Paulo Brazil, wearing a huge crucifix on his neck. We all know that many promiscuous celebrities wear the crucifix just for fashion purposes, so such marks are not meaningful at all.

The Bible tells us that there are a few key indicators that followers need to display. The true disciple would be bold in bearing witness for Christ. The book of Acts tells us about the boldness of the disciples in bearing witness for Christ, and the people recognized them to be His followers (Acts 4:13). The second mark is found in bearing fruits for God, as Christ said in John 15:8 "This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." When we have the new life of Christ in us, we will naturally bear the fruits of these life that can be witnessed by others. The third mark is from John 13:34, 35 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." We are to love one another and people will know that we are His disciples.

So these three marks are clear. As His disciples, we must bear witness boldly, bear fruits for Him, and love one another. Without these marks of love, it is not possible for one to claim himself to be His disciples. Without love, our Christian life on earth is not heavenly. On the contrary, we would live as if we were in hell.

The author of Hebrews then tells us to do three important things to express this love:

1. To entertain (or take care of) others: On the surface, this seems to refer to being hospitable, letting people stay over at your home. In reality, the attitude of hospitality is the key consideration here. A person who is hospitable is a person with a wide, open heart. He is able to accept others, and will not insist in narrow-minded actions. Loving does not mean that we simply look for people we like to love. On the contrary, we are to accept and love people whom we do not like. The apostle Paul tells us to accept one another (Romans 15:7). We should therefore have the attitude to accept those who have different opinions, different understanding, different maturity and love them all. We need to learn to agree to disagree.

Our own concept of love is often possessive in nature. Dr Tong said that when we say we love ducks or crabs (eating them), we often forget that ducks and crabs do not love us (because whenever we love them, they have to die for us). We should always remember that loving someone whom we already like is not what love is all about. This is why Christ tells us to love our enemies, and pray for those who persecute us.

Accepting others of course is a difficult task. If you take in strangers in your home, you would need to exercise a lot of love and patience, cleaning after that person. Dr Tong said that there must have been more than 100 people who stayed over at his house. He said that being hospitable is pleasing to the LORD, as the law of Moses said that we are to take care of foreigners among us (Lev 19:34). There are certain characteristics of a hospitable home: 1. The more you take care of others, the more you would become easier to live with. On the contrary, those who never invite anyone over to their homes are often difficult people. 2. The children of hospitable households would also be more learned than those from closed homes. 3. Hospitable people are open and 'transparent' in character, while those who are inward-looking often leads lives that present a false front. 4. Hospitable people understand what it means to be more blessed to give than to receive, while inhospitable people tends to take advantage of others. 5. Hospitable people would grow old to become more universal and open, while inhospitable people grow old to be stubborn and strange in behaviour.

Dr Tong illustrated this by looking at the Chinese people. The Chinese often pride themselves as people who speak languages that few understand, and delight in that, especially when they can criticise others without the others knowing what they are talking about. In the end, the English language became the universal language, while only the Chinese speak Chinese. This is the difference between a closed and opened system of thought. Dr Tong then talked about two members (husband and wife) of his congregation who lived in the Netherlands. The couple was riding on a bus when an elderly man boarded the bus. The two begun to discuss in Indonesians how they thought the old man looked like a monkey. To their great horror, right before the man alighted, he told both of them in Indonesian that the monkey is about to get off the bus! The problem with the two was that they were completely self-centred. We need to learn to be open and respect and accept others.

Dr Tong said that he does not know how to explain the verse about entertaining angels, even after thinking and studying about it for months because there are no other references in the Bible relating to this. We did have a short discussion in the side room prior to the session without any conclusion. So he simply admitted that he has no answer, other than a straight-forward indication of the possibility of angels being with us.

2. Sympathy: Dr Tong said that to have sympathy is to share in the same emotions (sym being equal, and pathos in Latin being emotions). So the second area of love is to feel the same feelings. The Christian love is not to be an unfeeling, or even arrogant in our treatment of those less fortunate. We are not to have an attitude of pity upon others. We should love to feel the same feelings with others who are suffering. Romans 12:15 tells us to mourn with those who mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice. It seems easier to rejoice with others than to mourn with them, because one needs to have had the experiences of suffering before we can even begin to understand the mourners. But Dr Tong gave an interesting illustration to show that it may not be easy to rejoice with those who rejoices. If for example, you are a motor-cycle dealer and your neighbour who is in the same line just sold 5 motorcycles this month, while you only sold one in 5 months. Can you really rejoice with him in his joy? It is therefore difficult to have a true heart of compassion. The Bible recorded 10 occasions when Jesus Christ had compassion; something not read about often with the apostles like Peter, John or Paul. Our LORD Jesus Christ was indeed a man of compassion, and we need to follow His example.

3. To suffer together: We are to remember those who are suffering as if we too are suffering. In other words, we need to share in the suffering of others, to take on their difficulties. This is something very difficult for us to do. We need to actually take on the problems of others to understand them. Dr Tong said that when his daughter was young, he recorded her wailing sound with a audio recorder. When the child was calm and quiet, he played the crying back to her, and immediately she responded by crying again. Obviously the two year-old was moved by the sounds of another baby crying. We are often not really moved by others, and certainly would not want to suffer like they did. Dr Tong said that the LORD would not allow us to suffer not because He wants to bless us, but because we are too weak to take the sufferings.

Dr Tong closed the session by encouraging all to always remember that love is the true mark of discipleship, because God is love.

Disclaimer: This summary does NOT represent the official position of STEMI (Stephen Tong Evangelistic Ministry International), and is the personal opinion of the author, expressed without prejudice. Expressed opinions are meant for academic discussions only.