Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.
It’s not always easy to empathize with someone. To do so requires a willingness to feel difficult things by choice. How many times in life do we feel pain, heartache, sorrow, and loss because of things that we experience? Here in Hebrews 13, the author is asking us to purposefully engage in feeling difficult things that someone else is experiencing! Why would we sign up for that? Isn’t there enough heartache in our own life? Why sign up for more?
Because Jesus did.
Jesus was living His best life in heaven, but He came down to be tested in every way so that He could empathize with us (Hebrews 4:15).* Jesus didn’t just feel with us, though. He actually took our place.*
The empathy that God calls us to through Hebrews 13 does not just feel; it does something.* In the first century, prisoners were not treated well.* Often basic needs were completely unmet unless friends or family took it upon themselves to provide those needs themselves.* As the family of God, we must remember those suffering and in prison in practical ways. The word used in the Greek for “remember” indicates that we are to keep our imprisoned friends in mind constantly as if we are looking at them right in front of us.*
1 Corinthians 12:26 tell us,
If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
There are many today in prison, but there are even more in prisons without walls. Imprisoned by fear, trauma, anger, jealousy, lust, or loneliness, we as believers must reach out to them with an empathy that looks like action.
Stedman shares,
We must feel with the prisoner or the mistreated, the shame, hurt and hopelessness they often experience, and minister to them out of an awareness that we too could have been where they are, had our circumstances been the same as theirs. Even those imprisoned justly merit Christian help, since Jesus ministered to the guilty and the condemned simply because they were human beings, who were victims of self-deceit or ignorance.
Jesus ministered to you and me at our worst points of life, empathizing and helping.
Today, take a step.
Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to visit someone you know in prison. Perhaps today God wants you to open your heart to the pain and suffering of others. Maybe today God wants you to remember all that Jesus has done for you. Perhaps today God wants you to be Jesus to someone walking around at your job, school, or neighborhood looking free but living imprisoned.
Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.
Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus.
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*Stedman, R. C. (1992). Hebrews (Heb 13:1-6). IVP Academic.
Grindheim, S. (2023). The Letter to the Hebrews (D. A. Carson, Ed.; pp. 665–666). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
France, R. T. (2006). Hebrews. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Hebrews–Revelation (Revised Edition) (Vol. 13, pp. 184). Zondervan.
Guthrie, G. (1998). Hebrews (p. 436). Zondervan Publishing House.