“Brothers, I urge you to bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written you only a short letter.” Hebrews 13:22 (NIV)

 

To most modern readers, I imagine this verse is a little bit amusing. Since when does thirteen chapters qualify as “short”?

For about a decade of my life, between middle school and college, my best friend and I frequently wrote to each other. (She’s now my roommate, so our letter-writing has somewhat dwindled.) At my best, I could turn out a good 20 pages effortlessly. It was great. I loved to share my thoughts with her, to tell her what was going on in my life, to ask about what she was up to.

Occasionally, when we’re feeling particularly nostalgic, we’ll pull out our old keepsake boxes, get comfy on the couch, and read letter after letter late into the night (sometimes early into the next day). We did this recently and I realized, to my embarrassment, that I was a horrible rambler. She would be halfway through one of my letters, laughing at my painful wordiness as she read, and I would beg her to stop and move on to another one. Why, I thought to myself, did I think any of that was important or even interesting? I could have made my point using half as many words.

The thing is, it’s easy to ramble. It takes more effort to write a short, refined letter than a long, disjointed one. Although Mark Twain is often credited, he was just one of many great historical figures to have said, non-verbatim, “I’m sorry this letter is so long; I didn’t have time to write a short one.”

“The thing is, it’s easy to ramble. It takes more effort to write a short, refined letter than a long, disjointed one.”

The writer to the Hebrews understood this dilemma and somehow managed to overcome it. His subject (Jesus is greater) was not only beautifully interesting but infinitely important, and he could have written on and on about it. But he only had so much space and time to convey the message to his readers. So at the end of his letter, he gave them little recaps. “[Jesus is greater, so] keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters.” “[Jesus is greater, so] do not be attracted by strange, new ideas.” “[Jesus is greater, so] offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God.” “[Jesus is greater, so] obey your spiritual leaders.”

There is so much packed into these brief exhortations. As our teaching pastors are famous for pointing out, we could develop a whole message (or even a teaching series) on any one of these ideas. What would it look like for us to love each other as if we were family? What are the strange, new ideas that pull us away from Christ? How do we continually offer praise to God?

“If I am careful to remember that Christ is greater than anything else this world offers… how powerful I could be for God’s Kingdom and how much reward I could store up for myself in heaven!”

But the writer couldn’t possibly make practical applications for every people group and culture that would read his letter. Like his original audience, we have to apply these truths in ways that are relevant to our own situations and experiences. This is why he urges his readers to “pay attention” (vs 22, NLT) to what he has written, to meditate on his exhortations carefully, to examine ourselves in light of them. If I am careful to remember that Christ is greater than anything else this world offers, and I let that knowledge affect the way I serve God and love others (whatever that looks like practically), how powerful I could be for God’s Kingdom and how much reward I could store up for myself in heaven!

As I sat and reflected on all the things that the writer to the Hebrews left unsaid, all the things that were not necessary for his audience to hear but were no less wonderful, the Lord brought another verse to my mind. It makes me giddy for the day when our faith will be our sight and we will have a better understanding of how much greater Jesus truly is: “Jesus did many other things. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written.” John 21:25