Hebrews 13- Which camp do you belong to?

9Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace and not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those devoted to them. 10We have an altar from which those who serve at the tabernacle have no right to eat.
11Although the high priest brings the blood of animals into the Holy Place as a sacrifice for sin, the bodies are burned outside the camp. 12And that is why Jesus suffered outside the city gate, to sanctify the people by His own blood. 13Therefore let us go to Him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace He bore. 14For here we do not have a permanent city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

There is never a shortage of various and strange doctrines in the church. The ones specifically in mind here seem to deal with a return to Mosaic ceremonies and laws that were fulfilled in Jesus. (Guzik)

Other Jews probably branded these Jewish Christians “illegitimate” because they did not continue the Levitical system. But the writer to the Hebrews insisted that we have an altar, and it is an altar that those who cling to the Levitical system have no right to.
i. Essentially, our altar is the cross – the centerpiece of the Christian Gospel and understanding (1 Corinthians 1:18-24 and 1 Corinthians 2:1-5). (Guzik)

iv. “If you can dwell with the wicked, if you can live as they live, and be ‘hail-fellow well met’ with the ungodly, if their practices are your practices, if their pleasures are your pleasures, then their god is your god, and you are one of them. There is no being a Christian without being shut out of the world’s camp.” (Spurgeon)

These verses have many good quotes from Guzik and Spurgeon and these were a few that spoke to me. I pray they speak to you too.

Which camp do you belong to? The worlds or Jesus'?
In 1964 our family started going on camping trips. My father purchased a Nimrod tent trailer. When we camped in parks my parents would tell newly acquainted friends we were in the Nimrod tent trailer. Which camp did we belong to? The Nimrod camp!

I look forward to the promise of the city that is to come! Do you?

Blessings, David