Jesus is Better. So What? — Hebrews 13 | Video Devotion with Dave Miers
Jun 2, 2026 23734
We’ve come to the end of an epic journey through Hebrews. Eighteen weeks. Thirteen chapters. And the whole way through, we’ve heard it on repeat. Jesus is better. Better prophet. Better priest. Better king. Hands down, in every possible way.
But that leaves us with two words. So what?
What difference does it actually make to your life on a Monday morning that Jesus is better? What difference does it make when the bills come in, when a friend lets you down, when you’re tired, when your faith feels small? That’s the question Hebrews 13 is asking. And the author lands the plane with three big answers.
I’m borrowing here from one of my Bible College lecturers, David Peterson, whose commentary on Hebrews has been so helpful in pulling these threads together.
Love that expresses.
Faithfulness that endures.
Grace that equips.
Love that expresses
The first so-what is LOVE THAT EXPRESSES. Verse 1 says, “Let brotherly love continue.” We’ve been adopted into God’s family because Jesus, our big brother, tasted death for us. So we love the family. We forgive each other. We keep at it, even when we let each other down.
But it doesn’t stop with the family. Verse 2 says, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers.” It’s a negative commandment, isn’t it? “Do not neglect” because it’s so easy to neglect. It’s easy to get caught up in our own lives, our own jobs, our own priorities. And yet, as Christ has welcomed us at his table, we open our table, our homes, and our hearts to others.
Verse 3 calls us to “Remember those who are in prison”, our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world. One in seven Christians right now is living under the daily threat of persecution for no other reason than they belong to Jesus. We’re one body. When one part suffers, we all suffer. As Brother Andrew, the founder of Open Doors, once said, “Our prayers can go where we cannot.”
Verse 4 calls us to honour marriage. God’s pattern, God’s plan, one man and one woman, the marriage bed undefiled. A call to faithfulness, whether you’re married or single. A call to flee sexual immorality and to honour the Christ that every marriage ultimately points to.
And love expresses itself in how we handle money. Verse 5 says, “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have.” Rockefeller, the richest man in the world at the time, was once asked how much was enough. He said, “Just a little bit more.” Money makes a lousy lord. And so we hold it loosely. We’re generous with it. Because Jesus is better than money, and he says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Faithfulness that endures
The second so-what is FAITHFULNESS THAT ENDURES.
Keep going. Don’t drift. Don’t go back. Endure.
Verse 7 says, “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God… imitate their faith.” Look back with gratitude. The youth group leader. The Bible study leader. The friend at school who was a little bit ahead of you in faith. Remember them. Imitate them.
And remember the one they pointed you to. Verse 8 says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” He isn’t changing. The pressures change. The cultural winds change. You change. But Jesus doesn’t. So endure. Keep trusting him. Keep heeding his word. Keep walking in obedience.
Because here’s the shape of the Christian life. Verse 12 tells us that “Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.” And then verse 13 says, “Let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.” Jesus was shamed. Jesus shed his blood. Jesus suffered to sanctify us. And now we go to him. Suffering came before glory for Jesus. And it does for us too. But verse 14 reminds us, “here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.” We belong to an unshakable kingdom. So we press on. We offer sacrifices of praise. We pray. We do good and share what we have.
Grace that equips
The third so-what is GRACE THAT EQUIPS.
By now, you might be feeling the weight of it. Love like this. Endure like that. It’s a firehose of “do this, don’t do that.” And if that’s all there was, you’d be exhausted before you got to verse 20.
But listen to verses 20 and 21. “Now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ.”
Are you weary? Welcome. Do you feel weak? Welcome. God isn’t asking you to muscle this out in your own strength. He equips you. He works in you. Through the risen shepherd, by the blood of the eternal covenant, the God of peace is doing what you cannot do for yourself.
The Good News Is…
The good news is that Jesus has already done it all. Lived. Died. Risen. And he is now at work in you by his Spirit, equipping you with everything good. You don’t love to earn his acceptance. You love because you’ve already got it. You don’t endure to keep your salvation. You endure because the risen shepherd is keeping you.
Jesus is better. So what? So we live as a people of love that expresses. A people of faithfulness that endures. A people equipped by grace.
Reflection
Heavenly Father, thank you that we don’t have to do any of this in our own strength. You are the God of peace who raised Jesus from the dead, and you are at work in us by your Spirit. Equip us, Father, to love, to endure, and to live every day in the joy that Jesus is better. We pray this in his name. Amen.