Hebrews 13

Wesley: remember them who are now with God, considering the happy end of their conversation on earth; follow their faith.

Those in Wesley’s line hear living memory that moves imitation. Leaders who spoke the word leave an outcome to weigh; faith is to be copied, not a personality cult. The pastoral tone is gratitude and emulation.

Calvin: sets before them teachers for imitation—especially those who sealed doctrine with blood—yet generally all who persevered in true faith to the end. Those who begot us in Christ stand as fathers; their firmness in persecution should deeply move hearers.

Doctrine and life’s end together. Imitate faith proven durable; remembrance serves perseverance in sound teaching.

Wesley: men may die; but Jesus Christ—yea, and his gospel—is the same from everlasting to everlasting.

Wesleyan Arminians confess with the Reformed the unchanging Christ and gospel. Leaders pass; the Lord does not. Stability for the church is His sameness, not novelty of teaching.

Calvin: the only way to persevere in right faith is to hold the foundation and not depart from Christ—all treasures of wisdom are in Him. Yesterday comprehends the whole Old Testament; today and forever mean the knowledge of Him continues the same. He speaks of the knowledge the godly always had of the Mediator, the Church’s perpetual foundation—not a bare metaphysical aside.

Unchanging Christ anchors against every strange wind. Both camps stand here together on His constancy.

Wesley: be not carried about with various doctrines differing from that one faith in our one unchangeable Lord; strange to ears and hearts that abide in Him. Good that the heart be stablished with grace springing from faith in Christ—not with Jewish ceremonies that can never stablish the heart.

Arminians hear grace as the heart’s strength. Strange teachings pull from the same Christ; foods and rites cannot establish. Stay where grace has already begun to fortify.

Calvin: conclude we ought not to fluctuate, since Christ’s truth remains fixed. Variety of errors arises when men abide not in Christ alone; apart from Him there is no stability. Grace here is spiritual worship and regeneration establishing the heart—not observance of meats, which profits nothing for those still occupied in them after the gospel’s light.

Grace versus foods is Christ versus ceremony. Strange doctrines are foreign to Him; cleave to Christ and you are guarded.

Wesley: we have an altar—the cross of Christ—whereof they have no right to eat (partake of the benefits) who serve the tabernacle—who adhere to the Mosaic law. On this verse the praise and beneficence of vv. 15–16 depend.

Arminians hear exclusive gospel privilege at Christ’s cross. Tent-service and cross-benefits do not mix; come to the altar by faith, not by clinging to shadows.

Calvin: beautiful adaptation of the sin-offering of which priests ate nothing. Christ was sacrificed on condition that tabernacle-servants should not feed on Him; to partake of Christ we must renounce the tabernacle’s ceremonies. Altar includes sacrifice and victim; tent, all external types.

No dual membership at two altars. Serving the tent bars eating at Christ’s; the typology itself taught the break.

Wesley: according to their own law, sin-offerings were wholly consumed; no Jew ate thereof. But Christ was a sin-offering; therefore they cannot feed upon Him as we do who are freed from the Mosaic law.

Arminians hear the type explaining the bar of v. 10. Outside-the-camp burning matches the gospel’s claim: the true sin-offering is not temple food for law-adherents.

Calvin: the Levites brought the sin-offering without the camp to be burnt and ate nothing of it—so if we retain the ceremonies we shall not be partakers of the sacrifice Christ once offered, nor of the expiation made by His blood brought into the heavenly sanctuary.

The law’s own rite preached exclusion. Outside the camp is where the antitype will be found.

Wesley: Jesus exactly answering those typical sin-offerings suffered without the gate of Jerusalem—answering the old camp—that He might sanctify—reconcile and consecrate to God—the people by His own blood, not shadowy sacrifices now useless.

Arminian readers glory with the Reformed that His own blood sanctifies outside the camp. Outside the gate is historical and theological: the true sin-offering is Christ Himself. Shared ground—not a camp fight over who the people are.

Calvin: Jesus suffered without the gate to sanctify the people with His own blood—expiation once for all. His blood He brought into the heavenly sanctuary; the types cease for those who would share the antitype.

Sanctify here is cleansing by the once-offered blood. Shared with Wesley: tent-service cannot add to or replace that blood; the people are sanctified at the cross outside the gate.

Wesley: let us go forth without the camp—out of the Jewish dispensation—bearing His reproach: all manner of shame, obloquy, and contempt for His sake.

Listen here for a costly summons the church may answer: leave the camp, take the shame. Identification with Jesus outside is voluntary discipleship under grace, not a spectator verse.

Calvin: the allegory must not be frigid—connect an important duty: leave the tabernacle and follow Christ through exiles, flights, reproaches, and afflictions. This warfare unto blood opposes the shadowy practices ceremony-teachers boasted of.

Going outside is active discipleship under the cross. Reproach is expected; the camp’s safety is refused for Christ’s fellowship.

Wesley: here on earth we have no continuing city—all things are but for a moment; Jerusalem itself was then on the point of destruction.

Wesleyan Arminians hear pilgrim realism: seek the coming city. Earthly security, even religious, is temporary; hope looks forward while bearing reproach now.

Calvin: extends the going forth—as strangers and wanderers we have no fixed residence but in heaven. When driven or changed, remember heaven is the inheritance; quiet earthly rest can foster sloth, so tossing trains eyes upward.

No lasting city relativizes every camp. Seeking the coming city sustains those who have left the earthly one.

Wesley: the altar was named (v. 10); now the sacrifices—praise and (v. 16) beneficence—with both God is well pleased. Continuously offer praise through Him.

Arminian interpreters hear priestly privilege for the whole church: lips that confess His name are the fruit God wants. Through Jesus, not through renewed animal rites.

Calvin: another kind of sacrifice remains—the calves of our lips (Hosea). Praise is the highest worship, preferred to external Law sacrifices; yet God is truly invoked only through Christ the Mediator, who sanctifies unclean lips and opens the way for prayer.

Continual praise through the Mediator replaces the old altar’s animals. Confession of the Name is the Christian sacrifice.

Wesley pairs beneficence with praise as sacrifices with which God is well pleased.

Arminians hear mercy and sharing as worship, not optional extras. Doing good and communicating goods please God as truly as lips of praise; neglect here is neglect of sacrifice.

Calvin: all acts of love are so many sacrifices; God gave abundant opportunities to sacrifice without beasts. Benefits to men He considers done to Himself and honors as sacrifices. Communicate embraces mutual aid; with such—not the ancient animal offerings—God is well pleased.

Love’s deeds are sacred to God. Forgetting to do good and share robs both neighbor and the God who claims those works.

Wesley: obey them that lead or guide you in truth and holiness; submit—give up not conscience or judgment, but your own will in things purely indifferent. They watch over your souls with zeal against danger, as those who must give account to the great Shepherd. Let them watch with joy, not groans—unprofitable for you if pastors groan over you.

Wesleyan Arminians hear pastoral obedience without blind surrender of conscience. Joyful oversight is mutual good; stubbornness harms the flock as well as the shepherd.

Calvin: speaks of pastors who faithfully perform office—watching for souls—not mere titles or wolves. Obey and honor true watchers; heavier burden deserves honor; their account before God binds the people’s teachability. Causing pastors grief by ingratitude is unprofitable to the people’s own salvation.

Obedience is owed to faithful soul-watchers, not to empty hierarchy. Joyful oversight flourishes where the flock is teachable under the word.