Through faith in Jesus we are all one big family. The blood we share is the shed blood of Jesus Christ who died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins and to purchase for us a place in heaven which he offers as a free gift. That gift is received through faith alone. It’s not something you can earn or deserve. It’s only given away. To attempt to pay for it is an insult to God’s love. “He so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son so that anyone who believed in him would not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).  The author of Hebrews is focusing on that truth in Chapter 2:11b-13. He writes that Christ makes us all equally holy in God’s eyes and “That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, ‘I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.’ And again, ‘I will put my trust in him.’ And again, ‘Behold, I and the children God has given me.’”

The “congregation” is not about what we do, how hard we try to be holy, what role we play in the church, or anything else related to our own efforts. The people together sing and worship the one and only one that saves! It’s about Jesus being at the center and the family gathering around the author and finisher of our faith. Jesus has called us to love Him and to love one another but that’s impossible if we don’t first have God’s love. You can’t give away something that you don’t have. John put it this way, “We love (only) because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). The only way for us to grow in the only commandment that means anything to Jesus, the commandment to love, is to wallow in His love for us as expressed on Calvary. Brothers and sisters who know they are loved by the Father and are growing in the understanding of that love, will grow in their love for one another.

Paul prayed, as the New International Version puts it in Ephesians 3:17-19, “I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” It’s truly not what we know, or what we do, or what we give, or how we serve, or how often we read our Bibles that stimulates our growth as Christians. It’s focusing our hearts and minds on what God has done for us in Christ; the greatest expression of His love. This is why the author of Hebrews tells us to think carefully, meticulously, inquisitively, and continuously on the person and work of Jesus. The Book of Hebrews is all about the importance of Jesus. The whole Bible is about the importance of Jesus!