Hebrews 13:3

“Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.”

This is one of those verses we glide over. It comes in a string of exhortations toward the end of Hebrews, which, when read in context, seems kind of easy to dismiss since it’s not a part of some grand discourse.

This is also one of those ‘impossible passages’. Like, “rejoice in the Lord always” (Philippians 4:4), or “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30), or “be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:16).

It’s not that these commands are necessarily impossible for people to achieve. It’s that these are things that are impossible to do on our own. Now, I know I know, we can’t do any ‘good’ without God. But speaking in a less-than-spiritual sense, there are a lot of things we can seemingly achieve on our own strength. Feeding the poor. Giving money to charity. Reading the bible every day. Praying. So on and so on.

But some commands are commanded on a heart level. I can’t make myself love anything with every sensory capacity I have, as Mark 12 commands us to do of God. And I can’t feel the sense of ‘rejoicing’ in God all the time, like Philippians 4 commands.

In the same way, I can’t cause myself to ‘remember’ or to feel for the imprisoned Christians around the world as if I myself were imprisoned. It’s just not something that’s in my natural capacity to do.

There are some schools of thought that say that if a command is given that seems to say we have to do something we do not have in our power to do, it must not actually be commanded. I think that’s ludicrous. It makes far more sense that God would command things of us because they’re not in our natural capacity to do, so that we would rely on him.

It seems like a brilliant design to me. So, although I can’t make myself care. I say, lets trust God to develop that care in us.

Proverbs 22:28:

Do not move the ancient landmark
   that your fathers have set.

One of the strangest proverbs. It comes in a string of commands that doesn’t lend well to understanding this specific verse. Over its interpretation, people are divided. The classic writer John Gill overviews the disagreement.

Some apply this, in a political sense, to laws of long standing, and customs of long prescription; and others interpret it, in a theological sense, of doctrines and practices settled by the fathers of the church; which, if understood of Christ and his apostles only, will be allowed;

I suppose in circumstances like these, it’s hard to really pinpoint the authors truly intended meaning. Although it’s probably not really built into this verse, something I glean from it is a looking foreword to Christ’s place in the Church.

The specific reference in Proverbs is almost definitely to Deuteronomy 19:14, which commands God’s people not to move the geographical boundaries that had already been set. Something that was apparently taken very seriously in early times.

It makes me think of the system that the early church fathers put in place; with Christ as the centerpiece—the non-negotiable element of our faith. Although Christ in himself sets us free, in the church he is also something of a boundary we’re forbidden to remove.

Ironically, in its attempt to grow in number and influence and relevance, a huge portion of the church also gradually removes that Landmark set up by the early church fathers.