Jesus was waiting ouside the camp

JESUS WAS WAITING OUSIDE THE CAMP
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Hebrews 13:13 13Let us, then, go to him outsidethe
camp, bearing the disgracehe bore.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
The Christian Altar
Hebrews 13:10
W. Jones
We have an altar, whereofthey have no right to eat, etc. Here are three points
which require notice.
I. THE CHRISTIAN ALTAR. "We have an altar." One of the positions which
the writer of this Epistle endeavors to establish is this, that by the
renunciation of Judaism these Hebrew Christians had not lost anything of real
value, or that the goodin Judaism was perfectedin Christianity. He shows
that in Jesus Christ, the Head of the Christian dispensation, they had One far
greaterthan Moses,by whom the elder economy was given. For giving up the
Levitical priesthood there was far more than compensationin the possession
of an interestin the greatHigh Priest. Moreover, the tabernacle in which our
greatHigh Priest appears for us is "greaterandmore perfect" than either the
tabernacle in the wilderness or the temple at Jerusalem. And in our text he
points out that Christians have also an altar with its provisions and blessings.
By this altar we understand the cross upon which our Lord offeredhimself a
Sacrifice for human sin.

1. On this altar the perfectSacrifice was offered. (We have already dealt with
the perfectionof Christ's sacrifice in our homilies on Hebrews 10:5-10, and
12, 13.)
2. This altar has supersededall other altars. The perfectionof this sacrifice
rendered its repetition unnecessary, and abolishedforever the imperfect and
typical sacrificesofthe earlierdispensation (cf. Hebrews 7:27; Hebrews 10:10-
18).
II. THE PROVISION WHICH THIS ALTAR FURNISHES. The writer
speaks ofeating of this altar. The reference is to the fact that certainportions
of some of the sacrifices under the Mosaic economywere eatenby the priests,
and certainby the Levites also (cf. Leviticus 6:14-18, 24-30;Leviticus 7.;
Numbers 18:8-11;1 Corinthians 9:13). The provision from the Christian altar
is Jesus Christ himself, the greatSacrifice. Byfaith" we become partakers of
Christ;" we appropriate him as the Life and the Sustenance of the soul. Our
Lord said, "I am the living Bread which came down out of heaven: if any man
eat of this bread, he shall live forever," etc. (John 6:51-58).
1. This provision is spiritual. Not of the literal or material flesh and blood of
Jesus do we eat and drink, but by faith we become partakers ofhis mind, his
feelings, his principles, his spirit, his life, himself. Hence St. Paul writes, "I
live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me," etc. (Galatians 2:20). Again, "Christ
our Life" (Colossians3:3, 4).
2. This provision is delightful. To those who are healthy the eating of suitable
provision; Is not only necessaryand satisfying, but pleasurable. It gratifies the
palate. The spiritual appropriation of Christ is joy-inspiring. In Christianity
we have "a feastof fat things."
3. This provision is free, and free to all. Some of the Levitical sacrifices
belongedto the sacrificing priest only, others only to the priest and Levites.
But all may come to Christ by faith, and partake of the inestimable benefits of
his greatsacrifice. "Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters," etc.
(Isaiah 4:1, 2; Revelation22:17).

III. THE EXCLUSION OF SOME FROM'PARTICIPATION IN THIS
PROVISION. "Whereofthey have no right to eat which serve the
tabernacle." The reference is to the Jewishpriests and Levites. They who
clung to Judaism rejectedChristianity, and were necessarilyexcluded from its
benefits. They were self-excluded. They would not come unto Christ that they
might have life. All who rejectthe Lord Jesus are in a similar condition: e.g.
the self-righteous moralist, the modern representative of the ancient Pharisee;
the captious and the scoffing skeptic;the worlding who elects to have his
portion in this life; and others. The provision is free, free for all; but these
exclude themselves from participation therein. How is it possible for any one
to enjoy the blessings of Christianity who rejects the Christ? - W.J.
Biblical Illustrator
Jesus also...sufferedwithout the gate.
Hebrews 13:11-13
Jesus suffering without the gate

C. Bradley, M. A.
I. A CUSTOM that prevailed among the Israelites in the wilderness;"The
bodies of those beasts," etc. The apostle writes as though the camp and this
custom still existed. The camp, however, was gone, but the custom remained
with this difference only, that the temple was now substituted for the
tabernacle and the city for the camp. It was a customof Divine appointment.
The Lord, in framing a law for the Jews, regardedthe whole nation as sinners.
Besides, therefore, the offerings to be made by individuals for their own sins,
various sacrificeswere ordainedfor the sins of the nation, and among these,
one of unusual solemnity. It was to be offeredonce in every year, and on a
certain day of the year, calledfrom this circumstance the day of atonement.
II. AN EVENT which took place at Jerusalem, closelyresembling it;
"Wherefore Jesus also,"&c. Notice three points of resemblance betweenour
Lord and the animals burnt on the day of atonement.
1. They did not die a natural death; their blood was shed before they were
carried forth. And our Lord also " suffered"; His precious blood, too, was
poured forth.
2. He suffered in the same place in which these animals were destroyed. They
were slain, indeed, in the camp, but they were burned outside of it. So our
Lord" suffered without the gate." "Theyled Him out to crucify Him," out of
their city, to the very spot probably where, after the people were settledin
Jerusalem, the bodies of those beasts which had so long prefigured Him were
consumed.
3. He suffered for the same end. The blood of these animals was shed that it
might be taken"into the sanctuaryby the high priest for sin," as a
propitiation for sin; their bodies were burned as a testimony of the Divine
indignation againstsin. When these two ceremonies had been gone through
God is said to have been reconciledto His people, the whole camp was
consideredas purged from its transgressions. And what was the end for which
our Lord suffered? It was that His people, His spiritual Israel, might have sin
removed from them.

III. AN EXHORTATION grounded on the event mentioned. "Let us go
forth," &c. We must againimagine ourselves in the desert. Around us are
spread the tents of Israel. The men dwelling in them are all worshipping the
Lord in one way — as their fathers worshipped Him, looking for His mercy
through rites and ceremonies andbleeding victims. The Lord Jesus appears
amongstthem; tells them He is sent of God to abolish these rites and
ceremonies, to become Himself once for all a victim for them, and calls upon
them in consequence to turn from their shadowyrites and long accustomed
sacrifices to Him. Instead of this, they castHim forth out of their camp and
crucify Him. We are to conceive ofHim, therefore, as even now hanging in
shame and suffering on a Cross beyond the gate, and then comes this apostle
saying to us among our tents, "Let us not linger here. Let us go forth unto
Him without the camp, bearing His reproach."
1. It is clear, then, that He calls on us, first, to forsake the religion of our
fellow-men, a religion, it may be, that either is or once was our own. The Jew
in the desertcould not go forth to a bleeding Jesus without turning his back
on the Jewishworship, and giving up all his long-cherishedJewishhopes. He
must abandon the sanctuaryand ordinances with which all his religious
feelings have been long associated, and around which he beholds his
countrymen still gathering. A painful sacrifice. And it is the same now. Many
of us have a religionthat the gospelcalls on us to renounce. It is made up of
opinions and feelings and hopes which are as much opposed to the gospelof
Jesus Christ as the religionof any Jew ever was. We may have cherishedit
long, even from our childhood. The world around us may respectand
commend it; it is natural it should do so — it is the world's own religion; the
world taught it us. But no matter who commends it or how highly we may
have valued it, we must let it go; or rather we must turn our backs on it, we
must castit away, before we and the Cross of Christ can ever meet.
2. And with the religion of the world, we must forsake also to a considerable
extent the men of the world.
3. Then, connectedwith this forsaking ofthe world, there must be an actual
coming, the apostle says, to Christ our Lord. Observe, he does not simply bid
the Israelites leave the camp, as though his only objectwas to get them away

from their old religion and companions, he directs them all to one spot; he
bids them leave the camp for one purpose, that they may go to Him who is
suffering for them without the gate. So we are not to go forth only, we are to
go forth unto Christ. It will profit us nothing to give us the empty religion of
the world, if when we let that go, we get no other. Superstition for scepticism
is a poor exchange. And it will profit us as little to forsake the world, if we
stand still when we have forsakenit. The going forth, the apostle enjoins, is
not going into cells and hermitages, nor is it roaming this desertworld in a
proud, dreary solitariness. Itis a going forth unto Jesus. It is exchanging the
religion of the world for the religion of His Cross;it is giving up that which
cannot elevate, comfort, or save us, for that which can. And then it is leaving
the world for the world's Master;it is suffering the loss of all things that we
may win Christ; it is the forsaking of a world which is not worthy even of us,
that we may be — what? outcasts? No;but "fellow-citizens with the saints and
of the householdof God";sharers now of higher riches and pleasures than the
earth can give, and heirs of a world that is worthy, if any world can be, of the
God who made it.
(C. Bradley, M. A.)
Let us go forth therefore unto Him.
Exhortation to decisionand earnestnessin religion
E. Cooper, M. A.
I. A GENERALVIEW OF THE ADMONITION IN THE TEXT.
1. The conduct which he intended to prescribe to the Christian converts to
whom he wrote was evidently this — namely, that they should openly profess
their faith in Jesus, who had been castout as accursed, notwithstanding the
reproachto which such a professionwould expose them; and should publicly
adhere to His worship and service in the sight of their unbelieving and reviling
countrymen.

2. What does the apostle here exhort us to do? He doubtless exhorts us to
make Christ crucified our only hope; to confess Him before men, and by our
open and consistentattachmentto His cause, His people and His ordinances,
to show that we indeed belong to Him.
II. SOME PARTICULARS WHICH A COMPLIANCE WITH THIS
ADMONITION INVOLVES.
1. That we renounce all other grounds of satisfactionfor sin, and of
acceptancewith God, but those which the Cross of Jesus Christprovides.
2. That we separate ourselves from the world. Especially
(1)From its corrupt practices and principles; and
(2)From its religion — the resemblance of godliness without the power
thereof.
3. That we are prepared to take up the cross and encounter reproachfor
Christ's sake.
III. THE MOTIVES BY WHICH THE ADMONITION IS ENFORCED.
1. Our situation in this world is one of extreme uncertainty. "Here we have no
continuing city."
2. Besides " we seek one to come." This is our professionas Christians. We
profess that we are seeking "a citywhich hath foundations"; a "house not
made with hands, eternal in the heavens." But unless we go forth unto Christ,
all such professionis vain.
(E. Cooper, M. A.)
Let us go forth
C. H. Spurgeon.
I. We have, first of all, THE BELIEVER'S PATH. "Let us go forth without
the camp." The Divine command is not, "Let us stop in the camp and try to

reform it — things are not anywhere quite perfect, let us therefore stop and
make matters right"; but the Christian's watchcry is, "Let us go forth." To
this day the Christian's place is not to tarry in the camp of worldly
conformity, hoping, "Perhaps I may aid they movement for reform": it is not
the believer's duty to conform to the world and to the world's ways, and say,
"Perhaps by so doing I may gain a foothold, and men's hearts may be the
more ready to receive the truth." No, from the first to the lastday of the
Church of God, the place of witness is not inside, but outside the camp; and
the true position of the Christian is to go forth without the camp, bearing
Christ's reproach. What is meant by this " going forth without the camp"?
1. I understand it to mean that every Christian is to go forth by an open
professionof his faith. You that love the Lord are to say so. You must come
out and avow yourselves on His side. You may be Christians and make no
profession, but I cannot be sure of that, nor can any other man.
2. This done, the Christian is to be separate from the world as to his company.
He must buy, and sell, and trade, like other men in the world, but yet he is not
to find his bosomfriends in it.
3. The followerof Jesus goeswithout the camp as to his pleasures. He is not
without his joys nor his recreations either; but he does not seek them where
the wickedfind them. If thou hast no separationfrom the world, as to thy
pleasures, since thy heart is generallyin thy pleasures, thy heart therefore is
with the wicked, and with them shall thy doom be when God comes to judge
mankind.
4. Furthermore, the true followerof Christ is divided from the world as to his
maxims; he does not subscribe to the laws which rule most men in their
families and their business. Mengenerally say, "Every one for himself, and
God for us all." "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also
on the things of others," is the Christian's rule.
5. Once more — and here is a very difficult part of the Christian's course —
the Christian is to come out not only from the world's pleasures, and sins, and
irreligion, but there are times when the true followers of Christ must come out
from the world's religion as wellas irreligion.

II. But now, secondly, we have in the text, THE CHRISTIAN'S LEADER. It
does not say, "Let us go forth without the camp" merely, but, "Let us go forth
therefore unto Him."
1. It means, let us have fellowshipwith Him. He was despised;He had no
credit for charity; He was mockedin the streets;He was hissedat; He was
hounded from among society. Expectnot to wearthe crown where Christ
carried the Cross;but, for fellowship's sake, follow Him.
2. Again, if I am to follow Him, I am to follow His example. What Christ did,
that I am to do.
3. I am to go forth unto Him: that is, I am to go forth to His truth. WhereverI
see His truth, I am to espouse it: whereverI see error, I am to denounce it
without hesitation.
4. And then I am to go forth to Christ's witness-bearing. The presentage does
not believe in witness-bearing, but the whole Bible is full of it. The duty of
every Christian is to bear witness for the truth.
III. Now, in the third place, we have THE CHRISTIAN'S BURDEN. He is to
bear the Lord's reproach. I knew you may live without it if you will fawn and
cringe, and keepback part of the price; but do not this, it is unworthy of your
manhood, much more is it unworthy of your Christianity. For God and for
Christ be so holy and so truthful that you compelthe world to give its best
acknowledgmentof your goodnessby railing at you — it can do no more, it
will do no less. Be contentto take this shame, for there is no heaven for you if
you will not — no crownwithout the cross, no jewels without the mire. You
must stand in the pillory if you would sit in glory; and if you rejectthe one
you rejectthe Other.
IV. THE CHRISTIAN'S REASON FOR BEARING HIS REPROACH, AND
GOING WITHOUT THE CAMP. It is in the text, "Let us go forth therefore"
— there is the reason. Why then?
1. First, because Jesus did. Jesus Christ came into the world pure and holy,
and His life and His testimony were a witness againstsin. Jesus Christwould
not conform. He stands out like a lone mount of light, separate from the chain

of dark mountains; and so must the Christian. Christ was separate;and so
must you be. Christ was pure, holy, truthful; so must you be. I pray you either
renounce your profession, or else seek graceto carry it out.
2. Moreover, the connectionof the text tells us that Christ set apart His people
by going without the camp. That He might sanctify His people, He suffered
without the camp. The Head is not of the world, and shall the members be of
it?
3. Again, Christ would have His people separate for their ownsanctification.
You cannot grow in grace to any high degree while you are conformed to the
world. The path of separationmay be a path of sorrow, but it is the path of
safety. The martyrs tell us in their diaries that they were never so happy as
when they were in the dungeon alone with Christ for company; nay, their best
days were often their days of burning: they calledthem their wedding-days,
and went to heaven singing and chanting the triumphal paean, as they
mounted in their chariots of fire.
4. Thus we shall hope to win the crownif we are enabled by Divine grace
faithfully to follow Christ in all respects.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Going forth to Christ
John Thomson.
1. Let us go forth unto Christ without the camp, that we may testify to Him as
the Messiah, the only Saviour. This is manifestly the first leading idea which
our text is designedto convey. On this fundamental doctrine of our holy faith
hinges the essential difference betweenChristianity and Judaism. It
constitutes also one vital point of difference betweenthe gospeland the
various systems of heathenism and infidelity. All the sections ofthe
unbelieving world agree in this, that they do not acknowledge Christas the
promised Messiah. "Unto you who believe He is precious." Attachment to the
person of Christ can only spring from a Divine principle. "No man can truly

call Him Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." I beg of you, therefore, distinctly to
understand, that I do not expect you will be prepared to lift up a consistent
testimony to His Messiahship, unless you are the subjects of a saving change.
"The carnal mind is enmity againstGod, and is not subject to His law, neither
indeed canbe."
2. Let us go forth unto Jesus without the camp, that we may speciallybear
testimony to Him as King of Zion. This is what may be emphatically called
our presentduty. We might justly regard it as treasonagainstthe Lord of
Glory, were we to overlook this view of our subject. We dare not hold our
peace regarding the sovereignauthority of the Redeemer, althoughsome
prejudiced souls should be offended.
3. We must go forth unto our Lord without the camp if we would enjoy
fellowship and communion with Him. This idea is naturally suggestedby the
preceding context, "We have an altar whereofthey have no right to eat which
serve the tabernacle." The importance of this considerationshould ever be
borne in mind. It argues a very diseasedstate ofthings on the part of any
professing Christian, when the question with him is — How far he may go in
the path of error and corruption, and still enjoy communion with the "author
and finisher of our faith." And it certainly is a sign of daring impiety when
individuals, be they ministers or hearers, are exercising their ingenuity in
devising reasons forpalliating soul-destroying errors, and when they have the
effrontery to tax us with want of charity when we endeavour to vindicate the
doctrine of spiritual fellowship, and call upon the Christian people to abandon
the communion of a Church that has practically renounced the King of saints.
4. In obeying this command we must lay our accountwith contempt,
reproach, and persecution. It is the dictate of experience, as well as of
Scripture, that "all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shallsuffer
persecution." The mere circumstance of coming out from the world lying in
wickedness, andof faithfully serving the Captain of our salvation, has never
failed to bring upon them the scornand hatred of the ungodly. The votaries of
superstition cannot bear to see the truth as it is in Jesus openly proclaimed
and honoured. Men of despotic principles will not tolerate, if they canhelp it,
a spiritual authority which stands in the way of their usurpations. And false

professors ofthe gospel, whose interests are linked with corruption and
tyranny, will be among the foremostto vilify such as for conscience'sake
withdraw from their communion. Where do we find, among men, a brighter
example of piety, and holiness, and philanthropy, than that of the apostle of
the Gentiles? and who everexperienced greaterreproachor more bitter
persecutionthan he? When we look higher we see that our Lord Himself "was
despisedand rejectedof men, a Man of sorrows, andacquainted with grief."
Why should we dream of exemption from trials? The offence of the Cross has
not ceased. But we must not be deterred from following Christ by the dread of
obloquy, or the loss of all things.
(John Thomson.)
The renouncing spirit of Christianity
John Owen, D. D.
I. ALL PRIVILEGES AND ADVANTAGES WHATEVER ARE TO BE
FOREGONE, PARTEDWITHAL, AND RENOUNCEDWHICH ARE
INCONSISTENTWITHAN INTEREST IN CHRIST, and a participation of
Him; as our apostle shows atlarge (Philippians 3:4-10).
II. That if it were the duty of the Hebrews to forsake these ways ofworship,
which were originally of Divine institution, that they might wholly give up
themselves unto Christ in all things pertaining unto God, MUCH MORE IS
IT OURS TO FOREGO ALL SUCH PRETENCESUNTO RELIGIOUS
WORSHIP AS ARE OF HUMAN INVENTION.
III. Whereas the camp contained not only ecclesiasticalbut also political
privileges, WE OUGHT TO BE READY TO FOREGO ALL CIVIL
ACCOMMODATIONS ALSO IN HOUSES, LANDS, POSSESSIONS,
CONVERSE WITHMEN OF THE SAME NATION, WHEN WE ARE
CALLED THERE UNTO ON THE ACCOUNT OF CHRIST AND THE
GOSPEL.

IV. If we will go forth unto Christ as without the camp, or separatedfrom all
the concernof this world, WE SHALL ASSUREDLY MEET WITH ALL
SORTS OF REPROACHES.
V. THAT BELIEVERS ARE NOT LIKE TO MEET WITH ANY SUCH
ENCOURAGING ENTERTAINMENTIN THIS WORLD AS TO MAKE
THEM UNREADY OR UNWILLING TO DESERT IT, and to go forth after
Christ bearing His reproach. For it is a motive in the apostle's reasoning to a
readiness for that duty, "we have here no continuing city."
VI. THIS WORLD NEVER DID, NOR EVER WILL, GIVE A STATE OF
REST AND SATISFACTION TO BELIEVERS. Itwill not afford them a city.
It is Jerusalemabove that is the "vision of peace."Arise and depart, this is not
your rest.
VII. IN THE DESTITUTION OF A PRESENTSATISFACTORYREST,
GOD HATH NOT LEFT BELIEVERS WITHOUT A PROSPECT OF THAT
WHICH SHALL AFFORD THEM REST AND SATISFACTION TO
ETERNITY. We have not, but we seek.
VIII. As God hath prepared a city of rest for us, so IT IS OUR DUTY
CONTINUALLY TO ENDEAVOUR THE ATTAINMENT OF IT IN THE
WAYS OF HIS APPOINTMENT.
IX. THE MAIN BUSINESS OF BELIEVERS IN THIS WORLD IS
DILIGENTLY TO SEEKAFTER THE CITY OF GOD, or the attainment of
eternal restwith Him; and this is the characterwherebythey may be known.
(John Owen, D. D.)
Coming forth to Christ
G. Lawson.
I. WE MUST COME FORTHOF THE CAMP OR CITY TO HIM.

1. The camp or city is Judaism, and all erroneous sects,and also the world,
and men of the world: we must separate from all things inconsistentwith the
truth and Christ.
2. Out of this camp or city we must come forth, and that we do when we
renounce all errors in religion and all earthly affections. We have something
in our hearts which keeps us from our God till we be truly converted.
3. To come forth to Christ, therefore, is to be rightly informed, and to believe
the saving truth of Christ; and upon this right information, to love Him above
all, as far more necessary, excellent, and beneficialthan anything, than all
things else. To come forth to Him is not to change the place but our hearts; it
is a motion not of the body, but the soul, and if we once knew the beauty of
Christ, and had tastedof His sweetness,we should be ravished with Him, and
all the world could not keepus from Him. In Him alone true happiness is to be
found.
II. The secondpart of the duty is TO BEAR HIS REPROACH. Here is
reproach, His reproach, the bearing of His reproach. In this the author
alludes unto the bearing of the cross, whichwas the greatestshame any man
could be put unto. To endure disgrace, and suffer in our reputation, credit,
hot, our, and goodname, is a very grievous evil, and few can endure it, and
some can better suffer death than ignominy. The Cross was notonly a matter
of reproach, but of grievous pain, and was the epitome of all possible evils;
and, therefore, by reproachis signified all kinds of afflictions which we may
suffer from men, or may be obnoxious unto in this life. Yet this reproachand
this cross here meant must be His reproach, His Cross. If we suffer
punishment for our own crimes, and through our own folly, then it is not
Christ's cross. This is a reproachand cross laid upon us for His sake, because
we profess His truth, obey His laws, oppose sin and His enemies, refuse to
comply with the world in any sin, renounce all errors, idolatry, superstition,
and wickedcustoms of the world, and all this out of love to Christ. To bear
this cross is not merely to suffer any ways, but to suffer the worstman can do
unto us with patience, with constancy, with joy, and to think ourselves happy
and much honoured that we are counted worthy to suffer for so great a
Saviour, and in so noble a cause. This requires a Divine faith wellgrounded

upon the word and promises of God, and a specialassistance ofthe Divine
Spirit; for these will strengthen our hearts, and make us willing to suffer
anything before we offend our God and lose our Saviour.
(G. Lawson.)
Bearing His reproach.
Christ's reproach
W. Gouge.
It is called Christ's reproachin sundry respects:as —
1. The union that is betwixt Him and His Church. So as the reproachof the
body or of any member thereof is the reproachof Christ Himself.
2. The sympathy which is betwixt Christ and every of His members. He is
sensible of that reproachwhich is castupon any of them (Acts 9:4).
3. The accountwhich Christ hath of the reproaches ofHis saints;He doth
accountthem as reproaches castupon Himself.
4. His undertaking to revenge such reproaches andwrongs as are done to His
members (Romans 12:19).
5. The cause of the reproachwhich is here meant, and that is Christ Himself, a
professionof His name, a maintaining of His gospel, and holding close to His
righteousness. In this sense an apostle callethsufferings in such casesChrist's
sufferings (1 Peter4:14; Acts 5:41).
6. That resemblance that is betwixt the reproaches ofsaints and Christ.This
reference of reproachto Christ in this phrase, "His reproach" is for
limitation, direction, consolation, andincitation.
1. It affordeth a limitation, in that it restraineth it to a different kind of
reproach, which is Christ's reproach. It is not every kind of reproachthat can
be counted a matter of glory, wherein a man may rejoice;but Christ's
reproach. I may in this case sayofreproach, as the apostle doth of buffeting:

"What glory is it, if when ye be reproachedfor your faults, ye shall take it
patiently?" (1 Peter2:20).
2. It affordeth a direction in showing how we ought to bear reproach, even as
Christ did; for we are in this case to look unto Jesus, who despisedthe shame
(Hebrews 12:2).
3. It ministereth much comfort, in that no other thing is done to us than what
is done to our Head before us. Herewith doth Christ comfort His disciples
(Matthew 10:25; John 15:20).
4. What greatermotive can we have to incite us willingly and contentedly to
bear reproachthan this, that it is Christ's reproach? If honour, if profit may
be motives to incite us to a duty, these motives are not wanting in this case.
What can be more honourable than to be as Christ was? and if we be
reproachedwith Him here, we shall enjoy with Him hereaftera crown of
glory; what more honourable? what more profitable?
(W. Gouge.)
Reproachincurred by Christians
R. Hall, M. A.
The following are the chief grounds on which the first Christians were called
to bear reproach, and on which we also may be called to bear the same.
1. They suffered reproach, as being followers of a crucified Saviour.
2. A secondground of the reproachsuffered by the first Christians was that
they forsook the ways of an evil world.
3. Christians are reproachedby many on accountof their generalseriousness
and spirituality of character.
4. Lastly: those who adopt any peculiar mode of religious observance have
been at times exposedto ridicule on that account.
(R. Hall, M. A.)

Bearing Christ's reproach
Sheriff — was the child of a Christian mother. He had lived to be over sixty
years of age without openly confessing Christ. Some time ago he "became
interestedin his spiritual welfare, and after attending some meetings in the
city where he lived, he arose and openly acknowledgedhis intention to be a
Christian. The positiveness ofhis expression, and his prominence in the
community, causeda reporter to insert an item in the next morning's paper
that the sheriff had been converted. When he went into the court-house in the
performance of his duties, he was saluted by one of a throng of godless men
with the remark, "Well, sheriff, we hear you are going to leave us." "Leave
you?" said he. "What do you mean?" "Why, we heard," said the man, "that
you were going to leave the world, the flesh, and the devil." The sheriff
hesitatedonly an instant, and said, with greatemphasis, "That's just what I'm
going to do." One of the men then said, "How do you like its being printed in
the paper that you have been converted?" He said, "Was that in the paper? I
think that is grand. I wish that they'd print placards about it and put them up
all over the city, so that people might know about it at once, that I mean
henceforth to be a Christian man." It is needless to say that from that time he
was a devoted and faithful followerof Christ.
Prizing the Cross
E. P. Thwing.
Tacitus reports that though the amber ring among the Romans was of no
value, yet, after the emperor beganto wearit, it began to be in greatesteem:it
was the only fashion amongstthem. So our Saviour has borne the Cross, and
was borne upon it. Once a disgrace, even, it comes to be a boastto the true
believer. We should esteemit more highly than many of us do, and bear it
daily in remembrance of Him.
(E. P. Thwing.)

COMMENTARIES
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(13) The suffering “without the gate” was a symbol of His rejectionby the
Jews. All who would be His must share the reproach which came upon Him,
who was castout by His people and crucified (Hebrews 11:26): they also must
go forth “without the camp,” forsaking the company of His foes. Eachone
must for himself make choice eitherof the synagogue orof the church of
Christ; betweenthe two there can be no fellowship.
MacLaren's Expositions
Hebrews
WITHOUT THE CAMP
Hebrews 13:13-14CALVARY was outside Jerusalem. That wholly accidental
and trivial circumstance is laid hold of in the context, in order to give
picturesque force to the main contention and purpose of this Epistle. One of
the solemnparts of the ritual of Judaism was the greatDay of Atonement, on
which the sacrifice that took awaythe sins of the nation was berne outside the
camp, and consumedby fire, instead of being partaken of by the priests, as
were most of the other sacrifices.Our writer here sees in these two roughly
parallel things, not an argument but an imaginative illustration of great
truths. Though he does not mean to say that the death on Calvary was
intended to be pointed to by the unique arrangementin question, he does
mean to say that the coincidence of the two things helps us to grasptwo great
truths-one, that Jesus Christ really did what that old sacrifice expressedthe
need for having done, and the other that, in His death on Calvary, the Jewish

nation, as one of the parables has it, ‘castHim out of the vineyard.’ In the
context, he urges this analogybetweenthe two things. But a Christ outside the
camp beckons His disciples to His side. If any man serve Him, he has to follow
Him, and the blessedness, as wellas the duty, of the servant on earth, as well
as in heaven, is to be where his Masteris.
So the writer finds here a picturesque way to enforce the greatlessonof his
treatise, namely, that the Jewishadherent to Christianity must break with
Judaism. In the early stages,it was possible to combine faith in Christ and
adherence to the Temple and its ritual. But now that by process oftime and
experience the Church has learnt better who and what Christ is, that which
was in part has to be done away, and the Christian Church is to stand clearof
the Jewishsynagogue.
Now it is to be distinctly understood that the words of my text, in the writer’s
intention, are not a generalprinciple or exhortation, but that they are a
specialcommandment to a certainclass under specialcircumstances,and
when we use them, as I am going to do now, for a wider purpose, we must
remember that that wider purpose was by no means in the writer’s mind.
What he was thinking about was simply the relation betweenthe Jewish
Christian and the Jewishcommunity. But if we take them as we may
legitimately do - only remembering that we are diverting them from their
original intention - as carrying more generallessonsfor us, what they seemto
teachis that faithful discipleship involves detachment from the world. This
commandment, ‘Let us go forth unto Him without the camp,’ stands, if you
will notice, betweentwo reasons for it, which buttress it up, as it were, on
either side. Before it is enunciated, the writer has been pointing, as I have
tried to show, to the thought that a Christ without the camp necessarily
involves disciples without the camp. And he follow, it with another reason,
‘here we have no continuing city, but we seek that which is to come.’Here,
then, is a generalprinciple, supported on either side by a greatreason.

Let me first try to setbefore you,
I. What this detachment is not.
The JewishChristian was obligedutterly and outwardly to break his
connectionwith Judaism, on the peril, if he did not, of being involved in its
ruin, and, as was historically the case withcertain Judaising sects, oflosing his
Christianity altogether. It was a cruel necessity, and no wonder that it needed
this long letter to screw the disciples of Hebrew extraction up to the point of
making the leap from the sinking ship to the deck of the one that floated. The
parallel does not hold with regard to us. The detachment from the world, or
the coming out from the camp, to which my text exhorts, is not the
abandonment of our relations with what the Bible calls ‘the world,’ and what
we call - roughly meaning the same thing - society. The function of the
Christian Church as leaven, involves the necessityof being closelyassociated,
and in contactwith, all forms of human life, national, civic, domestic, social,
commercial, intellectual, political. Does my text counselan opposite course?
‘Go forth without the camp,’ - does that mean huddle yourself togetherinto a
separate flock, and let the camp go to the devil? By no means. For the society
or world, out of which the Christian is drawn by the attraction of the Cross,
like iron filings out of a heap by a magnet, is in itself goodand God-appointed.
It is He ‘that sets the solitary in families.’ It is He that gathers humanity into
the bonds of civic and national life. It is He that gives capacities whichfind
their sphere, their education, and their increase in the walks of intellectual or
commercialor political life. And He does not build up with one hand and
destroy with the other, or set men by His providence in circumstances outof
which He draws them by His grace. By no means. To go apart from humanity
is to miss the very purpose for which God has set the Church in the world. For
contactwith the sick to be healedis requisite for healing, and they are poor
disciples of the ‘Friend of publicans and sinners’ who prefer to consortwith
Pharisees.‘Let both grow togethertill the harvest’ - the roots are intertwined,
and it is God that has intertwined them. Now, I know that one does not need

to insist upon this principle to the average Christianity of this day, which is
only too ready to mingle itself with the world, but one does need to insist that.
in so mingling, detachment from the world is still to be observed;and it does
need to be taught that Christian men are not lowering the standard of the
Christian life, when they fling themselves frankly and energeticallyinto the
various forms of human, activity, if and only if, whilst they do so, they still
remember and obey the commandment, ‘Let us go forth unto Him without the
camp.’ The commandment misinterpreted so as to he absolutely impossible to
be obeyed, becomes a snare to people who do not keepit, and yet sometimes
feel as if they were to blame, because they do not. And, therefore, I turn in the
next place to consider -
II. What this detachment really is.
Will you let me put what I have to say into the shape of two or three plain,
practicalexhortations, not because I wish to assume a position of authority or
command, but only in’ order to give vividness and point to my thoughts?
First, then, let us habitually nourish the inner life of union with Jesus Christ.
Notice the words of my text, and see what comes first and what comes second.
‘Let us go forth unto Him’ - that is the main thing: ‘Without the camp’ is
second, and a consequence;‘unto Him,’ is primary, which is just to say that
the highest, widest, noblest, all-comprehensive conceptionofwhat a Christian
life is, is that it is union with Jesus Christ, and whateverelse it is follows from
that. The soul is ever to be looking up through all the shadows and shows, the
changes and circumstances,ofthis fleeting present unto Him, and seeking to
be more closelyunited with Him. Union with Him is life, and separationfrom
Him is death. To be so united is to be a Christian. Never mind about camps or
anything else, to begin with. If the heart is joined to Jesus, then all the rest will
come right. If it is not, then you may make regulations as many as you like,
and they will only be red tape to entangle your feetin. ‘Let us go forth unto

Him’; that is the sovereigncommandment. And how is that to be done? How
is it to be done but by nourishing habitual consciousnessofunion with Him
and life in Him, by an habitual reference of all our acts to Him? As the Roman
Catholics put it, in their hard external way, ‘the practice of the presence of
God’ is the keynote to all real, vigorous Christianity. For, brethren, such an
habitual fellowship with Jesus Christis possible for us. Though with many
interruptions, no doubt, still ideally is it possible that it shall be continuous
and real. It is possible, perfectlypossible, that it shall be a greatdeal more
continuous than, alas!it is with many of us.
Depend upon it, this nourishing of an inward life of fellowshipwith Jesus, so
that we may say, ‘our lives are hid’ - hid, after all vigorous manifestation and
consistentaction- ‘ with Christ in God,’ will not weaken, but increase, the
force with which we acton the things seenand temporal. There is an
unwholesome kind of mysticism which withdraws men from the plain duties
of everyday life; and there is a deep, sane, wholesome,and eminently
Christian mysticism which enables men to come down with greaterforce, and
to act with more decision, with more energy, with more effect, in all the
common deeds of life. The greatestmystics have been the hardest workers.
Who was it that said, ‘I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me’? That man had
gone far, very far, towards an habitual consciousness of Christ’s presence,
and it was the same man that said, ‘That which cometh upon me daily is the
care of all the churches.’The greatestmystic of the Middle Ages, the saint
that rode by the lake all day long, and was so absorbed in contemplation that
he said at night, ‘Where is the lake?’was the man that held all the threads of
European politics in his hands, and from his cell at Clairvaux guided popes,
and flung the nations of the Westinto a crusade. John Wesleywas one of the
hardest workers that the Church has ever had, and was one of those who lived
most habitually without the camp. Be sure of this, that the more our lives are
wrapped in Christ, the more energetic will they be in the world. They tell us
that the branches of a spreading tree describe roughly the same circumference
in the atmosphere that its roots do underground, and so far as our roots
extend in Christ, so far will our branches spread in the world. ‘Let us go forth
unto Him, without the camp.’

Again, let me say, do the same things as other people, but with a difference.
The more our so-calledcivilisationadvances, the more, I was going to say,
mechanical, or at leastlargely releasedfrom the control of the will and
personalidiosyncrasy, become greatparts of our work. The Christian weaver
drives her looms very much in the same fashionthat the non-Christian girl
who is looking after the next sot does. The Christian clerk adds up his figures,
and writes his letters, very much in the same fashion that the worldly clerk
does. The believing doctorvisits his patients, and writes out his prescriptions
in the fashion that his neighbour who is not a Christian does. But there is
always room for the personalequation - always!and two lives may be,
superficially and roughly, the same, and yet there may be a difference in them
impalpable, undefinable, and very obvious and very realand very mighty.
The Christian motive is love to Jesus Christ and fellowshipwith Him, and that
motive may be brought to bear upon all life -
‘A servant with this clause
Makes drudgery divine.’
He that for Christ’s sake does a common thing it outer the fatal regionof the
commonplace, and makes it greatand beautiful We do not want from all
Christian people specificallyChristian service, in the narrow sense which that
phrase has acquired, half so much as we want common things done from an
uncommon motive; worldly things done because ofthe love of Jesus Christ in
our hearts. And, depend upon it, just as, from some unseen bank of violets,
there come odours in opening spring, so from the unspoken and deeply hidden
motive of love to Jesus Christ, there will be a fragrance in our commonest
actions which all men will recognise.Theytell us that rivers which flow from
lakes are so clearthat they are tinged throughout with celestialblue, because
all the mud that they brought down from their upper reaches has been

depositedin the still waters of the lake from which they flow; and if from the
deep tam of love to Jesus Christ in our hearts the streamof our lives flows out,
it will be like the Rhone below Geneva, distinguishable from the muddy
waters that run by its side in the same channel. Two people, partners in
business, joined in the same work, marching step for step in the same ranks,
may yet be entirely distinguishable and truly separate, because,doing the
same things, they do them from different motives.
Let me say, still further, and finally about this matter, that sometimes we shall
have to come actually out of the camp. The world as God made it is good;
societyis ordained by God. The occupations whichmen pursue are of His
appointment, for the most part. But into the thing that was goodthere have
crept all manner of corruptions and abominations, so that often it will be a
Christian duty to come awayfrom all outward connectionwith that which is
incurably corrupt. I know very well that a morality which mainly consists of
prohibitions is pedantic and poor. I know very well that a Christianity which
interprets such a precept as this of my text simply as meaning abstinence from
certain conventionally selectedand branded forms of life, occupation, or
amusement, is but a very poor affair. But ‘Thou shalt not’ is very often
absolutely necessaryas a support to ‘Thou shalt.’ If you go into an Eastern
city, you will find the houses with their fronts to the street, having narrow slits
of windows all barred, and a heavy gate, frowning and ugly. But pass within,
and there are flower-beds and fountains. The frowning street front is there for
the defence of the fountains and the flower-beds within, from the assaults of
foes, and speaks ofa disturbed state of society, in which no flowers can grow
and no fountains canbubble and sparkle, unless a strong barrier is round
them. And so ‘thou shalt not, in a world like this, is needful in order that ‘
thou shalt’ shall have fair play. No law canbe laid down for other people.
Every man must settle this matter of abstinence for himself. Things that you
may do, perhaps I may not do; things that you may not do, I very likely may.
‘A liberal Christianity,’ as the world calls it, is often a very shallow
Christianity. ‘A sour Puritanical severity,’ as loose-living men call it, is very
often plain, Christian morality. An inconsistentChristian may he hailed as ‘a
goodfellow,’and laughed at behind his back. Samsonmade sport for the

Philistines when he was blind. The uncircumcised do often say of professing
Christians, that try to be like them, and to keepstep with them, ‘What do
these Hebrews here?’ and God always says to such, ‘What dost thou here,
Elijah?’
Lastly -
III. Why this detachment is enforced.
‘For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come.’That
translation does not give the full force of the original, for it suggests the idea
of a vague uncertainty in the seeking, whereaswhatthe writer means is, not
‘one to come,’but one which is coming. The Christian objectof seeking is
definite, and it is not merely future but present, and in process ofbeing
realisedeven here and now, and tending to completion. Paul uses the same
metaphor of the city in one of his leisure, ‘Your citizenship is in heaven.’ He
says that to the Philippians. Philippi was a colony; that is to say, it was a bit of
Rome put down in a foreignland, with Roman laws, its citizens enrolled upon
the registers ofthe Roman tribes, and not under the jurisdiction of the
provincial governor. That is what we Christians are, whether we know it or
not.’ We are here in an order to which we outwardly belong, but in the depths
of our being we belong to another order of things altogether. Therefore the
essentials ofthe Christian life may be stated as being the looking forward to
the city, and the realising of our affinities to it and not to the things around us.
In the measure in which, dear brethren, we realise to what community we
belong, will the things here be seento be fleeting and alive to our deepest
selves. ‘Here we have no continuing city’ is not merely the result of the tran-
siencyof temporal things, and the brevity of our earthly lives, but it is much
rather the result of our affinity to the other order of things beyond the seas.

Abraham dwelt in tents, because he ‘lookedfor a airy,’ and so it was better
for him to stopon the breezy uplands, though the herbage was scant, than to
go with Lot into the vale of Sodom, though it lookedHire the gardenof the
Lord. In like manner, the more intensely we realise that we belong to the city,
the more shall we be willing to ‘go forth without the camp.’ Let these two
thoughts dominate our minds and shape our lives; our union with Jesus
Christ and our citizenship of the heavenly Jerusalem. In the measure in which
they do, it will be no sacrifice forus to come out of the transient camp,
because we shallthereby go to Him and come to the city of the living God, the
heavenly Jerusalem, ‘which hath the foundations.’
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
13:7-15 The instructions and examples of ministers, who honourably and
comfortably closedtheir testimony, should be particularly remembered by
survivors. And though their ministers were some dead, others dying, yet the
greatHead and High Priest of the church, the Bishop of their souls, ever lives,
and is ever the same. Christ is the same in the Old Testamentday. as in the
gospelday, and will be so to his people for ever, equally merciful, powerful,
and all-sufficient. Still he fills the hungry, encouragesthe trembling, and
welcomes repenting sinners: still he rejects the proud and self-righteous,
abhors mere profession, and teaches allwhom he saves, to love righteousness,
and to hate iniquity. Believers shouldseek to have their hearts establishedin
simple dependence on free grace, by the Holy Spirit, which would comfort
their hearts, and render them proof againstdelusion. Christ is both our Altar
and our Sacrifice;he sanctifies the gift. The Lord's supper is the feastof the
gospelpassover. Having showedthat keeping to the Levitical law would,
according to its own rules, keepmen from the Christian altar, the apostle
adds, Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp; go forth from the
ceremoniallaw, from sin, from the world, and from ourselves. Living by faith
in Christ, set apart to God through his blood, let us willingly separate from
this evil world. Sin, sinners, nor death, will not suffer us to continue long here;
therefore let us go forth now by faith and seek in Christ the restand peace
which this world cannot afford us. Let us bring our sacrifices to this altar, and
to this our High Priest, and offer them up by him. The sacrifice ofpraise to

God, we should offer always. In this are worship and prayer, as well as
thanksgiving.
Barnes'Notes on the Bible
Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp - As if we were going
forth with him when he was led awayto be crucified. He was put to death as a
malefactor. He was the object of contempt and scorn. He was held up to
derision, and was taunted and reviled on his way to the place of death, and
even on the cross. To be identified with him there; to follow him; to
sympathize with him; to be regarded as his friend, would have subjected one
to similar shame and reproach. The meaning here is, that we should be willing
to regard ourselves as identified with the Lord Jesus, and to bear the same
shame and reproaches which he did. When he was led awayamidst scoffing
and reviling to be put to death, would we, if we had been there, been willing to
be regarded as his followers, and to have gone out with him as his avowed
disciples and friends? Alas, how many are there who profess to love him when
religion subjects them to no reproach, who would have shrunk from following
him to Calvary!
Bearing his reproach - Sympathizing with him; or bearing such reproach as
he did; see 1 Peter4:13; compare Hebrews 12:2 note; Philippians 3:10 note;
Colossians 1:24 note.
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary
13. therefore—This "therefore" breathes the deliberate fortitude of believers
[Bengel].
without the camp—"outside the legalpolity" [Theodoret]of Judaism
(compare Heb 13:11) "Faithconsiders Jerusalemitselfas a camp, not a city"
[Bengel]. He contrasts with the Jews, who serve an earthly sanctuary, the
Christians to whom the altar in heaven stands open, while it is closedagainst
the Jews. As Jesus sufferedwithout the gate, so spiritually must those who
desire to belong to Him, withdraw from the earthly Jerusalemand its
sanctuary, as from this world in general. There is a reference to Ex 33:7, when
the tabernacle was moved without the camp, which had become polluted by

the people's idolatry of the golden calves;so that "everyone who soughtthe
Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation (as Moses calledthe
tabernacle outside the camp), which was without the camp"; a lively type of
what the Hebrews should do, namely, come out of the carnalworship of the
earthly Jerusalemto worship Godin Christ in spirit, and of what we all ought
to do, namely, come out from all carnalism, worldly formalism, and mere
sensuous worship, and know Jesus in His spiritual power apart from
worldliness, seeing that "we have no continuing city" (Heb 13:14).
bearing—as Simon of Cyrene did.
his reproach—the reproachwhich He bare, and which all His people bear
with Him.
Matthew Poole's Commentary
Therefore shows this to be a necessaryduty, inferred from the former
privilege; That since we have such an altar and sacrifice as Jesus, sanctifying
us by his own blood, which he entered with to God, when he suffered without
the gate;we ought and must
go forth (from tabernacle service, consisting ofmeats and ceremonies,from
Judaism, in all its parts abolished, and all erroneous doctrines, how numerous
and strange soever, and all worldly things) unto Jesus, who was cursed for us,
that we might be blessed, Galatians 3:13, in faith and love; not ashamedof,
but glorying in his sufferings, and following and imitating of him, patiently
and boldly bearing mockings, revilings, scourgings, crucifyings, and all other
persecretions,which are parts of his cross, forhis sake, Hebrews 11:9 Romans
6:5,6 1 Corinthians 1:30 Galatians 2:20 Philippians 3:8-10; making him in all
our example, 1 Peter 2:21 4:12-19.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp,.... Either of legal
ceremonies, whichare to be quitted; or of this world, which may be compared
to a "camp";for its instability, a camp not being always in one place; and for

its hostility, the world being full of enemies to Christ and his people; and for
the noise and fatigue of it, it being a troublesome and wearisome place to the
saints, abounding with sins and wickedness;as also camps usually do; and for
multitude, the men of the world being very numerous: and a man may be said
to "go forth" from hence, when he professes notto belong to the world; when
his affections are weanedfrom it; when the allurements of it do not draw him
aside;when he forsakes, andsuffers the loss of all, for Christ; when he
withdraws from the conversationof the men of it, and breathes after another
world; and to go forth from hence, "unto him", unto Christ, shows, that
Christ is not to be found in the camp, in the world: he is above, in heaven, at
the right hand of God; and that going out of the camp externally, or leaving
the world only in a way of profession, is or no avail, without going to Christ:
yet there must be a quitting of the world, in some sense, orthere is no true
coming to Christ, and enjoyment of him; and Christ is a full recompence for
what of the world may be lost by coming to him; wherefore there is great
encouragementto quit the world, and follow Christ: now to go forth to him is
to believe in him; to hope in him; to love him; to make a professionof him,
and follow him:
bearing his reproach; or reproachfor his sake:the reproach, which saints
meet with, for the sake ofChrist, and a professionof him, is called "his",
because ofthe union there is betweenthem, and the sympathy and fellow
feeling he has with them in it; he reckons whatis said and done to them as
said and done to himself; and besides, there is a likeness betweenthe reproach
which Christ personally bore, and that which is castupon his followers;and
this is to be bore by them willingly, cheerfully, courageously, and patiently.
Geneva Study Bible
{8} Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his
reproach.
(8) He goes onfurther in this comparison, and shows that this also signified to
us, that the godly followers ofChrist must go out of the world bearing his
cross.
EXEGETICAL(ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary
Hebrews 13:13. Deduction from Hebrews 13:10-12, in the form of a summons:
Let us then no longer seek salvationforourselves within the bounds of
Judaism, but come forth from the camp of the Old Covenant and betake
ourselves to Christ, untroubled about the reproachwhich may fall upon us on
that account. Theodoret:ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς ἀντὶ τοῦ ἔξω τῆς κατὰ νόμον
γενώμεθα πολιτείας. False, because opposedto all the connection, is it when
Chrysostom1, Theophylact, Primasius, Erasmus, Paraphr., Clarius, and
others find in Hebrews 13:13 the exhortation to renounce the world and its
delights; or Chrysostom 2, Limborch, Heinrichs, Dindorf, Kuinoel,
Bloomfield: willingly to follow the Lord into sufferings and death; or
Schlichting, Grotius, Michaelis, Zachariae, Storr:willingly to submit to
expulsion by the Jews from their towns and fellowship; or Clericus:to forsake
the city of Jerusalemon accountof its impending destruction (Matthew 24.).
τοίνυν] as the commencementof a sentence only rare. Comp. LXX. Isaiah
3:10; Isaiah 5:13; Isaiah27:4; Isaiah 33:23;Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 342 sq.
τὸν ὀνειδισμὸναὐτοῦ]See atHebrews 11:26.
Cambridge Bible for Schools andColleges
13. Let us go forth therefore unto him] Let us go forth out of the city and
camp of Judaism (Revelation11:8) to the true and eternal Tabernacle
(Exodus 33:7-8) where He now is (Hebrews 12:2). Some have imagined that
the writer conveys a hint to the Christians in Jerusalemthat it is time for
them to leave the guilty city and retire to Pella; but, as we have seen, it is by
no means probable that the letter was addressedto Jerusalem.
bearing his reproach] “If ye be reproached,” says StPeter, “for the name of
Christ, happy are ye” (comp. Hebrews 11:26). As He was excommunicated
and insulted and made to bear His Cross ofshame, so will you be, and you

must follow Him out of the doomed city (Matthew 24:2). It must be
remembered that the Cross, anobjectof execrationand disgust even to
Gentiles, was viewedby the Jews with religious horror, since they regarded
every crucified person as “accursedofGod” (Deuteronomy 21:22-23;
Galatians 3:13; see my Life of St Paul, ii. 17, 148). Christians sharedthis
reproachto the fullest extent. The most polished heathenwriters, men like
Tacitus, Pliny, Suetonius, spoke oftheir faith as an “execrable,”“deadly,” and
“malefic” superstition; Lucian alluded to Christ as “the impaled sophist;” and
to many Greeks andRomans no language of scornseemedtoo intense, no
calumny too infamous, to describe them and their mode of worship. The Jews
spoke of them as “Nazarenes,”“Epicureans,” “heretics,” “followersofthe
thing,” and especially“apostates,” “traitors,” and“renegades.”The notion
that there is any allusion to the ceremonialuncleanness ofthose who burnt the
bodies of the offerings of the Day of Atonement “outside the camp” is far-
fetched.
Bengel's Gnomen
Hebrews 13:13. Τοίνυν) The particle, put at the beginning (Isaiah 5:13; Isaiah
27:4; Isaiah 33:23)in this passage, breathes the deliberate fortitude of
believers. So τοιγαροῦν, atthe beginning of chap. 12—ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς,
without the camp) Hebrews 13:11. The camp denotes Judaism.—τὸν
ὀνειδισμὸναὐτοῦ, His reproach)i.e. the cross, ch. Hebrews 12:2.—φέροντες,
bearing) as Simon of Cyrene; Matt. in the passagequotedabove.
Pulpit Commentary
Verse 13. - Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his
reproach. By a happy turn of thought Christ's having suffered without the
gate is viewed as representing his exclusionfrom the JewishChurch and
polity, outside which we are now to follow him, though we with him be
reproachedby the Jews as outcasts.There may be a tacitreference, suchas
Bengelsees in the word φέροντες, to our bearing our cross afterhim.
Vincent's Word Studies
Bearing his reproach (τὸν ὀνειδισμὸναὐτοῦ φέροντες)

The reproachof exclusion from the Jewishcommonwealth.
PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES
BRUCE HURT MD
Hebrews 13:13 So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His
reproach(NASB: Lockman)
Greek:toinun exerchometha (1PPMS)pros auton exo tes paremboles, ton
oneidismon autou pherontes; (PAPMPN)
Amplified: Let us then go forth [from all that would prevent us] to Him
outside the camp [at Calvary], bearing the contempt and abuse and shame
with Him. [Lev. 16:27.](Amplified Bible - Lockman)
Barclay:So then let us go to him outside the camp, bearing the same reproach
as he did, (WestminsterPress)
ESV: Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproachhe
endured.
KJV: Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his
reproach.
NLT: So let us go out to him outside the camp and bear the disgrace he bore.
(NLT - Tyndale House)
NIV: Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore.
(NIV - IBS)
Phillips: Let us go out to him, then, beyond the boundaries of the camp,
proudly bearing his "disgrace".(Phillips:Touchstone)

Wuest: Therefore, letus be going out to Him outside of the camp, bearing His
reproach.
Young's Literal: now, then, may we go forth unto him without the camp, his
reproachbearing;
HENCE LET US GO OUT TO HIM OUTSIDE THE CAMP: toinun
exerchometha (1PPMS)pros auton exo tes paremboles:
Heb 11:26 12:3 Mt 5:11 10:24,25 16:24 27:32,39-44Lu 6:22 Ac 5:41 1Co 4:10-
13 2Co 12:10 1Pe 4:4,14-16
Hebrews 13 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries
Hebrews 13:7-14 The Antidote for False Teaching - StevenCole
Hebrews 13:7-14 Steadfastness, Separation, Sacrifice - John MacArthur
OUTSIDE THE CAMP
Note the diagram above which has the proposedsite of Golgotha outside the
city gates, i.e., "outside the camp." (Click to enlarge picture - from ESV Study
Bible)
Hence - This inferential particle draws a conclusionfrom the preceding (term
of conclusion). The subj. is hortatory "let us go out." The pres. tense expresses
vividly the immediate effort. This could be a call for the readers to refuse to
go back into Judaism
Let us - 12 exhortations in Hebrews - Heb 4:1, 11, 14, 16;6:1; Heb 10:22-25;
12:1, 28;13:13, 15
It is interesting that another verb (proserchomai= draw near) has the same
root (erchomai - to go or come) as exerchomaiin this exhortation. Let us draw
near to Jesus by going out to Jesus, forthe things of this world grow strangely
dim in the light of His glory and grace.
MacArthur explains that "The practicalpoint is that, as Christians, we must
be willing to go out from the system, to bear the reproachand the shame that

both the sin offering and Christ Himself bore, and to be rejectedby men. This
is the attitude Moseshad toward the world. He considered“the reproach of
Christ greaterriches than the treasures of Egypt” (Heb. 11:26-note)."
Spurgeon- It would be a very pleasantthing if we could please men and
please Godtoo, if we could really make the best of both worlds, and have the
sweets ofthis and of the next also. But a warning cry arises from the pages of
Holy Scripture, for the Word of God talks very differently from this. It talks
about a straight and narrow way, and about few that find it. It speaks of
persecution, suffering, reproach, and contending even unto blood, striving
againstsin; it talks about wrestling and fighting, struggling and witnessing. I
hear the Saviorsay, not “I send you forth as sheep into the midst of green
pastures,” but, “like sheepin the midst of wolves” (Matt10:16).
Wuest - The writer now exhorts his first-century readers to leave apostate
Judaism and the temple sacrifices,and placing their faith in the Messiahas
High Priest, bear His reproach, the reproach of exclusionfrom the Jewish
commonwealth. This exhortation was addressed, ofcourse, to those Jews who,
while they had outwardly left the temple, yet had not placedtheir faith in
Messiah, andwere in dangerof going back to the sacrifices. (Hebrews -
Wuest's word studies from the Greek New Testament)
Outside the gate - Jesus was crucifiedoutside the city gate. We know from the
Gospels that he was crucified at Golgotha (Mk 15:22)which must have been
outside the gate for we read that Simon of Cyrene, who was forcedto bear the
cross ofJesus, “a passer-bycoming from the country” (Mk 15:21)while “they
were coming out” (Mt 27:32) As an aside it should be noted that "the
topographicalevidence againstthe identification of its site with that of the
modern Church of the Holy Sepulcheris apparently very strong."
(Westminster Bible Dictionary)
Outside the camp - severalof the following notes discuss this topic (this exact
phrase 28xin 27vin NAS) -
Ex 29:14; 33:7; Lev 4:12, 21-note;Lev 6:11-note.;Lev 8:17-note.;Lev 9:11;
Lev 13:46-note.;Lev 16:27-note (goodnote by Richard Phillips).; Lev 17:3-
note.; Lev 24:14, 23-note.;Nu 5:3-4; 12:14-15;15:35-36;19:3, 9; 31:13, 19;Dt

23:10, 12;Josh6:23; Heb 13:11-note Heb 13:13-note. and "outside the gate"
in Heb 13:12-note.
BEARING HIS REPROACH:ton oneidismon autou pherontes (PAPMPN):
Heb 10:33, 11:26 Mt 5:11,10:22,23, 16:24 27:39-44Lk 6:22 Cp. Acts 5:41
Hebrews 13 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries
Hebrews 13:7-14 The Antidote for False Teaching - StevenCole
Hebrews 13:7-14 Steadfastness, Separation, Sacrifice - John MacArthur
LET US BE IMITATORS AND
BEAR HIS REPROACH
You have to hold to this truth whether you have to suffer for it or not. The
corollarythought is we have to hold fast to the truth so that it holds us fast
and then we can suffer courageouslyknowing the joy which is set before us (cf
Heb 12:2). When you know that what (Who) you are suffering for is greater
and grander than anything this world has to offer, you are much more likely
to be willing to be "bearing His reproach!"
As God's "little children, (let us) abide in Him, so that when He appears, we
may have confidence and not shrink awayfrom Him in shame at His coming."
(1 John 2:28-note)
May our Fathergrant us His Spirit of grace (Heb 10:29-note)His power
which enables us to "realize the full assurance ofhope until the end, so that
we will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience
inherit the promises" in Christ Jesus in Whom every promise of God is yes
and amen (2 Cor 1:20KJV). Amen and amen. (Heb 6:11-12-note)
Indeed may we be imitators of those Spirit filled men in Acts who after being
flogged(Acts 5:40) "wenton their way from the presence of the Council,
rejoicing that they had been consideredworthy to suffer shame for His
name." (Acts 5:41)

Let us bear His reproaches foras Peterwrote "you have been calledfor this
purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to
follow in His steps." (1 Peter2:21-note, cf 1 John 2:6-note, 1 Cor 11:1-note)
Jews consideredone crucified to be cursed (Dt 21:23; Gal 3:13; 1Cor1:23).
Jesus was crucifiedas a traitor and a criminal. Through their sufferings,
which included insult and persecution(10:33), the readers were bearing his
disgrace.
Reproach(3680)(oneidismos fromoneidizo = to defame, find fault in a way
that demeans another [Mt 5:11] <> from oneidos = disgrace, insult, Lk 1:25) is
a noun which means reproach, which is an expressionof rebuke or
disapproval. It means to insult, abuse, disgrace. The idea in some context (Ro
15:3, He 10:33, 11:26, 13:13)is that the insult or reviling represents
unjustifiable verbal abuse inflicted on someone. In other contexts it describes
justifiable disgrace orreproach(1Ti 3:7). Look at some of the uses of
oneidismos in the Septuagint(see verse list below)to see othersaints who
suffered reproach(e.g., Neh 1:3, 4:4, etc; see also whatsuffered reproach in
Jer 6:10!). The narrow "wayof the Cross" has always beenthe way of
reproach, even before the Cross!
“Let Us Go Forth” BY SPURGEON
“Let us go forth therefore unto Him outside the camp, bearing His
reproach.”
Hebrews 13:13
MODERN professors have discovereda very easyway of religion. There is a
method by which a man may attain to greatreputation as a Christian and yet
avoid all the trials of the Believer’s estate. He may go through the world
finding his path as smoothly turfed as the flesh could desire. Blessedwith the
smiles of friendly formalists and with the admiration of the ungodly, he may
pass from his first entrance into the Church to his grave without experiencing
so much as a single showerto dampen his happiness. The sun may smile
sweetlyupon him all the way, the birds may sing–nota raven may dare to

croak, not a single owl may hoot–his road to glory and immortality shall be all
that ease couldwish!
Let him adopt the modern theory of universal love. Let him believe that a lie
is a truth and that whether it is a lie or a truth is of no consequenceatall. Let
him be complacenttowards every man, and with a smoothand oily tongue
chime in with every other man’s principles, having none of his own worth
mentioning. Let him trim his sails whenever the wind changes.Let him in all
things do in Rome as Rome does. Let him yield at all times to the current and
float gently with the stream and he shall come to the haven–thoughI fear not
the desiredone–he shall come to some sortof haven at last, without any storm
or tempest by the way.
But a daring thought comes acrossone’s mind. Is this the kind of religion
which we read of in the Bible? Is this the way in which Scriptural saints went
to Heaven? It would be a very pleasantthing if we could please men and
please God, too–ifwe could make the best of both worlds and have the sweets
of this and of the next also!But a warning cry arises from the pages ofHoly
Scripture, for the Word of God talks very differently from this. It talks about
a straight and narrow way and about few that find it. It speaks ofpersecution,
suffering, reproach, contending even unto blood, and striving against sin! It
talks about wrestling and fighting, struggling and witnessing. I hear the
Savior saynot, “I send you forth as sheepinto the midst of greenpastures,”
but, “as sheepin the midst of wolves.”
I hear him prophesy that we should be hated of all men for His name’s sake.
Truly these things are enough to startle those goodeasysouls who go so
delicatelyonward! Surely they may at once enquire, “Canit be that this
smooth-facedgodliness–this verydelightful wayof getting to Heaven–is the
right one?” Is it not all a delusion? Are we not buoyed up with a false hope, if
that hope is never assailedby trouble and persecution? All is not gold that
glitters–maynot the glittering religion of the many be, after all, only a
pretense and a sham?
O you lovers of carnalease, woe unto you! Inasmuch as you take not up the
Cross, you shall never win the crown! The disciples of Christ must expectto
follow their Masternot merely in obedience to His doctrines, but also in the
reproachwhich gathers about His Cross. I do not find Christ carriedon
flowery beds of ease to His Throne. I do not find Him applauded with
universal acclamations!On the contrary, whereverHe goes He is a protestor
againstthings establishedby human wisdom. And in return, the things
establishedvow His destruction and are not satisfieduntil at lastthey gloat
their cruel eyes with His martyrdom upon the Cross.

Jesus Christ has no life of pleasure and of ease!He is despisedand rejectedof
men–a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief! And let us rest assured
that if we bear faithfully our testimony we shall discoverthat the servant is
not above his Master, nor the disciple above his Lord–if they have calledthe
Masterof the house “Beelzebub,” much more shall they call them of His
household by titles as ignominious and shameful. We must expect, if the
Christian soldier is really a soldier and not a mere pretender to the art of war,
that he will have to fight until he joins the Host triumphant. If the Church is
properly imaged by a ship, she must expectto have storms. And every man on
board her must look to bear his share.
From the first day, when Cain and Abel divided the first family into two
camps, even until now, the flesh lusts againstthe Spirit. The evil contends with
the goodand the goodwrestles with the evil. Whereverthe true and the good
have pitched their tents, there the enemy have gatheredto attack them.
Righteousnesscourts no peace ortruce with sin–our peacefulSavior came not
to form an alliance so unhallowed. Hear His own words–“Think not that I am
come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am
come to set a man at variance againsthis father and the daughter againsther
mother and the daughter-in-law againsther mother-in- law. And a man’s foes
shall be they of his own household.”
Turning to Scripture, then, I find nothing about this pretty by-path meadow
and its quiet, respectable walk to Heaven. I find nothing about riding in the
gilded chariots of ease orwalking in silver slippers. But I do find contention
and strife, and rebuke and suffering, and cross-bearing and if need be,
resistance unto blood striving againstsin! Our text seems to convey that
thought to us most powerfully. Let us take it up, and may the Holy Spirit lead
us to its true meaning. We have before us, first of all, the Believer’s path.
Secondlyhis Leader. Thirdly, his burden. And fourthly, his reasonfor
following that path.
1. We have, first of all, THE BELIEVER’S PATH. The Believer’s path is,
“Let us go forth outside the camp.” The Divine Command is not, “Let
us stop in the camp and try to reform it–things are not anywhere quite
perfect–letus, therefore, stop and make matters right.” No, the
Christian’s watchcry is, “Let us go forth.” Luther caught this note.
Many there were who said, “The Church of Rome has in it goodand
true men–let us try and reform her. Her cloisters are not without piety,
her priests are not without sanctified lives–letus try and restore her
purity.” But Luther heard the voice of God, “Come you out from among

her, lest you be partakers of her plagues,” and therefore he led the van,
taking for his watchword, “Letus go forth outside the camp.”
To this day the Christian’s place is not to tarry in the camp of worldly
conformity, hoping, “Perhaps I may aid the movement for reform.” It is not
the Believer’s duty to conform to the world and to the world’s ways and say,
“Perhaps by so doing I may gain a foothold and men’s hearts may be the more
ready to receive the Truth of God.” No, from the first to the last day of the
Church of God, the place of witness is not inside, but outside the camp. And
the true position of the Christian is to go forth outside the camp bearing
Christ’s reproach.
In this respectAbraham becomes an example to us. The Lord’s first word to
Abraham is that he should leave his father, his kinsfolk and the idolatrous
house in which he lived and go to a land which God would show him. Away he
must go–Faithmust be his guide–Providence his provision and the living God
his only keeper!The separate life of Abraham, in the midst of the sons of
Canaan, is a type of the separatedwalk of the Church of God.
Again, when Israel had gone down to Egypt they were not commanded to stay
there and subdue their oppressors by force of arms, or petition the legislature
that they might obtain gentlerusage–no, but with a high hand and an
outstretchedarm, the Lord brought forth His people out of Egypt! Egypt was
no place for the seedof Israel. And while they wanderedin the wilderness and
afterwards when they settledin isolationin the midst of the promised land,
God’s Word was fulfilled, “The people shall dwell alone:they shall not be
numbered among the nations.”
As if to keepup the type, the Jewishpeople at this very period, though
mingled with all the nations of the world, are as distinct as men can be. And
you cannotpass by a Jew without remarking at once in his face that he is
distinct and separate from all mankind. This, I say, is but a type of the
Church of God–the Church of God is to be distinct and separate from all
other corporations or communities! Her laws come from no human legislator!
Her officers claim no royal appointment! Her endowments are not from the
coffers of the State! Her subjects are a peculiar people and her spirit is not of
this world!
What is meant then, dear Friends, by this “going forth without the camp”? I
understand it to mean, first of all, that every Christian is to go forth by an
open professionof his faith. You that love the Lord are to say so. You must
come out and avow yourselves on His side. You may be Christians and make
no profession, but I cannot be sure that you are a Believer, nor canany other

man. While you make no profession, we must, to a greatextent, judge you by
the nonprofession. And since you do not acknowledge yourselves to be a part
of Christ’s Church we are compelled to adjudge you as not a part of that
Church! We cannotsuppose you to be better than you profess to be for the
most of men are not half so good as their professions.
Usually, as a rule, no man is as goodas his religion and certainly no man is
ever better than his religion. If you do not profess to be on Christ’s side–with
all charity we are forced to acceptyour own confessionofhaving no interest
in Jesus. Come out, Christians! Your Mastercommands you and warns you
that if you are ashamedof Him in this generation, He will be ashamedof you
in the day of His Glory! He bids you acknowledgeHim, for if you confess Him
before men He will confess youwhen He comes in the Glory of His holy
angels. I pray you, then, come out from among them by taking up the name of
a Christian!
Why, what is there to shudder at? Are you a soldier and will you not wear
your Captain’s livery? What? Do you love Christ and blush to admit it? You
ought to be glad to plead guilty to the blessedimpeachment. Why do you
stand back? Let not fear or shame restrainyou. If you are Christians there is
really nothing discreditable in it. Up! Stand shoulder to shoulder with the
people of God and say, “I will go with you because the Lord is with you.” This
done, the Christian is to be separate from the world as to his company. He
must buy and selland trade like other men in the world, but he is not to find
his bosomfriends in it.
He is not to go out of societyand shut himself up in a monastery–he is to be in
the world, but not of it. And his choice company is not to be among the loose,
the immoral, the profane! No, not even among the merely moral–his choice
company is to be the saints of God. He is to selectforhis associates those who
shall be his companions in the world to come. As birds of a feather flock
together, so the birds of paradise are gregarious.Like the speckledbirds they
are peekedat by the common flock. As idle boys were wont to mock at
foreigners in the streets, so do worldlings jeer at Christians. Therefore the
Believerflies awayto his own company when he wants goodfellowship. The
Christian must come out of the world as to his company.
I know that this rule will break many a fond connection, but be not unequally
yokedwith unbelievers. I know it will snap ties which are almostas dearas
life, but it must be done. We must not be overruled even by our own brother
when the things of God and conscienceare concerned. You must follow
Christ, whatevermay be the enmity you excite–remembering that unless you
love Christ better than husband, or father, or mother, yes and your own life

also–youcannotbe His disciple. If these are hard terms, turn your backs and
perish in your sins! Count the cost. And if you cannot bear such a costas this,
do not undertake to be a followerof Christ!
The followerof Jesus goeswithout the camp as to his pleasures. He is not
without his joys nor his recreations. But he does not seek them where the
wickedfind them. The mirth which cheers the worldly makes the Christian
sad–the carrion which delights the crow would disgust the dove. And so those
things which are delightful and full of pleasure to unrenewed men shock and
grieve the hearts of the regenerate. If you have no separationfrom the world
as to your pleasures–sinceyour heart is generallyin your pleasures–your
heart, therefore, is with the wickedand with them shall your doom be when
God comes to judge mankind!
Furthermore, the true follower of Christ is divided from the world as to his
maxims. He does not subscribe to the laws which rule most men in their
families and their business. Mengenerally say, “Everyone for himself and
God for us all.” That is not the Christian’s maxim. “Look not every man on
his ownthings, but every man also on the things of others,” is the Christian’s
rule. Some men will sail very near the wind. They would not absolutely cheat,
but still they use very sharp practices. Theywould not lie, but their puffs and
recommendations are not quite the truth. The Christian scorns all this
questionable dealing and in all matters keeps to the rule of uprightness.
If the Believeris true to his Masterand goes outside the camp to follow Him,
his actions are as clearas the noonday. His word is his bond and in his trade
he would as soonthink of becoming absolutely a thief as to condescendto the
common tricks of trade. From my soul I loathe those men, who, under the
pretense and professionof religion, use the very respectability of their position
to gain credit among others that they may defraud by obtaining credit which
they do not deserve!Such persons are the greatestpossible disgraceto the
Christian Church.
The bankruptcy courts may whitewashthem but the devil has blackenedthem
beyond all power of bankruptcy to cleanse them. Their black deceitfulness
shows through! Men may escapecensure whenstanding at the easybar of the
commissionerand get a certificate, but they will find it very difficult to get a
certificate when God comes to judge them in the Last Great Day. Our laws in
England really seem to me to be made on purpose that men may thieve and
rob with impunity, so long as they do it under colorof commerce. Well, if
man’s law will not touch such men, God’s Law shall! And the Church should
see that she cleansesherselfas much as possible from them. If we are
followers of Christ, we must go forth without this camp of discrepancyand

thieving! Ours must be a downright and honest religion that will not let us
swerve a hair’s breadth from the straight line of integrity and uprightness.
Once more, and here is a very difficult part of the Christian’s course–the
Christian is to come out not only from the world’s pleasures and sins and
irreligion–but there are times when the true followers of Christ must come out
from the world’s religion as wellas irreligion. Every nation has a religion. In
the days of Abraham the little nationalities round him all had their god. In the
days of Christ there was am establishedreligion in Judea–andI suppose that
out of its synagoguesour Lord Jesus Christ was thrust with fury. There was
an establishedreligion with its priests and its proud Pharisaic professors–but
our Lord and SaviorJesus Christ boldly proclaimed His protest againstits
distortions of Scripture, its want of true spirituality, its worldliness, its pomp
and pride.
In His day Jesus Christwas as true a Dissenteras any of us and separated
Himself and His little company from the authorized and established
ecclesiasticalcamp. Judaism was not the religion of Abraham, neither were
the Phariseesthe true exponents and successors ofMoses. Therefore Christ,
with burning words, though full of charity and with a loving heart–but with a
thundering tongue–bore an awful witness againstthe religion of His own age!
He knew how the multitude respectedit and how the greatones lived upon it,
but for all this, though His life must be shed for His protest, Christ led His
disciples awayfrom the national religion to something better, nobler and
more sublime. And you and I, too, Brethren, must see that we never fall in
with the religionof the times because it happens to be fashionable and because
the multitude follow it, or the law of the land patronizes it!
If there exists anywhere on earth a Church which teaches fordoctrine the
commandments of men, come out of her and bear your witness for the Truth
of God. I see before me now a Church which tolerates evangelicaltruth in her
communion, but at the same time lovingly embraces Puseyismand finds room
for infidels and for men who deny the authenticity of Scripture. This is no
time for us to talk about friendship with so corrupt a corporation. The godly
in her midst are deceivedif they think to mold her to a more gracious form.
Her bishops will not touch the Burial Service, although four thousand
clergymen petition for a little ease fortheir consciences.
Nor will they give up reading in God’s own worship the filthy story of
“Susannahand the Elders,” nor the nursery tale of “Belland the Dragon”–
though one of their priests asserts that he would quite as soonread “Jack and
the Beanstalk.”We have waitedlong enough–herspace for repentance has
been already too long! Flee out of her, all of you who love your souls!Come

out from among her! Be you separate–touchnot the uncleanthing lestyou be
partakers of her plagues, for her plagues are many. Often have I read works
in which the Puseyites callthe Church of Rome their sisterChurch! Well, if it
is so let the two harlots make a league together, but let goodand honest men
come out of both apostate churches!And those who love the Lord Jesus,
whether clergyor laity, must leave them to their doom.
I know it is hard work. It calls upon many to be poor and give up their livings,
but they must do it. Scotlandwitnessed, a few years ago, one of the noblest
spectaclesthe world ever beheld. My heart would break with joy for England
if I should live to see sucha day and such a deed of heroism–but there is not
spirit enough left in us. There is not Divine Grace enough left in us. I fear we
have fallen upon a degenerate age.
The “land of brown heath and shaggywood, land of the mountain and the
flood,” has nurtured a noble race of brave, bold men and these could give up
house and home and living for the Truth and for God’s sake. Butit is not so in
England. No, they will selltheir consciences.Theywill cowerdownand
mutter a lie at the command of the State. They will bury adulterers and
seducers in sure and certain hope of a blessedresurrection. They will teach a
catechismwhich their consciencetells them is not true, for riches, for station!
For the sake ofthe loaves and fishes, the men of God (and many of them we
hope are such) will hold still to the false Church. Our protest is lifted up
againsther and our foot stands altogetherwithout her camp. Come you out
from among her! Be you separate!Touch her not! Have no communion with
her false doctrines!
As for eachof us who knows the Truth, our place is with Christ outside the
camp, bearing His reproach. I am sure my text contains all this and more.
And I would to Godthat His Church would take up her true position now and
be separate in all things from anything that defiles and makes a lie.
II. But now, secondly, we have in the text, THE CHRISTIAN’S LEADER. It
does not say, “Let us go forth outside the camp” merely, but, “Let us go forth
therefore unto Him.” Here is the heart of the text–“unto Him.” Beloved, we
might leave society–we might forsake allits conventionalities and become
Nonconformists in the widest sense and yet not carry out the text–for the text
is, “Let us go forth unto Him.” O Beloved, it is this point that I would urge
upon you! I am no politician! I care not one whit what Church has the State-
pay, or what has not. I care not for political dissent–but I do care for
religiously following my Master’s Wordand, by His Grace, I will.

And when I read this text, “Let us go forth therefore unto Him,” I set myself
to learn what the Word means. It means, first, let us have fellowship with
Him. He was despised. He had no credit for charity. He was mockedin the
streets. He was hissedat. He was hounded from among society. If I take a
smooth part, I can have no fellowship with Him–fellowship requires a like
experience. Come, then, my Soul, put on the Savior’s garb–walk through the
mire with Him! Off with your silver slippers–go barefootwithin Christ! Be
you, yourself, like the bush which burns but is not consumed. Be content that
your shoulders should be raw with His rough Cross–He carriedit–do not
shirk the labor! Expect not to wearthe crown where Christ carriedthe Cross,
but, for fellowship’s sake, follow Him. Again, if I am to follow Him, I am to
follow His example. What Christ did I am to do. I am to go forth unto Him.
Itis never to be a rule unto me that Mr. So-and-So did such-and-such a thing,
or Mrs. So-and-So–whatChrist did is to be my rule. Some men are for
hanging on what Luther did, or what Calvin did–that is nothing to the
Christian–he says, “I am to go forth unto Jesus.”Follow Jesus Christand
none but Jesus Christand then you will be separate, indeed, from the restof
men. I am to go forth unto Him–that is, I am to go forth to His Truth.
Wherever I see His Truth, I am to espouse it–whereverI see error I am to
denounce it without hesitation.
I am to take His Word to be my only standard. And just where His Word
leads me, there I am to go, no matter where. I may have been educatedin one
way but I am to bend my educationto this Book. I may have conceived
prejudices but they must give way before His Truth. I may know that such-
and-such a belief is profitable to me but my profit shall go for nothing in
comparisonwith the Word of God. And then I canto go forth to Christ’s
witness-bearing. The presentage does not believe in witness-bearing but the
whole Bible is full of it. The duty of every Christian is to bear witness for the
Truth of God. Christ says, “Forthis purpose was I born and came into the
world.” He who knows the Truth but lays the finger of silence on his lips,
saying, “Peace, peace, whenthere is no peace,” is a sorry Christian!
If you have been washedin Jesus'blood and saved by His righteousness,I do
implore you, take your position with Christ as witness-bearersfor the Truth
as it is in Jesus. MyMasterwants today a band of men and womenwho are
prepared to be singular, so long as to be singular is to be right. He wants men
and women of bold, unflinching, lion-like hearts who love Christ first and His
Truth next–and Christ and His Truth beyond all the world! Men and women,
too, whose holy lives and consistentconversationare not to be perverted by

the bribes of this world and whose testimony is neither to be distorted nor
silencedby frowns or by smiles.
Happy souls shall they be who dare to take their stand with Christ today! The
struggles ofthe Covenanters of old need to be renewedat this moment. The
strife of the Puritan age needs to return once more to the Church. And what if
the stakesofSmithfield come again? And what if the times of persecution
return to us? The goodold vesselwhich outrode the blood-red storm, will
outride it still and with all her passengersand crew safe on board, be received
by the King and honored with His gracious smile!
We are to take care, however, that it is to Christ we go!Not to party, not to
denomination–not to anything but Christ and His Truth! Out with
denominationalism or anything else which savors not of Christ Jesus!
Whether it is the Baptist Church, or the Episcopalian, or the Presbyterian
Church which errs from Christ’s way, it is nothing to any one of us which it
may be. It is CHRIST we are to care for and Christ’s Truth. And this we are
to follow over all the hedges and ditches of men’s making–straightawayto
Christ, clinging to Christ’s mantle, fighting a waystraight through where He
Himself fought and opened the path to His Crown. Thus have we spokenof
the Christian’s Leader.
III. Now, in the third place, we have THE CHRISTIAN’S BURDEN. He is to
bear the Lord’s reproach. The reproachof Christ, in these days, takes this
shape. “Oh,” they say, “the man is too precise.” “He is right. But still, Truth is
not always to be spoken. The thing is wrong, no doubt, which he denounces,
but still, the time has not come yet–we must be lenient towards these things.
The man is right in what he says, but we must not be too precise nowadays.
We must give and take a little–there must be charity.” God’s Word, in this
age, is a small affair. Some do not even believe it to be Inspired. And those
who profess to revere it set up other books in a sort of rivalry with it.
Why, there are great Church dignitaries nowadays who write againstthe
Bible and yet find bishops to defend them! “Do not, for a moment, think of
condemning their books or them. They are our dear Brethren and must not be
fettered in thought.” How many days ago is it since a bishop talkedin this way
in convocation? Some believe in Popery. But here, again, the plea will be,
“Theyare our dear Brethren.” Some believe in nothing at all–but they are still
all safely housedin one Church, like the beasts, cleanand unclean, in Noah’s
ark.
Those who come out with Christ, get this reproach–theyare too precise–in
fact, they are “bigots.” Thatis how the world brings it out at last–“bigots”–a

setof “bigots!” I have heard say that the word, “bigot,” took its rise from
this–that a certain Protestantnobleman being commanded, in order to gain
his lands, to kneeldown and in some way or other commit the actof idolatry
towards the host, said, when he came at lastto the point, “By God, I will not!”
And they calledhim henceforth a “By-God.” If this is the meaning of the word
“bigot,” we cheerfully adopt the title! And were it right to swear, we would
declare, “ByHim that lives! By Heaven! We cannot speak a lie and we cannot
bend our knee to the shrine of Baal, bigots or no bigots.” The Truth of God is
first and our reputation next.
Then they say, “Ah, these people are behind their time. The world has made
such advances. We are in the nineteenth century–you ought to know better!
The discoveries ofscience put your narrow views out of court.” Very well,
Christian, be content to be behind the times for the times are getting nearerto
judgment and the lastplagues. “Ah, but,” they say, “these people seemto us to
be so self-righteous. Theythink themselves right and nobody else.” Verywell,
Christian, if you are right, think yourself right! And if everybody else should
call you self-righteous, that does not mistake you so. The Lord knows how we
cling to the Cross and as poor sinners, look up to Christ and Jesus Christ
alone. Our conscience is void of offense in this matter.
“Ah,” they say, “they are not worth noticing. They are all a pack of fools.” It
is very remarkable that in the judgment of their own age goodmen always
have been fools. Fools have been they who have turned the world upside
down. Luther and Calvin, Wesleyand Whitfield were all fools. But somehow
or other God managed, by these fools, to getto Himself a glorious victory.
And then they turn round and say, “It is only the poor–only the lowerorders.
Have they any of the nobility and gentry with then?” Well, this reproachwe
can pretty well bear because it is the old standard of Christ that the poor have
the Gospelpreachedunto them. And it has ever been a sweetreflectionthat
many who have been poor in this world have been made rich in faith!
Brethren, you must expect, if you follow Christ, to endure reproach of some
sort or another. Let me just remind you what reproachyour Masterhad to
bear. The world’s Church said of Christ, “He is a deceiver! He deceives the
people.” Incarnate Truth of God and yet a deceiver!Then they said, “He stirs
up the people! He promotes rebellion. He is no friend of goodorder. He incites
anarchy! He is a mere demagogue.”Thatwas the world’s cry againstChrist
and, as that was not enough, they went further and said, “He is a
blasphemer!” They put Him to death on the charge that He was a
blasphemer! They whispered to one another, “Did you hear? He said such-

and-such last Sunday in His sermon. What a shocking thing he did in such a
place!He is a blasphemer!”
Then came the climax. They all said He had a devil and was mad. Surely they
could go no further than this! But they supplemented it by saying when He
castout devils that He did it through Beelzebub, the prince of the devils! A
sorry life your Masterhad, you see. All the filth in earth’s kennels was thrown
at Him by sacrilegious hands. No epithet was thought coarseenough!No
terms hard enough–He was the song of the drunkard and they that sat in the
gate spoke againstHim. This was the reproachof Christ. And we are not to
marvel if we bear as much. “Well,” says one, “I will not be a Christian if I am
to bear that.” Skulk back, then, you Coward, to your own damnation! But oh,
men and womenthat love God and who seek afterthe eternal reward, I pray
you do not shrink from this Cross!You must bear it!
I know you may live without it if you will fawn and cringe and keepback part
of the price. But do not do this–it is unworthy of your manhood–much more is
it unworthy of your Christianity! God and for Christ are so holy and so
truthful that you compelthe world to give its bestacknowledgmentofyour
goodness by railing at you–it can do no more, it will do no less. Be contentto
take this shame for there is no Heaven for you if you will not–no crown
without the Cross–no jewels withoutthe mire. You must stand in the pillory if
you would sit in Glory! You must be spit upon and be treatedwith shame if
you would receive eternalhonor! And if you rejectthe one you rejectthe
other.
IV. We close by noticing THE CHRISTIAN’S REASON FOR BEARING HIS
REPROACHAND GOING WITHOUT THE CAMP. It is in the text, “Let us
go forth therefore”–there is the reason. Why then? First, because Jesusdid.
Jesus Christ came into the world pure and holy. His life and His testimony
were a witness againstsin. Jesus Christwould not conform. If He would but
have done so He might have been King of the Jews. But no, the most loving
spirit that ever lived was also the most firm. Nobody shall saythat Christ was
either self-willed or harsh, or that He hated other men–nothing of the kind!
Neverwas there such pure generosity, such overflowing affectionfor men as
you find in Christ.
But yield the truth, yield holiness? No, never! Not a grain of it! Be silent? No,
He rebukes the Pharisees.And when the lawyerpulls His coatand says,
“Master, in so doing, you rebuke us,” then Jesus Christ begins, “Woe unto
you lawyers!” All classes have their portion from His mouth. The Herodians
come to Him. Does He for a moment yield to them? Or when the opposite
party tempts does He side with them? Does He side with either the Sadducee

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