On October 21, 1805, one of the most famous sea battles in modern warfare occurred: At the Battle of Trafalgar, the British troops soundly defeated the French and Spanish fleets.
Though many of the battle’s details are lost to history, two facts are largely uncontested. First, the flagship carrying the British admiral was named the Victory. Second, the message sent from Admiral Nelson aboard the Victory to the remaining twenty-six ships read, “England expects that every man will do his duty.” While serving their king and their country was a privilege, the Victory’s message that day reminded the fleet that it was also a duty.
In a similar way, the Bible teaches us that the privilege of knowing Jesus brings with it the demands of duty. These demands, listed in Hebrews 13:15–17, find their basis in the verses that precede them. Verses 13–14 describe how Christ achieved victory through suffering, granting us the privilege of entry into the heavenly city. But with this gift come obligations, which the author of Hebrews identifies and expounds in the following verses.
There are three aspects of Christian duty that the writer clarifies for us in this passage: our spiritual duty, with respect to God; our moral duty, with respect to men; and our ecclesiastical duty, with respect to Christian leadership.
The privilege of knowing Jesus brings with it the demands of duty.
Our Spiritual Duty
The first dimension of Christian duty is spiritual: We are to “offer up a sacrifice of praise to God” (Heb. 13:15). The Jews reading the letter were aware of the nature of sacrifice. Indeed, the author of Hebrews revisits the theme again and again, showing how the Old Testament order was fulfilled in Jesus’ own sacrifice. By His once-for-all death, Christ atoned for His people’s sins (Heb. 10:12).
While the sacrifice for sins featured prominently in the Old Testament, we know there were also various dedicatory sacrifices, meant to express thanksgiving to God. The worshipper would bring an animal for sacrifice, saying, “God, I am thankful to You, and I recognize the wonder of what You have done in forgiving my sin.”
It’s this sacrifice of gratitude that’s in view in verse 15. Christians are bound by obligations—strong ones, tender ones—to present a thank offering to God. Importantly, though, our offering is neither an ox nor a sheep; it’s ourselves. Our praise to God, both through words and deeds, is “the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.” The Christian’s duty to God, then, is to bring his life as a daily offering to God, expressing a thankful heart for the wonder of what He has done.
The point of emphasis in this verse is in the opening words, “Through him…” Where Old Testament sacrifice was conducted through a priest in service to God, New Testament worship is offered through (and to) the Great High Priest, the Lord Jesus. Consistent with the material leading up to chapter 13, the author stresses that our spiritual duty is carried out only through Jesus. To seek access to God the Father by any other route is to deny the unique, sufficient sacrifice of Christ.
Christians are bound by obligations—strong ones, tender ones—to present a thank offering to God.
And this sacrifice, offered through faith in Jesus, is a continual offering. We don’t relegate worship to one hour a week, as if we were only supposed to approach God in particular places and at appointed times. The picture here is of the Christian’s life interwoven with God.
Our Moral Duty
Christianity carries obligations both to God, as verse 15 clarifies, and then to others. The next verse defines our duty to man. As Matthew Henry quaintly puts it, “Thanksgiving is good, but thanks-living is better.”1 In other words, our sacrifice of praise is expressed not only in how we confess Christ but also in how we treat others.
The Jewish people understood this principle, knowing that the blessings they experienced were to be passed on to the strangers in their midst. Deuteronomy 14 explains the requirement:
At the end of every three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in the same year and lay it up within your towns. And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do. (Deut. 14:28–29)
The theme runs all throughout Scripture: God gives that we might give to others. In his letter to Titus, for example, Paul reminds Christians that they were redeemed so that they might do good (2:14; 3:8).
The application for us is clear. The ceremonial offerings that were part and parcel of Judaism are no longer pleasing to God. The old order has come to an end; the sacrifices of oxen and sacrificial lambs have passed away. But the sacrifice of genuine care, practical support, and selfless love—those expressions of God’s grace in our lives—continue today. These are the things that please the Lord.
To have the approval of men and women is delightful. But to have the “Well done!” of God is the highest recompense we can ever know (Matt. 25:21, 23; Luke 19:17). Make no mistake: God is pleased when He looks on His people, gathered in His name, and finds them exercising their spiritual and moral duties.
Our Ecclesiastical Duty
The third aspect of our duty comes in the seventeenth verse, involving our submission to and respect for Christian leaders:
Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. (Heb. 13:17)
To have the “Well done!” of God is the highest recompense we can ever know .
This verse describes the pastor, who fulfills the role of shepherd in his care for the flock of God. The word for “keeping watch” can refer to a watchman on the city walls, his task involving looking out for enemies on the outside and potential hazards on the inside.
Crucially, a pastor’s responsibility for his flock comes under God’s authority. He is accountable not finally to the people but to God Himself for how he cares for the people. It’s only within this framework that the command for Christians to “obey” their leaders emerges. Christians obey their leaders insofar as their leaders are like those in Hebrews 13:7, speaking the Word of God to their people.
A Command from Heaven’s Captain
At the Battle of Trafalgar, the flag raised on the Victory read, “England expects that every man will do his duty.” That is to say, duty involves an element of volition—of willingness. In one fell swoop, Admiral Nelson reminded his fleet of both the privilege and the duty that was before them that day.
Similarly, the captain of our salvation looks down from the ramparts of heaven and into the company of the redeemed, instructing us, “Heaven expects that every Christian will do his duty”—spiritually, to God; morally, to one another; and ecclesiastically, to church leaders. Believers in every age would do well to ask, on the basis of Scripture, “Are we doing our duty?”
This article was adapted from the sermon “A Summary of Christian Duty” by Alistair Begg.
Matthew Henry, The Life of the Rev. Philip Henry (London: B. J. Holdsworth, 1825), 236. ↩︎
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