Live to Love Scripture Encouragement Norm Wakefield

Hebrews 1:6 And when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says, “And let all the angels of God worship Him.”
We have a great encouragement to worship Jesus Christ in today’s Scripture. The author continued his reason for worshipping Jesus by recognizing His superiority over the angels, whom the Hebrews consider the mediators of the old covenant. One of the primary reasons for writing this book was to show them that the new covenant, mediated by Jesus, is greater than the old covenant. The main reason the new is better is that the mediator is greater than the angels.
Most commentators are agreed that Jesus’ second coming in judgment is in view when God commands the angels to worship Jesus, for he wrote, “when He again brings the firstborn into the world.” No where does God say that angels are to be worshipped. In fact, we have a record of them refusing to be worshipped in Revelation 19:10, “Then I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, ‘Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.’” In Peter’s first epistle, speaking of Jesus wrote, 1 Peter 3:22 “who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.” We learn in the last verse of the first chapter that angels are servants of God’s children.
When we think of living to love with Jesus, we usually think of loving people with Him. However, Jesus loves His Father, and His love for the Father dwells in us. Jesus’ love for the Father has become our love for the Father. In Him, the first and foremost commandment is fulfilled in us, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” As we live to love with Jesus, we love the Father with Him. One of the ways we love the Father is to honor His Son, as He does.
If the angels are to worship Jesus, recognizing His glory when He comes, then certainly we will. We are going to worship Jesus and love God and the brethren forever. It seems to me that we ought to practice now what we know we are going to do when Jesus returns. We worship Jesus today by loving our Father and His children. As we look to Him to be the source of our lives, we worship Him as the angels do.

Hebrews 1:5 For to which of the angels did He ever say, “You are My Son, today I have begotten You”? And again, “I will be a Father to Him, and He shall be a Son to Me”?
Do you get what the author of Hebrews is saying about Jesus? The name, Son, is a more excellent name than that of any angel. The two statements made by God, Himself, to Jesus emphasize that Jesus is His son, and in the mind of the Spirit, for God to call Jesus His Son is to exalt Him to the highest position. We also learn about the relationship between God Almighty and Jesus Christ. God is a father to Jesus, and Jesus is a son to God. There could be no one who has greater access to God than Jesus, His Son. He has bestowed upon His Son the greatest honor possible—to sit at the Father’s right hand, sharing His majesty.
I’m reminded of what Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 6:18 “And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me,” says the Lord Almighty.” And listen to what God’s grace has done for all who believe. Ephesians 2:5-6. “Even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” We are seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high!
We are living with Jesus, now in heaven. We have access to the Father, who is love. We have inherited a more excellent name than the angels. We are called God’s Sons. He has begotten us in Christ. We lack nothing. We are complete in Christ. Satisfied in Jesus. There lies our encouragement to live to love with Jesus. We live because Jesus lives. We love because we have been loved. We move into our days with our eyes fixed on Jesus, in whom and through whom all the love of God is available to us. So today, we won’t kinda get by, we will live in fullness. We are loved by God with the same love with which He loves His own Son. We are as close to God, the Father, as Jesus is.

having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.
The author’s original readers were Hebrews who believed that the word of God spoken to their fathers and the prophets was mediated through angels. In fact, many worshipped the angels. Paul had to warn the Colossians about the Jews who were seeking to get the church to adhere to the Law as a means of justification. He wrote, “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels” (Col. 2:18). One of the purposes of this letter was to show how the new covenant in Jesus is superior to the old covenant, and in fact has done away with it. With that in mind, we can understand why he says Jesus, who sits at the right hand of the majesty on high is better than the angels. He’s better because His name as the Son of God, the heir of all things, is a more excellent name than any angel. There’s more to be said on this in verse 14 where we read, “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?” But Jesus was sent to give salvation to all who were given to Him. They were given to Jesus by the Father as His inheritance. For this reason, Jesus is to be worshipped, and His word is to be received and obeyed.
Everyone who believes in Jesus belongs to Jesus as His inheritance. We’ve been given to Him that we might know He and the Father (John 17:2-3) and love in His name. According to 3 John 7, we go into this world “for they went out for the sake of the Name.” That’s why we live to love with Jesus. We love live to love for the sake of His excellent name. As we love, we make His name great which is His glory. I hope you are encouraged today to give Him glory by proclaiming His excellent name wherever you go and to whoever He puts in your paths today.

Hebrews 1:3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
Jesus Christ is God’s Son. After He made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Father. That’s our confession of faith in Jesus. The author of Hebrews wanted his readers to place their confidence in Jesus Christ as their Messiah and great high priest. Unlike the priests in the temple, whose work was never finished, so they had to continually stand, serve, and make sacrifices, Jesus’ work on earth is finished. He can and has sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, our Father’s right hand.
This seat at the right hand is the place of authority and power in the kingdom of God. Having accomplished what the Father gave Him to do, God has highly exalted Him and given Him a name above all names. At His name, every knee in heaven and earth will bow and confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God. There is no greater name than the name of Jesus. The name isn’t primarily how the name is spelled or pronounced. There’s no greater work than the work Jesus accomplished on the cross. He sits now at the right hand of God because of the great work He has done, not because we call Him, Jesus. Although Jesus’ redemptive work on earth is done, we still have work to do with Him.
We are encouraged today that the one who loves us and who lives in us has given His life for us so we could know Him and His love. Knowing Him, we understand why we are here in this world. We were made by the rhema of God so we could be vessels of His love and revelation. That’s our purpose in life—to live to love with Jesus.

Hebrews 1:3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
We are encouraged today by the amazing accomplishment of Jesus on our behalf. He made purification of sins, once for all, through His death on the cross. All believers in Jesus have been cleansed of their sins! It’s the only way we could live with Jesus. We could not live, much less live to love without this cleansing work applied to our lives. Jesus could not be with us, nor we be with Him as long as we are in our sins. But, everyone who comes to the altar of God, the cross, where the eternal sacrifice is made, immediately upon touching the altar, they become holy to God, cleansed and purified of every sin of their entire lives. In Ex. 29:37 we read, “For seven days you shall make atonement for the altar and consecrate it; then the altar shall be most holy, and whatever touches the altar shall be holy.” If whatever touches the altar becomes holy to God, how much more all who come to God’s altar where He gave His Son shall be cleansed and set apart to Him.
Have you, will you, come to the altar of God, and become one with God’s Son in His life offered for your cleansing? It’s the only way we can live to love with Jesus. We can’t love if we are enslaved to sin. Jesus’ living water doesn’t flow out of a filthy vessel. Guilt and shame have been removed through the blood of the Lamb. We come to the altar and wash our garments in the blood of the Lamb, wrote John in the Revelation. Have you been cleansed? Have you been washed in the blood of the Lamb. He made purification of sins so we could be united with Him in His resurrection and walk with Him in love—forgiven, forgiving, loved, and loving.

Hebrews 1:3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
We are encouraged from verse 3 that Jesus is the source and sustainer of our lives—our circumstances and our relationships. He upholds all things by the word of His power. The word upholds is synonymous with carrying, bringing forth, or making all things. The idea is that everything is from and through Him. This isn’t the only place we learn that Jesus upholds all things. The apostle Paul wrote, “Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him” (1 Cor. 8:6). The apostle John explained Jesus this way. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:1-3).
John called Jesus the word, the logos, which communicates what the author of Hebrews said when he wrote that Jesus is the exact representation of His nature. Jesus isn’t part of the Divine nature; He is the whole Deity according to W.E. Vines. However, in Heb. 1:3, Jesus brings everything into being by the rhema of His power. When Jesus, the logos, speaks, the Spirit of God makes things happen—brings forth what has been spoken into reality.
Jesus has jurisdiction over all things. Because He created all things by His word as this author says in Heb. 11:3. “The worlds were prepared by the word (the rhema) of God,” He need only speak, and it comes into being. He told the wind and waves to be still, and they obeyed. He gave instruction to the demons, and they obeyed. He commanded the dead to rise, the blind to see, and the lame to walk; and they did. There’s nothing that occurs in the history of man that isn’t upheld by the power of His word.
What does this have to do with living to love with Jesus? Because this is true, we believe there is only one God from whom are all things, and He is love. We filter all things in our lives through this incredible, unchanging, profound truth. Therefore, we believe He is the source of our love. He is able and willing to accomplish what He wishes through our love for His glory. The faith we need to live to love with Jesus comes through His rhema that upholds all things. We learn this from Paul in Rom. 10:17. “So faith comes by hearing, but hearing by the rhema of Christ.” This Jesus-generated faith works through love. Jesus said, “If you abide in Me, and My words (rhemas) abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples” (John 15:7-8). Today, our confidence as we love with Jesus rests on the rhema of God abiding in us through whom the fruit of God in our lives is brought forth. He will do it!