The following brief commentary is on Hebrews 13:13 – Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.
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 away to 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 away amidst 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: [Orange words below, lead to Bible Hub; I pasted in the verses for those who do not wish to leave my site.]
1 Peter 4:13 ; compare Hebrews 12:2 note; Philippians 3:10 note; Colossians 1:24 note.
1 Peter 4:13 – But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.
Hebrews 12:2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Philippians 3:10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
Colossians 1:24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church,
Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp,….
Either of legal ceremonies, which are 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.
The men of the world, being very numerous, are also a trouble to the saints.
A man may be said to “go forth” from hence, when he professes not to belong to the world; when his affections are weaned from it; when the allurements of it do not draw him aside; when he forsakes, and suffers the loss of all, for Christ; when he withdraws from the conversation of 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, or there 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 encouragement to 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 profession of him, and follow him:
Bearing his reproach; or reproach for his sake: the reproach, which saints meet with, for the sake of Christ, and a profession of him, is called “his”, because of the union there is between them, and the sympathy and fellow feeling he has with them in it; he reckons what is said and done to them as said and done to himself; and besides, there is a likeness between the reproach which Christ personally bore, and that which is cast upon his followers; and this is to be bore by them willingly, cheerfully, courageously, and patiently.
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