To Him Who is Greater

 DEVOTION

TO HEBREWS

TO HIM WHO IS GREATER

Heb 7:4-10

4 Just think how great he was: Even the patriarch Abraham gave him a tenth of the plunder! 5 Now the law requires the descendants of Levi who become priests to collect a tenth from the people — that is, their brothers — even though their brothers are descended from Abraham. 6 This man, however, did not trace his descent from Levi, yet he collected a tenth from Abraham and , blessed him who had the promises. 7 And without doubt the lesser person is blessed by the greater. 8 In the one case, the tenth is collected by men who die; but in the other case, by him who is declared to be living. 9 One might even say that Levi, who collects the tenth, paid the tenth through Abraham, 10 because when Melchizedek met Abraham, Levi was still in the body of his ancestor.

NIV

We are still in this argument the author is making about the supremacy of Jesus as he uses Melchizedek as greater to Levi who represents the law. Once again, we are faced with grace that is greater than law. However, in this part of the argument the author is using the paying of a tenth and that Levi, still being in the body of Abraham paid a tenth to him who is without beginning or end of life. We know this is not about making our tithe a law, as many churches have sort of done by default. Our tithe is in some sense a tenth of our spoils of war, as we are out in the world fighting for our position in the world. We fight to gain our income in a sense, so it is our spoils of war. However, the point here is that we should not make the tithe into a law, it should be given out of  love. We do not give to the church for it is not greater then us. We are a descendant of God, because we have been given the right to be called children of God. However, we give our tenth to He who is greater then we are, who is God. Yet, in reality we give it to the church and for the most part it is used to support the administration and upkeep of the church. Nevertheless, this has no meaning within this argument the author is making. The whole point is that Jesus is greater than the law, in fact, Jesus is superior to all things, and that we need to live by grace which comes through faith in Jesus, rather than being bogged down in laws of our own making. Because Jesus fulfilled all the law,  and because we live in Jesus, just as Levi was living in Abraham while he paid the tenth to Him who is greater, we have fulfilled the law. Because we have fulfilled the law, we can truly live in grace, for Jesus is grace personified. We can look at the law, as a mirror which shows that our life is dirty, and then we have grace as the soap that cleanses us so we are clean as the fresh driven snow, without spot or blemish, holy and blameless in the sight of God. Why then would we want to return to a law-based life, as those Jews were considering? We wonder if we have established our rules to live by as a substitute for living by faith. Have we turned our faith into a life of works, driven by the need to prove how good a Christian we are? Have we turned works into a law and forgot about our faith, our living in Christ, and because we are in Him we are righteous in the sight of God, and so we live by faith, and we serve Him who is greater then we are. But let us not turn our service to Him, to His kingdom into a law other than a law of love. Everything we do for the benefit of the kingdom comes from our love for Jesus.