Hebrews: Continual Sacrifice of Praise, Serving
Hebrews 13:15-16 - Praise and service are acts of sacrifice in good and bad circumstances.
“Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”
Hebrews 13:15-16 NASB1995
These two verses and the ones that follow (before the benediction and end of Hebrews) are more exhortations to the believers. Verse 15 tells us that through Him, we should continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God. It is not supposed to be only during the worship songs on Sunday. Our praise should be on our lips giving thanks to His name. Part of this praise is to not neglect doing good and sharing; God is pleased with these sacrifices as well. The AI image at the top reflects both types of sacrificial worship.
Praise and serving do not gain us salvation. These are responses that happen after we are justified through His grace and as part of our sanctification through the Holy Spirit. I like what Enduring Word has to say about this passage:
a. Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God: Because we do have an altar (the cross) and we do have a High Priest (Jesus), we should always offer sacrifices. Yet they are not the bloody sacrifices of the old covenant but the sacrifice of praise, the fruit of our lips.
i. The writer to the Hebrews explains several essentials for proper praise.
· Praise that pleases God is offered by Him, that is by Jesus Christ, on the grounds of His righteousness and pleasing God.
· Praise that pleases God is offered continually, so that we are always praising Him.
· Praise that pleases God is a sacrifice of praise, in that it may be costly or inconvenient.
· Praise that pleases God is the fruit of our lips, more than just thoughts directed towards God. It is spoken out unto the Lord, either in prose or in song. “What proceeds from the lips is regarded as fruit, which reveals the character of its source, as the fruit of a tree reveals the nature of the tree.” (Guthrie)
ii. “Loving hearts must speak. What would you think of a husband who never felt any impulse to tell his wife that she was dear to him; or a mother who never found it needful to unpack her heart of its tenderness, even in perhaps the inarticulate croonings over the little child that she pressed to her heart? It seems to me that a dumb Christian, a man who is thankful for Christ’s sacrifice and never feels the need to say so, is as great an anomaly as either of these I have described.” (Maclaren)
iii. “So, then, we are to utter the praises of God, and it is not sufficient to feel adoring emotions.” (Spurgeon)
b. But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased: Praise is not the only sacrifice that pleases God. We also please God with sacrifice when we do good and share. Praise and worship are important, but the Christian’s obligation does not end there.
Let’s do a show of hands - how many feel somewhat uncomfortable being demonstrative and vocal in praise during worship?…Yup, that’s me, with my hand up. I’m a logical-minded, left-brained thinker who was raised during my formative years in a stoic Lutheran church that was forbiddingly undemonstrative. If someone had shown genuine, loud praise and raising of hands during one of our services they probably would have been escorted out of the church.
Even on my best Sundays, I’m not demonstrative for the most part. Steve will raise his hands and sing loudly; I do admit to mouthing the lyrics if I know the worship song but my arms stay down. But I have certainly felt like giving praise during many moments in life and it doesn’t have to be in worship. Doing it continually, in all circumstances is very challenging, however. I like what Greg Laurie has to say about a sacrifice of praise, as quoted on Precept Austin:
WHEN PRAISE BECOMES A SACRIFICE - Greg Laurie Beyond: A Devotional - Page 256
Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. (Hebrews 13:15)
There are times when it is a sacrifice to offer praise to God, quite frankly, because we don’t really want to. There are times when we are down or depressed or things aren’t going that well. We don’t really feel like praising the Lord. Yet the Bible is filled with admonition after admonition to give glory and praise and thanks to God. Psalm 106:1 says, “Praise the Lord! Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.”
Notice that the Bible does not say, “Give thanks to the Lord when you feel good.” Rather, it says, “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!” I don’t praise God because I feel like it. I praise God because He is worthy, regardless of what I am going through. Praise can be a sacrifice sometimes. I have found that when, out of obedience, I begin to praise the Lord, the emotion will begin to engage with my act of obedience in time. The point is, I should do it because God tells me to.
In the Gospel of Luke, we find the story of ten men who were miraculously touched by Jesus. Because these men had leprosy, they were the outcasts of their society. Yet Jesus went out of His way to touch them and heal them of this dread disease. Only one, a Samaritan, returned and gave thanks and praise to God. Jesus then asked a provocative question: “Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” (Luke 17:18). In many ways, I think He is still asking this question today.
We praise God because He is worthy, not because we feel like it. He is always worthy of praise because of who He is and what He has done for us. Praise is a part of thankfulness. Greg Laurie in his devotional above talks about the ten men who had leprosy that were healed by Jesus and only one returned to thank Him (a Samaritan). God is there for us, day after day, but we are either too pleased with our lives or too downhearted at our troubles to thank Him in every circumstance.
Serving others and giving thanks and the story about the 10 lepers made me think about one of my favorite movies, Groundhog Day. This comedy classic with Bill Murray is the ultimate redemption movie although it is not a true Christian redemption (at least not overtly). Bill Murray’s character, weatherman Phil Connors, is forced to repeat the same day over and over and over again (February 2, Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania) until he “gets it right”.
Some fans of the movie have estimated that he repeats that same day thousands of times because of the various reactions that he undergoes (disbelief, egotism, criminal acts, depression, then finally acceptance); it also takes that many days for him to learn about the people in the town and find ways to improve them and himself. When he becomes truly humble, full of eagerness to learn, and puts others first, he is released from his “captivity”. One repeating scene is reminiscent of the miracle of the ten who are healed. Phil Connor races every day to be right on time just below a tree to catch a kid who is climbing the tree and falls. The kid never thanks him and goes running off and Phil yells at the kid for never thanking him. But yet he still returns and does the act to save the kid every day.
My point is, and I do have one, is that we are oblivious to His blessings when we have them and then we are bemoaning our lives when we think we don’t have blessings, but never forget that He is the same yesterday, now and forever (remember Hebrews 13:8)!! His salvation and grace is on-going and it is there every single day. Praise is essential!
That sacrificial praise includes acts of doing good and sharing. I like what Jack Arnold says about these acts as quoted in Precept Austin:
Christians are to share their material blessings and monies with their brothers and sisters in need. To share is to offer up a sacrifice to God and to truly worship God. Christianity is “people centered” and we must be concerned about the genuine physical and financial needs of true Christians. “But whoever has the world’s goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?” (1 John 3:17) То have all things in common is not Communism. Communism says, “What is yours is mine.” But Christianity says, “What is mine is God’s; therefore it is yours.” Communism is forced, but Christianity is voluntary where we long to help those in need.
The giving of money to the Lord’s work is a spiritual sacrifice and a form of worship to Almighty God. God wants His people to give liberally so He can bless them. A general biblical principle is that when we give liberally, God blesses us with more abundance. “Now this I say, he who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly; and he who sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully. Let each one do just as he has purposed in his heart; not grudgingly or under compulsion; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed” (2 Cor. 9:6-8+). In some cases there may not be any material blessing in return for faithful giving, but there is always spiritual blessing, and that is more important. One thing for sure, we cannot outgive God. Those who dare to step out in faith and give liberally unto the Lord will be greatly blessed of God.
That’s a great response to give the next time someone unmindfully says that Jesus was a socialist. What we have is from God and sharing it naturally becomes voluntary, not coerced, and it is not forced through taxation. When we believe in Him, our eyes are opened to the problems and suffering of others and we respond.
My next devotional examines Hebrews 13:17-18 - Submit to leaders and conduct yourselves honorably. At the end of Hebrews, I will summarize what we have learned and then I will dive into the Epistle to the Ephesians.
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Lord - Please help me to understand what it means to truly praise You in a sacrificial way. Amen.
Credits and Citations:
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.Lockman.org.
Precept Austin was accessed on 03/05/2026 to review commentary for Hebrews 13:15-16.
Commentary from Enduring Word is used with written permission and without any alteration. ©1996-present The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik – enduringword.com. Within the Enduring Word commentary:
Spurgeon, Charles Haddon The New Park Street Pulpit, Volumes 1-6and The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Volumes 7-63 (Pasadena, Texas: Pilgrim Publications, 1990)
Guthrie, Donald Hebrews (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1983)
Maclaren, Alexander Expositions of Holy Scripture, Volume Fifteen and Expositions of Holy Scripture, Volume Sixteen (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker, 1984)
Beautifully written, Barb, thank you