Moe Bergeron

In the final exhortations to the church at Rome, the author of Hebrews closes his epistle with one of the most reassuring promises in all of Scripture. After tracing the long line of faith who have gone before, after describing the great cloud of witnesses, he turns to the present and declares that the God who sustained them is the same God who sustains us. This covenantal pledge, echoing from the book of Deuteronomy, finds its ultimate confirmation in the New Covenant, where Christ, having ascended to heaven, sends the Holy Spirit to dwell within His people and fulfill the promise that we shall never be abandoned by our God.

“Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’” — Hebrews 13:5–6

The exhortation begins with a warning against greed: “Keep your life free from love of money.” In the ancient world, wealth was often viewed as a sign of God’s blessing, yet Jesus and the apostles consistently warned that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil (see 1 Timothy 6). Under the Old Covenant, the people of Israel were sometimes tempted to trust in their riches rather than in the Lord who provided manna in the wilderness (see Exodus 16). In the New Covenant, the call is to a deeper contentment that rests not in material possessions but in the character of the Provider. The Lord Himself is the portion of His inheritance, and to seek satisfaction in anything less is to risk falling away from the sufficiency of His grace (see Psalm 73).

The command to “be content with what you have” flows directly from the promise that follows. Contentment is not self-sufficiency but God-sufficiency, the realization that the Lord who has promised to provide is trustworthy in every season. Paul would later describe this secret as learning to be content in whatever state he was found, whether in need or in plenty (see Philippians 4). Yet the ground of that contentment is not personal resilience but divine fidelity: “for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’” This quote traces back to Deuteronomy 31, where Moses delivered it to Israel before entering the Promised Land. Joshua heard it, the psalmists sang it, and now the church confesses it. The promise has not expired; it has been fulfilled in the person of Christ, who embodies the presence of God among His people and sends the Spirit to remain with them forever (see Matthew 28).

The phrase “never leave you nor forsake you” is a twofold negation that leaves no room for doubt. “Leave” suggests departing from a place; “forsake” suggests abandoning a relationship. God does not abandon His children even when they stumble. In the Old Testament, Israel repeatedly turned from the Lord, yet He remained faithful to the covenant, disciplining them but never casting them off (see Hosea 11). In the New Covenant, this faithfulness is even more secure, for it rests on the finished work of Christ, who intercedes for us at the right hand of the Father (see Hebrews 7). The Spirit, who has sealed us for the day of redemption, is the living guarantee that the Lord will not depart from us or withdraw His love (see Ephesians 4).

Because of this promise, the believer can “confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’” This declaration is drawn from the Psalms, particularly Psalm 118, where the worshiper sings of God as the one who helps even when nations rise up in opposition (see Psalm 118). The rhetorical question—“what can man do to me?”—does not deny the reality of suffering or persecution; rather, it denies the ultimate power of any human opponent. Man can harm the body, but he cannot separate the soul from the love of God in Christ Jesus (see Romans 8). The fear that grips the natural heart is replaced by the confidence that belongs to those who know they are kept by the hand of the Almighty.

Furthermore, this passage ties contentment directly to trust in God’s presence. When we love money, we are saying that we do not trust God to provide; when we are content, we are saying that He is enough. The promise “I will never leave you nor forsake you” is the anchor that holds us steady in both poverty and prosperity, in both abundance and need. The Spirit of God, who dwells within the believer, confirms this truth, enabling us to cry out with boldness, “The Lord is my helper” (see Isaiah 41). The protection of the Lord is not a distant shield but an immediate presence, and it is this presence that enables us to stand firm against every scheme of the enemy.

Reflections Hebrews 13:5–6 calls us to rest in the unshakeable promise that the Lord will never leave us nor forsake us. In a world where relationships fail and resources diminish, God remains constant, our sure helper and eternal portion. As we face the uncertainties of life and the temptations that pull us toward self-reliance, may we fix our eyes on the One who has pledged to stay with us always, confident that the Lord is our helper and there is nothing that man can do that will separate us from His love.