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

 Good morning. 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. Unfortunately, some people have interpreted this a certain way because of the ambiguity of the word sacrifice. They interpret it as meaning: despite how bad things are for me and how badly I feel, I should still praise God – I am sacrificing for Jesus. But that is not how the Jews in the early church would’ve interpreted the word sacrifice. The Jews offered up sacrifices to God for many different things; one of which was a thank offering. The author of Hebrews defines what he means by this: it is the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. Instead of offering up animals or other items through fire, we offer praise through our mouths. Now it does include the times when we don’t feel like it. We will see next time that the next verse, also using the word sacrifice, would also have to be interpreted the same way. Father, we offer praise to You 24/7, not just with our minds, but also with our lips.

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