Hebrews 4:13Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

By this he especially frightens them. The meaning of his words is as follows. If, he says, you stand in the faith but not yet with full conviction, do not be at ease. It judges what is hidden in the heart, because it passes even there, in order to examine and punish. But why do I speak, he continues, of men? Even if you point to angels, archangels, cherubim, seraphim, and whatever created beings there may be, all things are open before His eyes. All is manifest and clear. Nothing can be hidden from Him. “But all things are naked and exposed before His eyes, to whom we must give account.” He said τετραχηλισμένα, borrowing this figurative expression from the skins removed from slaughtered victims.

“And there is no creature hidden from Him.” He not only examines and knows the hearts of men, he says. Even if you point to angels and archangels, to cherubim and seraphim, all things are open before Him. Nothing can be hidden from His eyes. “But all things are naked and exposed” (τετραχηλισμένα) “before His eyes.” To present more vividly how all things are naked and manifest before the face of the Word of God, he used a figurative expression taken from sheep when their skin is stripped off. When their head is cut off, or a knife is plunged into their neck and they are slaughtered, all their inward parts are revealed after the skin is removed. So also all things are open to God.

Again one may see the Son bearing in Himself these distinctive properties of the Father and adorned with the same blessings with which He Who begot Him is seen to be adorned. God the Father plainly bears all things in Himself and surveys all things unhindered. He likewise sees hearts and reins (Ps 7:10; Rev 2:23). Therefore He says, “Who is this that hides counsel from Me?” (Job 38:2). And again, “Am I a God near at hand, says the Lord, and not a God afar off? Can anyone hide himself in secret places from Me?” (Jer 23:23). By what he has said, Paul testifies that all this also belongs to the Son. Then Paul calls the Word of the living Father “living,” because the Father is Life itself. For the Son also is Life by nature.

There is no invisible creature, that is, none hidden from Him, since everything hidden will stand naked before His face at the hour of Judgment.

No one can hide from that impartial Judge. He knows all things exactly, even the movements of the thoughts themselves. He knows what is done in darkness and what is devised in secret. The wicked counsels of the soul are not hidden from Him, and what is concealed lies bare before Him. The expression “all things are exposed” (τετραχηλισμένα, prepared for a blow to the throat) “before His eyes” is used figuratively. It is taken from animals slaughtered in sacrifice, which lie wholly voiceless because slaughter takes away life, and with life, the voice. So also we, when judged, says the Apostle, shall see everything impious or lawless that we have done. We shall receive the sentence and punishment in silence, knowing its justice.

“And there is no creature hidden before Him.” And why do I speak only of men? Whether you point to angels, archangels, cherubim and seraphim, or to any other creature whatever, all things are open before His eyes. All is manifest, and nothing escapes His knowledge. “But all things are naked and exposed before His eyes.” Everything is open before Him. He calls naked that from which the skin has been removed beginning at the neck, for sacrificial animals are usually flayed from the neck. Therefore, just as they remain naked and uncovered after their skin has been removed, so every creature of God is naked before the eyes of God and cannot be hidden. “To Him we must give account.” It is to Him that we must present a detailed account of the time of life we have lived. To Him we must give answer for what we have done. Since we must give Him account, we ought to be circumspect and careful. Having thus instilled fear, he again encourages them, saying:

The expression used by the most wise Paul, "naked and exposed," is taken from the image of sacrificial animals brought for slaughter. Once their skins are removed, they are stripped of every visible covering. The arrangement of what was hidden within becomes manifest.

Every bone and every member is laid out for easy examination, so that everything for whose cleansing the sacrifice is brought may be made clean. So also on the great Day of the Lord, the revelation of our unknown and unseen deeds will strip them bare and become like a cutting into parts. Nothing will be able to hide, but all will be brought into clarity.

The particle “for” indicates the causal connection of these words of the Apostle Paul with his preceding words. How, then, are they connected? Here the holy Apostle Paul gives the reason why that fearful threat, of which he spoke above, can easily be fulfilled against those who disobey Christ. It is precisely because this threat proceeds from the mouth of God. The word of God is living and active, and not dead. That is, it does not remain without fulfillment. It certainly gives what it promises and brings about what it threatens. The dread and punitive power of the word of God exposes the most secret thoughts and hidden movements of the human soul. The Apostle compares it to a two-edged sword piercing the transgressor through and through.

Since God would not have spoken through David of some new rest if the Hebrews had already enjoyed it from the time of Joshua (v. 8), the conclusion follows. The people of God, that is, believers from Jews and Gentiles, still have before them the future enjoyment of that Sabbath rest (σαββατισμός). It begins for them from the time of their entrance into the rest of God. Then the goal set by God for man at creation will be attained. Man, like God, will finish his works, which God appointed for him in temporal life. He will rest with true rest and enjoy the fruits of his labors (vv. 9-10). If even now it is not too late to enter God’s rest, Christians must strive toward this. Otherwise the same thing may happen to them that befell the Hebrews who were disobedient to God (v. 11).