Maybe He's in disguise in our marriages. Kingdom, New Covenant living is where we do the old-fashioned thing by honoring marriage as God's design...and by treating our spouses as brothers/sisters in the Lord and as friends (S of S 4:9-12;5:1,16).
3. It's a life of contentment (13:5-6). We live free from "devotion" to money...why? Because God Himself is our true Treasure! He says..., so we can say...!
And what does He say?
I will never leave you nor forsake you.
So we can say,
The Lord is my helper;I will not fear;what can man do to me?
4. It's a life of remembering & imitating (13:7-8). We remember, and even study, the "exit" from this life of our spiritual leaders.
As John Piper says,
Beware of living heroes; prefer dead ones...Get heroes, especially dead ones.
Why? They have already heard the Lord's "Well done!" They've made it to the finish line!
So then we can...
...imitate their faith. Why? because...Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
He was faithful to them in the past. He is faithful to us in the present. And He will be faithful to us and to our children and future generations on into the future!
5. It's a life of identification (13:9-14). New Covenant living is not dependent upon religious rituals, foods, feasts, etc. (See Colossians 2:16-17). Our "altar" is the Cross, the finished work of Christ. And what do we "eat" there? We eat Jesus by faith (John 6) and get in Him: forgiveness, righteousness, joy, peace in the Holy Spirit, hope, and so much more (Romans 14:17; 15:13).
And just as Jesus died outside the "camp" (Jerusalem and the religious establishment of His day), so we are also willing to go against the ways of the "camps" we may be part of, when they conflict with the ways our Lord and King are leading us.
What "camps" are you part of today? Your church? your friends? your family? a relationship? your workplace? Do you have to "sell your soul" in order to fit in and feel part of the in-crowd? I'm here to say, DON'T DO IT! Go to HIM outside the camp and be willing to bear HIS reproach...no matter what that may mean!
My husband and I have been part of various, what I call, Christian camps -- different traditions, from very conservative to somewhat chrismatic*. I remember one time moaning and complaining to the Lord,
Lord, I don't fit anywhere!
The Holy Spirit said to my heart,
Congratulations! You can fit everywhere, because you don't fit anywhere! [Read that a couple times slowly!]
Then He reminded me of Jesus who had no place to call His own, who died rejected and abandoned by even His own. And I remembered Jesus' "healthy detachment":
Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man. John 2:23-25 NASB
So our expectations of fitting in can actually lead us to quench the Spirit in our own lives. So again I say, don't do it! "Go to Him outside the camp"...and the delightful surprise may be that there are others outside the camp...maybe waiting for YOU!