Hebrews 13:9

Carried about] RV 'carried away.' The strange doctrines seem to have been connected with the ritual of 'meats,' or sacrificial meals (Hebrews 13:10).

10-14. We Christians have certainly an altar, the Cross of Christ, but as on the Day of Atonement the blood of the sacrifice was carried into the Most Holy Place, while the flesh of the victim was not eaten but burned outside the camp, so those who wish to participate in the benefits of the Christian sacrifice must not remain within the camp of Judaism, but utterly renounce all its 'carnal ordinances,' even though that entail bearing reproach for Christ's sake. We may be rendered homeless here below, but we have an abiding city above (Hebrews 11:10; Hebrews 12:22).

15, 16. Christ having offered Himself once for all as the great sacrifice of atonement, the only sacrifice Christians can now offer is that of thanksgiving (cp. Psalms 116:17; 1 Peter 2:5; 1 Peter 2:11), the fruit of lips (cp. Hosea 14:2) which make confession of his name, and also that of mercy with which God is well pleased (Hosea 6:6).

The sacrifice of praise or thanksgiving had been the highest form of peace-offering under the Levitical Law (Leviticus 7:12; Leviticus 22:29 the words in the LXX which our author used are exactly quoted by him here), and the Psalmists had adopted the term to describe that truly spiritual worship which the atoning sacrifice of Christ does not supersede, but deepens and assures (Psalms 107:22; Psalms 116:17). His sacrifice of atonement shall never be repeated; but an offering to God is, in its highest form, sacrifice or sacred service, whether it be of words or charity (cp. Hosea 14:2; Hosea 6:6), or of the duties of ordinary life (Romans 12:1 : cp. 1 Peter 2:5; 1 Peter 2:11). Such sacrifice of thanksgiving is now to be offered continually, not as of old at merely ceremonial times or after separate acts of imperfect atonement; and through the one true High Priest, who has really opened the way for such worship to be brought to God, by the one real sacrifice of atonement which is effectual for ever.