At first, at least from our modern day point of view, it may seem that Paul was commanding the believers in Palestine to open themselves up to more and more persecution by telling them they needed to be hospitable to strangers (Hebrews 13:1-2). However, this is simply not the case. Rather, Paul was reminding his Jewish readers that even under the Mosaic Covenant they were commanded to be hospitable to strangers (i.e. gentiles; see Deuteronomy 10:19; cp. Exodus 22:21; Leviticus 19:33-34). So, no matter whom they chose to obey: Moses or Christ (and Moses commanded Israel to obey Christ, Deuteronomy 18:15-19), they were commanded to be hospitable to the stranger (gentile) within their borders. Therefore, if one wished to ‘obey’ God, one might as well obey Christ under the New Covenant, wherein we have such better promises.
With a probable reference to Genesis 18:1-2 and possibly Genesis 19:1-3, Paul reminded his readers that sometimes in the process of being hospitable, believers had entertained angels (G32; Hebrews 13:2). However, Paul no doubt had human messengers (G32) in mind, i.e. strangers / gentiles who preached the Gospel, the point being, the believers would be blessed. Abraham received a promise of future blessing (Genesis 18:9-10), but in Lot’s case an immediate blessing was given (Genesis 19:12-16).
In Hebrews 13:3 Paul tells his readers to remember (G3403). At times the Scriptures point out that that the Lord remembered men (Psalm 8:4-8; quoted in Hebrews 2:6). The same Greek word is used in the Septuagint at Psalm 8:4. Does anyone believe that God forgets anything? If he doesn’t forget anything, in what sense would he remember some things? In Genesis 9:11 God made a covenant with Noah and all men, saying he would never again flood the whole earth, and he offered the rainbow as a sign between man and God, whereby both he and men would ‘remember’ that covenant. The rainbow has no power in and of itself, but it serves as a reminder to remember God’s promise. God won’t forget, and the rainbow testifies that he will always remember his covenant with Noah.
In the context of Hebrews 13:3, Paul wasn’t telling his readers that they had forgotten anything pertaining to hospitality, but remembering carries with it the sense of doing or executing what one knows is right to do. Remembering the word of God means having the integrity to carry out the word of God, and in the context of Hebrews 13:3, this means to bind oneself to those bound to the Gospel, as yokefellows (cp. Matthew 11:28-29; Philippians 4:16). Paul’s readers knew and practiced such things in the past (Hebrews 10:33), even surrendering their own property in order to serve the Gospel (Hebrews 10:34). Paul wanted his Jewish believers to continue doing good and not give up, though the messengers were strangers / gentiles (Hebrews 13:2).
Why is this so important? It is because “the marriage feast is honorable in all and the bed undefiled…” (Hebrews 13:4). In other words, what Paul means to say doesn’t concern a literal marriage or a literal bed, but the marriage feast of the Lord, whereby he and the believer are bound in a spiritual, heavenly union. This is what is honorable, despite the fact that many believers in union with Christ aren’t literal Jews. Gentiles are not unclean under the terms of the New Covenant. They are fellow heirs with the Jews, and this is Paul’s point. Strangers who had come to some of them were messengers of the Gospel, whom their hosts had hidden from enemies, thus obtaining a blessing, because “the bed (i.e. the process of begetting souls for Christ) is undefiled. In other words: Christ’s bed cannot be unclean.
Nevertheless, just as there are the Lord’s true servants, there are evil men who ‘serve’ out of pretense for gain (whoremongers) and will take advantage of the believer’s hospitality for evil purposes, and there are also brethren, whose friendship with the world (cp. James 4:4), mocks the good graces of hospitality. However, God will judge such folks, and Paul implies that the brethren shouldn’t allow such things to prevent them from extending the hand of fellowship to strangers, believers who have come their way.
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