Hebrews 1:14 says: “Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?”

We can learn at least four things from this.

First, angels are ministering spirits—or, put another way—serving spirits. If you wanted to find a verse that furthered the idea of guardian angels this could be one of them. Angels are servants. 

Second, “all” angels are to do this. It’s not like some angels get a pass and get to watch Netflix all day.

Third, they are sent by God to serve a specific group of people: “those who will inherit salvation.” That’s the people of Christ. Through him we are adopted as God’s children and given the benefits of being in the eternal family.

Fourth, angels in our lives are yet another indication of God’s proactive, unyielding and fully committed love and care for us. In the 1600’s John Owen emphasized this when he said: “Such is the love and care of God towards his saints labouring here below, that he sends the most glorious attendants on his throne to minister unto them, and to take care of them. He who gave his only Son for them, will not spare to send his holy angels. Heaven and earth shall be witnesses of his care, and of the value that he puts on them.”*

Although we don’t know everything there is to know about angels, we know they are real and that they are a part of God’s strategy to help his people through the invisible-yet-ever-present spiritual battleground of life.

You matter. The Lord of heaven and earth prepares us for heaven and battles for us on earth.

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Notes:

*John Owen, An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews with the Preliminary Exercitations, Volume II (London: T. Pitcher, 1790), 107.

–Bible quotes are from the NIV.