My sweet growing church just started a new series on biblical church and biblical community called "Life Together." This reminded me of one of the most challenging, encouraging and frightening verses to me on the importance of this topic.
Hebrews 3:12-13- "Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin."
FIRST, note that it is the responsibility of the community of believers to watch out for all other members. Not in a judgmental, nosy, gossipy way, but in an attitude of love, and care. The responsibility of the community is to make sure that no one has an "evil, unbelieving heart..."
SECOND, notice what the community should do to ensure the health of its believing members. "Exhort one another." Now, observe the relationship between these two clauses. The first clause ("exhort...") brings about the result of the second clause- "that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." A causes B.
A- "Exhort one another." This is the command.
B- "that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." This is the result/purpose.
The astounding implication here is that if we are not encouraged by fellow members of the church, we will be hardened. If you take away A, you will lose its result, B. Without encouragement, you and I will both grow hardened and deceived by our sinful tendencies. We all have weaknesses, blind spots, and tendencies, and we will indeed rationalize our sin- "You win every argument you have with yourself," as my old Dean used to continually say. So true.
The second implication is that your encouragement of others is crucial & necessary for them to avoid being deceived by sin and falling away. We truly gain 'life together,' but death apart!
Now, for those who may argue that we should 'mind our own business' and that encouragement and intimacy like this is 'nosy,' I would argue the following- Encouragement is loving. When I proofread your term paper and point out your grammatical and spelling errors, do I not have your own good in mind? When a climbing partner points out the dangers of the path his partner has taken, isn't he looking out for his buddy's best interest? Shoot, when you point out my open fly or the cream cheese on my face before the job interview, isn't that an act of love for me? In the same way, encouragement, correction, and instruction are not invasive, but life-giving acts of love.
How critical encouragement is to the health of our faith! And so I ask us the following...
1) Are you encouraging those in your lives? They need it to keep their faith!
2) Have you placed yourself in a position to receive consistent encouragement from others? How do you respond to their encouragement?
My encouragement to you- don't die away from the pack.
Solid, solid post. Grounding "Perseverance of the Saints" in real life, in the nitty, gritty hearth and home level of the church is something I always forget - this is an aspect of the fear of the Lord that is neglected. Somewhat surprisingly - this preventive encouragement/exhortation idea is a huge area of emphasis for our church in Jerusalem. It has proven to be a huge blessing in me and Mindy's sanctification.
ReplyDeleteOh and thanks for not "minding your own business" in my case - my grammatical errors are ever diminishing.
Ryan,
ReplyDeleteRemember when we went rock-climbing on Mother's Day? You were very encouraging of me. I think of encouragement as putting courage into someone else, and when you were telling me I was doing well (and what to avoid), I actually had more strength. Amazing.
Hey Ryan,
ReplyDeleteGreat post. Very thought provoking.
You have drawn to my attention two areas where I didn't even know I was lacking! And such is the process of sanctification.
By the way, I don't know if you realized this when you wrote this blog, but you are doing what you are attempting to encourage us all to do. Nice!
Quick question: Are you saying that Christians will absolutely harden if they are not being exhorted by the body, based on this text?
Just curious because it's hard to tell sometimes if the "if A, then B" truly equals "if not A, then no B".
Peace!
James- great points that you raise. Let me try and clarify below, based on Hebrews.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that you can say this verse in and of itself absolutely says that you will harden/deny the faith without encouragement. I think you can say that you definitely increase your odds or run the risk of hardening, should you remove yourself from contexts of encouragement. I do think it claims that there are God-given means that must be present for the godly results to come about. God does not simply "keep us" in His hand regardless; rather, he ordains means/causes that we must experience in real time and space in order to give us the grace and faith we need for each passing day.
Practically, however- think of all the ways we experience "exhortation/encouragement" spoken of here: preaching, teaching, singing together, comforting, praying, rebuking, correcting, encouraging, etc. etc. etc. I think that you would be hardpressed to find a true believer who remains a believer while avoiding the above list altogether!
DISCLAIMER- I am not saying that one could lose his salvation. I am attempting to give the urgency of NT passages that warn us to stay on the straight and narrow, and pursue the things which lead to godliness. These God-given means must be present in our lives, as God has ordained these things to keep us near himself.
Any thoughts on that?
Good stuff man. I don't have any immediate feedback on your response. You pretty much answered my question and satisfied my curiosity. Good job!
ReplyDeleteSee ya at practice!