Last week in our going back to the basics we took a look at worship, and how it is our way of expressing our love and gratitude towards God. This week we will be looking at a similar concept which is that of fellowship; the definition of which is, “friendly association, especially with people who share one’s interests.” In regards to how we as Christians view fellowship a great passage to look at is that of Hebrews 10:24-25, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

Stir Each Other Up

The first thing we notice is that the author of Hebrews calls the believers to “consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.” This phrase “stir up” had me curious what some of the other translations used, and I saw phrases such as encourage, stimulate, spur on, and the good old King James calls us to provoke each other. I will say the translations that use spur on, and provoke as well as others that use stir up bring a stronger sense than just to encourage. What the author is wanting us, and was wanting the believers to whom he was originally writing, to do was more of a challenge.

When I think of encouragement I think of someone suggesting a change or an action, more of being a cheerleader. Where stirring up or provoking something is to aggravate it, much like poking a sleeping bear. It is like when many of us were younger and would among our friends dare each other to do stupid stunts. The author of Hebrews is saying think of ways to dare each other, to challenge each other. As men this should speak to us we should find a way to be competitive with each other.

Love and Good Works

So what is it we are to dare each other with, various ways of showing love and good works. We should be thinking of ways to challenge each other to show Christ’s love to our fellow man. We should find ways to dare each other to put our faith into action. One of my favorite passages is in James where he is talking about faith without works is dead. He is not saying we are saved by any sort of works, but that good works should flow out of our faith.

Iron Sharpens Iron

But how does this competitive attitude towards love and good works promote fellowship? Well it is the concept found in Proverbs 27:17, “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.” You see when in Christian fellowship we are challenging each other to a sort of do better than this in love and good works, we should be pushing each other to focus more on Christ. We are not telling each other see what I did, I bet you can’t out do it. Instead we are saying see this action, I bet you can do better than this. We are not trying to bring our actions or ourselves glory but we are trying to build and strengthen each other to bring glory to God.

Fellowship does not stop here though, next time we will look at the next part of Hebrews 10:24-25, “not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some.”