Air Date April 17, 2016: This week Glenn, Ray, and Chuck talked about the people and purpose behind Becoming God’s Man Ministries.
So this week we have been talking about fellowship, how it involves motivating each other to live out their faith as well as a gathering together of believers. Today we will look at the last little section of Hebrews 10:24-25, where we are told we need to be “encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” One thing I have noticed is that in the Bible there are a lot of either progressions, or texts where the last thing mentioned is an outcome of the previous, this is one of those cases.
The biggest question is what does it mean to encourage one another? Some ways that encourage is defined is to give support, confidence, hope, advice, to help or stimulate or develop. To encourage one another we essentially are coming along and walking alongside each other and we move closer to Christ. Think of it like this, remember back when you were in school, or maybe you are still in school, how at times working on your homework and studying often was easier when you were working with someone instead of being by yourself? The reason is because the other person will encourage you, they will help you to push forward; just like you will do for them. I will point out that while in the long term encouragement is positive there is a level of accountability that comes with it. Much like your study partner will hold you accountable to be paying attention in class, take notes, and review on your own; in fellowship with other believers we are to hold each other accountable by pointing out, in love, when each other slips up as well as checking on how we are handling difficult times of great temptation. You see it is through accountability that we find where we each struggle and need to be encouraged the most; if I am going through a time of great temptation that is when I need a brother in Christ to come alongside and encourage me to hold strong to my faith and to keep my eyes turned to God.
The author of Hebrews finishes off these two verses by stating that the need for fellowship is going to be greater as we approach the return of Christ. When you look at what the Gospels and other passages in the Bible mention about Christ’s return you can see why. As we “see the Day drawing near” we will see morals and godly values going out the door; sin will be the norm. Sound familiar? You see with our society and culture looking less and less towards God and focused more on what pleases them, sin is becoming more and more acceptable. As Christians we are to be set apart, as we saw last week not to conform to the ways of the world, in order to do so we need that fellowship with other believers because it is through fellowship that we are able to keep from becoming more like the world and less like Christ.
Last time we started to look at the concept of fellowship and Hebrews 10:24-25. We saw that in this passage fellowship has an aspect of pushing each other to be closer to God, if we continue to look at the passage, “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.”
So we see the next thing the author of Hebrews mentions is that we are not to neglect meeting together. What this means is that our life as a believer should not be in isolation, we need to be around each other. You cannot do it alone, the church is often called the body of Christ, what happens when a part of the body is no longer a part of the body? Say something as small as a hair is removed, that strand of hair will die; the believer that tries to live in isolation from other believers suffers the same fate, they will spiritually dry up. As I brought up last time in Proverbs 27:17 we are told “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another,” We need others and to gather together for them to be able to push us into strengthening our faith. The problem isn’t just having others to help us grow in our faith, but look at when you hit hard times. If you are living your life in isolation you have no one that can come and give you an encouraging word, or to just provide comfort by being there to listen to you vent; in isolation you have no support.
The author of Hebrews plainly told his original audience that neglecting meeting together has become the habit of some. It was an issue back in the first century and it is even more so today. You may state but we are more connected today, we have the internet which allows us to be connected with others all around the world. These virtual relationships, while at times can be beneficial, can also produce a false sense of fellowship. Yes with our virtual worlds we can connect with those we may never have the chance to meet in person, or we can keep connected with those that have moved away. With physical relationships and physical fellowship when you encounter a crisis, you have those that can be there for you and help out if it is needed. All you get with the virtual are words of encouragement, even if they may want to help they are limited. These limitations are one main reason why it is important to get plugged into a local body of believers, as they are able to help out in ways that those in a virtual community are not able to.
Next time we will finish off this passage by looking at how we are to finally encourage each other, as this comes out of both motivating each other and gathering together.
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.”
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.
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.
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.”