Encourage One Another

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (NIV)
“and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” (NASB)

This is particularly good Scripture for people in small groups or in any corporate worship.

Sometimes I feel that I must be the embodiment of these verses. I’m continually exposing others to opportunities to love and do good deeds. And trying to help small groups recognize the call to continue to meet throughout the year, even during summer and holidays.

We are sometimes the speck of sand in the oyster for each other. The tiny crystal of silica helps produce a beautiful pearl. The grit, the abrasion, the irritation causes a reaction that brings forth beauty. To speak into each others lives means that we need to be in each others lives. This is the only way to earn the right to do life-on-life. We can spur each other on from the outside, but it’s like shouting at one another. The noise is loud and irritating and fairly unpleasant. It is when we are allowed to whisper in another’s life because we have earned the right by virtue of our actions with that person, that we are able to move people to action.

Paul wants believers to see three important things as a result of his instruction.

Just talking about things isn’t much of a spur if we are not an example of those things in our own life. If I am not walking the talk, you will not pay any attention to what I say. I will instead be suggesting that you do something that I am not willing to do myself. And if I am not willing to do it, why would someone else be motivated to do it. Similarly, I must be living a life of love and good works not only because this is what I am called to do, but in order to be a light to others, like a flashlight on a trail in a dark forest. If you follow my light, when I suggest that you get a light yourself for the next trail, you will already have observed its value.

The third and perhaps most important principle that Paul wants us and our fellow Christians to see is the result of our love and good deeds. Those who are beneficiaries of what we do for good are living witnesses to the power and grace of Jesus Christ. You cannot hardly give a good gift that does not keep on giving. When you do a kindness for another person, that action almost always causes a similar reaction in them. A smile begets a smile. Good works and love can begin a process of healing and restoration in even the most wounded person. By being a community of people who reflect the love and works of Jesus Christ we are not just living examples of him in the world, we are living catalysts for change in the world. If believers are not the catalyst for love and good works in the world then surely the world is doomed to the prince of darkness. But our shining of the bright light of the Way, through the ways we help others and the love we show, become the positive sand in the oysters of the people we touch, used by the Holy Spirit to slowly and gently produce beauty within them. We have no influence over the process within them – this is the province of the Holy Spirit. But, we are the agents to deliver the sand. And its influence in our own community is made even more pronounced as the stimulation of others around us causes them to do so, also.

Nuclear reaction starts when the first nuclear elements collide.