More thoughts from my study on Hebrews...
In Hebrews 3: 12-15 we are called as brothers and sisters in Christ to exhort each other daily. The Greek word for “exhort” is parakaleo. The pre-fix means “alongside”, and the end is a verb (kaleo) which means to “call out”. Some might recognize this as similar to parakletos, which was another word used in scripture to describe the Holy Spirit as “a helper” who comes alongside to help us (John 14: 16 – 17). This section of Hebrews seems to match the daily exhortation of brothers in Christ to holding fast to our faith during the course of our daily walk with God.
David Guzik, in his book “Hebrews” describes it like this (you may want to read the following after also checking out Ephesians 4:29 – a great companion to his commentary below):
If we will strengthen our faith and avoid the ruin of unbelief, we must be around other Christians who will exhort – that is, “seriously encourage” us. This shows our responsibility to both give exhortation and to receive exhortation, and to exhort one another daily. It is an easy thing to judge and criticize, but that is not exhortation. If you are out of fellowship altogether, you can’t exhort or be exhorted. When we are out of fellowship, there is much less around us to keep us from becoming hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. – Guzik
Guzik also quotes Spurgeon: “You are to watch over your brethren, to exhort one another daily, especially you who are officers of the church, or who are elderly and experienced. Be upon the watch lest any of your brethren in the church should gradually backslide, or lest any in the congregation should harden into a condition of settled unbelief, and perish in their sin. He who bids you take heed to yourself, would not have you settle down into a selfish care for yourself alone, lest you should become like Cain, who even dared to say to the Lord himself, ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’”
The above quote from Spurgeon is a great thing to keep in mind if you’ve been around a while in your walk with God or serve in the church, but it’s also key for those of us who are younger in our walk or don’t serve. If our more mature brothers and sisters are to minister to (or exhort) us, we need to make ourselves available to them. This simply cannot happen if you make your walk a quiet, solitary walk.
Christianity, then, is certainly not a solitary endeavor. Phillips, in his book “Hebrews” writes this:
Christianity is not an individual but a team endeavor. So if we do not know the nature of our fellow believers’ struggles, and if we do not share ours with them, then we will never be able to follow through with this command. The result, in that case, will be that people among us will fall prey to sin. Therefore we are commanded to be watchful for just these things in the body of Christ, thereby ensuring that none of us falls away because of sin’s deceitfulness. We must watch out and exhort one another daily in the things of the faith. - Phillips
Phillips then goes on to describe relationships between Godly brothers and sisters that are not just surface level, but instead undeniably deeper. It could be argued then that we must know our brothers’ struggles and victories in order to truly exhort each other daily. Only by cultivating deeper and richer relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ, can we actually spot or uncover the deceitfulness and lure of sin as it may be trying to work its way into the lives of those around us – or for certain or own lives (don’t forget the log in your own eye!). Sin advertises quick relief, a quick fix, and even great pleasure and personal satisfaction. It may do this through false teachers, the great deceiver, or even our own wicked hearts. Sometimes it attacks forcefully, sometimes gently, more often than not it comes gradually and quietly… like the parable “How do you cook a frog?”. You sit it in a pot of cool water, and then very slowly and very gradually turn up the heat … just a little here, a little there. The frog never knows what hit it!
Phillips further writes:
The problem is that our hearts are so willing to be deceived. Combine this with the reality that sin is deceitful in its very nature, and you see why we have so great a need of godly fellowship, of exhortation, and of warning at the very first states of temptation. We need help being watchful over the spiritually dangerous temptations that by their very nature are hostile to Christian faith. Therefore, we must exhort one another, lest some of us should fall prey to sin’s deception, even to the hardening of our hearts against God. We must realize that sin is not merely something we do. Sin is a power, an enemy army, like a pack of wolves surrounding the flock and darting in to pick off likely targets. Therefore, as Simon Kistemaker writes, ‘Believers have a corporate and an individual responsibility to care for the spiritual well-being of their fellow men. They must consider this responsibility a holy obligation and exhibit utter faithfulness’. Christian fellowship, including prayer, Bible study, and meaningful friendship, is a great bulwark against sin’s deception; in such company the arguments of sin lose their force, and we are strengthened in faith and obedience. Our goal is to persevere to the end and enter into God’s rest, and our strategy is mutual watchfulness. What a worthy cause that is! It is worth inconvenience, it is worth giving up some leisure time. It is worth real sacrifice and will repay the dividends of eternal life. - Phillips
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