Encourage!

Hebrews 3:12 “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you and 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.”


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.”


I love these verses.  They are certainly sober warnings, but they also contain great promises for productivity.  The first is more negative: be careful to look after one another because you will be tempted and tried and need to stay strong by being reminded of the great and precious promises of the gospel.  The second points the way to fruitfulness: through regular fellowship we are strengthened and encouraged to keep our love and our pursuit of good works strong.

We need each other.  That’s why God gave us the church.  We are the body of Christ and relationships are not optional.  The fellowship is not about the coffee and donuts!  It’s about putting courage into each other-that’s what encouragement means.  And how we need it since we are swimming against a very strong current of sin within and without.

Are you your brother’s keeper?  Sounds like we’re supposed to be!