(If you went to Westside Baptist Church in Ponchatoula this past Sunday, this will probably seem very familiar, but I don't think we could over-emphasize the importance of Christian partnerships.)
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an 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. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. (Hebrews 3:12-14)
What a command. Watch out that your heart doesn't become evil and that you don't become deceived so that your faith might be proved true. Thank God that we don't have to do this alone, thank God for the Church! We are so easily deceived about things in our own life, but there are also times when we know that we are in sin, yet our brains do everything to justify the motives of our hearts. Now, if someone else is in sin, we can see it much more clearly and we are much quicker to tell them about their sin than we are to listen to our own. And that's why we need each other.
Don't you hate when someone tells you where you're falling short? Especially when you can name at least 3 areas where they are too? Learn to love it! Whether they are doing it to be a jerk or not, if they're right, they're right and you can learn from it. We are to love one another, but we all know that as long as we live here, people (even those in the Church) will always be jerks (just like we will) at one point or another. How do you respond? With love like Christ did. Another great passage that deals with this is Ephesians 4:15-16: "speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped,when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love."
We all hear how people are saying something before we will hear what they are actually saying, so we must not only speak truth, but do it in genuine love. We (the collective Church) are to grow in every way into Christ while building each other up in love. This is not an ideal American goal where I build myself up at any cost, you and I are to build up the whole body of the Church, which sometimes means that you take on extra burdens, and which always means that we encourage each other daily. The goal is to be good partners to one another. We are striving for the same goal with the same power by the same Spirit given by the same God while also fighting against the same sinful nature. And if we are fighting against the same thing for the same goal and we are also members one of another, should we not encourage each other every day? My well-being is linked to yours and vice versa. I need you and we need each other.
We are like coals: separate one from the rest and it will soon grown cold, but place it back among the rest, and it will be warm and give off warmth again. To put it another way, "Christian perseverance is a community project."
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an 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. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. (Hebrews 3:12-14)
What a command. Watch out that your heart doesn't become evil and that you don't become deceived so that your faith might be proved true. Thank God that we don't have to do this alone, thank God for the Church! We are so easily deceived about things in our own life, but there are also times when we know that we are in sin, yet our brains do everything to justify the motives of our hearts. Now, if someone else is in sin, we can see it much more clearly and we are much quicker to tell them about their sin than we are to listen to our own. And that's why we need each other.
Don't you hate when someone tells you where you're falling short? Especially when you can name at least 3 areas where they are too? Learn to love it! Whether they are doing it to be a jerk or not, if they're right, they're right and you can learn from it. We are to love one another, but we all know that as long as we live here, people (even those in the Church) will always be jerks (just like we will) at one point or another. How do you respond? With love like Christ did. Another great passage that deals with this is Ephesians 4:15-16: "speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped,when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love."
We all hear how people are saying something before we will hear what they are actually saying, so we must not only speak truth, but do it in genuine love. We (the collective Church) are to grow in every way into Christ while building each other up in love. This is not an ideal American goal where I build myself up at any cost, you and I are to build up the whole body of the Church, which sometimes means that you take on extra burdens, and which always means that we encourage each other daily. The goal is to be good partners to one another. We are striving for the same goal with the same power by the same Spirit given by the same God while also fighting against the same sinful nature. And if we are fighting against the same thing for the same goal and we are also members one of another, should we not encourage each other every day? My well-being is linked to yours and vice versa. I need you and we need each other.
We are like coals: separate one from the rest and it will soon grown cold, but place it back among the rest, and it will be warm and give off warmth again. To put it another way, "Christian perseverance is a community project."