Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; 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.
{Hebrews 10:23-25 NASB}
Recently I’ve been reading Hebrews, and repeatedly these words have caught my attention: “Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.”
Usually our thoughts focus around ourselves. It’s a reality of our self-centered human nature. But here, the Lord is calling us to consider our brothers and sisters. To know them, understand them, study them to discern the way the Lord made them. As we begin to comprehend, through the Spirit’s revealing, the essence of their person, we can find ways to “provoke” (KJV), “stimulate” (NASB) or “motivate” (ESV) them to love and good deeds for the body of Christ and the good of the world. To do any of this with and for our believing family, we must be connected to one another through assembling together, “all the more as you see the day drawing near.” – and it is, amen?!
Have you studied your spouse in this way? What makes him tick? Who has God called him to love, and how? Is there anything keeping him from that? What good deeds has the Lord given your husband to do? Do you understand what he is called to do and know how to effectively encourage him in that? Proverbs 10:11 says “the mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life.” Are your words motivating and life-giving for your husband?
What about your children? Consider them. What moves them? How might you nudge your daughter to “be kind to one another, tenderhearted?” (Ephesians 4:32) Do your sons open their mouths for the rights of all the unfortunate? Do they defend the rights of the afflicted and needy? (Proverbs 31:8-9) We need to exhort them every day, that none of them may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin (Hebrews 3:13). Let us be always seeking “to do good to one another and to everyone.” (1 Thessalonians 5:15) In this way, we are the true salt of the earth.
Perhaps our own example of righteous living is the best way to provoke, stimulate or motivate one another to love and good deeds, as Matthew Henry says “A good example given to others is the best and most effectual provocation to love and good works.”
Of this passage in Hebrews, Henry also says: “Christians ought to have a tender consideration and concern for one another; they should affectionately consider what their several wants, weaknesses, and temptations are; and they should do this, not to reproach one another, to provoke one another not to anger, but to love and good works, calling upon themselves and one another to love God and Christ more, to love duty and holiness more, to love their brethren in Christ more, and to do all the good offices of Christian affection both to the bodies and the souls of each other.” (Matthew Henry)
This is no hopeless endeavor, for we trust in One who is Faithful.
Consider one another.
This post first appeared on jordancristine.wordpress.com, May 2014.
resplendent soul 