“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 3.13)
This verse contains one of the many “one anothers” of the New Testament. I’d like to look at what we’re told to do to one another and why.
The text tells us to exhort one another. That is, to strongly encourage or urge one another. To do what? Context is key.
Verse 6 tells us that Jesus is faithfully caring for the household of God. We are part of that household, if…we “hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.” In other words, if we continue in faith, boldly believing Christ and rejoicing in his salvation, then we are truly the family of God.
Back to verse 13, when sin begins to whisper lies to us, we are to exhort one another to boldly believe and rejoice in our identity as the family of God.
Verse 14 tells us the same thing as verse 6 more plainly. We aren’t just members of the household of God, “we have come to share in Christ”, we are co-heirs with the Son. His faithfulness is ours, and so is his inheritance. Again, this is conditioned with the “if” statement, if we persevere in faith.
This should give us a clue about the lies sin likes to tell us. It attacks our identity. Sin wants to remind us of who we were apart from Christ. As brothers, we are to remind each other of who we really are in Christ…sons and heirs of God! This is God’s given means for us to fight unbelief in our hearts.
A key component of this exhorting that we must not overlooked is the when, “every day, as long as it is called ‘today’”. This isn’t something that can be done once a week, on Sunday, by the pastor. This is something that should happen regularly, daily even.
This exhorting should take place promptly. Don’t put off exhorting one another. If you know your brother is struggling to believe the truth of the gospel in the face of sin’s lies, remind him now, today, don’t wait!
Every believer has the responsibility and the joy of being a minister of the gospel to other believers. Of course, this requires something more than church as an event. It requires steady-state gospel community. It requires being in each other’s lives regularly and often. How else are we to know when our brother needs a reminder of his identity in Christ?
Are you living your life with other believers in such a way as to faithfully “exhort one another every day”?
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