WE ARE OUR BROTHERS KEEPERS
Hebrews 3:12-14 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.
It is a scary thing for me to think that at any time I could turn from Jesus. I believe that this can be done in heaven as well as Satan and many of God’s holy angels did. Jesus tells us that in the last days before he returns the antichrist and false prophet will deceive many, and they Christians will turn from him. It is hard to imagine, but people do it all the time. And it is not just those that want to go back to a life of sin. I had a young man tell me that his father was a retired pastor and he had turned from trusting in Jesus. For people that want to turn from Jesus the devil will give them plenty of reasons. All of them come from the carnal nature that demands our will over God’s will for our life.
II Timothy 3:1-5 says this about the last days before Jesus’ return, “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, ungrateful,unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God - having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.” Well, it seems to me that this is describing the world today. Sometimes when we turn on the evening news we wonder if there is any good going on at all. I believe that it is even affecting the churches that profess hope in Jesus. There seems to be so little encouragement to hope in. Sad to say this is nothing new. Paul not only warned Timothy in Ephesus, but he is also warning the people in the letter we call Hebrews. In the life of the early church there was a great deal of sadness and persecution all around them. All they had was the Lord,and the encouragement of fellow Christians. For the most part we don’t know what is going on in the life of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ unless, we make it a special priority in our commitment to Jesus and his church. Our commitment with the church has to be very much like that in our own families. It takes work so to speak. If we no longer take time to be with our wife and children we begin to drift apart, and when we do we lose track of areas of their life where we need to be in order to help them.
Paul reminds his readers that we must not give up on meeting together. We all need the encouragement that comes through our worship of Jesus. He tells us not to throw away our confidence, but continue to persevere so we will do the will of God. We are not only accountable to God, but we are accountable to each other in the body of Christ. It is just like the saying, “One bad link in a chain make the entire chain weak.” There is only one to know the needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ and that is to keep in contact with them. In some ways we are a mutual aid or encouragement society to one another. We are to live a life that will encourage others and glorify Jesus. This does not come about by accident. It is something we need to be committed to. We are all called and not just the pastoral staff to keep track of the family of God. When we reach out to them in the love of Jesus, we will find that love reaching right back to us.
Prayer: Lord, please help us to be all you need us to be, and all our brothers and sisters need us to be as well. Thank you Jesus. We ask this in your name.
