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29th May 2024
WednesdayReflection
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Dan Ledwith offers
'Learning To Be Full Of Grace And Truth'
Spurring One Another?
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We have been forgiven.
There is no more need for sacrifices.
For this reason Jesus was able to do something no human high priest was able to do: sit.
He sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
Because of this, we have access to the Father
We are now free to draw near to God because by faith in Jesus our sins have been forgiven; we can approach God with a clear conscience.
Think about that!
If we have faith in Christ, we do not need to worry about being accepted.
We can walk right in and get as close to God as your heart desires.
In light of that truth, we are told to hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.
How do we hold to the hope we profess?
The answer is given in
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another - and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
.....Hebrews 10:24-25 NIV
In these two verses we are directed to hold on to the hope we have in Jesus in four ways:
Spur one another on toward love.
The Greek word behind spur is the word "to provoke," "to stir up"
In a positive context (like it is used here) it means to entice or motivate.
In a negative context it means to dispute, contend, or exasperate.
We are to entice one another towards love.
Love is the core, the DNA of the Christian life as is made clear in the Great Commandment, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. [and] 'Love your neighbour as yourself.
All the Law and the Prophets [Jesus says,] hang on these two commandments.
Spur one another on to good deeds.
My favourite definition of love is John Piper's:
Love is the overflow of joy in God that gladly meets the needs of others.
If we are loving one another it is going to be shown in doing good to and for one another.
That is how love works.
The feeling of love in the heart motivates our will to act in accordance with it.
To spur one another on toward love is to spur one another on toward good deeds.
We can't spur one another on toward love and good deeds if we neglect getting together.
Spurring, enticing, and motivating requires relationship, it requires community, it requires being together.
It doesn't take long to realize that loving one another, doing good to and for one another, and regularly meeting together to do so requires encouragement.
Life's trials, the devil's schemes, and our own sin make it often seem like it is swimming against the current to keep up this work.
We need to constantly be reminded of the sufficiency of Christ, the reality and trustworthiness of His promises, and the loving support of one another to pick us up when we falter or fall so that we can get back up and get back at it without being discouraged.
The way we hold on to the hope we have in Jesus is to practice it, to live it out day in and day out.
This hope is not to be only passively accepted and believed, but actively lived; it is a way of life.
This is why the Puritans defined Christianity as living for God through Christ.
The faith we have in Jesus leads to hope, which then effects and directs our whole life.
Faith results in practice.
It results in love and good deeds and moves us to meet together and encourage one another so that our love is always getting better and sweeter and producing more and more good.
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This is an edited version.
The full article and Bible references are avaiable on request
My name is Dan Ledwith.
I am an ordained pastor in the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference (CCCC),
an author of several books, and a speaker.
You should know that my theological bent is from the Reformed perspective, and I am something of a Jonathan Edwards nut...but please don't let that scare you away!
I am a husband and father to three beautiful girls.
I work fulltime as a store manager for Twins Smoke Shop and Lounge in Hooksett, NH
As my spiritual father and mentor, Charlie Jones was known for saying:
you will be the same person you are today in five years except for two things - the people you meet and the books you read.
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