Spurring Each Other’s Love and Good Deeds (Heb.10:19-25)                                                 2008.09.21    Pastor Richard Yu

Can a person truly live as a Christian entirely outside of any relationship or interaction with other Christians? Can he/she be a true Christian when there’s a total lack of involvement in any community of believers? Ultimately God only knows. However, what we can say with confidence is that this is not the kind of believer we see portrayed in the Bible. The Bible demands a high degree of mutuality among believers. Because, I believe, the biblical command of loving God and loving man cannot be lived out in the absence of a community – however small or large it may be. The love of God is demonstrated through loving actions toward fellow believers. (cf. 1 John 3:16-17; 4:20).

 The Apostle Paul taught that the three most important aspects in Christian living are hope, faith, and love. The author of the Book of Hebrews seemed to follow the same revelation of the Spirit when he exhorts his readers to live out the salvation they have received in Jesus Christ by ways of drawing near to God in “full assurance of faith,” by “holding unswervingly to the hope” they profess, and by spurring one another’s love and good deeds.

The author gave two motivations for this kind of living: First, the superior salvation they have received in Jesus Christ. He has presented a case from the beginning of the book that Jesus is superior to everything in which they had held in high esteem – Jesus is superior to the angels, Moses, Joshua, Aaron, rest in the Promised Land, temple sacrifice, and the divine covenant. Secondly, as they see the Day is approaching when Jesus is returning to exercise the final judgment and establish His kingdom on earth.

The author reminds his readers that they already have free access to God’s inner sanctuary because Christ has opened by His self-offering a new way to God and thus a new way of life (vv. 19-20). The believers are reminded that by the all-sufficient sacrificial work of Jesus, they have complete freedom to approach God. There’s no need to feel reserved, or inhibited anymore in their access to God. Furthermore, they have Jesus as high priest over God’s people (v. 21) to which they belong (cf. 3:6). Therefore they are to live in manners befitting to this kind of privilege:

(1) They are to seize this privilege to come into God’s presence in faith and not to be deterred in any way due to their own sense of personal failure or weakness or spiritual set-back. They ought to press on to the inner sanctuary of God knowing their hearts were cleansed; their bodies were washed by the work of Jesus. This inward and outward purification signifies that the whole person is cleaned (v. 22).

(2) They are to hold fast (v. 23)! Their hope in Christ for the preservation of their salvation and the attainment of eternal life is established upon the fact that God is faithful to keep His promises to the believers. Their hope is no longer tied to this material, temporal world; therefore, they should not allow outward circumstance or temporal disappointment in life events to sway their hope.

(3) They are to consider each other and stay together (vv. 24-25)! They are to pay attention to the well-being of fellow believers. They are to watch out for each other for possible failures or weaknesses in the community; especially in light of the persecution from the hostile, un-believing world. To do so, they are to stimulate each other to live a life of love and good deeds, which are the direct expression of the love.

The author’s emphasis on not neglecting meeting together with other believers (v. 25), underscores the idea that love and good deeds must be exercised in the context of communities. The Bible variously describe the believers as God’s Temple; living stones being built into a spiritual house of God; branches to the vine; a flock of sheep; members of God’s household; God’s people; and most clearly, the human body to which each member belong – although each member functions differently. So once again, we see that no Christian should or can live in the absence of other believers in a faith community.

The implications of these exhortation for us today are many; let me suggest a few as to how we might consider each other in spurring love and good deeds: (1) In addition to regular Sunday worship gatherings, everyone needs to be participating in at least another small group or fellowship. Again, only through the context of the gathering of believers can we spur each other on. (2) We need to be mindful of the nature of the composition of our congregation. The community in which CCGC locates is largely family oriented. We will always have multiple generations present in our midst. We need to be considerate in accommodating the different generational needs and tastes - that means, when we do come together, our focus is no longer just “what can I get out of this;” but also “what can I do to care for another brother or sister.”  (3) We need to learn to take an active interest, and invest ourselves, in the lives of others – especially for the older folks to do so among the younger ones. I pray that the Spirit of God would guide your heart in finding your own way of spurring love and good deeds in others.