Dear church,

Peter began his letter by reminding the “elect exiles” – these were the very first Christians, living in times of sure persecution – about who they were. They were “born again.”

They were born again by the “great mercy” of God. This happened through the resurrection of Christ, and it assures Christians they have a hope that is absolutely rock solid. Their hope is, as Peter wrote, imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, and it is kept in heaven, waiting for each one of them.

This is who the “elect exiles” were. And his is who we are – any of us who have put our faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. We are born again.

Peter then pivoted, about midway through chapter 1, to begin talking about how Christians should live. Difficult things were happening to the church, and more difficult things would happen to the church in later years. Persecution and tribulation would cause problems for Christians. Those things still cause problems for Christians across the world.

How are Christians to live? Peter said their minds are to be prepared for “action.” Christians aren’t to fall slavishly under the influence of the world and the old things that kept us entertained and busy. No, Christians are to be “sober-minded.” We’re to focus on the grace of God.

And we’re to be holy.

That’s a big thing. Holiness is something we know we are incapable of achieving on our own. It’s a big demand that God is making of us. “Be holy.” This means, however, not so much that we need to be perfect but that we live as people who are set apart for God. We’re different from the world. We are his.

And then, again, Peter reminded his listeners they had been “born again.”

We aren’t just any kind of human beings. We are people who have been given the greatest gift imaginable – eternal life and entrance into the family of God. We are privileged people in that we no longer have anything to fear in this life.

Because we are born again, we are God’s children. We have a Father who loves us. This is a wonderful place to be, and I suspect we don’t often appreciate just how blessed we are – to be born again.

Peter got this idea from Jesus, who told Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). A person must be born again in order to join the family of God and experience eternal life.

Jesus also said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). And we recognize the faith aspect – and the other-worldly aspect – of being born again. When I read this, I understand Jesus to be saying we are born again through the waters of baptism, which follow our faith and our obedience to the truth of Jesus Christ.

At the same time, we welcome the transforming impact of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We aren’t born again without the power of the Holy Spirit – the power of God. Remember, it also was written, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13). Peter said we are born again according to the “great mercy” of God (1 Peter 1:3).

We have a new parent, indeed. And this business of being born again is God’s business. He makes it possible. We submit to it.

These are good things to think about.

So is Peter’s instruction that Christians are to live with “brotherly love” toward one another (1 Peter 1:22). We do this because we are part of the family of God, and this is how our Father desires us to live. Like in our biological families, we don’t get to choose who are siblings are. We are simply to love them.

Spend some time considering these things today.

Chris

Dear church,

Patience is not something our culture has in abundant supply. Mary and I went through a restaurant drive-through lane the other night and noticed how slow the line moved. Well, I noticed how slow the line moved.

It was somewhat frustrating. All told, we might have been there for 15 minutes.

Warren Buffett, the famous investor, is known for his business advice – like investing aggressively when everyone else is selling, and selling when everyone else is buying. I read an article the other day about one of his top pieces of advice.

It is this: Be patient. He said, “No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time. You can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.”

Sometimes, an entrepreneur simply needs to stay the course. The profits may not be there initially, and the temptation might be to drop out and chase some other dream. But the advice of this one billionaire investor is to stay put. Keep working hard and smart, and keep waiting.

But, again, we’re not a very patient society. Fifteen minutes in the drive-through lane can drive a person crazy.

And James wrote, “Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.”

James was pointing us toward the end – to live with the end in mind. I stayed in the drive-through lane because I knew the end. Entrepreneurs keep working and waiting because they know the pay off at the end.

Of course, a person could pull out of the drive-through lane. And a businessman could sell off his business prematurely. And it’s fair to question whether the end will come just the way we want it – that the food actually is worth the wait and that the profits will be just as we had hoped.

I suppose in all of this, faith is required.

“You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.”

We live with the end in mind. We wait. We “establish” our hearts with the fullness of God’s Word and the working of the Holy Spirit. And we wait some more. We trust in the promise of Jesus that he is coming back as King.

I wonder whether the sins we commit and the moral failings we exhibit are a result of a lack of patience and living with the end in mind. It is possible to lose sight of the end, to forget the coming of the Jesus is “at hand.”

And if we forget, we easily could have our attention taken up by other pursuits. We can get frustrated with ourselves or other people or our circumstances, and we can act outside of our character as Christians. We are no longer living with patience.

Please think on these things today. In what ways are your thoughts and actions dictated by the promised return of Christ? In what ways have you gotten off track?

Chris

Dear church,

Our God is a jealous God. James wrote that God is jealous over the spirits (or perhaps the Spirit) he put into each of us. This means he desires unwavering commitment from his people – just as a husband would desire this from his wife.

As Christians, we are in a covenant relationship with God. And he doesn’t want us to turn back to the world. “Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

There is an “in” and “out” kind of dichotomy here. God doesn’t want us to try to straddle the line. Those with passion don’t think highly of line-straddlers!

I was reading today about former President George W. Bush, who said on one hand that he had called Joe Biden to congratulate him on becoming the president-elect but on the other hand said President Trump ought to pursue various legal means to ensure the election was fair.

I noticed President Bush immediately was criticized for his statement. It was noted he was trying to please both sides of the aisle.

Who are we trying to please – really? This is a question we are quick to answer: “God! Of course!” But we ought to think more deeply about this question.

James was sharply critical of what he called an “adulterous” group of Christians. They were trying to have it both ways. They were trying to be friends with the world while remaining faithful to God. But this was impossible. God demands full allegiance. He wants us to be all in for him, and the world constantly is trying to pull us away from him.

And we all stumble in many ways. James noted this (3:2). And absolute commitment to God is one of the ways in which we stumble. What hope do we have when facing this jealous God?

Much!

“But he gives more grace.”

If God were ruthlessly jealous – which he is – but not full of grace, we should be shaking in our boots. There would be no hope for us. At the same time, if God was full of grace but not jealous for our love in return, he would be a pretty weak and uncommitted kind of God.

But God is fully jealous – or zealous – for our love. And he gives us the grace needed to give our hearts fully to him. He gives us what he requires from us, as one ancient theologian has said.

So we lean into his grace. And we commit never to straddle the line.

Chris

Dear church,

This passage is about wisdom, selfishness, peace, and fighting. And it is about how all of these things fit into the church. Writing to the church, James asked, “Who is wise and understanding among you?” And then he asked a moment later, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?”

This is about life in the church – and about wisdom, selfishness, peace, and fighting – among us. James seems to toggle back and forth among these things, showing us true wisdom is all about peace, and selfishness only leads to fighting.

True wisdom is meek. That means it is humble. A meek kind of wisdom, I suppose, is not a demanding kind of wisdom. It is wisdom that, perhaps, listens first. It is a wisdom that will pay attention to others. This kind of wisdom doesn’t show off. It is quiet. It reveals itself in good conduct, as James wrote.

And then there is selfishness. James wrote about bitter jealousy and selfish ambition. We know what this is. This is where we say, with the best of the toddlers, “Mine!” Our bitter jealousy drives us to competition. Our selfish ambition pushes us to push others out.

We just endured a week of bitter jealousy and selfish ambition, and it really doesn’t matter which side we take up. From either perspective, red or blue, these things are clear. I’ve read that all 68 million people who voted for one particular candidate are racist and un-American. I’ve also read about election theft and calls to overthrow a government that has yet to take office.

James called it earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. “For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.”

I don’t think James would have us become doormats. I don’t think James would have us turn a blind eye to injustice. But wisdom “from above” tends to move more slowly than our world wants to move. It is pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial, and sincere.

Wisdom from above isn’t tainted by any of the selfishness of this world. There is something about it that is beyond the reach of this world, and beyond the reach of the people of this world.

This kind of wisdom has something the world never can have in full. It is peaceable. “And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” Wisdom from above leads – perhaps mysteriously – to peace.

This is God’s desire for us. This is what Jesus came to do, after all. Jesus told his disciples as he was preparing to go to the cross, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:27).

True wisdom today results in peace. We need this in light of our national unrest. The heart of a Christian is to be a bastion of peace. The landscape of the church is to be marked by peace.

What causes quarrels and fights among us? This is the anti-peace. James here is talking about war, in a sense. One politician, seeing the election results this week, said, “We have won the war.” We understand the tug and pull and competition of politics.

But quarrels and fights aren’t to be “among” us – never in the church. These things emerge from our passions and our desires and our covetousness. They emerge when we long for something we cannot have, and we struggle and complain.

And God doesn’t seem to answer our prayers because our prayers are poorly motivated. Our prayers are about ourselves. There’s that jealousy and selfish ambition again. Our prayers, it seems, ought not to be solely for ourselves – but for others. They ought to be for our church.

Selfishness destroys peace. Wisdom from above creates it. And James wants us to have peace. Jesus wants us to have peace.

What can we take away from this passage? Hopefully, we can take away something “from above,” rather than something that’s “earthly, unspiritual, demonic.”

This passage is about wisdom, selfishness, peace, and fighting – in the church. We are a blessed church in that we have many wise people among us. Our church, in my humble opinion, is blessed with peace – with people who have sown “a harvest of righteousness” in peace.

Still, it is good regularly to ask ourselves about ourselves. Inside of us, at various moments, our brothers and sisters in Christ may bother us. It is possible! We will be having an annual congregational meeting next week, and those sometimes are outlets for jealousy and selfish ambition. And over the course of the next year, we will be discussing the leadership structure of our church. There’s no limit to the inroads jealousy and selfish ambition may make.

And so we keep seeking wisdom. “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him” (James 1:5). Let us keep asking.

Chris

Dear church,

The Book of James sometimes gets a bad reputation. Some people think it primarily is a book about “works” as opposed to “faith.” Of course, this is mostly correct. James does write a lot about “works.” He has a lot to say about what a Christian ought to do.

Some people are uncomfortable about this because James doesn’t put as much emphasis as other New Testament writers – Paul, for example – on the fact that we are saved by grace through faith. Our “works” do not save us. The great church reformer, Martin Luther, had these kinds of reservations about James.

And James wrote this, “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:17). This bothers people because we like to say with the most simplicity that we are saved by faith alone – not faith accompanied by works, like James seemed to be saying.

Of course, this is easily solved. But I think there is more to the problem that we perhaps don’t recognize.

We don’t like the idea of legalism. To be a legalist, at least how I would define it, means there are certain things we must “do” in order to remain on the right side of salvation or to remain in the church. For instance, a legalist might say a person needs to attend church to be saved or to never drink alcohol or to dress a certain way.

Many Christians despise this idea – and rightfully so. We know God saved us by his mercy. Jesus accepts anyone who comes to him in faith. Legalists heap loads of guilt on people who recognize their imperfections.

A lot of us longtime Christians have seen legalism at work, and we know the dangers, and so a book like James is one for which we almost instinctively have to make apologies. We might say, “Yes, James said faith without works is dead, but he really meant …” And we explain what salvation is. We want to assure anyone who is listening that we aren’t legalists (like James, maybe).

But doesn’t Jesus want us to live a certain way? We really ought not to let our apologies get in the way of what James is saying. Isn’t sin a real thing, and doesn’t Jesus want us to reject sin? Aren’t there certain “works” that Jesus does require of the people who adopt his name, who call themselves Christians, and who join the household of God?

We know there aren’t any “works” required in order to be saved. The New Testament is clear about this. Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Romans 10:13). But still, if Jesus doesn’t have a very specific way for us to live, then what was the point of teachings like the Sermon on the Mount, which are full of direct instructions from Jesus about things to do and things not to do?

A heart that is transformed by the grace of God ought to result in a life full of actions that also are transformed by the grace of God.

And so we know there’s a Christian way of life that we learn to live as we enter into the kingdom of God. I would add that this is why we have the church, the family of God, so we can be around people who can demonstrate this kind of kingdom living. And the church is more than good music and sermons produced so you can have a spiritual experience. No, the church is a people who are flawed but all moving in the same direction, toward Christ.

Some scholars think James wrote his letter in response to the apostle Paul’s teachings. James was the brother of Jesus and became prominent in the early church. The thinking is that James heard about some of Paul’s teachings – that there’s nothing a person must do to be saved, only believe – and then saw some so-called Christians who were not exhibiting Christian living.

And so James wrote a letter to correct some of the misconceptions about what it means to live a person’s life as a follower of Jesus Christ. Most of the other letters in the New Testament have a clear emphasis on the grace of God. And James came along and wrote, in essence, “But we ought not forget how Jesus would have us live if we really do trust in him.”

This isn’t legalism. But it does require us to put our focus squarely on the things that we “do” with our lives. I think James would want us to stop in our tracks and to evaluate whether our “works” match our “faith.”

Spend some time today considering how you would address that question in your own life.

Chris

Dear church,

The purpose of James emerges at the end of this chapter. What is pure and undefiled religion? It is the taking care of widows and orphans, and it is being unstained by the world.

The first part is pretty easy to understand. These are the things of God. And we do them. (More on that tomorrow.) God cares for those who are helpless in the world. God cares for people who are unable to rescue themselves, who are unable to sustain themselves in this world. Widows and orphans were left alone and helpless in the ancient world, and too often today.

God’s people were to do the things of God by caring for those who are helpless. We must be mindful that God’s care for the helpless extended to us when Jesus died on the cross. We were helpless in our sins and sinfulness, facing certain death and eternal separation from God. There was nothing we could do to save ourselves. So God acted to save us.

Again, pure and undefiled religion is when we do the things of God by helping those who are helpless, just like he helped us.

And pure and undefiled religion is when we keep ourselves unstained by the world. I think James was a little concerned that the ways of the world were infiltrating the church. Pride and greed and favoritism and speaking harshly were some of the things James warned against in his letter. When we let these things enter into our lives, we are being stained by the world.

Pure and undefiled religion means we keep ourselves as morally pure as we can. We need to have a clear-eyed view of the values of God and the values of the world, and we need to be able to discern when the ways of the world are creeping into our lives or to our church.

This made me think of the election season we just endured. Most of us have opinions about the concepts and characters that were on the ballot in this election. And I’ve wondered just how politically active a Christian ought to be. How vocal should a believer be about his or her views?

My first instinct is to stay silent. It’s been pounded into me from my very first days of ministry that Christians always should keep the focus on the gospel. Don’t let anything detract from that. Gospel, gospel, gospel. If we start talking red and blue, or about taxes or guns or abortion or gender, then people won’t be able to hear as clearly about the gospel that we are speaking.

I think a lot of this advice is good. The gospel can be drowned out by some of this other stuff.

But at the same time, part of me wonders whether Christians are too silent. I wonder whether Satan wants us to stay quiet so that real change doesn’t come to this violent and immoral world. It may, in fact, be the “world” that’s telling us it’s wise for Christians to be quiet about issues like abortion and gender. When we’re silent, perhaps we’re actually “stained” by the world.

I don’t know. This is what I’m puzzling over today. When should a Christian speak and when should a Christian be silent in our polarized and political world? Maybe you have some thoughts on this. If so, let me know.

Chris

Dear church,

We are talking a lot about family in our church these days. That’s my fault. This topic has been of special interest to me for a variety of reasons.

One reason is that I am curious whether a church today can actually operate like a large, extended family. This is what we are after all. “Let brotherly love continue,” the writer of Hebrews wrote. And that’s just one of many references in the New Testament to the idea of the church as a family. The writer of Hebrews certainly liked to describe the church in family terms – Hebrews 2:10-13; 3:6; 10:19-20.

To be a family, of course, means we have obligations to one another. The writer of Hebrews discussed that here. Christians are to show hospitality to one another – to the “stranger” Christians who visit from afar – and they are to care for each other during difficulties, especially when persecution comes.

This family identity of the church can be hard for us to understand, especially in modern America. Our culture prizes individualism. Christ died “for me,” we happily say. I come to worship services to be filled spiritually – to hear powerful worship music and to hear an uplifting message for the preacher. This is good “for me.”

Yes, yes. It is. But so is “brotherly love” and “hospitality” and “remembering” those in the church who suffer. We can turn our faith into a very selfish thing.

There was no room for selfishness in the early church. The writer of Hebrews was trying to keep the church together during difficult times. Some members, pressured by the culture, wanted to drift away from the faith. The writer of Hebrews knew the strength of the community was important to its continued existence. He wanted them to look out for one another. He wanted them to keep gathering – not just to hear worship music and sermons – but to encourage “one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:24-25).

Again, this is difficult for us to understand in our culture. I can sometimes make church about “me,” and I can lose sight of the mutually fortifying benefits of the body of Christ, the household of God. We ought to come to encourage one another, to help each other stay strong in the faith.

Without persecution in our culture – which we are thankful we do not have – we can forget just how important the church is to our faith.

But then again, maybe our culture is trying to draw us away from the faith in more subtle ways than simply throwing us in jail. Perhaps it is trying to lull us to sleep. The very fact that my church life can be mostly about “me” is an early sign of defeat. We are venturing into dangerous territory and can’t sense the danger.

Here’s an idea that perhaps may help you consider whether you’ve made church about yourself or whether you truly do see yourself as part of the community of faith – as a family. When is the last time you were stretched by helping another member of the church? By “stretched,” I mean a circumstance where the need for help by another church member really inconvenienced your personal life. Maybe the person needed your time or your money, and it was just kind of inconvenient for you to meet that need. Or perhaps you avoided the need altogether. You were too busy to help. Or perhaps you just ignored the plea.

“Let brotherly love continue.” Think about it. Brotherly love in the ancient world – and in many cultures today – is the most important kind of love. This is an unconditional love to one’s family members, much like what Jesus gave to us.

I don’t want to make you feel guilty. But I think this is a very valid problem in the church in America. We’ve made the church into something that serves the needs of “me,” rather than a family where we both serve and are served by other members of the body. Sometimes, we simply come to church gatherings as consumers rather than true participants who give just as much as we receive.

It takes work to be in a family. Family disagreements come up sometimes, and we have to work through them. After all, this is family. Family members can be needy and annoying sometimes. But we still have to take care of them. After all, this is family. I might have other things that I would like to do on certain days – and then I might get a call from a family member in need. I might be tempted to blow that person off. But I can’t. After all, this is family.

Sometimes, our family can be inconvenient – like a sudden guest on our doorstep at 8 o’clock at night. “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers.”

I’m not sure many people in the church are welcome to this idea of treating the church like a family. We do want to do good works. But we often want to do them on our own terms – when we are good and ready. “Let’s form a committee to organize that service project. First, let’s pick a day and time that’s convenient for everyone.” Families don’t operate that way. When needs arrive, family members must respond whether they really feel like it or not. (Unless they aren’t good family members.)

Again, I don’t want to make you feel guilty. I’m guilty enough! But think on these things. Do you serve your church family members through thick and thin, good times and bad, even when it is inconvenient to you? Do you even know what the needs of your church family members are? Do you know a church family member who has a need today that you can meet?

Someday, I believe, persecution will come to the church in America. And because so many Christians have failed to embed themselves in church communities – and this goes beyond just showing up for good worship music and uplifting preaching – I’m afraid they simply will fall away from the faith. They won’t have anyone to encourage them, to hold them accountable, to remind them of the hope that they have.

When persecution comes to the church in America, like it did to the first readers of the book of Hebrews, we’re going to be glad we have a church family.

Please think about these things.

Chris

Dear church,

Christians are going to encounter uncertain times in life. But Christians never need to be uncertain.

The writer of Hebrews was encouraging an early group of Christians – an early church – to remain steadfast in the faith in the face of persecution and difficulty. He did not want them to become discouraged by their circumstances. He did not want them to drift away from the faith or to fall back.

Part of his motivation technique was to show how we live in a temporal world. This world and the things of this world will fade away. “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” God has assured us that what we see around us is temporary. There will be a great “removal.”

A couple of months ago, I recall watching videos on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Some newly released videos were from a television cameraman who boldly walked among the ashes at the foot of the twin towers. He ventured through broken glass into some of the buildings in that area, and he would come across local police and fire fighters who were standing by.

Knowing what I know now, I couldn’t help but silently urge those first responders to “Get Out!” The places they were standing would soon become piles of rubble. Only they didn’t know it. They were unaware the buildings soon would come down and that their lives were in deadly peril.

I knew what they didn’t know. And, certainly, I wished they knew what I knew. If they had, they would have high-tailed it out of there.  

The writer of Hebrews was reminding his early readers – and he is reminding us – something that we ought to know. But just in case we forget or no one has bothered to tell us, we have the writer of Hebrews: “See that you do not refuse him who is speaking.”

We must remember that the place where we stand is a demolition zone.

“Let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”

In some of those old 9-11 videos, people were running. The towers were coming down, and a cloud of suffocating dust was chasing them down those downtown city streets. It was a wise decision to run. And they ran with determination. They wanted to get away. They knew.

“Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.”

We run with purpose, and we run in a certain direction – following Jesus – knowing our eventual destination is a homeland, a better country, a heavenly one (Hebrews 11:14-16).

How are you staying focused today? Yesterday was a very important Election Day in our country. Our nation is at a crossroads. There is much unrest here. In all of that, how are you staying focused on Jesus and the heavenly future he has prepared for you?

Chris

Dear church,

This “hall of fame” of the faith is full of people who were looking beyond this world to something else. They were looking toward their heavenly home.

The world puts up a range of roadblocks between a person of faith and his or her heavenly home. You’ll notice the different things the faithful had to endure in this list. In some cases, it was certain suffering and even painful death.

In other cases, the faithful had to endure the lure of riches and ease. I think here, specifically, of Moses. “He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.”

Again, the eyes of these faithful ones were always on the future – on their eternal home with Christ.

The world trains us from birth to seek the things of this world. It trains us to seek wealth, prestige, and some version of “happiness.” Our own culture in America trains us to seek our rights, to please the masses, and to be self-sufficient.

I think it takes a lifetime of work by the Holy Spirit to root these tendencies out of our lives. It takes supernatural power to undo the training of the world in our lives.

And it takes faith. Quite simply, it takes patient endurance and persistent determination. We refuse, come hell or high water, to take our eyes off Jesus and our heavenly home. Like Moses, we always look to the reward.

We must be thoughtful people, of course – and people of prayer. We need to be able to discern the world’s influence on our ideas and motivations. We need to be able to see where the world has infiltrated our families and our church.

Sometimes as Christians we speak to one another thinking we are speaking the words of God and good “Christian things” when in fact we really are speaking the things of the world. Again, it takes a lifetime of the Holy Spirit’s work to break us free from the world’s training.

To be a person of faith means we have clear-eyed focus and awareness of what God would have us to do compared to where the world would lead us.

What have you found yourself enduring as you live out your faith – and as you are “looking to the reward”?

Chris

Dear church,

It’s been a long and difficult day. So I read Hebrews 10.

I see one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture: “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

I love this passage because it describes what the church should be. Church is about being together. It’s not about looking to get my own personal salvation or about getting my own spiritual highs. It’s about being together and encouraging one another.

How do you encourage others in the faith? This is a good question, and the writer of Hebrews wants us to ask this question. He wrote, “let us consider …”

There might be times we think we are encouraging others or “stirring” them up in the faith when, in fact, we are doing just the opposite. Sometimes our words can seem like they should really move someone along in the faith when they really just come across to that other person as careless criticism.

We need to be careful when we are talking with other believers about their faith walk and their work for the Lord. We ought not to be brash, thinking we have all the answers. Sometimes, we really just need to listen better. In fact, sometimes, listening is the best form of encouragement.

And by this, I don’t mean listening for ways to slip in our own hidden, passive-aggressive forms of “encouragement.” Instead, I mean just listening for the sake of listening. Maybe this means we simply listen alongside with the person we’re trying to stir up and encourage – listening with them for the words of God.

“Consider” this today. How do you encourage your brothers and sisters in the faith?

Chris