Have you ever felt alone in your pursuit of Christ? Have you ever felt discouraged by the lack of accountability or encouragement you have received in your faith? Have you ever felt weary of doing good?
This is the purpose for “Let’s Grow Together”: to strengthen and encourage one another as fellow believers in the daily pursuit of obeying and loving God as we look forward to His return. While we know and believe that Christ is enough and sufficient for everything we lack, even community, the number of times Christians are commanded in Scripture to encourage one another indicates the immense importance of community, accountability, and love in the Christian life.
We are told to consider how to “spur one another on towards love and good deeds” and to not neglect meeting together “as some are in the habit of doing” but encourage one another and all the more as we see the day approaching (Hebrews 10:25).
It is not enough to simply think about one another, but we must meet together and actively encourage one another. The value of talking to another believer about the struggles, trials, and sufferings we face cannot be diminished. By reminding one another of the Gospel, the good news to which we have been called, we can remind each other of the joy that is found in pursuing Christ even in the hard seasons of life.
Imagine there was no church. Imagine you did not know a single Christian. While God is all-powerful and has sustained hundreds of Christians who served without a strong community of believers around them in unreached places or who were alone in prison, it is evident why He has said that it is not good for man to be alone. What a blessing it is that we have access to hundreds of Christian resources and the opportunity to live in community with other believers.
After all, “since God so loved us, we also ought to love on another.” The sacrifice that God has made to have a restored relationship with His creation is beyond understanding. The loving mercy He has shown towards us ought to overflow in our hearts to the point that we cannot help but share it with others. For “whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.” (1 John 4:11, 20).
By continuing to pursue the Lord, seeking to know Him and His character, He will continue to shape the desires of our hearts to become more like His and give us grace as we strive to be a loving reflection of Him to those around us.
The calling God has placed on His church is clear. We are to uphold one another in love.
We are to “make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy” for “without holiness no one will see the Lord,” and we must “see to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many” (Hebrews 12: 14-15).
We are more than a team; we are an eternal family, one that will never end. How then can we let bitterness, anger, or earthly pleasures which will pass away cause division amongst us?
Paul tells the church of Philippi that if they “have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion” then they must make his joy complete by being “like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind” (Philippians 2:1-2). What a testament it is to the faithfulness and power of God when the church is unified in spirit and mind! This is impossible for us to do on our own. No other institution in the world is able to achieve perfect unity. Obviously, we are human, and we still fail, but it is because each of us has been given the gift of the Holy Spirit that we are able to shine as a beacon of hope in a dark world. All the more reason to strive every day to be unified and at peace with one another.
As we strive to pursue peace, Paul continues to instruct the church to “do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit” but “in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” (Philippians 2: 1-4).
At the bottom of all discord and disagreement is pride. The original sin of Adam and Eve was pride, believing they knew better than God. Every day, it can be a challenge to let go of pride and consider the needs of those around us before our own. Yet this is what Christ has called us to do, and by seeking to uplift one another, what seems to be a challenge will become a joyful desire.
Furthermore, as we look forward to Christ’s return and the hope of living with Him for all eternity, He promises to sanctify us. To change us to become more like Him. We must be on guard towards the sin and temptations that seek to tear us away from Christ. We must “warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone” and trust that God will sanctify us and keep our “spirit, soul and body” pure and “blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:14, 23).
As the body of Christ, we need one another as we seek to live like Christ and pursue holiness. Only through the power of the Holy Spirit are we able to maintain unity, peace, and strength of faith. We pray that “Let’s Go Together” will be a tool the Holy Spirit uses to encourage you to continue to maintain the bond of peace and strengthen you in your faith.
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