The Alelyon (one another) passages in the New Testament:

Encourage and build up each other (1 Thess. 5:11)

When I read the apostolic writings of the New Testament, one of the most striking things that I find is a transcendentally positive pastoral tone to what the authors have to say. What is remarkable about this is that it occurs in the context of moral disintegration (Corinthians); relational division (Philippians and Corinthians); doctrinal aberrations (Colossians, Ephesians, Timothy, and Corinthians); socio-economic partiality (churches to which James wrote, Corinthians); and superstition (Colossians, Timothy, Corinthians). Aside from the fact that the Corinthian church is representative of every kind of disorder, what is clear is the extent of human frailty that assailed early believers.

What should not surprise us is that every period of church history has experienced the same kinds of challenges that the Scriptures describe. Nor should we be put off by the severity of strife, dissension, chaos, or doctrinal weirdness that still afflicts Christians. We can surely mourn, pray, plead with God for his intervention, engage in personal and corporate repentance – the more such response, the better. But there is a boots on the ground aspect to our encouraging each other that requires a biblical balance between two ideas that fit together to help us overcome the temptation to give up on or minimize our call to build up our neighbor.

One side of the picture is realizing that encouragement is not a foolish avoidance of what is evident and true about our sin or failings. Going back to Paul’s writings to the Corinthians, we see that he is never blind to what is going on in that crazy place. When he hears of a man living with his father’s wife, he doesn’t call it an exercise in creative family ties, he condemns it as something that even the pagans would avoid. When he speaks about the separation of church members into factions, he doesn’t call it a novel formation of affinity groups but rebukes them for harming the testimony about Christ. When reports come in that the church’s worship services more resemble a Saturnalia than a time of honoring God, his response is not, “Oh well, boys will be boys,” but restates the basis and need for love, order, and reverence.

The other side of the equation is that Paul never berates, dissociates himself from, or condemns the Corinthians as some kind of spiritual lost cause. Instead, he is the model of his own admonition to encourage and build up God’s people. Paul is not alone in this attitude; James, Peter, John, and Jude in turn join in the work of bringing a gracious word to those whom they address, regardless of the Christian warty-ness that requires serious attention and correction. Their reaction to embarrassing infirmity is entirely different from either the legalism or antinomianism that we’ve been considering these past couple of weeks, and would never satisfy the moralists or relativity among us.

I think it would be fair to say that we find the same consistent posture among the books of the Hebrew Scriptures, especially exemplified in the Prophets. Obviously, something of the Spirit is inspiring and prompting a disposition to loving truth-speaking. And, indeed, it is the connection between encouragement and the Holy Spirit that holds the key to fulfilling Paul’s exhortation. I don’t mean the obvious relationship of dependency (we are encouragers and encouraged by the power of God), but the fact that the word for encouragement – parakaleite – is what Jesus uses to describe the Spirit in the Gospel of John.

This is what it is to encourage others: Be a paraclete to them. Be something  of the Holy Spirit to them, especially in their warfare of discipleship. The word literally means something like calling to someone from close at hand. In other words, “Stand by them.” The temptation for us might be to move farther away from our brothers and sisters, to separate ourselves from them when they struggle or fall. We’re like the driver passing by the car wreck, the Priest or Levite moving to the other side of the road from the guy or gal in the ditch, the person who doesn’t want to be too close lest God’s lightening strike hits us as well as them. We don’t want to be collateral damage or find that others hold us guilty by association.

Meanwhile, the Spirit is urging us to draw nearer, to bring comfort, consolation, counsel, and even – if we have the Father’s heart toward them – to admonish. What does being paracletes to our brothers and sisters look like? What I am finding out from the Lord is that, at its most fundamental, my ability to encourage and build up is a matter of seeing, understanding, and believing as God himself sees, understands, and believes. In other words, taking on the gift of faith that allows us to grasp and communicate:

First, the character of God that led him to act as he did and continues to do. To encourage and be encouraged begins with answering Jesus’ question about himself, “Who do you say that I am?” In the same way, our experience of following the Lord as Christians flourishes, or fails to depending on our reckoning with that essential identity issue. The competing claims are the constellation of passages that describe the Father as overwhelmingly generous, delighting to give us his kingdom and his good gifts, or the fatal perspective of the servant from  Mat. 25:24, “Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting where you didn’t plant and gathering where you didn’t cultivate.”

Who do we say that he is? God’s self-description is absolute and universal. A daily, even hourly recollection and meditation on any one of the dozens of divine attributes and their application to our lives (there are no exceptions to his nature) will provide a continual foundational rebuilding of our ability to “encourage ourselves” in him – a crucial first step from which we move to other aspects of being builders …

Second, what the Lord has done and continually does on our behalf. Psalms 126:3 sums up the truth in one perfect statement: “Indeed, the Lord has accomplished great things for us, and we are filled with joy.” For me, this thought can easily recede into the background, smothered by even the small irritations of a first-world life. As I allow them to mount up, and grow in significance, God ends up receiving blame rather than praise, and grumbling instead of thanksgiving. If this kind of sharing in daily misery added up to encouragement, than you might find me the perfect companion; alas, neither you nor I experience parakaleo when one or both of us has lost sight of the Lord’s faithfulness and are instead laboring under the weight of circumstances.

I used to not appreciate the Jewish Passover expression, “It would have been enough for us.” Over time, however, I have come to see that the phrase exemplifies the radical gratitude that is an authentic response to the extreme goodness of God. I AM undeserving; I AM the object of an immeasurable gift. When we return to the force of this truth, we – like the Israelites in Psalms 126 – are like those who wake up from a dream into the reality of our relationship with a faithful creator and redeemer. Then our mouths are full of laughter and our tongues with gladness – we become encouragers rather than demoralizers.

Third, God’s vision of who we are in him. Who the Lord is and what he has done have the stunning result of brining us into the place of adoption, of children and heirs. It is possible to be somewhat, or even very sure about God’s character and his saving work without reveling in our status and stature that come from him. You don’t have to spend a lot of time watching me to know whether I am living as a son or as a slave in the Father’s house. Jesus says that sons are free: free to be generous in giving, in service, in loving, in obeying, in worshipping – in being paracletes. Slaves are bound: bound to sin, to complaining, to withholding, to anger, to grudge-holding – in being the anti-paraclete. If and when you experience my cynicism or negativity or criticism, or when you receive from me graciousness, patience, mercy, you can answer the question of sonship or slavery, encouragement or unbelieving disheartenment.

Fourth, the destiny that is set before us. The truth of God’s eternal purpose for us is the context for Paul’s encouragement to encourage and build up. The old cliché is “pie in the sky when you die if you try.” The expectation of heaven supposedly makes Christians wait around kind of twiddling their thumbs until death or the second coming of Jesus. What the Scriptures say is completely the opposite: The fact of eternity makes every moment count for all that much more, whether we are seeing evident fruit of “success” or enduring the hidden fruit of suffering.

Fifth, an understanding of God’s ability to change and sustain us – in the words of Phil. 1:6, that “he who has begun a good work in us will be faithful to bring everything to perfection at the return of Jesus.” My problem is that I sometimes am expecting that perfection today, especially in you. That’s a kind of arrogance that needs to yield to the Lord’s gracious acceptance of you as you are, as well as of his relentless pursuit of your sanctification. I need to recognize and submit to God’s purpose in you on his terms and in his time, not in mine. I have especially begun to learn this as a pastor, husband, and father. To trust in the Lord for someone else’s life can be as challenging as doing so for my own. But the outcome is equally positive: a peaceful and joyful expectation that God is at work to will and accomplish his good pleasure, not mine.

What a difference my grasping these truths means for your experience of me. I can take and apply every declaration of who you are: God’s workmanship; the Father’s son or daughter in whom he delights; a saint carrying the power of eternal life and looking forward to the fulness of eternal glory; an heir of grace who is undergoing the work of transformation. Of course, the more I take hold of these facts for myself, the more I will find a capacity to recognize them in you and the more freedom I will find to be your paraclete.

And the more the next verse of Psalms 126 will be true of us: “Indeed, they said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them!'” And we are glad.