Thoughts on Godly Encouragement - Part 1

"Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing." - 1 Thess. 5:11

What Is Encouragement? 

Oddly enough, it seems people have been encouraged to encourage people in their own ways. As they see fit, they thus encourage another. Really, it probably could be seen that many think encouragement is relative to the person, the place, and the time. But alas, it is not merely subject to these things...

What it is...

True, Godly encouragement is often overlooked as too specific, perhaps. People want an encouragement that makes them feel good, right now, without time or faith. "Godly encouragement" is nothing more than a feel-good idea that gets the emotions on a "spiritual high." However, there are a great many examples of encouragement in the Scripture itself. And for this I use Philippians 2.

The first thing to look at is the behavior towards fellow children of God. How to encourage another Christian can be seen simply by seeing the behavior we all must have to other Christians in general. "Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others." (Phil. 2:1-4) Arrogance is, perhaps, one of the dominating factors of the common idea of "Godly encouragement." People are more likely to think "How can people encourage me?" as opposed to the proper question, "How can I be used to encourage others?" The first statement in this verse says quite a lot, in saying "Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ..." Do not all Christians have the same Hope? We can be "of the same mind" because we are of the same Savior. And thus comes the greatest common ground with any and every true Christian. This is not to say we have the same common ground here with all professing Christians, but with all true Christians. The Catholics believe they are Christian as well, all the while throwing out the complete, once for all work of Christ on the cross, and putting Mary above Him, as it were. Thus, with them, we have not this common ground, and therefore, no true room for true Godly encouragement. (More will be dealt with on this later.) Now speaking only to true Christians, we have the common ground of Christ- the same Salvation, and hope. (He is coming to gather His saints.) And thus, it could be read in this context, "So by whatever [appeal to you there is in our mutual dwelling in Christ, by whatever] strengthening and consoling and encouraging [our relationship] in Him [affords]..." (vs. 1, Amplified translation) And thus, thanks to the aid of the expanded translation (or rather, a clarifying translation), the first statement here is clear, "Therefore if there is any encouragment in Christ..." This also fits with the context of the passage right before 2:1, Phil. 1:27-30: "Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; in no way alarmed by your opponents—which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that too, from God. For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me." One cannot give true, Godly encouragement if there is not the common ground of Christ, as to give someone who is not saved the encouragement founded upon the One they don't have is useless. And thus, we give true Godly encouragement to Christians, as they will be comforted by the hope that is in Christ. If they are not, at any point, comforted by the Hope, something is wrong. "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others."
Next we have behavior in accordance with the work of Christ (that is, living as Christ did). "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. " (vs. 5-8, NKJV) Christ is God. He always has been, and always will be. "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." (Heb. 13:8) However, He humbled Himself and became a man- a slave to God. And thus we are given not only the once-for-all Sacrifice, and the coming King of kings and Lord of lords, but we are also given the perfect life to live after. Gal. 2:20 points out that we are no longer the ones who live- we no longer live for ourselves, and the dead state we used to be in when we were in sins is now gone. (See Eph. 2:1-2) And thus we live as Christ lived. And a simple reading of the New Testament proves that this is no small task. But in this topic, I shall focus on the submissive attitude of Christ towards the Father. If you read the prayers of Jesus to the Father, and even how He speaks of the Father, you see great submission. This is the Son of God submitting fully to the Father. And if Christ thus submitted the Father, how much more so should we, being saved through Christ? Being now the sons and daughters of God through Christ, how should we not submit ourselves to our Heavenly Father? I don't believe I have to clarify here that we are not 100% equal with Christ (He is still our Lord), but it is important to note that we are to be as He was (according to the written Word). And when it comes to encouragement, we ought to then remind each other of our position in Christ. To despair, not in accordance with knowledge, is to thus be arrogant before the Father. Was He not the One who sent Christ to die for us? And did not Christ, the one at Who's name every knee will bow, submit Himself to the Father utterly? "...sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence..." (1 Pet. 3:15) Christ is not merely our Savior for the rest of our lives. It shouldn't take long for the newly converted Christian to see the word "Lord" appear a great many times throughout the Scripture, referring to Christ. Why do we call Him "Lord"? And if we know why we call Him Lord (because... He is our Lord), then how ought we to behave? And thus, to conclude this point, if we see a brother or sister in Christ discouraged, should it not be reminded Who our Lord is? And how He submitted Himself to the Father? The true Godly encouragement of one Christian to another should be, at least in part, a reminder of Where we stand, and how we ought to live with the Salvation and knowledge we now have. And thus we read Philippians 2:9-11, "
For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." 
There are many parts in the process of encouraging another Christian, but I will focus on three in this post. The first is a prodding to good works. That is, we are encouraging one another to good works. "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near." (Heb. 10:23-25) As the apostle James makes clear in James 2:17, "Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself." You cannot have good works without faith, and you cannot have faith without good works. This faith without works is "dead" in that, to be blunt, it is not living. It is not true faith. It is not growing, nor abounding, nor has it any hope. (See Heb. 11:1.) It is thus dead, as there is not fruit of this faith. (Just as a dead tree bears no fruit.) And thus, to help one another grow in the faith, we must encourage one another to good works. We do not encourage unbelievers to good works, as they have no faith. And we encourage believers to good works to strengthen their faith, not to simply make the feel better about themselves. Good works are an essential part of the Christian life, and as fellow Christians, we ought not to discourage good works (such as misusing the reality that good works do not save), but rather encourage more of them. "Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." (2 Pet. 1:5-8) 

"But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells." (2 Pet. 3:10-13) And thus we have the second part I'd like to discuss- reminding each other of the Hope that is at the door. Christ made it very clear when He had John write to the seven churches in the beginning of Revelation (chapters 1-3) that He is coming very soon. And that cannot (should not) be understated. He is "at the door," and the judgment of the world is with Him. And thus lies our expectation. For us, we have the coming hope of what is to be expected for us in the End. As Peter made clear here, we know for certain that the earth, and all that is in it, will be burned up. Even the very elements themselves will melt. And thus, "what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God..." There have been plenty of days when I am at work (pushing carts at Meijer), being discouraged and tired. It feels as though the work will never end, and that the temperature will continue to go up. Or thirst, tiredness, and hunger often set in somewhat quickly. But there is often a very simple reminder for me to look at. And that is to simply look up at the clouds. Though the world continues as though life will always be the same, and as though Christ will not in fact be coming at any moment, I myself, as a Christian, can look up and remember that at any moment, these clouds could be pushed back, and the Son of Man could come in the clouds. And thus is the hope of all Christians. (Or rather, it should be.) For us, we have the coming Lord, who will judge the world, and yet we are saved through the sacrifice of Himself. And thus comes the last part of this half of this topic, the encouragement we have in the reality that things will not, in fact, remain the same forever. We actually have a great deal of encouragement in the fact that Christ is coming to judge all unrighteousness. When we see evil, and sin, and just outright ungodliness, we must remember that the deeds of the world are not unseen. "Woe to those who deeply hide their plans from the Lord, And whose deeds are done in a dark place, And they say, 'Who sees us?' or 'Who knows us?'” (Is. 19:15) "He says to himself, 'God has forgotten; He has hidden His face; He will never see it.' Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up Your hand. Do not forget the afflicted. Why has the wicked spurned God? He has said to himself, 'You will not require it.' You have seen it, for You have beheld mischief and vexation to take it into Your hand. The unfortunate commits himself to You; You have been the helper of the orphan. Break the arm of the wicked and the evildoer, Seek out his wickedness until You find none." (Ps. 10:11-15) We need not bear the baseless fear that the world gets away with all the evil deeds it commits. For one, God does, in fact, judge them even now, to an extent. (Though these judgments are nothing in comparison to the judgment.) Tornadoes, hurricanes, and death of the wicked in general. People often like to credit the death of the sinners to the devil, as though it is his goal to kill anybody and everybody. However, this is not the case at all. The Lord judges the sinner, and takes the righteous one home. (Heaven.) "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil." (John 3:19) All will stand before Christ, and Christ will judge all according to their deeds. "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad." (2 Cor. 5:10) We need not fear that any sin will be unseen. Christ will not condemn us, being in Him, but He will condemn those who do not fear Him- all sinners will be judged. And thus, we ought to encourage one another with the fact that sin is dealt with for us, and that the sinful world will not be the same forever. And thus comes also a motivation for the sharing of the Gospel. Peter said in 1 Pet. 1:17-21, "If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God." Should we not desire the spread of the Gospel which we were saved with? And so not only should we encourage other Christians in the fact that Christ is coming again, but encourage them not to think of themselves, but to love their enemies, and to thus share the Gospel with them, lest they face the judgment of Christ, who could be here at any second. Discouragement is most often based in arrogance, having forgotten what lies ahead, and focusing on what is here now. However, not all discouragement is evil. We see that Paul himself was discouraged at the sins of the churches he wrote to at times, and urged them to stand firm in the faith. "When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also." (Rev. 6:9-11) Though this is referring to an event that has yet to come, it should be a reminder to us that though we desire the justice of God, we must also remember His love. The very fact that we are still reading and writing (unless Christ has come before anyone else reads this) shows that God still has given the earth more time. Sinners may still repent. And thus we should eagerly seek out the opportunity to share this Gospel by which we were saved. We must never be so arrogant as to judge other people, saying they are condemned and beyond salvation. For humanity, and from our point of view, salvation is still open to all. All are not saved, but Christ has yet to come, which means the fullness of His saints has yet to come in. Our mission on this earth is not done, and we must constantly remind our fellow Christian (and ourselves) of these realities. (See John 10:16 and 3:16.) 

To be continued...