Stay Faithful
A faithful challenge
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See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has an evil, unbelieving heart that forsakes the living God. But exhort one another each day, as long as it is called “Today,” that none of you may become hardened by sin’s deception. For we have become partners with Christ, if in fact we hold our initial confidence firm until the end.
Hebrews 3:12-14 (NET)
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Not a surprise:
We need each other to help us become better.
Makes sense as we are, as believers, all a part of the Body of Christ. Not meant to operate as an independent part, but meant to operate in harmony with one another.
A cohesive whole.
The community of Christ can help us overcome sin.
The author uses personification here to talk about sin’s deception. But it’s not merely sin that deceives, there is a Deceiver, our Enemy.
Also, we can deceive ourselves. Jeremiah 33 tells us that our hearts are deceitful. So, watch out for that too.
Back to community.
We’re told to exhort one another day after day.
I read exhorting as some hybrid of encouragement and correction. Sort of like a coach who gives you both a “good job out there” and a “come on, you can do better than that.”
There’s a nuance to those choices, and a good coach would know how to balance that.
Sometimes we go too far in the encouragement, and other times we’ll go too far in the correction.
That’s all a part of the growing process.
Good thing we can grow together, not alone.
Community is vital to our relationship with God. At minimum we have community with God, but we should also be striving to increase our community with His other children too.
Growing in Christ together.
Beautiful.
— Ricky Ketchum
Copyright © 2025 by Ricky Ketchum. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication prohibited.
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