Watch out, brothers and sisters, so that there won’t be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception. (Hebrews 3:12-13, CSB)

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Two weeks ago, as Pastor Brian opened our study of Hebrews, he reminded us that we were not meant to study the Word of God alone. He presented the idea of spiritual safety found in the community of healthy believers. It’s harder to get off on a dangerous path if there are people around to help us pause and evaluate our thoughts, actions, and attitudes in light of the Word of God.

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The author of Hebrews hits a similar point in today’s key passage. Mutual encouragement is a guardrail in the life of a Jesus follower. In some translations like the ESV, the word encourage is translated as exhort. Exhort is like encouragement on steroids. This is way more than, “Hey, love your outfit!” or “Nice fish, dude!” It literally means to seriously encourage, strongly urge, or eagerly advise. It’s action-oriented and persuasive. It’s the Spirit at work in you, prompting you to speak truth to a friend who’s falling for a lie. This is the part of Christian life that’s akin to watching each other’s backs. At times, this won’t feel encouraging because it may come as a word of warning or correction. But that is also what it means to have someone’s back. Would you let something sneak up on your friend to harm them if you could stop it? I would hope not!

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So how do we handle those types of situations? Matthew 7:1-6 lays out some good guidelines, though a surface reading may make it seem like Jesus is saying the opposite. Jesus tells us we’re not to judge, lest we be judged. He then explains that we must remove the plank from our own eye before addressing the speck in our brother’s. So how does this leave room for mutual encouragement? It means this process is not about delivering hard rebukes from a high horse named Pride. It’s a blueprint for a supportive and healthy community. We should all be committed to dealing with our own blind spots and struggles by inviting accountability first. As we embrace humility and vulnerability, the Spirit works on us, and we are better able to walk alongside fellow believers in mutual exhortation. Matthew 7 doesn’t contradict Hebrews 3 or any of the other passages that call us to something similar. It corrects hypocritical judgment, not all correction. We are not told to ignore the speck and only deal with the log. We are given an order in which to do things and a heart posture to have as we do it.

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Why is this critical? Because sin is deceitful. The New Testament warns us that sin is deceptive, destructive, and deadly (see Titus 3:3; 2 Timothy 3:13; James 1:13-15). The Enduring Word commentary says that sin is deceitful in how it comes, what it promises, what it calls itself, and the excuses it makes before and after. If it came with full revelation and exposure of consequences, it wouldn’t be attractive. Once we’re deceived, unbelief can take root, and unbelief ultimately develops into a hard heart. Unbelief is not passive. It’s the result of believing a lie and then deciding that we “can’t” believe God at His Word. This is what the author of Hebrews explores as he rounds out the chapter, reviewing the time of the Israelites in the desert. The Israelites had seen amazing moves of God. Yet, when faced with a bad report from Canaan, they were ready to overthrow leaders, kill men speaking the truth, and turn their backs on the God who had delivered them. How different might the Israelite camp have been if the community had been committed to mutual exhortation? If instead of wailing about giants in Canaan, they had gone tent to tent saying, “Take heart. The God who parted the seas is still with us, and He is faithful.”

We like to think we’re more sophisticated than the people we read about in the Bible, but we’re not. We can end up in the same headspace (and sometimes situations) as they did if we aren’t careful. How can we commit to the process of mutual exhortation? We need to start with ourselves! Do you have real accountability in your life? Do you invite people to see the hard stuff, ugly things, and rough edges? Everyone doesn’t need to be that deep in your business, but what would it look like this week to pray and take a step towards developing at least one relationship like this in your life? That’s what we mean when we say, “Do life together.” It’s not just having fun and hanging out, though we love that, too! It’s also the best way to put some spiritual guardrails on your life.