1 THESSALONIANS 5:11 – Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”

THEME OF THE DAY:  WE ARE IN THE CONSTRUCTION BUSINESS.  Do we know the theme of today’s nugget applies to all of us? Yes. We are in the construction business. Now it is highly likely none of us is making literal buildings for a living, but we are to be building up the lives of other Christians as we live the Christian like.  Remember in the book of Genesis, the Lord’s question to Cain after he killed his brother Abel – Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” (Genesis 4:9a). How did Cain respond?  He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9b). The answer to Cain’s question is “Yes, you are” and it applies to us as believers.  We, too, are the “spiritual keepers” of our brothers and sisters.  This mean we have a responsibility to build them up in love, in the faith, and that as a life-long privilege.  And to help us toward that noble calling, here are two applications.

First, accept building up other believers is a command to obey, a responsibility to assume, and a privilege to practice.  The Apostle Paul reminds the Corinthians and us, we are called to this work and role in cooperation with the Lord, who not only works in us but through us in the lives of His people – What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building (1 Corinthians 3:5-9).  We are not people coasting into heaven.  We are God’s fellow workers, making us instruments in His hands to do His work in the world and church.  And a significant portion of that work is building up other believers by compassionate, aggressive, and consistent obedience to the over fifty “one another” commands in His Word.

A second application putting us into the construction business of building other believers up is to follow the 25 year old slogan of Nike – “Just Do It.”  This simply means obey what we know to do. As easy as this sounds, putting it into practice isn’t.  I believe most Christians don’t struggle with willfully going out and committing sin against the Lord. No, we struggle more with not doing what we are commanded to do.  Sins of omission outweigh sins of commission, and it is the sins of neglect that quickly bring the spiritual life to a stale and dull place.  But we don’t have to stay there.  The God who commands is also the God who strengthens us to obey His commands to include all the “one another” commands in our “construction business.”

So, we are called to be “spiritual carpenters” building up other believers.  May the Lord help us “load up our toolboxes with the one another commands” and get started. Today.  

PRAYER: “Father, help me to see my responsibility to invest in building up other believers in and by Your love.”

QUOTE: “Every Christian is responsible for each other.  We are truly are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers.”

In the affection of Christ Jesus,

Pastor Jim