HEBREWS 3:12-13 – Watch out, brothers, so that there won’t be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that departs 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.”
THEME OF THE DAY: A PATH TO A HARDENED HEART. Today’s theme should make every Christian shiver as if standing outside on a cold New England morning in the dead of winter. Obviously not shiver physically, but spiritually as a warning to wake us up to the ever-present danger of a hard heart. Nothing is more serious in the Christian life than the allowance, yes, the allowance of a heart to grow cold or hard to the things of God and particularly, the Lord Jesus and His Gospel.
When it comes to the sad point of arrival to a hardened heart, there are many ways to get there, but here are two to consider today. The first is what Jesus warns of in His last public sermon known as the Olivet Discourse. He preached with strong warning these words, “And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12). A quick way to a hardened heart is to allow the rampant sinfulness and godlessness so dominant in our culture to desensitize us to sin, and a hardened heart will result. And when a desensitizing of a Christian toward sin occurs, the wonder and “awe factor” of the Gospel quickly fades. We become ineffective in the mission Christ gave us – to preach the Gospel to every creation because we won’t care about those needing the Gospel due to a hard heart (Mark 16:15). But there is another path to a hardened heart. And it is subtle, easily tolerated, and often goes unnoticed until it is has done its destructive work in our hearts. It is found in today’s scripture which uses the word “hardened” in its warning.
There are two commands given to believers in the Hebrews passage. The first is to “watch out” and this simply means “be on guard, don’t fall asleep spiritually, be alert to spiritual dangers.” We find many such exhortations in the scriptures. Jesus would tell us to do so throughout the Gospels. Now would be a good time to put a plug in for a book along these lines. It is titled Watchfulness: Recovering a Lost Spiritual Discipline by Brian Hedges. It is excellent and a big help towards obeying the command “watch out”. The second command is “encourage each other daily.” To encourage means to “give courage” and the picture is lifting one up who is down, fearful, and in need of a spiritual lift. And if ever a ministry in our church needed to be more active, it is the ministry of encouragement for many of God’s people are fighting its opposite – discouragement. But apart from the need for such a ministry, pay attention to what is the result if we are not in the ministry of encouragement to others – our hearts get hardened. This should cause us to immediately pause and do some self-examination along these two lines.
First, let’s examine ourselves to see if we are actively obeying the command to encourage others. Notice the frequency – daily. Regardless of the frequency, we should look deep and long into our lives to see if we are in the ministry of encouragement to others. It is important for two reasons; it’s a command to obey and the consequences of not doing so are severe. That leads to the next area of self-examination.
Ask the question about the current spiritual condition of our hearts. Are we experiencing a dullness, indifference, perhaps even a hardening of our heart towards the things of God? If the answer is “Yes, I think so” and we know there is no tolerated and unconfessed sin in our lives, the cause might well be our failure to obey the command to encourage one another.
The paths to a hardened heart. There are many and one is the failure to encourage other believers. May the Lord remind us often of this privilege and responsibility so we will not begin the journey down such a sad spiritual path.
PRAYER: “Father, forgive me for the too many times my life is all about me, my, and mine at the expense of others”
QUOTE: “If we are noticing a hardening of the heart toward spiritual things, are we actively encouraging other believers?
In the affection of Christ Jesus,
Pastor Jim