Summary
Stir Up One Another
Among the great "one another" passages of Scripture stands a striking command: "And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works" Hebrews 10:24. The older translation renders it "provoke," which sounds odd alongside gentler exhortations to serve, instruct, encourage, and submit. Yet this is the apostolic word: Christians are to provoke—to stir, to spur, to ignite—one another toward love and good deeds.
The book of Hebrews characteristically alternates between doctrine and exhortation. Doctrine is the fuel; exhortation is the action it propels. Just before the call to stir one another up, the writer says, "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful" Hebrews 10:23. Hope here is not wishful thinking but settled confidence, grounded in the faithfulness of God to do what He has promised. From that bedrock the exhortation rises: stir one another up.
How is this stirring carried out? The very next phrase tells us plainly: "not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another" Hebrews 10:25. Provoking one another to love and good works is bound directly to the gathered assembly. The exhortation is addressed to those already in worship, urging them to keep coming, and to keep stirring up the brothers and sisters beside them. Scripture consistently describes the church in plural terms: a body with many parts 1 Corinthians 12, a family Galatians 6, a temple of living stones and a community of citizens 1 Peter 2, under spiritual oversight Hebrews 13.
Two temptations cut across denominational lines and undercut this command. The first is a churchless Christianity—the notion that singing a few hymns at the kitchen table or praying privately is a sufficient replacement for the assembly. The error here is a faulty conception of worship itself. Worship is fundamentally not our act of giving God praise; it is, first and above all, hearing, learning, and receiving. God commands us to come together because He has something to give: His Word and His Sacraments, by which faith is born and strengthened. Praise, prayer, and thanksgiving flow out from that receiving, but they are not its substitute. Of course illness, infirmity, or genuine concern for one's health are valid exceptions—but exceptions are not the norm.
The second temptation is to treat faith as a purely private matter—a "me, myself, and I" spirituality in which I attend (or skip) worship based on what I personally get out of it. Podcasts and recordings are good gifts, but they cannot replace the gathering, because alone we cannot minister to one another. Christians come to worship not only to receive but also to give: to look around for the one standing alone, to encourage the discouraged, to serve the brother or sister beside them. We carry the same baptismal identity into the pew that we carry the other six days of the week.
Where these temptations have prevailed, the cross of Christ still covers. Jesus has borne the sin of every neglected Lord's Day, every "me-first" mentality, every missed opportunity to stir up a fellow believer. And in His mercy He keeps calling us back together, because something mysterious and wonderful happens when the body assembles—encouragement, ministry, mutual submission, the quiet provoking of one heart by another toward love and good works. To gather is itself to obey this command; to greet, to listen, to speak a word of Christ to the person next to you is to fulfill it. See “Stir Up One Another” 2-19-23 for the fuller treatment.
Video citations
- “Stir Up One Another” 2-19-23 — Would you open your Bible's please with me today to the 10th chapter of the book of Hebrews for our study if you're using a Pew edition of God's Word that's on page 198 in the New Testament. Hebrews…