◄ What Does Hebrews 10:24 Mean? ►

As believers, we are given many instructions and encouragements on how to live godly in Christ Jesus. We are to draw near to the Lord with a true and undivided heart. It must be a broken and a contrite heart, that has an unshakable, confident assurance of our faith which is anchored to the faithful promises of an unchanging God.

We are to seize hold the many precious promises that relate to our salvation by grace through faith in Christ, and we do this by appropriating His cleansing flood in our own indifferent or bloodied hearts. We do this so that the burden of sin that lay so heavily upon our consciences, is laid, with an unshakable hope, upon the shoulders of our heavenly sin-Substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ Whose blood was shed in our place.

We are to have our body washed through the sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost at rebirth; when we were born from above, placed into the Body of Christ, set apart unto God, and made holy by the washing of water with the Word of God. We are to hold fast to our confession of hope in the Lord and to remain true to our confident hope in the power of His might. And we are to offer up our sacrifice of praise to our Father in heaven so that the fruit of our lips may continually confess His holy name, to His praise and glory.

But as believers, we are also instructed to be concerned about our brothers and sisters in Christ and to stir up one another unto love and good deeds. We are to care for each other and consider how to stimulate one another to love as Christ loved us, and to produce good deeds that God has prepared for us to do. We as believers are instructed: "To provoke others unto love and to good works."

As fallen creatures, it is all too easy to provoke each other to anger and strife through unkindness and criticism, but as believers we are instructed to provoke one another unto LOVE. And it is through unchanging love that love is provoked. It is by means of loving another that they become stimulated to love in return. It is through an unchanging attitude of never-failing Christ-like love towards our brothers and sisters in Christ, irrespective of their attitude towards us, that love can be motivated within them (as they see Christ living in us and loving through us).

And just as love begets love, so too provoking others to good works by our own demonstration, will promote good works in them as well. Good works can only by carried out in our Christian life through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. And so we promote love and good works in others, in spirit and in truth. How blessed we are if we can reflect on our own lives and identify those that by God's grace, patiently and lovingly provoked us to love and good works, by grace through faith in Christ.

Heavenly Father, thank You for loving me so much that while I was still dead in my trespasses and sins, Christ completed His finished work on the Cross so that by grace through faith in Him, I might have forgiveness of sin and life everlasting. Thank You for those who taught me about the Lord Jesus and who demonstrated the love of Christ in their own lives, provoking me to love and good works in my own life. Help me to be so in tune with You that others may be provoked unto love and good works through my witness, as Christ lives in me and I in Him. In Jesus' name I pray, AMEN.