2018 Weekly Devotional - Week 36

Week 36

I Thessalonians 5:11
“Therefore encourage one anotherand build each other up,just as in fact you are doing.”

    Our son Samuel joined the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M as he entered his freshman year of college. The Corps outfit Samuel chose to be a part of is known for its rigorous P.T. program. Samuel had played on the offensive line in high school and let’s just say that an offensive lineman’s body type is not conducive to a lot of running! At five-thirty each morning the outfit would begin its morning by running in a block. That means that the outfit began its run together with the idea of staying together in spite of varying levels of physical fitness and aptitude when it comes to running. It is the upper classman, the “white belts” as they are known, who set the pace. That pace is typically faster than many freshman are able to run, especially ones built like offensive linemen. As a result, the block begins to break up and the unity of the outfit is at stake. What happens in this situation is a beautiful lesson for the church. Rather than leave the slower, struggling underclassmen to themselves, a white belt drops back with the slower runners and encourages them in their struggle. He honestly and often bluntly tells them what needs to happen in order for them to keep up with the block. The white belt must have concern for both the progress of the block AND the individual trying to keep up. Two years later and sixty pounds lighter Samuel was one of the white belts setting the pace. He was also the one who would drop out of the block to encourage and to “speak the truth in love” to lagging underclassmen. Having struggled with running at a fast pace as an underclassman, Samuel was in the position to empathize as well as exhort. He would be an example in both word and deed as to the possibility of keeping pace.
    The church must keep going forward. To become lazy is to become static. To be static is not keeping step with the Spirit. In its zeal to move forward the church can also leave in its wake those who are unable to keep pace. Perhaps they are struggling spiritually or they have suffered great loss and are mired in grief, or they themselves in sin. What is needed is for a “white belt”, one spiritually mature, to drop out of the block for awhile and encourage the lagging one to “run with perseverance”, to “hold fast their confession”, to throw off “everything that hinders and the sin which entangles” and RUN the race. The spiritually mature Christian has concern for both the unity of the church as it move forward and the struggling individual. The struggling believer has the responsibility of being so identified with the body that the body knows when he is lagging. It is this symbiotic relationship that allows the church to keep moving forward while simultaneously helping the hurting. In this the Lord Jesus receives glory as his church encourages one another and builds itself up in love.

In Christ,

John