It’s Time to Starve Discouragement
Every Tuesday night we circled our chairs to face one another. Sometimes it was more an oval than a circle, an outward expression of our mutual inability to get ourselves in right order. We came from work or from school or from wherever we had been on Tuesdays. We brought our Bibles. We opened with an ice breaker. It was something people in churches do all the time. But it was something I never knew existed.
Our time was broken into three segments. We talked theology, we confessed our sins to one another, and we encouraged one another. We called that last part “honor time,” stemming from Paul’s exhortation in Romans 12:10, “Outdo one another in showing honor.” It wasn’t flattery. Flattery is saying something nice to someone else hoping they will return the favor. Flattery is self-serving. Honor is not.
Perhaps the best verse in all of scripture to explain what it is to biblically honor another is found in Colossians 1:27, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Biblical honoring is looking at another Christian and calling out the work of God in them. It is not a mere human encouragement. It has divine origins. Most people never see God’s grace in their lives pouring out to others. Most people exist on a starvation diet of encouragement. Most people assume they are who they tell themselves they are. What else is there to believe? We all need someone to help us see Christ in us, the hope of glory.
Christ In You
We start with Christ, the Alpha and Omega (Rev. 22:13). He was before all things and is above all things (Col. 1:17). From him come all good things (James 1:17). Jesus is the most praise-worthy person in the universe. His goodness is pure. He deserves all glory and honor. He is the only one who is truly loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled (Gal. 5:22–23). He is full of grace and truth. He is merciful and faithful. Everything we desire to be in our devotion to God, Jesus is perfectly. So we look first to Jesus to see clearly the fruit in his people.
The Bible teaches us that Jesus is not only “out there”; he’s also “in here,” in the hearts of his people (Rom. 8:11). Christ is in his people. We barely have proper categories to understand this truth. Jesus is not beside us like a friend. He resides inside us like our conscience, or our heart, or our brain. He indwells his people. The only perfect man to ever live is more than just a man. He is God—one with the Father and Spirit. By his Spirit, he lives in the hearts of his people.
The greatest truth about every Christian is the indwelling of God himself! Christ in you, the hope of glory.
The Hope of Glory
Because it’s true that Jesus dwells within his people by his Spirit, it is necessarily true that every Christian lives with a great hope from within. Though this hope bears witness to a reality outside of ourselves, the indwelling of the Spirit means our hope is an ever-present internal hope, as long as we live here on earth.
So here is the truth about every single Christian alive today: Christ in them bears witness to the hope of glory.
C.S. Lewis once said if we were to see a fellow Christian in all his glory, we would be tempted to fall down in worship at his feet (The Weight of Glory). Everyone in Christ is on his or her way to a place of glory—not some mediocre existence comprised of some merely pain-free life. Rather, a weight of glory so immense that we cannot fathom what it will be like. The Bible gives us glimpses of this, but we still fail to comprehend the full meaning. We are co-heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17). We are to be holy and without blemish (Eph. 5:27). We will be pillars in God’s temple (Rev. 3:12). The most common way the Bible speaks of our future glory is to say that we will be made like Jesus (2 Cor. 3:18; Col. 3:4; 1 John 3:2; Phil. 3:21).
Whatever else is true about your life, Christian, this reality sits above all else—Christ is in you, the hope of glory!
Ongoing Encouragement
This glorious truth of the gospel is something Christians need to be reminded of constantly. We wake up forgetful, as if the night’s sleep has removed all memory of the ancient truth. We go about our days doing our best to stay positive and hopeful in some general sense. We go home at night exhausted and wondering how long until the next weekend or the next vacation might bring some relief. We wonder as we fall asleep if we made any difference at all that day. No matter how wonderful our lives may be, deep down we feel a disappointment that it isn’t more. Even Tom Brady wondered why a Super Bowl win didn’t stop the ache. We need something deeper, something abiding, something from above.
It is not an exaggeration to say that most Christians, especially in our modern, Western world, live on a starvation diet of gospel encouragement. We simply do not see the grace of God pouring out of our lives to others. Perhaps this is mercy from God to keep our pride from growing too large. But we do need to understand that our lives matter—not because it makes us feel good, but because it proves we are walking in the works Jesus created in advance for us (Eph. 2:10).
When was the last time you were encouraged by another Christian for the work they saw God doing in your life? When was the last time you encouraged another for the hope of glory you see in them?
Outdo One Another
Perhaps you’ve noticed the Bible doesn’t include many competitive exhortations for the Christian life. We are to go about our business before the Lord’s eyes alone. We are to give and to pray in secret (Matt. 6:4–6). Our rewards come from above, not from here below.
But there is a competitive spirit in Paul’s exhortation in Romans 12:10. “Outdo one another in showing honor.” Paul is commanding us to try and win this battle among one another. We should go out of our way to honor fellow Christians, to say out loud, in front of others, the wonderful things God is doing through his redeemed people.
Call it honor time. Build it into your rhythm of life together with your church family. It is not to build a mutual admiration society meeting. It is to look at the work of God in another person and name it. It is to recognize the glorious ways the Holy Spirit is building his church through his people. It is to honor the Lord by honoring one another, and in so doing to show one another their labor is not in vain.
It’s time to starve discouragement with gospel encouragement. It’s time to honor one another, by considering Christ in us, the hope of glory.
David McLemore is an elder at Refuge Church in Franklin, Tennessee. He is married to Sarah, and they have three sons and one daughter. Read more of David’s writing on his blog, Things of the Sort.