The Work of Building Up

Paul ends a section of hard teaching with a soft, practical charge. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. The phrase build one another up suggests slow, deliberate work, the kind a man does with his hands over time, stone laid on stone. It is not a single dramatic rescue but a steady adding to another man, a word here and a word there that leaves him stronger than you found him.

Men in this fight tend to be well practiced at tearing themselves down. The inner voice after a fall is fluent in accusation and has plenty to say. What is often missing is the other voice, the brother who builds, who reminds you what is true about you when you cannot remember it yourself. That kind of encouragement is not flattery and it is not pretending the sin did not happen. It is the patient labor of helping a man believe he is not beyond hope.

Notice Paul's last clause, just as you are doing, an assumption that this is already the ordinary business of brothers. Look for one man to build up today with a true and specific word. Ask God to make your presence something that leaves other men stronger.