Don’t try to live the Christian life alone. Why not? Because New Testament frequently exhorts us to “one another” duties, such as serve one another, bear with one another, bear one another’s burdens, forgive one another and love one another.

There is a “one another” passage in Scripture that tells me that I need you to help me keep trusting in Jesus. And you need me to help you keep believing in Jesus. It’s in Hebrews 3:12–13.

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Do you see how important it is that we exhort and encourage (the word carries both meanings) one another frequently? The writer of Hebrews says we need to take care, to watch out, that there might be in any one of us (yes, that includes me and you) an evil, unbelieving heart that could lead to falling away from the living God.

True, God guards us by His powerful grace (1 Peter 1:5; Romans 6:14). But He works through His appointed means of grace. And one of those means of grace is the ministry of exhorting and encouraging one another. The more we know and love one another, the more naturally we can exhort and encourage one another.

So Christ-centered relationships, whether in Community Groups, small group discipling, or at least one close Christian friendship are not luxuries. We need each other to help each other keep trusting in and treasuring Jesus. Do you I intentionally seek to encourage and exhort others in our small groups and friendships?

Left to ourselves, our default mode would be to be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. Much hardening can happen in one day (I know from experience). That’s why the Hebrews author said we need to exhort each other EVERY DAY. Thank God for Christian friends who by their loving words can keep softening my heart toward Christ so that I keep believing and don’t fall away from the living God!