Daily Encouragement
One can look at Hebrews 3:13 and assume that encouragement means to just encourage others to do what ever it is that they want to do or that we want them to do. If we encourage others to do what they want that could lead to enabling. If we are encouraging others to do what we want then that could be manipulation. We need to encourage one another daily in what the Lord would want for us. We don't want to succumb to sin as the rest of verse 13 states. So if we fellow brothers and sisters in Christ encourage each other to follow after God's heart and serve His will and not our own, that will pull us closer to Him and push us further away from sin. Your Christian walk was not meant to be done alone.
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Leading and Loving Like Parents Should
I noticed a couple of things Paul said in this chapter that stuck out to me more than other verses. He compared the way that he was gentle and how he exhorted (encouraged) the church. In verse 7 Paul says "But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children." He is talking about his approach to correcting the church for missteps. He was gentle. He wasn't harsh and full of blame, he was gentle like a nursing mother would/should be. He also makes the comparison in verses 11-12 to being like a father and encouraging the church to "walk in a manner worthy of God." He is saying this is what a father would. He should his solidarity with the church by comparing his style to that of their parents. And since honoring your parents is in the law (Ten Commandments) then it would be in their best interest to respect Paul as such as the parent of the church, metaphorically speaking.
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