In Hebrews 3:12-13 we read this command: “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.” Praise God for the assurance of salvation. As Paul says in Romans 8, those whom he has foreknown will be called, justified, and finally glorified. But I’m convinced that part of the way God keeps us is through the exhortation of our fellow brothers and sisters.

Samuel Rutherford’s Letters are full of these kinds of exhortations. He is constantly asking his friends to examine their spiritual condition, eager to know whether they are staying faithful to Christ and enduring in trial. How are we at doing this? Are we afraid to dig under the surface with our friends and really ask them about the state of their souls? Do we even know them well enough to have earned the trust to ask that kind of question? Here is an example of how Rutherford exhorted one of his young parishioners:

Happy is your soul if Christ man the house, and take the keys Himself, and command all, as it suiteth Him full well to rule all wherever He is. Keep Christ, and entertain Him well. Cherish His grace; blow upon your own coal; and let Him tutor you.

That kind of exhortation may be common between a pastor and his congregant, but here is a different exhortation given to someone he calls “a very dear and worthy friend”:

I long to hear of your growing in grace, and of your advancing in your journey to heaven. It will be the joy of my heart to hear that ye hold your face up the brae [slope of a hill], and wade through temptations without fearing what man can do.

He exhorts parishioners and friends, young and old, male and female. This last example is from the beginning of a letter to Lady Busbie, the mother-in-law of one of Rutherford’s close friends:

I am glad to hear that Christ and ye are one, and that ye have made Him your “one thing,” whereas many are painfully toiled in seeking many things, and their many things are nothing. It is only best that ye set yourself apart, as a thing laid up and out of the gate, for Christ alone; for ye are good for no other thing than Christ; and He hath been going about you these many years, by afflictions, to engage you to Himself. It were a pity and a loss to say Him nay.

Reading of the concern Rutherford has for the spiritual growth of his friends, parishioners, and even the mother-in-law of a friend (!) challenges me in my own relationships. Do I pursue others in such a way that they know of my concern for their souls? Am I following the command in Hebrews to exhort my fellow brothers and sisters every day, as long as it is called ‘today’? What about you?