Hebrews 3:12-13 (ESV)
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.
The writer of Hebrews is engulfed in making sure that the readers of this letter are not falling into the trap of apostasy. True believers can’t become unsaved, but temporal believers, those not fully by faith walking with God, can fall away. They were never saved. What the writer is saying in the above verse is that those who are talking about their relationship with Christ and not walking in a relationship with Christ ought to beware. His illustration of this in the above verses is the nation of Israel. They talked about their God, Yahweh. But they didn’t fully follow Yahweh. They only talked about it. When faced with the decision to follow Moses into the promise land they rejected faith for flesh and fear. The writer’s solution to this is for us to meet together to exhort one another. The word exhort is the Greek word, parakaleō. It is the same word that John uses to describe the Holy Spirit, as our helper (John 14;16). It is the same word as John uses in his epistle to tell us that Jesus is our advocate (1 John 2:1). This is someone who comes along side us and helps us. We are to come along side our brothers and sisters who are struggling with real faith vs fake faith. We are to parakaleō them. That is our role. We are to make sure they don’t turn to a hardened heart and make sure they following by faith to the end. That is the role of the Body of Christ. Later, this same author will say it this way:
Hebrews 10:24-25 (ESV)
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
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