“And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works.”
Hebrews 10:24, KJV
“And now he exhorts, “Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works.” All this time the eye has been upon Christ. We have been occupied with the glories of the sanctuary, the nearness of our position, the wondrous privileges which are ours. We have looked forward as to the future, and been exhorted to hold fast the confession of our hope; and now comes in the place for our fellow-Christians. Notice it is at the close, not at the beginning. You cannot get your salvation from your fellow-Christians, nor your assurance: you cannot get your liberty of worship from them, nor your perseverance to the end. The eye must be fixed simply and ever upon Christ for all these things; and after you have all that in your soul, settled there by the Spirit of God, you can direct your eye to your brethren. For what purpose? To see if you can find their inconsistencies? — how much better you are, or more faithful? Ah, the Spirit of God never helps in work like that. We are not to consider one another to find out the faults, nor that we may see wherein this one or that one has failed, but in order that we may provoke to love and to good works. God desires to see us stir up one another — not provoking to anger, envy or strife, or malice, or discontent, but to provoke unto love, and good works.
Thank God, there is such a provocation; and when the eye is filled with Christ, as we see our Priest with ointment that has run down from His head even to the very skirts of His garment, there will be a practical unity amongst the saints; we will be knit together in love, as the precious ointment of the Spirit of God flows down from Him to us, and thus provoke unto love and to good works.”1
1 – Samuel Ridout (1855 – 1930), Lectures on the Epistle to the Hebrews (Kilmarnock, Scotland: John Ritchie, 1903), pg. 205.
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