Stir Up One Another
Excerpt
“And” (he says) “let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as ye see the day approaching.” And again in other places, “The Lord is at hand; be careful for nothing.” (Phil. iv. 5, Phil. iv. 6.) “For now is our salvation nearer: Henceforth the time is short.” (Rom. xiii. 11.)
What is, “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together”? (1 Cor. vii. 29.) He knew that much strength arises from being together and assembling together. “For where two or three” (it is said) “are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt. xviii. 20); and again, “That they may be One, as we” also are (John xvii. 11); and, “They had all one heart and [one] soul.” (Acts iv.32.) And not this only, but also because love is increased by the gathering [of ourselves] together; and love being increased, of necessity the things of God must follow also. “And earnest prayer” (it is said) was “made by” the people. (Acts xii. 5.) “As the manner of some is.” Here he not only exhorted, but also blamed [them]. More
John Chrysostom. “Homilies of St. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, on the Epistle to the Hebrews.” Saint Chrysostom: Homilies on the Gospel of St. John and Epistle to the Hebrews. Ed. Philip Schaff. Trans. T. Keble and Frederic Gardiner. Vol. 14. New York: Christian Literature Company, 1889. 455. Print. A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series.
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