In Unveiled Radiance (Part 1), we looked at a couple of occurrences in Scripture of the concept of radiance. We saw how Moses veiled his radiance after coming down from Mt. Sinai and how Jesus unveiled His at the transfiguration.
We also talked about how our circumstances can negatively influence our ability to be radiant. To combat that, I suggested we fix our thoughts on Jesus and spend more time with Him.
However, I left you hanging because I believe there is one more thing that can veil our radiance. Thus, Part 2 of Unveiled Radiance.
The second thing that can veil our radiance is…sin. I know, it’s only my second blog post and I’m already talking about sin. It’s not a fun topic to talk about, but it’s our reality. In fact, it’s our everyday reality.
Even though we are in a process of sanctification and we are daily maturing in our faith, we still have to fight sin. So how can we do it in a way that allows us to have some victory? How can we do it in a way that allows us to be radiant? Because when we are sinning, we aren’t radiant, are we? No.
I was studying the book of Hebrews, and I came up with something, a possible solution, that might help us battle sin and be radiant. Now, I’m going to warn you that this idea might seem a little surprising. It’s not your typical answer to how to fight sin.
To give you a little context, the author of Hebrews has been warning his audience not to be rebellious. He tells them not to be like their ancestors who disobeyed God in the desert even though they saw Him do amazing things. He’s telling them to hold strong to their faith.
Here’s what he says in Hebrews 3:13 (NIV), “But encourage one another daily as long as it is called, ‘Today,’ so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.”
When I read that, I asked myself what the correlation was between encouraging others and sin. How could his audience avoid being hardened by sin’s deceitfulness by the encouragement of their peers? Intrigued by the idea, I did a little digging.
I discovered that the idea behind “encourage one another,” was that it was their job to really, intentionally, check in with their brothers and sisters in Christ and find out how they were doing. It wasn’t a church leader’s job. It was their job. The encouragement referred to here also means that they were to pray for one another and engage in spiritual conversation.
That’s kind of a lot packed into the word “encouragement”! The more I thought about it, the more sense it made. If I’m really engaged like that with my friends at church, my friends in the community, etc., I’m not going to be about sin, I’m going to be about them. I’m going to be about the things of God and it’s going to actually allow me to be radiant.
The author says that the purpose of the encouragement is so that they won’t be “hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” One commentator noted that the idea behind that is that every time we sin, it begins to create a hardening effect in our hearts and in our lives. That leads to kind of a callous and callouses are so hard to remove. Not only that, we don’t want to be like that toward God, we want to be tender toward Him.
In the passage, the author states that this encouragement should happen “daily.” When I see that, I think lifestyle. If we were to really encourage one another daily, and when I say “encourage,” I mean what the author intended by that word, imagine the kind of impact that could have.
We do the Christian life in community. We don’t do it by ourselves. We do it together. So if we are encouraging one another daily, helping one another persevere in our faith, that hardening of our hearts will be kept at bay.
So this is my challenge to us (myself included) this week. Let us intentionally check in with someone everyday this week, and really listen to how they are doing. Let us really pray for them (not just say we are going to pray), and then talk about spiritual things.
I think we will see God move in ways that we might not otherwise see Him move. And that’s encouraging, right? That will help keep us from sinning.
I know it sounds a little crazy and maybe even a little simplistic. But will you try it with me? Good! Okay, let’s go encourage one another daily as long as it is called today and let us go be radiant this week!
Go Be Radiant 