Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. 

                                                                   Proverbs 27:17 

Today: Read Proverbs 27

Our passage today reminds us of the importance that other believers can play in promoting our spiritual health. Scripture is full of instruction as to how believers in Jesus should help sharpen one another. Here are four of those directives.

(1) Sharpening By Preserving Unity

…with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 

                                                                                                            Ephesians 4:2-3 

How tolerant are you of others? As Christians, we are to always demonstrate an attitude of humility, gentleness, and patience with one another as we show tolerance for each other. The overarching motive for these attitudes is that of love. And what is the desired result in having these predispositions? The goal is to preserve unity in the church. When we preserve something, we are protecting and maintaining it. We are placing it in a position of absolute importance. Unity in the church is an invaluable part of our testimony to the world. If you have ever seen this done well, you have no doubt seen the positive effect that unity brings to any situation. The reverse is also true. A lack of unity causes confusion and destroys the intended work of the church. And how do we get this unity? Unity comes as we enjoy the working of God’s Spirit in our lives. We are to sharpen one another by preserving the unity of the Spirit. 

(2) Sharpening Through Encouragement 

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

                                                                                                         Hebrews 10:23-25 

I believe the best way to encourage other believers is to remind them of the promises of God. This is what the writer of Hebrews is referring to as he encourages us to “hold fast our confession without wavering.” As we hold fast to the gospel, we are able to experience victory in this life. This victory is to be spread to others in the church. In addition to this, we are to stimulate each other to love and good deeds. Stimulate can be defined as “to incite.” When we hear the word incite, we probably get a negative picture, as “inciting a riot.” The word does mean that we cause others to react, but for the church, this stimulus and inciting is to love and good deeds. This word can be literally defined as “to sharpen.” So this stimulating and holding fast to our faith should act as a means of encouraging others, especially those who are struggling or have suffered some sort of loss. We are to sharpen one another through encouragement.

(3) Sharpening Through Our Words 

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord… 

                                                                                                       Ephesians 5:18-19 

How do you speak to others? How do you speak to fellow believers? We are encouraged to stay sober and to speak to each other in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. We can certainly accomplish this in corporate worship, but I believe it should go a step further. Sometimes we can feel alone in our walk with Christ. It’s not because there aren’t other Christians around, but often we remain silent in our faith. When we do this, I believe that we are robbing others of the opportunity to feel encouraged and supported. I believe that we should be open in our verbal affirmation of others in the faith. This spiritual rhetoric can help support the faith of another. Therefore, we are to sharpen one another through verbal affirmation. 

(4) Sharpening Through Confession And Prayer 

Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. 

                                                                                                                   James 5:16 

Some churches have made this passage a part of their core principles and why not? This is part of James’ instructions to the church. But applying this verse to church life without discernment can cause problems and injury, which is not the intent behind the instruction. Here are three considerations when confessing our sins to others.

First, not every sin in our lives needs to be confessed openly. Consider church member A who really dislikes church member B. Church member B is totally oblivious to this and is therefore unaffected by this attitude. Church member A may need to handle this attitude but exposure of it to church member B may do nothing but cause unnecessary injury. The same goes for a believer who sees an attractive woman on the street and takes that second look. He can deal with that immediately in prayer, recognizing his error. I’m not convinced that he needs to bring that transgression to open confession. I do not believe that either of these situations should fall under the instruction to confess our sins to others. Besides that, think of the logistic impracticality of accomplishing this. If every time believers were to meet (even in small groups) and the members thoroughly confessed everything that had happened during the week, I do not believe that there would be time for anything else. Not everything needs to be confessed openly.

Secondly, be sure that your confession will not damage the faith of the hearers. There are many in the church who are new to the faith and have not had the opportunity to grow in their walk with Christ. For these people, failure on the part of others, especially leaders, can often cause them to be disillusioned. They equate faith in Jesus with trust in their leaders. While I do believe that church leaders need to live with personal integrity, no one is perfect and everyone, including leaders, can make mistakes. Imagine a Bible study group leader, who has been leading a series on sexual immorality beginning the session with his current personal struggle with online pornography. For some, this would disqualify the man from leading the series. For others, they might experience feelings of being “let down” by the person that they had assumed was above that type of temptation. We need to be discerning as to where and when we openly confess our struggles, always weighing the possibility of damaging the faith of others.

Finally, we need to make sure that we are in a group of like-minded believers. Confessing our sins to a group not compatible with our beliefs will usually turn out negatively and will not bring the healing in which James refers. Do you remember the woman caught in adultery? (John 8) She was brought to Jesus by the Pharisees (church leaders) with the Law in the forefront and stoning as the desired result. Imagine for a moment if she had committed adultery and made the decision to confess her sin to the church leaders (Pharisees). What do you think would have been the outcome? I don’t believe it would have been her healing. I believe it would have meant her death. We need to make sure that our confession is not in a legalistic setting lest instead of receiving healing, we might find ourselves excommunicated, disavowed, and thrown out! We need to be very discerning when confessing our sins to others. 

Confessing our sins can actually act as a way of encouraging others by allowing them to discover that they are not alone in their struggle. Grace, mercy, and forgiveness are essential for the group if the confession is to lead to praying for one another and healing. When applied correctly with discernment, James’ instructions on confession and prayer can be very beneficial in allowing believers to sharpen one another.