As we meet on a Sunday for the Breaking of Bread the Presiding Brother in his prayer often gives thanks to God that we have been given this quiet time to come away from the world and all its problems, to remember the death and the resurrection of Christ. We meet to be with Christ, for his words come to mind, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."
Therefore with minds full of the life and example of Christ there surely ought not to be at such a meeting any place for a reiteration of the world's troubles, or the Church's immorality problems, or the blasphemous statements of atheists or agnostics reported by the media.
In both Young's and Strong's Concordances the meaning of the Greek word translated as "exhortation" is "calling near or alongside". When the brother is giving the exhortation from the inspired Word of God he is, or should be, doing that with particular reference to the life of Christ. This may come from the types or warnings in the Old Testament, or from Jesus' commands, teaching and example, which have been emphasised by the apostles in the letters in the New Testament.
The Greek word paraklesis, which is the word for "exhortation" in the AV, is also translated "comfort", "consolation", and "intreaty", and we may look at all these headings as forming a complete exhortation.
In Paul's letters we have a number of examples of the way in which warnings were given, showing his love and the spirit of intreaty, the meaning of which is to ask earnestly. Paul writes to Timothy with these words: "Rebuke not an elder, but intreat him as a father; and the younger men as brethren; the elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, with all purity" (1 Tim. 5.1-2).
As another example, we read in Philippians: "I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord. And I intreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women which laboured with me in the gospel" (ch.4.2-3). In that word "beseech" there is firmness softened by a note of intreaty, yet there is no attempt to arbitrate. The appeal is to find unity in the Lord. In the RV the words "those women" in v.3 are translated as "these women", showing that Paul continues his exhortation with the intreaty that help—and help only—should be given to bring about reconciliation.
Finally under this heading we can think of Paul's lovely letter to Philemon, surely a model for many of our letters in the Truth. In v.9-10 Paul does not exercise his authority but beseeches Philemon to do what he asks. He writes: "Yet for love's sake I rather beseech thee, being such an one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. I beseech thee for my son Onesimus."
But there is also the need for comfort, and in writing to the Thessalonians Paul associates himself with his readers in this: "But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another" (1 Thess. 5.8-11). The chapter continues with instruction and comfort. Earlier in the letter Paul writes that he had sent Timothy to them for the purpose of establishing the ecclesia and to comfort them (ch.3.2), and in ch.4 when he writes of the wonders of the resurrection he concludes in v. 18, "Wherefore comfort one another with these words."
In the term "consolation" we have the same thoughts of calling near or alongside to God and Christ. In this word used by the translators we have the idea of receiving strength and encouragement to continue faithful, whatever the circumstances, and to look for the fulfilment of all our hopes. The writer to the Hebrews states: "That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus..." (Heb.6.18-20). Paul gives the Thessalonians this encouragement: "Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work" (2 Thess. 2.16-17). This consolation is everlasting. It extends beyond this mortal existence and looks to the Kingdom. The consolation now is in the knowledge of the help that we shall receive if we are true servants of God and Jesus Christ, and also in the wonderful hope of the calling alongside to Christ as kings and priests in the Kingdom—the joy of bringing the world to righteousness and peace.
Hebrews ch. 11, which has been termed the roll of honour of the faithful, is followed by these words: "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God"(ch. 12.2). Jesus looked forward to the blessings and the wonders of the Kingdom and the personal joy that, through his own life of obedience and sacrifice, his true servants would have this great hope of life in the Kingdom.
It is for these reasons that we heed the wonderful promises of God, the warnings and the entreaties given in the Scriptures. We take to our hearts the comfort and consolation set out therein, and fill our minds with the central object of our Sunday Breaking of Bread Meeting—the love of God in giving His only Son Jesus to us, the life and example of Jesus and his supreme sacrifice, and the joy which is set before us.
W.A.M