“Encourage”

DEVOTIONAL

“And Jonathan, Saul’s son, arose and went to David at Horesh, and encouraged him in God.” 1 Samuel 23:16 NASBS

1 Samuel 23:16 NASBS

Saints of God, how it is true that we often need to be reminded that the body of Christ is a unique people whom God has set apart for Himself. If you are in Christ, He has called you by your name, and He has clothed you in His righteousness through the decreed death of His own Son, Jesus Christ. Having received Jesus’s perfect sacrifice, God raised Him from the dead, satisfying His wrath that was upon you, which was not done so that you might set by idol relishing in your own comforts saying, “God has saved me so I will set back and wait for Him to come.” No, the Lord has called you into a public ministry of serving one another; He has called you into the fellowship of believers, called the church. The church can simply be defined as an intimate fellowship of individuals who cast their deepest affections upon Jesus Christ, who love Him with all of their hearts, and who hail Him as the Lord of their lives. Because of this great love for Christ, they love one another with everlasting love. The bond of love is so deep they do not neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another all the more, anticipating the coming of their Savior, Jesus Christ.

The Bible records an example of this type of love found between David and Jonathan. This is not an erotic love that some claim, only seeking to justify the perversion in their own heart, but a love wrought in the heart by the Spirit of God. It is the same love demonstrated by Jesus when He offered up His body as a living sacrifice for those He loved. This is a heavenly love that can only be understood in the character and nature of God, Himself. Jonathan exemplified this sacrificial love when he risked his own life to help David. In the midst of one of his darkest hours, Jonathan went to David when a sentence was upon his head, and he encouraged him. As a result of his love for David, he was rejected by his father, the king of Israel, and threw away his right to be an heir to the throne to serve his brother.

Jonathan may have never worn the crown of his father upon this head, he may have never commanded one of the greatest nations upon his earth, but the creator of the universe echoes his life testimony across this age for all to see. He was more concerned with honoring God and hearing, “Well done thy good and faithful servant,” rather than to build his dynasty. May the Spirit of God arouse within His church such conviction that for His glory, the body of Christ will sacrificially begin to lay down their lives for one another as Jonathan did for David.