Without Provocation?

Every Thursday I’ll post an article having to do with either relational or emotional matters. Hope it helps.

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Without Provocation?

“And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works.” – Hebrews 10:24

An unprovoked life is incomplete. Convenient, probably, and certainly free of unwanted feedback, but incomplete. Someone should know you, and someone should have access to your heart and mind to the extent that she or he can speak to your blind spots. That’s a critical part of discipleship, often overlooked and misunderstood. So let’s unpack what the author of Hebrews in saying here, in the interest of knowing how and when to provoke, or be provoked, or both.

First, he says we should “consider one another.” Interesting. Not just love one another, though that’s primary, and there’s really no point in even discussing this subject if we’re not going to apply it with love. But the Greek word used for “consider” here means literally, among other things, to “consider attentively, observe, understand.” It implies knowing the people we love as we would study a subject or specimen – peering carefully; examining all details. Many of exist in proximity to each other, in that we worship in the same building, attend the same meetings, enjoy the same restaurants after church. But proximity can’t replace intimacy, and where there’s intimacy, there’s mutual knowledge. Indeed, we can hardly say we’re close unless there’s some mutual exchange of information, some “letting in” of the other person.

Full disclosure: This is not my strong point. I’m a very private man who loves solitude, grew up a loner, knows how to entertain himself in isolation, and easily kids himself into thinking he’s self-sufficient. So I’ve never been good at this intimacy thing, because the major disappointments in my life have invariably come from people I allowed inside. I know; boo-hoo. We’ve all been there. Still, past wounds make current intimacies a challenge. But without them, we walk in a bit of personal darkness because we all, I’m convinced, have blind spots we’ll never catch on our own. So God bless the person in your life who knows you well enough to see the areas of weakness that could, if unchecked, derail you. You need that someone as surely as the visually impaired need the cane and seeing eye dog; those essential tools for guidance and safety.

And with that knowledge comes, at times, the responsibility to provoke. Another interesting word for “provoke” is used here, meaning “incite or even irritate.”

Nathan provoked King David after the king’s adultery when he declared “Thou art the man.” (II Samuel 12:7) Paul provoked Peter when he called him on his hypocritical refusal to eat with gentile believers; (Galatians 2:11) and Jesus provoked Peter when he rebuked him for savoring things of the temporal over the eternal. (Matthew 16:23)

But it needn’t always be as dramatic as that. Anytime you or I allow ourselves to be an influence towards godliness and/or away from the opposite, we’re provocative. Sometimes I need to simply affirm what I see – “Hey, you’ve got a great gift there in that voice/speech/creativity.” You might be surprised how much that – a simple bit of encouragement – can mean to someone. Other times it may come as an appeal. (“Please don’t go that direction. Can’t you see how damaging it will be?”) Other times it’s thunder, certainly, and there’s nothing wrong a beautifully shod gospel-bearing foot applying itself to an unresponsive backside. The level of provocation should match, after all, the level of need.

So sure, I hope we’re nice to each other. I hope we mind our manners, show consideration and even refinement in our mutual dealings, and generally behave ourselves. But nice is never enough, and gentility, while admirable, never kept a train from hurling over a cliff. When it’s called for, God grant that we also, in all due humility and fairness, be a bit provocative. We’re a Body, remember, not a social club. And members of a healthy body care for each other, strengthen each other, and when needed, keep each other on track. for their own sake, and the body’s at large. We can afford to do no less.