Good News and Good Deeds

Here's an excerpt from Good News and Good Deeds, Elyse Fitzpatrick's contribution to the August issue of Tabletalk:

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews exhorts us to "consider how to stir up one another to love and good works" (Heb. 10:24). In other words, we are to carefully ponder or study how we might encourage or stimulate each other to love God and our neighbor, in fulfillment of the two great commands that Jesus gives in Matthew 22:37–40. Authentic love for God and neighbor is not a mere warming of our affections, however, but as the writer of Hebrews assumes, always manifests itself in good deeds.

Of course, this command to encourage others applies in all of our relationships, but for those of us who are married, perhaps it applies most particularly to our spouses. In other words, part of my vocation as a wife, is to spend time carefully thinking how I might encourage my husband, Phil, to love God and his neighbors and to do them good. How might I do that? What would it mean for me to give a careful consideration to the ways I might inspire Phil to a love that eventuated in good deeds?

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