And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:24-25, NKJV).
To focus one's attention intently and determinedly on another (consider), to incite like a volcanic eruption or paroxysm (the literal meaning of stir up), to gather as one body with one purpose (assembling for worship and learning - as in a synagogue), to plead (exhorting) for action founded upon God's love and goodness - is what this passage beseeches we Christians do, always.
It is the encapsulation of our primary mission on this earth as God's beloved and redeemed children. It is why we continue to walk to and fro on the planet, living our lives for Christ.
It is obviously NOT our natural inclination, else there would be no exhortation in Scripture to remember to do these things, for God does not warn or encourage in His word for no purpose. If it is there, it's because we all fail more than we succeed, if not in action, then in motive and intent.
The encouragement to do good and to love is right up there with prayer and thankfulness in the things He wants to do, but which we - naturally - do not do.
That is why we need His Spirit conforming us to His image day by day. That is why the first priority of a servant is to surrender and obey the will of the Master.
That is why we are to empty ourselves from our selves and be filled with Christ.
This emptying is the very thing that quenching the Spirit prohibits from happening.
This is why Christians are never to be Lone Rangers, but are to be in fellowship with other believers. That is the design of the church by God Himself.
But what happens when we don't comply with the two verses above? When we fail to consider one another in order to stir up love and good works? When we forsake the assembling of ourselves together and cease exhorting one another?
We get stale and weak and complacent. Instead of a cauldron of good works and love, we become a stagnant pool of self-focus and misery - and the enemy takes aim at us like fish in a barrel.
It is important to be in fellowship, to be a committed member of a Christ-centered church that believes and teaches the Word of God; to be both a conduit and recipient of the actions succinctly described above, like brightly burning logs in right relationship with each other and with the Lord.
Yet there are times when a Christian must go it alone. When circumstances, or illness, or persecution prevents this kind of necessary interaction, so what do we do then?
As always, we follow the example of the Son of God Himself, who sometimes went alone to pray for hours at a time, and when He was abandoned by His disciples on the night of His arrest He knew that He was not alone, for the Father was with Him.
The exhortation here is like so much in this marvelous Book of Hebrews - not a formulaic checklist of do's and don't, but a living and dynamic prescription and preventative regimen for the ills and fallenness of this life.
If, while we are able, we are willing to follows these precepts, then when we are unable, for whatever reasons, the nourishment and edification we have received in the past will see us through to the end of whatever isolation God has allowed.
But the key is to know where our strength really lies, not in ourselves, but in each other, and ultimately and finally, in the Person of the Lord Jesus Himself.
It is not good for man to be alone, were words spoken by the Creator at the very beginning. They are as true and applicable today as they were in Eden.
An isolated Christian is a vulnerable Christian.
We need each other in the love of God in as functional and interwoven a relationship as the many parts of a physical body.
Without that we are incomplete and handicapped, invalids stumbling through life anemically and without strength.
If you don't have a church, seek one.
If you do, become even more involved as the Spirit leads.
Become that source of volcanic encouragement to others.
And you are promised to receive the same.
