Grow & Go - November 2026

I have heard numerous times that in all we do we are giving counsel. When we are in our homes with our families and answering questions, we are giving counsel. While we are at our jobs, in some form, we are giving our counsel to others. In the church, as iron sharpens iron while hearing and studying the word together, we are counseling one another. The question at hand – is the counsel we are giving from God’s Word? Have we recognized our responsibility as believers to provide soul care to one another? The responsibility of counseling with the word is for more than just pastors, it is the call of every believer. The clearest place we see believers counseling each other is from the one another’s in Scripture.

The Great Commission calls every believer to make disciples. We are to make disciples of Jesus according to God’s Word, using God’s Word, and this is the work of the church. Everyone made in the image of God—even believers—will at times feel helpless, hopeless, hurt, or discouraged. When those times come, not if, my hope is that we will turn to God’s Word for the answers instead of secular instruction. The hope is that people will turn to the church with questions such as: Why do we experience pain? Why do we feel sad or this make us angry? Why is there sin in the world or why can’t I stop this or that? The church should hope that the lost and dying world around us will look to it for biblical answers to the struggles common to humanity. 

Real counseling and fruitful discipleship begins when the people of God practice and display one-anothering by first loving one-another well. Jesus Himself gives us sound and practical instruction of this in Matthew 22:35-40 saying, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Real soul care in the church begins with the real love of one another.

There are over forty places in the Scriptures that are truly clear how we should reciprocate the one-another passages. The apostle Paul said in Romans 12:10, “Love one-another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.” And then, “Live in harmony with one another” in Romans 12:16. “Be hospitable to one another” (1 Pet 4:9). “Be kind to one another (Eph 4:32).” “Comfort one another (1 Thess 5:11)”, just to name a handful. First John 4:7-11 exhorts to us that love comes from God, that He is love, and since He loved us enough to send His Son to die for our sins, we should love others in the same way. If we do not, then we are liars who really do not love God. Simply stated, if God is love, we are to love and practice the one-another passages in every area and arena of life.

Paul further teaches us to “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Rom 13:8). The practical implication of this verse is that if we do this well, we will be delighted in and follow all the other commandments. Loving one another leads to living holy and upright lives. Loving each other points to the gospel of Jesus. Jesus affirmed this saying, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, (Jn 13:35)”. Our posture and attitude should be that of love toward each other, so when the unbelieving world witnesses the genuineness of our loving care for each other, it will bear evangelistic fruit.

As we challenge one another with our shared calling to counsel one another from the Word, we need remember that discipleship is not a specialized ministry reserved for a few but the everyday responsibility of all believers who walk in the love of Christ’s finished work. When the church genuinely practices the one-another commands, we not only care for souls but also display the transforming power of the gospel to a world that is watching. May we commit ourselves to this sacred work, turning first to Scripture in every season of need and offering the same hope to others, so that the body of Christ might grow in maturity, holiness, and fruitful witness until the day Jesus returns.