Last week I mentioned the purpose of discipleship groups: to attend to one another's souls. How do we do this? In short, it is Christian friendship. A friend is one who cares for you enough to help you get what you need most, even when it's not easy or pleasant. What do we need most? Think about that for a moment. What we think we need most is the need we project on others, and therefore give others. And what we think we need most is what we most often expect or hope from others. How we answer this question determines a great deal about whether we have Christian friendships and whether we really do "attend to one another's souls" or not. The answer, simply, and really, is "God and his gospel". The only place of comfort, safety, life and blessing is to be "in" God. Not just a nebulous, nonspecific God, but the triune God. And not just a triune God, but that God revealed in Christ. In Christ we see God, in flesh we can comprehend. And we comprehend Christ, as he is "clothed in the gospel", as one old theologian put it. The comfort, safety, life and blessing we need and desire is found only in God, in Christ, as he is clothed in the gospel. God, and the gospel.

So back to the question. How do we "attend to one another's souls"? By finding our comfort, safety, life and blessing in God in Christ in the gospel, and then turning that over and seeking to help our friends do the same. And as we seek this, we seek it with the help of friends who want no less for us. A friend is someone who wants the best for us, and out of love will not settle for less for us. A Christian friend knows where the best is really found.

So we attend to each other's souls with the gospel, applying it, to use a medical analogy, as the splint, the salve, the bandage, the medication - one applying it to another. This means we must understand our souls rightly - afflicted by sin, in need of healing. It also means contentment and patience with God's plan, that he would use such humble means (you and I) to be instruments of healing to each other. We have a lot of learning to do in this area. And yet it means great hope - God WILL achieve total supremacy of His great kingdom, and He IS advancing today, by his gospel, through us, and in us.