One of my favourite books in the Bible is the letter to the Hebrew disciples of Jesus - I suppose that, today, we would call them "Messianic Jews"! In that letter - the author of which remains anonymous (although my own thinking is that it was Barnabas!) - we read these words: "... exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.." (Hebrews 3:13).
The fascinating word rendered "exhort" (Greek para-kaleo) in that verse, elsewhere translated "comfort," "appeal," etc., literally means "call alongside."
For example, note II Corinthians 1:4: "[God] comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God." Remember that the root of the word "comfort" is not the, "There, there. It will be better soon", of a mother to a small child, but is literally "with strength", that is "strengthen".Also look at Paul's appeal to Philemon. "I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose [spiritual] father I have become in my imprisonment." (Philemon 10). Such words as "desire," "entreat," and "pray" are also used.
However, the unusual importance of the word is emphasised by the fact that in its noun form (paraklétos) it is used as one of the titles of God the Holy Spirit. Jesus said: "But when the Counselor [paraklétos] comes, Whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, Who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness to Me;" (John 15:26).
Thus, a disciple of Jesus who is "called alongside" to comfort a sorrowing friend, to beseech a person to do right, or to exhort him to useful action all in the name of the Lord Jesus is, in effect, performing the same type of service on the human level that the Holy Spirit Himself performs on the divine level. Further, these words would inform us that this type of service - whether done in the context of exhorting, or strengthening, or pleading - is designed specifically to prevent the one to whom he is "called alongside" from being "hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." And since this is a moment-by-moment danger to the unwary, the ministry of exhortation (or strengthening or entreating, as the need may be) is one which must be performed "every day, as long as it is called “today."
