Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 208 · July 27
Even as Ye Do
“Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.”
When did somebody last say a thing to you that got you through a Tuesday? A sentence, from a person who knew your situation, holding for about four days, is roughly the size of thing meant here.
This verse reaches two people and refuses to serve only one of them. The first has nothing left, is being told to comfort somebody else, and hears one more demand. The second thinks encouragement is what you offer when you have no real help to give, a soft option standing beside teaching, or money, or time.
Paul's second verb answers the second reader. Edify one another is a building word: put up structure, add courses to a wall. The first reader is answered by the paragraph just above, where the content gets supplied rather than invented. He has been writing about the dead in Christ, and finishes it wherefore comfort one another with these words. Three verses down he sorts the cases: warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. Nobody is on the hook for all four at once.
The last clause is the gentlest thing in the sentence. Even as also ye do. He describes them before asking anything of them. If you want in on this, the way in is small and already open. Think of the one person whose Tuesday you know something about, and this week say to them the true thing you already know about God, in your own words. Nobody is asking you to build the wall. One course of bricks is the invitation.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 208 is Better Than the Birds (Matthew 6:26).