¹¹ Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. (1 Thessalonians 5:11 ESV)

There are two imperatives in our scripture today. To build up one another and to build up ourselves, just as you are doing. God does not want us to build up others at the expense of tearing ourselves down. He desires that we are continually building ourselves up through prayer and scripture, interacting with others so we can spread that encouragement and they can do the same.

It becomes very hard, and self-deprecating when we only build others up. Over time this does a lot to simply tear us down. This can be especially true when we do not have an inner circle who we trust and confide in, there to lift us up when life gets hard. We quickly feel along and vulnerable.

We can tend more toward the ease of acquaintances over true friends who require as much from us as we do from them. But this is how God made us. We were not built to be solitary creatures. We were built for community. Even if we can “get by” on our own, that is all we are doing, just getting by.

There is more to life than getting by.