I recently attended my wife’s 30th high school reunion. I never attended a class reunion of my school. Maybe we didn’t have one due to the large class size. I am sure they had no forwarding contact information for me. I didn’t know most of my classmates. I didn’t participate in most of my high school activities. No doubt I thought I was “too cool.”

And I never thought much of it until I went to my wife’s 30th reunion. As I witnessed the class deal with aging, death and life as we introduced spouses and children, something awakened in me. Seeing those classmates made me realize how much I’d like to see my old classmates again.

We might have said, “If I knew then what I know now.” But what I witnessed at my wife’s reunion was about putting into practice what we do know now. Prayer was a large part of the reunion festivities. Even during the dance, a memorial prayer for deceased students was given. Classmates going through serious health issues were prayed for. The last act of the reunion, a class picnic, was concluded with the classmates gathering in prayer.

The Bible instructs us that there is mutual benefit in the rubbing of two iron blades together; the edges become sharper, making the knives more efficient in their task to cut and slice. Likewise, the word of God is a “double-edged sword,” (Hebrews 4:12), and it is with this that we are to sharpen one another — in times of meeting, fellowship, or any other interaction.

The proverb also indicates the need for fellowship with one another. Man was not made to be alone, even before the fall, (Genesis 2:18). How much more, then, after, do we need to come together with our brothers and sisters in Christ for fellowship and prayer? This was recognized by the early church, (Acts 2:42–47), who “devoted themselves” to teaching, fellowship, communion and prayer, all corporate activities that provided opportunities for sharpening one another.

If a knife is dull, it is still a knife, although it is less effective, less useful in service. Let us be encouraged to spend time together, exhorting, encouraging, praying, sharing God’s word and our needs. Too often what passes as fellowship in the modern church is centered on food and fun, not on sharpening one another with the word of God. In far too many instances, the only knives being sharpened are the ones used at potlucks.
Therefore, as the author to the Hebrews says, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching, (Hebrews 10:24–25).”

I may not have been to my class reunion to discover prayer and fellowship, but I can go to church.

John Moxley is pastor of First Baptist Church in Dillwyn. His email address if jmoxleydillwyn@gmail.com