Talking to One Another

Thoughts on Colossians 3:16; Romans 15:14, Hebrews 10:24-25

Several years ago, a young counselor named Isaac tried to reach a seventeen-year-old drowning in addiction. Every conversation bounced off the boy’s defenses. Isaac felt the ache many of us know—I can see where this is going, I want to help, but I can’t get through. Out of that heartache he wrote the song “How to Save a Life.” The song resonated because it captured a universal problem: how do we talk to one another in ways that actually help?

The New Testament’s “one another” passages give us a roadmap. If we’re going to move from me to, we—from isolated lives to real community—we need more than chatter. We need biblical conversation.

Three commands frame it:


“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another…” (Col. 3:16)

Paul doesn’t limit teaching to platforms and professionals. He imagines Scripture moving into the community and, as it does, ordinary believers passing along what they’ve learned—over coffee, at the kitchen table, on a walk, after a service.

Definition: Teaching one another is guiding one another into a deeper understanding and practical application of God’s Word.

You don’t need a seminary degree; you need a Bible, a curious mind, and a willingness to ask good questions. Try a simple three-question pattern with a friend or family member:


Teaching begins where curiosity meets conversation.

When Scripture lives in our conversations, faith stops being a Sunday event and becomes a daily language. The Bible moves from the pulpit to the people.

2. Admonish One Another: Love with a Backbone

The same verse that calls us to teach calls us to admonish—a word we rarely use but desperately need. It means to warn, correct, or steer. If teaching is usually ongoing and instructive, admonition is occasional and corrective. We do it because love refuses to watch a friend drift toward a cliff.

“I am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge, and competent to admonish one another.” (Rom. 15:14)

Paul gives a three-part checklist for healthy admonition:

• Right motive — full of goodness. Don’t confront to vent or to win; confront because you want God’s best for them.
• Right perspective — filled with knowledge. Anchor the conversation in Scripture and God’s will, not your preferences.
• Right approach — competent to admonish. Choose timing and tone carefully. Ask questions. Speak with humility.

How might that sound? “Could we talk about something I’ve noticed? I may be wrong, and I care about you. When you started dating ___, it looks like your walk with Jesus cooled. Can we process that together?”

Admonition is hard to give and hard to receive. But the alternative—silence—is often cruelty disguised as kindness.


3. Encourage One Another: Presence + Promise

“Let us not give up meeting together … but encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Heb. 10:25)

The original readers of Hebrews were exhausted and afraid. The writer doesn’t flatter; he transfers courage. That’s what encouragement does. It is truth-shaped support delivered with faithful presence.

Definition: Encouragement is coming alongside to strengthen someone with God’s promises and your presence.

Sometimes it’s a text or note. Sometimes it’s a prayer whispered in a hallway. Sometimes it’s simply showing up at the funeral, the game, the chemo infusion, the court date.

Encouragement often sounds like footsteps and looks like a face.

The writer ties encouragement to meeting together. Your weekly presence says, “I’m still here, still trusting.” In a culture of drift, merely showing up is a ministry.

Why do these three belong together?




Practice only one and you’ll warp community. All instruction with no correction breeds hypocrisy. All correction with no encouragement breeds despair. All encouragement with no instruction breeds sentimentality. Healthy churches do all three—often, gently, and together.

What can I do to get started?

1. Become a student of the Word. Read a short passage daily. Share one takeaway with someone else. Small obedience builds a culture.
2. Start a micro-conversation. Over dinner or in the car, ask the three questions: What does it say? What stands out? What will we do?
3. Have the hard talk you’ve been avoiding. Pray first. Go in person. Be kind and clear. End with, “How can I walk with you in this?”
4. Show up with encouragement. Pick one weary person. Send the note, make the call, sit beside them. Name a promise and stick around.

When the Inner Critic Says, “Who am I to do this?”

Good news: God delights in ordinary people who open Bibles and open their mouths with humility. You will not say everything perfectly. That’s okay. Humility covers clumsy words; silence seldom heals anything. Keep Scripture central, pray often, and let community correct community.

And remember the pattern beneath it all: Jesus.

• He teaches us—opening the Scriptures and our eyes.
• He admonishes us—truth with tears: “Go and sin no more.”
• He encourages us—“Take heart; I am with you always.”

The more His words shape our words, the more our conversations become places where God goes to work.

When we rearrange our lives to make space for people, God uses that space to do something in us.

So, who will you teach, admonish, or encourage this week? Start the conversation. God loves to meet people there.