When I preached on Hebrews 10:24-25 a few weeks ago, I made reference to a definition of encouragement I read by Kevin DeYoung in September’s edition of Tabletalk.

I stumbled across the same content in a post on his blog and decided to pass it along on our blog.

To whet your appetite, I give you this sample where he defines biblical encouragement and distinguishes it from flattery:

According to my biblically informed definition, encouragement means highlighting the evidences of God’s grace in the gospel or in a gospel-centered person to the glory of God. Each part of that definition is important. Encouragement is not spotlighting a person, but underlining God’s grace. It is not about simply commending nice people to make them feel good, but about commending the work of the gospel in others to glory of God.

You can read the entire piece here.