Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end.
—Hebrews 3:12–14

What does a life look like when it is not moving towards falling away? It looks like exhorting one another. Exhortation is the way God keeps us. Perseverance is not an abstract fact that we cannot see, and that we merely hope for. It is a lived reality in community, encouraging one another and keeping one another. God keeps the elect by the church keeping the elect.

For more on the concrete, communal means by which God keeps those who are his, read: What is a Sacrament? (Happy Corpus Christi!).

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