Our study of the “One Another” passages in the New Testament continues. If you haven’t read the previous posts, I encourage to start at the first one here. There are more than 50 “One Another” passages, and put together they form a powerful teaching about the identity and practice of the church. This week I am mostly listing them for you, because they speak for themselves. In the second post in the series, we started with the “love one another” verses, because they are the foundation. From there, in the third post, we began looking at how the other “One Another” passages help us apply the “One Anothers” in our lives, and we finished with “one anothers” about selfless acceptance of and fellowship with one another.
This kind of selfless acceptance and fellowship, then, will require Humility and Patience
Ephesians 4:2 “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”
Ephesians 5:21 “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.”
1 Peter 5:5 “Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
And when things are difficult or when things go wrong, as they inevitably will, it means that we practice Kindness & Forgiveness… and prayer for each other
Ephesians 4:32 “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”
Colossians 3:13 “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”
1 Thessalonians 5:15 “Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.”
James 5:16 “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”
We should love one another by having a desire to Encourage and Build up each other.
Ephesians 5:19 “Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord.”
Colossians 3:16 “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.”
1 Thessalonians 4:18 “Therefore encourage each other with these words.”
1 Thessalonians 5:11 “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”
Hebrews 3:13 “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.”
Hebrews 10:24-25 “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.”
That means we will love one another in our Speaking and Truthfulness
Colossians 3:9 “Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices”
James 4:11 “Brothers, do not slander one another.”
What we see then is that loving one another, in all its various manifestations, is what we Christians do.
