Part 1: Five W's of One Another - intro and verses showing what the one anothers are
Part 2: Who One Another
Part 3: Where One Another
Part 4: When One Another
Part 5: Why One Another
Part 6: How One Another
So we now look at a how question.
How are the one another actions done?
As I've been going through these one another verses, I keep thinking they can all be summed up in the love one another command. Isn't love the greatest command after all?
So here is John 4:7 - 19 (HCSB) that I believe sums up well how we love one another.
"Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and His love is perfected in us. This is how we know that we remain in Him and He in us: He has given assurance to us from His Spirit. And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent His Son as the world’s Savior. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God. And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. In this, love is perfected with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, for we are as He is in this world. There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because He first loved us. "
The love we have for others comes from God. If we know God, and if God's spirit lives in us, He will love others through us.
If we love one another, we will also likely be living in harmony, not slandering, encouraging, teaching, instructing, admonishing (giving advice), agreeing with, forgiving, submitting to, singing together, showing kindness, humility, being compassionate, bearing with, serving, accepting, and showing hospitality to one another.
So there are my thoughts on the five W's of the One Anothers. Please feel free to comment and interact with one another on this topic. :)
2 comments:
Jonathan,
Great series, and on the mark.
The obvious lack of the one anothers in everyday life of those claiming to be Christian, for me, casts a huge question-mark over what place the Holy Spirit has in our traditional teaching and practice, if any.
Your commenter Tim A must have been taught by the same teachers as myself:)
Thanks Aussie John for interacting with me on this. :) Yes, I think the institutional church struggles with making mutual edification a priority. I am trying to change, but I think most of my brothers and sisters are more comfortable with doing programs and preaching sermons. I confess I'm not where I want to be either. I'm most comfortable simply blogging about the one anothers. :)
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