One Anothering

This is an excerpt from a recent message on what it looks like to Love one another. I wanted to share it with you and hope you dwell on it’s meaning.

John 13:34-35: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

John 17:23: “I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”

On the night Jesus was betrayed, the night when God’s Son was to be handed over for 30 pieces of silver to suffer the injustice of illegal trials, to suffer the physical shame of being beaten and tortured, and to suffer the loss of His Father’s presence, Jesus calls His closest friends together over a meal.

Those gathered are the men He chose to pour His life into. These are the men He taught, rebuked, encouraged, helped, forgave, led, supported, comforted, served, and accepted. Jesus loved these men well in both word and deed and He brings them together to give them one more lesson and to show them a pattern of loving service towards one another in an act of the greatest humility as an example for how they are to love one another.

The term “one another” appears 91 times in the New Testament and 53 in the Pastoral Epistles.

Thirty-five times they are an occurring word pattern which mentions a verb followed by the term “one another.”

These “one another” passages teach us how to love each other in community.

Since this is the way we love “one another” we should read John 13:34-35 in an entirely new light. For instance:

John 15:12 – Love one another
Romans 5:13 – Don’t pass judgment on one another
Romans 12:5 – Be members of one another
Romans 12:10 – Honor one another
Romans 12:16 – Live in harmony with one another
Romans 14:19 – Build up one another
Romans 15:5 – Be like-minded toward one another
Romans 15:7 – Accept one another
1 Corinthians 12:25 – Care for one another
Galatians 5:13 – Serve one another in love
Galatians 5:26 – Don’t provoke or envy one another
Galatians 6:2 – Bear one another’s burdens
Ephesians 4:32 – Be kind to one another
Colossians 3:13 – Bear with each other and forgive one another
1 Thessalonians 3:12 – Abound in love toward one another
1 Thessalonians 4:18 – Comfort one another
Titus 3:3 – Don’t hate one another
Hebrews 3:13 – Encourage one another
Hebrews 10:24 – Stir up one another to love and good deeds
James 4:11 – Don’t slander one another
James 5:9 – Don’t bear grudges against one another
James 5:16 – Confess your sins to one another
1 Peter 4:9 – Offer hospitality to one another
1 Peter 5:14 – Greet one another
1 John 1:7 – Fellowship with one another
1 John 3:11 – Love one another
Ephesians 5:21- submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.