One Another
In John 13:34-35 Christ says "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
Looking through the bible, I see a lot more places where we are told to do something in relation to one another. Various New Testament scriptures tell us to greet, be devoted, live in harmony, accept, instruct, agree, forgive, admonish, encourage, be sympathetic, be compassionate, bear with, provide hospitality, be submissive, have fellowship and sing Psalms and spiritual music to one another. While a few of these may get taken care of on Sunday morning, most of these things cannot be taken care of by an organized church structure. They are the responsibility of each believer.
Can men really identify Christians based on our love for one another? If not, why not? What can we do to improve?
4 Comments:
I think that others should be able to tell Christians based on our love for one another. However, we are fallible and don't live up to our potential quite often. Many times the non-religious folks seemingly do a better job at loving than Christians do.
In order to change, Christians must be in the Word (Holy Bible), pray like we mean it, and listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. I am preaching to myself here. I know that my selfishness gets in the way of me loving my neighbor the way that I should.
It is also the job of Christians to remind one another of these 'one anothers' so that we are prompted back onto the straight and narrow.
Thanks, brother.
Christ established the church as a community to foster love for one another. Somewhere along the way, we forgot about this, and bring in a "us against them" mentality to everything we do in church, whether it is relationships within the church, between churches or with those outside the church. I believe the first step to healing is to realize that the "one another" aspect of our relationship priority is not only directed towards those in the family of God, but also supposed to be directed to those who are yet to be re-joined into God's family. That is the ultimate purpose of the Great Commission, I believe.
But how does one love others and feel loved by others if one is a shut-in who almost constantly feels lonely, isolated, left out, ignored, unloved, unwelcome, and unworthy by those who claim to be your friends but won't take the time to check up on you to see how you are doing or visit with you in church or in your own home? It's no wonder I have so much trouble loving and trusting God!
Awesome blog you have hhere
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