Love One Another, Part 1
"One Another" Study, Lesson 1
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One of the hardest things about being human is…putting up with other humans. Other people have different ideas and opinions, different strengths and weaknesses, different beliefs and values, different attitudes and behaviors. Naturally, this brings with it disagreement and conflict, supported by our own limited perspectives and our unwillingness to see someone else’s viewpoint.
As Christians, we should be different. We are called to love one another, not fight with one another and always insist that we are right. We learned in our Remain in Christ study that one of the fundamental aspects of remaining in Christ is to follow his command to love one another. So let’s look a little closer at what this command to love one another is all about.
The command to love one another first came from Jesus:
John 13:34-35: 34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Since that command was given, it was reiterated by several Biblical authors, including John, Peter, and Paul. The Bible has so much to say about this command that we’ll look at several questions over the next three weeks:
Who should we love?
Why should we love one another?
What is our model for loving one another well?
What actions and attitudes help us love one another well?
What is the outcome of loving one another?
We’ll look at the first two questions this week.
Who should we love?
In reading through all the different instances of the command to love one another in the New Testament, a vast majority of these are in the context of loving other believers. Here are just a couple examples.
1 Thessalonians 4:9-10: 9 Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. 10 And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more.
Hebrews 13:1: Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters.
Not only should we love other believers, but we are also called on to love our neighbors.
Romans 13:8-10: 8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
Jesus himself called loving our neighbor as the second greatest commandment:
Mark 12:29-31: 29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
In Luke 10:25-37, in the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus defined neighbors as those we come in contact with who need our help.
It can be pretty easy to love other believers who have similar values and beliefs. It’s a little bit more challenging to love our neighbors. But then we see that the command to love one another extends even further.
1 Thessalonians 3:12: May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.
We are called to love “everyone else.” Even the person who has different political beliefs than you. Even the person who has different views on gender and sexuality. Even the person who likes to one-up your stories. Even the person who seems to be selfish and entitled. Even the person who has different parenting strategies than you. Even the person who likes to bully you and tell everyone your flaws. As Christians, we are called to show love to them all.
For a little extra fun, check out this Songs of Scripture that reminds us to love one another:
Why should we love one another?
To get a deeper view of why we should love one another, I would really encourage you to read all of 1 John chapter 3 and 4. It gives us so many reasons why we should love one another. One of the greatest reasons why we should love one another is because God loved us so much that he sent his Son to die for our sins, and because of that love that we received, we should pass that love on to those around us.
1 John 4:9-11: 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
In Jesus’ original command to love one another, the reason he gives for us to love one another is that we are to model his love for us:
John 13:34: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
John argued that we should love one another simply because Jesus commanded us to do so:
1 John 3:23: And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.
We also find that we should love one another because it separates us from unbelievers. Our love for one another is a distinguishing characteristic of those who follow Jesus. It shows that we have been born again.
John 13:35: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
1 John 4:7-8: 7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1 Peter 1:22-23: 22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.
The book of Romans takes another tactic when discussing why we should love one another, tied back to the idea of loving your neighbor as yourself. Although we are no longer under the law, just as Jesus came to fulfill the law through his life, death, and resurrection, we too can fulfill the law by loving one another.
Romans 13:8-10: 8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
Next week…
We’ve only just begun to discover what it means to love one another. We now know that loving one another has three tiers: loving our fellow believers, loving our neighbor, and loving everyone else. We also know the reasons why we should love one another: It is a reflection of the love that God and Jesus have for us and a sign that we are followers of Christ. This love we have for our fellow human beings is what separates us from those who don’t believe in Christ. Come back next week to find out how we learn to love one another.