Loving One Another: The Heart of Christian Community
Have you ever struggled with difficult people? Whether it’s frustrating customer service experiences or challenging relationships within your own community, dealing with difficult people tests our patience and character. Yet as followers of Christ, we’re called to something greater – a way of relating that reflects Jesus himself.
What Does God Really Want from His People?
We often focus on personal salvation as God’s primary goal, but Scripture tells a different story. While God certainly cares about you individually, His plan was always about creating a renewed humanity – people living in harmony with Him and each other.
God doesn’t just save you from something; He saves you into something – His beloved community, the church. This was His purpose from the beginning: that His church would be a light in this world.
When God called Abraham, He wasn’t just selecting one person for blessing. He was beginning a new group of people who would live differently – not just for themselves, but to make God’s love known and to bless the world.
What Did Jesus Say Was Most Important?
When asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself.”
Then He added something profound: “All of the law and the prophets hang on these two commands.” The entire purpose of God’s law wasn’t about rigid rule-following but about how to live in community as God’s people.
These two commands are inseparable. We show our love for God through how we love one another.
What Does “One Anothering” Really Mean?
“One anothering” might be a made-up word, but it represents a very real calling. It’s the sacred, messy, and beautiful act of living like Jesus by loving, forgiving, serving, encouraging, and occasionally putting up with the people God has placed in our lives.
It’s the opposite of “me-firsting” – it’s what happens when the church becomes a family rather than a show. It’s the art of doing life together in a way that reflects Jesus.
Why Is “Love One Another” So Important?
Jesus established this as His central command in John 13: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
This wasn’t just one important command among many. This command holds all the others together. If we don’t get this right, none of the others work.
Jesus was saying that love would be so transformative, so powerful, and so earth-shaking that it would change how people see the world. It would be the identifying mark of God’s people.
What Kind of Love Was Jesus Talking About?
In our culture, we use “love” in many ways:
- As preference: “I love tacos”
- For romantic feelings: “They are so in love”
- For affirmation: “If you love me, you’ll accept me as I am”
- As sentiment: “Sending love”
- As transaction: “I love you because you make me happy”
But Jesus used the Greek word “agape” – a completely different kind of love.
In 1 John, we find the definition: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.”
Agape is self-sacrificing, Christ-like, cross-shaped love. It’s not about desire, affection, or transaction – it’s about sacrifice.
How Do We “Lay Down Our Lives” in Everyday Life?
Laying down our lives might look like:
- Giving up our time
- Setting aside our ego in an argument
- Surrendering our right to be right
- Letting go of our need for credit
- Babysitting a single mom’s kids
- Talking to someone we’d rather avoid
- Not posting that snarky comment online
What Does Radical Love Look Like?
In 2006, after a gunman killed five Amish schoolgirls in Pennsylvania, the Amish community responded with unimaginable love. Within hours, elders visited the shooter’s widow to comfort her and her children. They established a fund to help his family. At the funeral, over half the mourners were from the Amish community.
One father who lost his daughter said, “Forgiveness is not about forgetting. It’s about releasing the right to revenge. We can do that because Christ did it for us.”
Another said, “In our faith, we are called to love one another. That means everyone, even him.”
This is agape – not just a feeling but a decision to be like Christ.
How Does Love Fulfill God’s Law?
Paul writes in Romans: “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another. For whoever loves others has fulfilled the law… Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
When God gave His people the law, it was to teach them to love one another well – to live in community in a way that sets them apart. When we as the church love one another well, we make Jesus visible to the world.
In a world that is isolating and self-centered, this kind of community becomes freedom. It’s not a burden; it’s belonging.
Why Is Loving Others So Hard Sometimes?
Love is learned – it’s not in our nature to be self-sacrificial and focused on others. It comes through practice, through dying to ourselves, through seeing others as Jesus sees them.
But protecting ourselves is also learned. When we’ve been hurt, scarred, or broken, our tendency is to pull back, to not love as fully, to not invest as greatly.
The challenge remains the same: to die to yourself and find life in Christ. This is the calling to be a radically countercultural community of grace where the world sees something different.
Life Application
Love isn’t just a theory – it’s a practice. This week, choose ONE of these ways to practice Christ-like love:
- Serve someone without expecting anything in return
- Forgive someone who hasn’t asked for forgiveness
- Encourage someone who feels unseen
- Pray for someone you’re tempted to avoid
Do it with intention. Do it in Jesus’ name. Do it because this is how the world will see Him – through the way we love one another.
Questions to consider:
- Who is someone in my life that is difficult to love right now?
- What is one specific way I can “lay down my life” for someone this week?
- How might my relationships change if I consistently practiced agape love?
- In what areas am I protecting myself rather than risking love?
Remember: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”