One Anothering – Week 1
One-Anothering
Love One Another
June 2, 2025
Matthew 22:37-40
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Let’s just be honest… Easy to say and to sing, can be very difficult to live out.
59 x’s – one another – allēlōn
One-anothering
/wun-uh-nuh-thur-ing/ verb (churchy, relational, powerfully inconvenient)
- 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 your life.
- The opposite of me-firsting.
- What happens when the church becomes a family and not a show?
Made-up word. Real calling.
Love Is the foundation of one-anothering
John 13:34–35
“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.”
What Kind of Love?
- Love is not…
- Preference – “I love tacos”
- Romantic/Emotional Intensity – “So in love.”
- Affirmation/Approval – “If you love me, you’ll accept me as I am.”
- Sentiment/Slogan – “Sending love!”
- Transaction – “I love you… make me happy.”
1 John 3:11–16
For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15 Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. 16 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.
Amish Schoolhouse Forgiveness
One Amish father who lost a daughter said:
“Forgiveness is not about forgetting. It’s about releasing the right to revenge. We can only do that because Christ did it for us.”
Another man simply said:
“In our faith, we are called to love one another. That means everyone. Even him.”
Romans 13:8–10
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.
Love is the thread; one-anothering is the tapestry.
The Witness of Our Love
By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.
Love One Another; We memorize it as a command. We sing it in a song. We discover it as a crucifixion.