One Anothering
Over 100 times in the New Testament there are 58 different yet powerful statements around these two words: “one another”. For the longest time, I have loved these commands and many have considered these statements to be be something like the “11th commandment”. But until the last couple of years, I have only ever experienced this “11th commandment” in an intellectual way. I could even say I have experienced it as a methodological ideal but never actually experienced it in the truest sense.
I hesitate with words like those - “the truest sense”. It seems like I think I have a corner market on the gospel and church and that everyone else has it wrong. I often find myself struggling to communicate what God is doing in me because, mixed with my “all in” personality, it can come off as condemning and I feel the need to soften it. But here is what I mean by this big statement that there is a truest sense of the “one anothers” that we find in the Bible that is so hard to find in our culture today.
A true community of believers “one anothering” together becomes LIKE a building but has no need to own one.
Pauls says this;
19 So now you non-Jewish people are not visitors or strangers, but you are citizens together with God’s holy people. You belong to God’s family. 20 You believers are like a building that God owns. That building was built on the foundation that the apostles and prophets prepared. Christ Jesus himself is the most important stone in that building. 21 The whole building is joined together in Christ, and he makes it grow and become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in Christ you are being built together with his other people. You are being made into a place where God lives through the Spirit.
When we…
love one another, are devoted to one another, honor one another, live in harmony with one another, build up one another, accept one another, admonish one another, greet one another, care for one another, serve one another, bear one another's burdens, forgive one another, are patient with one another, speak the truth in love to one another, are kind and compassionate to one another, speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, submit to one another, consider one another better than ourselves, look to the interests of one another, teach one another, comfort one another, encourage one another, stir up one another to love and good works, show hospitality to one another, use our gifts for the benefit of one another, clothe ourselves with humility towards one another, pray for one another, confess our sins to one another, don’t lie to one another, stop passing judgment on one another, don’t provoke one another to envy, don’t slander one another, and don’t grumble against one another…
God dwells in that holy space and makes us grow. The reason this idea of “one anothering” is such a big deal is because if we settle for something else, we have to create a house for God to live in that isn’t made up of believers but rather temporary things. I am afraid that man-made houses for God are in the process of being foreclosed for being built outside of God’s designed building codes.
Peter calls us living stones;
4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Church, it is time to wake up! Think of the billions of dollars, countless hours of time, and incalculable effort spent for church buildings each year. We are allowing literal wood, hay, and stubble, to replace us as living stones that make up the holy, spiritual house where God dwells. There is a process for replacing these inanimate bricks that make up our churches today with how God intended it to be: that process is found in the one anothers.
I become a living stone in the spiritual house of God by one anothering. You become a living stone in the spiritual house of God by one anothering. Jesus is the most important stone in this house because He modeled one anothering so perfectly.
I have found the place that God dwells. Sure, I have been in places before where He has shown up and I have been part of churches where it felt like God was operating powerfully in seasons. But I have found a place that He DWELLS. It is inside these living stones of brothers and sisters who are doing everything they can to practice one anothering and a consistent basis. And, friends, the gates of hell ain’t ready for these rocks!