One Another How about a one-man baseball team? Or….a team with one player short? Team captains don't do that. God's main instrument of carrying on His earthly work is a team He calls "the church." But many church members want to sit in a comfortable pew and watch the pastor carry on the work of the church. When he doesn't measure up, whining sets in and they swap him off for one less tired. The ideal pastor is a 25-year-old with 50 years of experience whose family lives in royalty on a pauper's income, like the Children of Israel in the desert whose shoes never wore out. Many church members who claim to be Christians, have never found their Biblical place of spiritual labor in God's church.
The Bible has some things to say about carrying on the work in His earthly body which is made up of several millions of local assemblies in the world where two or three are gathered together in [His] name,….(Matthew 18:20). God's church is not a man-made organization—but a God-made organism—a world of difference between the two. An organism is a living thing. God said of His church that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18).
God knows a lot about making things and He made His church to be an interdependent team. No, you won't find "team" in the Bible but you will find words that mean the same thing. We find "member" and "body" and "one another."
One of our Bible memory verses at church is: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you (Ephesians 4:32).
In our family Bible reading Barbara and I came across: Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin (Hebrews 3:12-13).
In one of our study Bibles we read: "There are many 'one another' passages in Scripture, and it is important to practice them daily. We should 'exhort one another daily,' 'edify one another; (1Thessalonians 5:5:11), 'pray one for another' (James 5:16), 'comfort one another' (I Thessalonians 4:18), 'be ye kind one to another' (Ephesians 4:32), and especially 'love one another' (John 13:34). There are many other such admonitions in Scripture." (The Morris New Defender's Study Bible, page 1896).
Praying for one another is the starting point. Then a telephone call or a dollar store get well card can make the difference in somebody's life. When there's sickness or death it is not a good idea to say: "If there's anything I can do just let me know." Unless you've been there, you can't know how frustrating and irritating that sentence can be. Find out from their family, friends, or neighbors what should be done and do it. It's ok if they never find out that you cleaned up their house from stem to stern and fed their dog. In our helping "one another" it must come out of love and genuine sincerity. That's the key.
Below is the verse I first memorized several years ago and it was through this passage that I saw from the Bible that it is everybody's business to make it their business about the welfare of other believers. Everybody gets down. Everybody gets sick. Everybody has a bad break. Everybody runs out of vitamins and loses too much sleep. Everybody's dog gets run over. Don't wait until somebody asks you to pick them up off the floor.
And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: (25) Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching (Hebrews 10:24-25).
I plan to print a set of Bible memory cards containing the "one another" verses—for myself— and for the "one another-minded" people that want to take this idea to heart. I'm behind on my card printing right now. Meantime write verses on any scrap of paper and stick it in your pocket. That's what Abraham Lincoln did.
The Bible teaches that God places people in groups and calls them churches. He imparts the Holy Spirit into the body and life of every believer and gives each one a special gift to use in ministry. As Christians, we need not only the Lord but also need each other. "One another" is God's idea and He did not set up the church as a group of people to sit in pews and watch the pastor carry on the work of the church until he looks like a bear rug on the floor.
It's your business to try to reach out to me if you see me stumble or taking a nap in the path of a big truck. Of course if you see the need to minister "one another" to me in my weak state, I would appreciate it if you will remember these verses:
And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, (25) In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; (26) And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will. (2Timothy 2:24-26)
It's not always easy for me to be patient and gentle and to avoid striving when I'm on a "one another" mission. Those may be the hardest verses in the Bible. Your mess-ups are worse than my mess-ups. Do you ever feel that way? You and I both have a mandate from the God of heaven through His Word to discharge our responsibility to "one another." If I love "one another" and pray for "one another" and forgive "one another" then I'll be in a much better condition to exhort "one another" and teach "one another" and edify "one another."
Here is one of the greatest mandates in the Bible, I think:
And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. (9) Use hospitality one to another without grudging. (10) As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God (1Peter 4:8-10).
It has always been God's will for all of His children to be good at the "one another" game. God's people don't all have the same gift and we do not all have the same needs. We have not all grown to the same level in developing our individual gifts. Some are ahead and some are behind in development. Let's get on with our "one another"duties.Ω
The Door —Barbara Carr
I have always thought of Revelation 3:20 as a salvation verse. I may have written an article using this comparison. The sermons I've heard since childhood often pictured Jesus standing at the door knocking, asking to be allowed to come into our hearts for eternal salvation.
"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." (Rev 3:20)
Dan and I are doing a study of the book of Revelation—again. We have studied it many times, but each time we learn more and see things we either missed or have forgotten. We use several commentaries to help us—Strauss, Morris, etc. Let's look at Revelation 3:20. "Behold I stand at the door"
Morris' comment on "come in to him" was new to me. "This verse is not a gospel verse, appealing to the unsaved to accept Christ. There is nothing in it about Christ's sacrificial death for sinners or about believing on Him for salvation, or any other gospel essentials. It is addressed directly to the neutralist, self-satisfied Laodicean church, calling them to repentance. In context, the Lord is calling worldly, compromising believers to allow Him back into their lives."
Wow! Our Lord is knocking on our heart's door telling us, as He did the Laodiceans, to stop being neutral and self seeking in this world. He is asking us to hear His voice and repent of our sins. Christian sinners! Christian sins! Our sins as Christians do not send us to Hell because He paid that debt on the cross once and for all. Legally, our sins were placed on Jesus at the cross and He paid for our sins—all of them.
But we retain the old sin nature with which we were born and which will be a part of us until we die. We close our eyes to the sins that somehow continue to flow from our old nature. The new man of the new birth does not sin but the old man can do nothing but sin and just keeps on urging us to sin. We think if we are not on a drinking binge or doing drugs or committing murder, etc that we are living a good Christian life.
That's not what Jesus was telling the Laodiceans. He was telling them that they were neutral, lukewarm. When we get to the point that we have to strain our brain to think of a sin we might be harboring, we better do a self-check. As Dan has said many times, "Our thoughts count, too." We have become so comfortable in our little world, our lifestyles, that we are actually "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked" (Revelation 3:17)
"Come in to Him" The Lord is calling us careless and perhaps compromising believers to allow Him back into our lives. He will not force us to admit our sins and repent. He just patiently stands at the door and knocks. We believe that His coming is very near…do we not? Shouldn't we give up trying to be in control of our lives and allow Him to lead us? I often have to fall on my knees in tears and ask forgiveness. I could list why, but it would make the article too long. You don't get over sinning just because you are old. No, Satan continues to say, "Yea, Hath God said?" (Genesis 3:1)
"will sup with him and he with Me." Jesus loved the Laodiceans. He loves us. His desire is for us to meet with Him in Bible study and prayer. In verse twenty-one He shows His grace by inviting them to share His throne. We are forgiven. We are underneath the blood. All because God loved us enough to send Jesus that we might have eternal life. Let's love Him enough to obey him and serve Him. If He has been shut out of your life, He is at the door even now. Invite Him to come in and resume His place as the Lord of your life. Ω
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