Last time we looked at 5 “One Anothers” – Love one another, show honor to one another, live in harmony with one another, judge not one another (improperly), welcome one another.
This week, we will look at five more, so let’s jump right in!
- Instruct One Another. “I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.” (Romans 15:14 ESV)
- Our word here is noutheteo – which means to warn, or admonish. We warn one another with something specific – the Word of God – not our own agendas or personal convictions. We do this in formal times of instruction, like on Sunday mornings with a sermon, or in a Small Group with someone leading a study, or maybe even one on one. Think about the beauty of a sunrise on vacation with your family and quoting Psalm 19:1 – “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” Why do we do this? Because let’s face it…we all have weak, fallen brains that are prone to forgetfulness (more so as we get older!) Hebrews warns us all – “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” (Hebrews 1:14–2:1 ESV)
- Don’t Sue One Another. “To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?” (1 Corinthians 6:7 ESV)
- This means, simply, that we should not take another believer to court to settle our differences. Why? Two reasons – (1) As believers we are united to Christ and therefore united to each other. To turn to an outside authority to settle differences between “united” believers is as Paul says “already a defeat.” It’s better for you to suffer the loss, than disrupt the unity of believers! (2) We already have a process to settle issues between us outline in Matthew 18. Why don’t we do this? We should be demonstrating grace and unity to the community in which we are trying to minister to. More than that – think about our sin against God and how he gave us Christ to reconcile us. The gospel is all about reconciliation and we need to model that in our actual lives. John MacArthur puts it well, as he usually does: “Believers who go to court with believers are more concerned with revenge or gain than with the unity of the Body and the glory of Jesus Christ. Disputes between Christians should be settled by and among Christians.” #ow…thanks, Dr. MacArthur.
- Don’t Deprive One Another. “Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.” (1 Corinthians 7:5 ESV)
- OK…before we all get too excited…remember CONTEXT is king. Sexual intimacy is the exclusive territory of the marriage between one man and one woman, as established by God himself. (Lest you start to think we are a freaky cult or something here…) Now, let’s move on to the “why” – our marriages should be healthy. If there is a marriage with no sexual intimacy, then there are serious problems in the marriage. Marriage is also the biblical picture of Christ and the church – how he loves her and sacrifices for her to make her holy. Our marriages should look like that, with the husband taking the lead. Lastly, when we become married, we are no longer two independent people, but one unit working together, combining forces for the glory of God. Even sexual intimacy, or the temporary cessation of it, is to sharpen our effectiveness for God’s glory, not our own.
- Wait for One Another. “So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another—” (1 Corinthians 11:33 ESV)
- We are getting real practical here now, eh? This one is hard for me…just sayin’. One of my life principles is “If you are on time, you are late.” Combine that with food, where I would struggle with the onset of crankiness from being hungry…OK, so I’m showing my lameness. Why is this important? Well, for starters we are making it about others NOT us. We need to consider others, not just our empty stomachs. There is no grace whatsoever in the mindset of “Well, we said we’d eat at 12:00 and it’s clearly 12:01, so not sure where those inconsiderate idiots are, LET’S EAT!” As always, there is a larger gospel reality here at work. When you get down to it, we “think” we have the right to eat if someone is “late,” in response to their terrible sin against us. How did God treat us with our (legitimate) terrible sin against him? Grace. Enormous, undeserved grace in Jesus. You might have figured that we weren’t getting out of this paragraph without a reference to Philippians 2…and you are right: “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:4–8 ESV)
- Care for One Another. “that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.” (1 Corinthians 12:25 ESV)
- This is a really cool word in the Greek, it literally means to be so concerned with others’ needs that you are anxious for them to be met. We should not be indifferent to the needs of others. We should be motivated to action by love for each other. Look at v26 – we feel what our brothers and sisters feel – they hurt, we should hurt. They rejoice, we should rejoice. What’s the gospel why here? God was not indifferent to our needs, the greatest of which is reconciliation to him after we alienated ourselves in our rebellion against him. He was the one who was legitimately wronged, and yet he still loves us and offers us transformative restoration in Jesus. The offer is there, and it is up to the church to proclaim it with love and true care. “…but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8 ESV)
