one another

one another.

been thinking some thoughts.

it's not original but i've never heard it preached on - the "to one another" s. 

the list i saw some years ago had 35 verses noted on it. it's all the things that we should do for each other, how we should relate to one another." be devoted to one another in brotherly love, honour one another above yourselves" for example.

my starting point in my thinking lately has been the obvious  new commandment - "that you love one another as i have loved you". i've only just got why it's a new commandment cos the summary of the law, the old commandment is love too. but that was  to love your neighbour as you love yourself, this is to love as christ loves. whew ! i did make the link a while back tho that when paul reminds husbands to love their wives he's only repeating the instruction that's given to everyone but maybe husbands need more reminding to do it for their wives. also the guideline for wives to submit to/respect their husbands is a repeat of the word given to everyone a verse earlier - "submit to one another out of reverence for christ" !! He isn't asking us to do anything extra for our partners than what he asks us to do for others in a sense - just we need extra reminding to do it for a spouse :-) (and the parents/elderly and bosses) very confusing tho having the title stuck before the submit verse rather than after it.

i associate the love one another idea with dribbly choruses in the charismatic renewal and having to hold hands with strangers in meetings - but somehow this is fellowship/koinonia that includes and goes beyond the get together/eklesia. maybe the realities of it makes holding hands with strangers seem positively preferable for us relationally challenged europeans.

reading the letters by john,  the special friend, i was struck by what sounds like an elderly man repeating over and over in desperation for someone to listen and not lose the heart of the good news - love love love. this is a highly participatory activity that can't be accomplished in rows of people who have no eye contact with anyone and go home without talking to anyone. obviously there's the place for the big. but maybe a shortage of the middlin' and the small. i was "friends" for a while with a woman in the states on fb who was going through a bad time and then just after moving house had her purse stolen and had no cash to get her through to the end of the month. i asked her had she mentioned it at church - she said there are 3000 people in my church, you can't. I put some euros in an envelope with a little card for her which gave her the money to buy gasoline to get to work every day and to get to her mothers for the rest of the month. someone from her church must at least have seen her fb entries - or maybe not ? i would happily queue up and go to a huge church to hear people teach but i wouldn't call it fellowship. don't get me wrong, it wasn't sacrificial giving, just a little bit of spare, but it made me want to cry that a little sick nobody a thousand miles away was able to spot what was needed and no one near enough to be able to give her a hug as well. you didn't need to be clairvoyant to understand her fb post !


i was struck some years ago too about the inclusiveness of paul's practical instructions in 1 corinthians - in each set of instructions from ch 10 onwards there's the words each, every or all ! this is life, this is how the good news works. i don't like the instruction manual image very much as i feel it gives too much of a mechanical, put your money in the slot and you'll get a can of coke automatic feel to something which is obviously much more organic. but here i feel it's appropriate. there are all these clear instructions - this is what you do - "bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of christ" "speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs" "encourage one another and all the more as the day approaches" "forgive one another as God has forgiven you in Christ" "sharing with one another as each had need" - and that's just a few i can remember-ish by heart

bodies need skeletons - eklesia, structure appointments, other wise we'd never do anything, but they also need flesh koinonia - being built together, every ligament etc (ephesians)