Living With One Another

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” – John 15:5

“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” – John 15:12

The vertical was always meant to flow into the horizontal.

Genesis 1:

  • God creates light, sky, land, sea, plants, stars, animals.
  • And at the end of every day, what does God say?
  • “It is good.” “It is good.” “It is good.”

The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

– Genesis 2:18

God created us to be in relationship with one another.

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

– John 13:34-35

Jesus says ‘The world will know you are my disciples if you love one another.’

“Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.”  – 1 John 4:20

This is a hard verse, but it tells us:

You cannot have a healthy vertical connection with God WHILE

you have a broken horizontal one with each other.

faulty thinking says love is one more thing on the list.

The love is not a part of our faith, rather love is the Christian life made visible to the world.

For us:

  • We go farther together;
  • We take turns carrying the hard part;
  • We encourage the ones in front;
  • And we don’t leave the wounded behind.

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up!” – Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

This phrase ‘one another’ is used 59 times in the Bible on how to treat each other.

Here are some examples in the Bible

(We will get to some of them in later sermons):

  • Love one another (John 13:34)
  • Be devoted to one another (Romans 12:10)
  • Honor one another above yourselves
  • (Romans 12:10)
  • Accept one another (Romans 15:7)
  • Serve one another (Galatians 5:13)
  • Bear with one another (Ephesians 4:2)
  • Forgive one another (Ephesians 4:32)
  • Encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
  • Confess to one another and pray for one another
  • (James 5:16)
  • Offer hospitality to one another (1 Peter 4:9)

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer…All the believers were together and had everything in common.”

– Acts 2:42, 44

The early church:

  • Ate together
  • Prayed together
  • Shared their lives together

“Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

– Acts 2: 46-47

The result of this togetherness is people were being added to the church daily.

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

– Hebrews 10: 24-25

Here is how the world will know that we are disciples of Jesus:

  • Not loving perfect people
  • Being loved people who are learning to love one another.

Our Mission: To live well, Holy Spirit led, and love well, with all He gives us.

“We love because He first loved us” – 1 John 4:19

 Our Vision is to be a church family, in authentic relationship with God and each other.

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