Last Sunday, we began a sermon series entitled “The One Another’s”. The series is based off of the various one another commands that we have been given in the Bible. We will be focusing on six of these commands. Last week we began the series by talking about the command to forgive one another. From there we will be looking at the commands to love one another, encourage one another, teach and admonish one another, serve one another, and live in harmony with one another.
As I stated earlier, these are not suggestions but rather we are commanded, as followers of Jesus, to demonstrate these qualities in the relationships that we have with other people. When you think about these qualities we see all of them in the life and ministry of others.
As we study the gospels we see Jesus teaching and admonishing those that He encountered, whether it was the disciples or the crowds of people that gathered to hear Him teach. In Jesus, we see the ability and the desire to have peaceful relationships with those that He encountered and we see Him encouraging the lonely and the destitute, instantly restoring their hope and sense of purpose for their lives. As the life and ministry of Jesus shifts towards the cross, we see the servant nature of Jesus as He knelt and washed the feet of the disciples and Jesus Himself said that He did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. On the cross, we hear Jesus pray the words, “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they are doing!” Forgiveness is found at the cross and in the blood of Jesus which was shed there. All of these characteristics evident in the life of Jesus fall under the umbrella of His deep, wide, and unconditional love for His people.
As we journey over the course of the next five weeks or so, may we seek to have these characteristics developed in our life. May they be developed so that by the end of the series we would look and act more like Jesus and so that people would see Christ in us, the hope of Glory. God bless you in every way.