The family of God

The One Another Commands

The church is a family, and the New Testament is full of instructions for how the members of that family are to treat each other. They are called the one another commands: love one another, forgive one another, bear one another’s burdens, serve one another, and many more. Jesus said, by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. Here is a deep, honest page for each command, rooted in its real verse and in the love of Christ, who first loved us.

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.John 13:34-35 (KJV)

What the one another commands are

Scholars count dozens of one another statements across the New Testament letters. Most of them are direct commands for life together in the body of Christ. They cannot be obeyed alone; they require a community, a real people to love, forgive, serve, and honor. Together they paint a picture of the church as God means it to be: a family marked by the love of its Lord.

The commands

Why they all point to Christ

These are not rules for earning God’s favor but the family likeness of those who have already received it. We love because he first loved us; we forgive because we are forgiven; we serve because he served us to the cross. Every one another command flows from the one who gave himself for us, and every one of them makes his love visible to a watching world.