One Another 1: Love One Another
Colossians 3:12-17
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
For Meditation
This Sunday, we start our new sermon series: How to “One Another” One Another. We’ll begin by laying the groundwork for this series and looking at what it means for the church to be a community.
Specifically, we’ll look at how God has created community as a way for us to be fully human. He calls us into relationships as something we are fundamentally made for, even if they aren’t easy. So, we’ll look at why there are so many commands to love one another in the New Testament, and why relationships can be so very difficult.
Finally, we’ll look at what it means to actually love one another. And we’ll see that, especially in the New Testament, love is certainly emotional, but it is also volitional — it is about actions that a person commits to and takes on, much like a piece of clothing that you put on. We’ll look at the implications of these commands, and what it actually looks like here at our community of Third Church to love one another.
