Seeking Opportunities to “One Another”
A few days ago, my friend Maël at “The Adventures of Maël & Cindy” published a post called “Those ‘one another’s.” Almost everyone knows about all the instructions and examples in Scripture in which the authors exhort their readers to think about others. In the post, Maël listed these “one another’s”:
bearing one another’s burdens (Gal 6:2)
encouraging one another (1 Th 4:18; Heb 10:25)
exhorting one another (Heb 3:13)
praying for one another
confessing our sins to one another (Jm 5:16)
speaking the truth in love to one another (Eph 4:15)
admonishing one another (Col 3:16)
building up one another (1 Th 5:11)
teaching one another (Col 3:16)
comforting one another (1 Cor 13:11)
submitting to one another (Eph 5:21)
serving one another (Mt 20:27-8)
patiently bearing one another (Eph 4:2)
regarding one another as more important than ourselves (Rom 12:10)
caring for one another (1 Pt 4:10)
exercising our spiritual gifts to serve one another (1 Pt 4:10)
being kind and tenderhearted to one another (Eph 4:32)
forgiving one another (Eph 4:32)
loving one another (Jn 13:34-5)
In response, my friend Jonathan commented, “A good follow up question, are we seeking opportunities to do them or are we sitting by passively doing them whenever someone gets desperate enough to ask for it?”
I’ve been thinking about Jonathan’s question since I read it a few days ago. I think he points out a huge difference in how we live our lives among other believers and among the world. Do we sit back and wait for people to ask us for help, or do we actively seek opportunities to help others, to teach others, to forgive others, to care for others?
Looking at Maël’s list, which “one another” do you think is most difficult to you? Thinking about Jonathan’s question, how important is it that we actively seek opportunities to do these “one another’s”?