"Concern for One Another"

Today as we prepare our lives for a time to give thanks we need to be reminded that our thanksgiving should be directed to the Lord who has created us and given us life and breath. God today has given us his bride the church and we are here to be his faithful witnesses.

As we enter a time of thanksgiving this week I want to encourage us to have a concern for one another. There are many times where churches and church leaders wonder how this is done, and what is an effective church? We see conferences about this and books being written about church growth. To be sure growth is one of the signs of life, but we also know that church size is no proof of God’s blessing or or a church’s spiritual health. When it comes down to it we know this for sure. Christ tells us in the gospel of Matthew that He alone will build his church.

Matthew 16:18 ESV

18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Christ is the one who builds the church ,and we as the bride should be a people that are involved in one another’s lives. The church or bride of Christ was never meant to be a place where people come in, sit down, and walk out and have no involvement with fellowship or accountability. We come together to hear the solid teaching of God’s Word each week so we can grow in our faith. We also see the importance of coming together and encouraging one another. We were not meant to isolate ourselves.

We have been looking to the book of Hebrews and one of the great reminders that I want to share with you is listed in chapter 10. Lets take a look at this today.

Hebrews 10:24–25 ESV

24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Notice here, that we are commanded to consider how to stir up one another to love and good works not neglecting to meet together as the habit of some, but encouraging one another.

This short phrase “one another” is used over and over again throughout the New Testament and is a repeated expression in the New Testament instruction to the church.

So, today I want to address several of these “one another” statements from the book of Romans so that we can see the importance of concern for one another.

1. Love one another with a brotherly affection.

Romans 12:10 ESV

10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

Brotherly love here come from the Greek word (philadelphos). This carries the meaning of having a natural family love. Now I understand that not all families show this type of love, but they should. So, Paul here in his letter to the church at Rome challenges the church to have a loving family affection for one another.

In fact, brotherly love is one of the marks by which the world will know that we are Christians.

John 13:35 ESV

35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Brotherly love really shows the true nature of Christians. As God’s children we know and understand that we should show love to others including our own spiritual brothers and sisters. We show this love by helping in times of need. We love by forgiving and serving and coming along side of others to guide them and show them Christ. These are all wonderful ways to show love to others. How is this going in your life today? Are you loving others as Christ has loved you? Let’s be a church and a people that our known by this wonderful characteristic. Love one another.

2. Live in Harmony with one another.

Romans 12:16 ESV

16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.

As believers we need to work towards being impartial and making sure that we get along with others. “To live in harmony.” So often in the church we can see discord, fighting and partiality creep in. Paul again several chapters later states the same challenge we see here in chapter 12. Look at Chapter 15.

Romans 15:5 ESV

5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus,

So, we need to guard against pride and fightings within the church. We need to reject the temptation to think high thoughts about our selves as though we are better Christians than others. We also need to be humble in our approach and talk kindly and gently with others. One of the toughest teachings in all the New Testament on being impartial is given to us in the book of James.

James 2:1–4 ESV

1 My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. 2 For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, 3 and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” 4 have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

James 2:9 ESV

9 But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

One of the marks of a true Christian Community is that we get along with one another, that we strive for harmony and watch out for being partial. It’s not easy because the enemy comes after us to fight and get frustrated with one another, so we have to run to the Lord and ask him for strength to get along with others in order to live in harmony.

3. Welcome One Another.

Romans 15:7 ESV

7 Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

This word welcome means to accept. The meaning here is receiving something or someone to oneself with special concern. It can have a negative meaning like when Peter in Mark 8:32 took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him, but here in this verse it has a positive meaning.

Here in our text, Paul lays out this wonderful illustration of the way in which Christians are to welcome and receive one another. He is referring here to believers accepting one another with love and without reservation or judgment. How difficult can this be at times?

Paul here does not mention the specific types of believers so, we know that this would be all. This would be the weak and new believers, as well as those who were mature. He would be speaking to Jews and Gentiles. All believers are called to welcome and accept one another in the fullest and deepest sense. We are to treat each other with love and understanding just as Christ has also accepted us.

The problem however is our sinful carnal flesh. Sometimes we as believers can have a difficult time doing this because of how we have been treated or because some folks can be difficult to love and welcome.

We see this in Scripture when the self- righteous hypocritical church leaders (Scribes and Pharisees) criticized Jesus because he recieved sinners and even ate with them in Luke 15:2. Jesus Himself should be our pattern for accepting one another.

Paul admonished the Ephesians to be kind to one another, to be tender-hearted to one another, and to forgive one another just as God in Christ also has forgiven us. (Ephesians 4:32) So, today Antioch we should be imitators of God, as His children, we should walk in love and welcome those around us.

4. Instruct One Another.

Romans 15:14 ESV

14 I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.

Paul here is commending the church at Rome for being filled with knowledge. He of course is not talking about worldly human knowledge ,but of the deep knowledge of God’s truth in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You may be here today and say what is the gospel of Jesus?

This is the message that the Apostles and Paul declared all the time. Every time they had a chance they would declare this:

“Jesus Christ of Nazareth lived among you; he was the Messiah promised of old; you crucified him, but in his name there is Salvation, and whosoever among you will repent of your sins and trust Christ shall find mercy.” That is all. This is the message that Paul shared every where he went.

So, one of the things that we know about this church that Paul is writing too is that the believers there were doctrinally sound. That had a good understanding about the Lord and what He had done and what He says about Christian living. These believers knew God, they knew His truth and were living by the power of His Spirit and were committed to living holy lives.

We now come to the back end of this verse. Paul tells us that we are to instruct one another. What is he talking about here? This word instruct means too admonish. It carries the idea of encouraging, warning, and advising. We would say today that this is a wonderful term meaning to give wise counsel to others. It refers to coming alongside other Christians for spiritual and moral counseling. Paul is not referring here to having a special gift of counseling like we may think of, but of the duty and responsibility that every believer has for encouraging and strengthening other believers.

I would say sadly today that I believe too many Christians have been convinced that real and competent counseling can only be done and accomplished by a person who is trained in the principles of secular psychology. The reason I have a problem with this is because most not all, but most schools of psychology are at extreme odds with God’s Word, and are far apart on what to do for solid biblical counsel. What I am saying is that most worldly counsel is not going to give you or does not rely on the full sufficiency of God’s Word.

Here is my point in saying all of this. Church, when God’s word rules our hearts and lives, His Holy Spirit makes us rich in the true wisdom of His Word and helps us and prepares us to admonish and instruct one another. When we have a love for God’s Word and begin to study it it can not only help us, but then we can teach and help one another along the right road.

The place for Christians to counsel and be counseled is in the church. Now of course regarding more serious and prolonged problems someone may need to see a trained and biblical Christian counselor or pastor. I understand that, but so often we forget the wise counsel of God’s Word. So, let’s run to that so we can instruct one another with the best news ever.

Conclusion: Of course this list could go on. There are other one another’s that I didn’t have time to talk about today.

-Serve one another.

-Forgive one another.

-Confess your sins to one another.

-Don’t lie to one another.

-Show hospitality to one another.

-And be humble toward one another.

However, these “one another’s” are the qualities of the church that Christ is building. Just like the builder Himself, the church that puts these one another’s into practice will be a loving, caring and sensitive church. When these qualities are true of the church we can be a community that is conformed to the very image of Christ, and not conformed to the world.

(Pray and lead into Communion)