1 Thessalonians 1:2-3 — “We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” The New Testament or bible for that fact never explicitly says “Thou shalt be family!” However the characteristics of a family are found throughout the New Testament. Think about it, we call ourselves “Brothers” and “Sisters” and even refer to God as “Father”. If, we appear to be a family why do we sometimes not act like it? We grumble and complain about each other, we sometimes even avoid people in the fellowship. From time to time people will not come to church because of a lack of “love, one for another.”
In Acts 2:44- 47 we read, “All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
This is a fantastic scripture for how the first century church interacted with one another. Have you ever really read this scripture? Have you thought about what these people did for each other. Have you ever sold something and given the money to a Christian that really needed it? Have you ever had “everything in common” with someone before? If you think about it, how many true relationships have you ever had like this? That also brings up another question, when you are in need; do you let someone know that you need help? Do you give the Christians an opportunity to serve you or do you not let anyone know about your need because if they knew, the might look down on you. Somehow we have to get out of this mindset and get into the mindset we NEED each other.
Peter said it perfectly in 1 Peter 1:22— ”Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.” ( 1 Peter 1:22 Some early manuscripts “from a pure heart”.)
“Love one another deeply from the heart” What a challenging scripture! How do you love someone deeply? Most of the time when we think of loving someone deeply, we think about a marriage, not our everyday relationships. But, see I think that’s what Peter is really trying to say to us. John then says in 1 John 3:11 that “we should love one another” then again in 1 John 4:11 that “we ought to love one another.”
I think the point is being made that without love for one another we really aren’t any more than just a group that gets together. I think the church in the first century probably wasn’t much different from us. Maybe that’s why they had to keep being reminded of things like this in Hebrews 10:24-25 — “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Isn’t it amazing, even though we look up to the church in the first century, they had people already missing church.
I love reading Philippians; the language that Paul uses gives us a clue to how he feels about this church. It’s been speculated that Paul wrote to the Philippians church about 10-12 years after he left. If you’ll remember, Paul went there after seeing in a dream a man saying “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” Acts 16:9. The book also records that Paul was only there for “several days.”
Then 10-12 years later Paul says in Philippians 1:3-11—“I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.” What beautiful language! Do you thank God every time you remember a Christian friend? How about in ALL of your prayers for all the Christians do you pray with joy because of your “Partnership in the gospel?” Do you believe that it’s RIGHT that you feel this way about people in the church? Do you pray for peoples love to “abound more and more?” Here’s what I believe: This isn’t just a good idea, this isn’t something that we should “work” on. We shouldn’t just be thinking about loving one another, we need to actually love one another. I think that requires some thought on our part. How do we truly “Love one another”? Lets looks at one more scripture…..This time from Jesus. John 13:34-35— ”A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” This is a command! What a great thing to look forward to, each and every Christian wanting to be together, wanting to make sure that everybody’s needs are taken care of. If we can do this, I think we too might experience the lord “adding to our number daily those being saved.”
Amen!
Jason Bond
