ONE ANOTHER... (Part 1)

"A new commandment I give to you, 

that you LOVE ONE ANOTHER;

 as I have LOVED YOU, 

that you also LOVE ONE ANOTHER. 

By this all will know that you are My disciples, 

if you have LOVE for ONE ANOTHER."

 Jesus on the eve of His crucifixion in John 13:34-35

ONE ANOTHER is a very important scriptural concept! Especially to LOVE ONE ANOTHER!

Did you know there are 100 times in the New testament where the Greek word ALLE'LO'N/ALLE'LOUS/ALLE'LOIS often translated as "ONE ANOTHER" is used?   (***See links below for some lists of the ONE ANOTHER verses)

Wow, and 17 of those are to LOVE ONE ANOTHER!
https://vimeo.com/291529407 (Song video- 2 minutes)

These 2 verses from John 13 record 3 ONE ANOTHERs, plus Jesus repeats this two more times in His message to the disciples during His "last supper" (John 15:12 & 17)! In addition to that, He also states multiple times in various ways on that same night that "if you LOVE Me, keep my commandments!" (John 14:15, 21, 23, John 15:10). So SEVEN times in one evening, knowing He is facing His death -  His primary purpose for coming to earth, we have Jesus' recorded words telling us that if we LOVE Him, we will LOVE ONE ANOTHER! Seven times! He knows He's going to die a horrible death, and this is what He's thinking about and chooses to share in those final hours before the cross...

Truly, truly, truly, truly, truly, truly, truly to LOVE ONE ANOTHER as He LOVES us, is a very important command that Jesus strongly emphasizes here in these moments! Truly (x17), to LOVE ONE ANOTHER is a very important concept that is repeated by His disciples 14 more times in the New Testament!

This "ONE ANOTHER" concept is something that I only recently realized is a SIGNIFICANT concept of scripture, as somehow it seems, the Church has instead focused on a hierarchy of power and privilege, who needs to submit to who... often power and privilege of the few at the expense of the many... the exact opposite of scripture... this misuse of power is one of my laments!

I became aware that "ONE ANOTHER" is a primary principle over the last year or so, as I have been wrestling with the role of women in the Church for a few years, and how over the ages, I Timothy 2:12 has often been used to exclude women from some specific spiritual leadership roles. The traditional interpretation from this passage has been used to bias other passages to support that understanding. (That is an entire post on it's own, which I hope to share at some point, but for now, I wanted to share the positive principle of "ONE ANOTHER!")

By His grace and the power of the Holy Spirit, may we LOVE ONE ANOTHER as He LOVES us!

Christians, let us LOVE ONE ANOTHER...

I encourage you to spend some time praying for His LOVE to be poured into our hearts, by His Holy Spirit, as you listen to this beautiful 5 minute instrumental video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMq2BxCFYWk

For His glory, for His Kingdom!

***
Here are 2 lists of the 59 ONE ANOTHER commands... 
https://www.mmlearn.org/hubfs/docs/OneAnotherPassages.pdf
http://storage.cloversites.com/wakarusamissionarychurch/documents/59one_another_scriptures.pdf

Here's a link the Bible Hub website for a list of all 100 ONE ANOTHER verses!
https://biblehub.com/greek/strongs_240.htm