Category Archives: New Testament

Tearing “One Another” Apart: Humility

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SERVE

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Thinking through the “one another” verses I posted about yesterday, I felt it would be profitable to tear the verses down a bit to glean some practical application. So, starting at the top, let’s think through the general category of exhibiting humility towards one another.

1. Submitting To One Another

Ephesians 5:18-21 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

This has the idea the being subordinate or obedient to one another. I see humility in this, as it would be easy for any of us to reason that a peer is not worthy of our submission. What makes them better than us, that we should be subject in such a manner? That is exactly the point; nothing makes them better. In fact, we are all equals in Christ. Out of reverence for Him, we are to submit to one another.

Generally speaking, most of us aren’t going around the church telling each other what to do. That’s as much a cultural concern as anything else. We know such behavior would create an awkward situation. No one likes someone that’s “bossy.” But what about when a pastor or deacon gives spiritual instruction? Do we submit, or resist? What about those occasions when a teacher or peer, in the spirit of discipleship, challenges us in an area of spiritual growth? Is our first thought to justify sinful behavior that’s been pointed out to us, or do we, in humility, submit?

2. Consider One Another

Hebrews 10:24-25 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 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.

In the KJV, this is alternately rendered “consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works.” Replace the word “consider” with the thought “observe fully,” and you get the sense that we are to take one another quite seriously. Others are to occupy our thoughts. Why do I categorize this under humility? Because our natural inclination is to think about ourselves. Consider how to provoke someone else to love and good works? That sounds like effort. I’d rather think about the good work of buying myself ice cream, you know? To think about someone else in depth regarding a topic of complexity means we must make ourselves second-class. Ergo – humility.

The verse here is telling  us that time and energy is to be spent on a challenge: how to encourage a fellow believer to engage in agape love and in doing good things. Do we think about that, or are we so absorbed with how to do good works ourselves, that we don’t care about others? Is it possible that we focus on our own good works as a subconscious comparison, charting what we’re doing for God versus what our fellow believers are doing? Hmm. Perhaps we want all the credit for ourselves. That’s not very considerate.

3. Preferring One Another

Romans 12:10 Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;

I chose the KJV above; the ESV rendering is “Outdo one another in showing honor.” Both have a similar sense, in that we are to go out of our way to make someone else more important than we are. The idea of humility comes through yet again, where in our minds we must actually think, believe, understand, and comprehend that we are not number one. Someone else is better than us. We are to honor one another. To prefer one another. Conversely, we are not to honor ourselves. Not to prefer ourselves, which is the most natural inclination we can possibly have.

We automatically live in the world of our self-absorbed minds. If honoring and preferring someone else was easy, we wouldn’t have to be told to do it.

4. Serve One Another

Galatians 5:13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

The English word “serve” doesn’t quite communicate the strength of the verb used here. The idea in the original Greek is more like slavery: being in bondage to one another. Paul makes the point that while indeed we have great freedom in Christ, we aren’t to use that freedom to do something our flesh wants us to do. Instead, we are to be in slavery to one another. Interesting. That implies that when we sin (an opportunity for the flesh), we’re actually committing an offense towards our Christian family. Instead, we’re supposed to be in bondage to our Christian family. We aren’t to do anything to hurt them through selfish sin.

Ah – there’s that idea of humility again! We must not serve our own desires; rather we must put ourselves into the service of one another.

5. Humility Toward One Another

1 Peter 5:5b Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

Our clothes cover, characterize, and communicate about us. Now imagine “dressing” your mind. This verse says that we should be clothed in humility towards one another. As we think of each other, our minds should be covered in humility. Characterized by humility. As we communicate with each other, humility should be revealed. A humility about ourselves should be the most natural thing in the world for us to have towards each other.

Woe is us that it is not.

The Christian Discipline of “One Another”

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Love One Another

An extraordinary number of Scripture verses instruct Christians how we are to act towards other Christians. You might think that “love one another” (John 13:34) is a tidy summary of that responsibility, but as you start digging through verses in the New Testament, you find many more specifics. While agape is at the root of all of these other instructions, the sheer detail mentioned gives one pause for thought…they did me at least.

Here, I’ve categorized these roughly to make the list a little less overwhelming. Re-categorize if it suits you. Also, if you start digging into these, remember to read them in context, and not form a complete doctrine out of a word or two I’ve lifted from these verses. ;-)

Humility

  1. Submit to – Eph 5:21
  2. Consider – Heb 10:24
  3. Prefer – Rom 12:10
  4. Wash one another’s feet / serve – Joh. 13:34, Ga 5:13, 1Pe 4:10
  5. Humble towards – 1Pe 5:5

Hospitality

  1. Show hospitality – 1Pe 4:9
  2. Receive – Rom. 15:7
  3. Salute / greet with a kiss – Rom 16:16, 1Co 16:20, 2Co 13:12, 1Pe 5:14

Discipleship

  1. Admonish – Rom 15:14, Col 3:16
  2. Exhort / comfort – Heb 3:13, 10:25, 1Th 4:18
  3. Counsel / instruct – Rom 15:14
  4. Pray for – Jas 5:16
  5. Edify / encourage / build – 1Th 5:11, 1Th 4:18, Heb 10:25

Benevolence

  1. Be kind – Eph 4:32
  2. Forgive – Eph 4:32, Col 3:13
  3. Forbear – Eph 4:2, Col 3:13
  4. Love – Joh. 13:34, 15:12+17, Rom. 12:10, 13:8, 1Th 4:9, 1Pe. 1:22, 4:8 1Jo 3:11+23, 4:7+11-12, 2Jo 1:5
  5. Bear burdens – Ga 6:2

And Let’s Not…

  1. Not judge – Rom 14:13
  2. Not lie – Col. 3:9
  3. Not speak evil – Jas 4:11

Am I, as a disciple of Christ, doing all of these things? Are you? If we all were obedient in to all of the “one anothers,” what would our relationships be like? How many in our local assemblies would be lonely? Hungry? Angry? Confused? Suicidal? Bitter? Frustrated? Rude? Self-absorbed? Non-committal? Arrogant?

The “one anothers” are transformative. If we all were to live these out, our churches and Christianity would be a source of awe for the world at large.

WWFSMD?

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Cover of The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Mo...

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I saw an interesting license plate on the way to work this morning: “WWFSMD”, which I interpreted to mean, “What would Flying Spaghetti Monster do?” Clearly, this is a poke at Christianity and the passé trend of WWJD (what would Jesus do?) t-shirts, bracelets, stickers, etc. that still enjoy some vestige of popularity.

Pastafarians make a reasonable point that their deity is as valid an expression of an “intelligent designer” as any (and therefore worthy of equal time in public schools) if the intelligent design folks are going to be ambiguous about who the Designer is. Or put another way, intelligent design theory is the scientific equivalent of the emperor’s new clothes, if the Creator isn’t named.

I don’t disagree with that as a logical construct. Score a point for the pastafarians. Oh, not that I disagree with intelligent design. I believe that the structure and order of this planet as well as the vast complexity of even “simple” organisms rule out dumb luck as a explanation of origins. Design is self-evident, unless you’re purposefully looking for a belief system that can explain away the obvious. But the intelligent design folks get it wrong when they leave the identity of the Creator open-ended.

I am reminded of Paul in the Acts of the Apostles, declaring who exactly the Intelligent Designer is.

Acts 17:22-31 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for”‘In him we live and move and have our being’; Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

So, what would the Flying Spaghetti Monster do? Not a single thing.

The King of Kings, Born Without Grandeur

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c. 1325-1350

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Luke 2:7 “And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.”

While teaching through our church Sunday school lesson this morning, I was struck by the great humility of Jesus. The circumstances of His birth were humble in every regard. Mary’s supernatural pregnancy was looked upon dubiously, resulting in social disgrace. Although His lineage was royal, He was not born to a great or important family. He was not born in an important city, Bethlehem being just a small town of little political significance. His birth was not widely recognized by the people or religious leaders of the time.

If His family had been of note, surely room would have been found for them at the inn. Even in her very pregnant state when folks are likely to be sympathetic and caring, Mary and Joseph were shooed to the stable. Instead of a cradle, the Savior of the world – King of Kings and Lord of Lords – first rest His royal head in the food trough of the barn animals. Yes, we’ve romanticized the manger in centuries of nativity scenes, but the reminder we should come away with is that of His humble arrival and subsequent humble life.

We are no greater than He. Let us not glory in our accomplishments or celebrate ourselves, but instead seek to emulate the humility of the manger-born Messiah.

Everywhere, Everyone, No Matter Who You Are Or What You’ve Done

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John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

This popular and well-known verse is one of many in Scripture that tell of the universal love of God for mankind, and the consequent accessibility of eternal life to anyone. Interestingly, most world religions and even some loosely Christian variants take a different approach to eternal life, where the adherent must do something to earn favor of God, with the hope of being judged worthy of a blissful eternity.

What the Bible states about God’s expectation of us is different: elegant, simple, achievable by anyone, and leaving the end result without doubt. The various human versions are clunky, fraught with error, and leaves one wondering and hoping as to the outcome.

John 3:16 makes a number of points in just a few simple phrases that dispose of the notion that humans could earn God’s favor.

  1. “For God so loved” states that God loved without qualification or condition. He loved, simply stated as straightforward fact. The objects of His love were not judged as objects worthy of His affection one way or another.
  2. “The world” indicates the universality of God’s love. Every one of us is includes in the scope of God’s love. By any practical definition then, God’s love extends limitlessly, even to those who are unlovely. I contend that next to the extraordinary majesty and greatness of God, there is nothing lovely about any of us.
  3. While “the world” speaks of the wideness of God’s love, the following phrase “that he gave his only begotten Son” speaks of the depth. God’s love for the world was so deep, that He was willing to give His only Son to it and for it. In the context of John chapter 3, and indeed the gospel of John itself, we know that this Son was Jesus Christ.
  4. “That whosoever” points out that all have opportunity to believe in Jesus Christ if they so choose; the gift is not limited in scope to an elite few.
  5. “Believeth in him” tells us the simple yet committed act of faith that is required. The word “believe” is distinctly different from “comprehend”. Many understand who Jesus was and what He did on this earth; comparatively few place trust in Him.
  6. “Should not perish” implies that one who does not believe in Jesus Christ will perish, but that belief in Him has the opposite effect.
  7. Finally, “but have everlasting life” describes the polar opposite of perishing. Eternal life. Not only that, the eternal life is a gift from God Himself. A noble gift indeed – a kingly gift extended to any who choose to accept it.