Episode 15 - Introduction to One Anothering
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Welcome to season two of Jen’s New song! My name is Jennifer Holmes. If you’re new around here, I am a wife, mom to three, Christian school music teacher, and a writer and podcaster! I’m also training in Biblical counselling and loving it. One of the reasons I do all of this is because I was diagnosed with Bipolar II after years of struggling with depression and that has lead me down the road of studying what the Bible says about mental health, encouragement in difficulty, help for hard times, and more. If you haven’t checked out season one of the podcast, you can listen there for encouragement from the psalms. We spent season one studying them and how they speak truth to us, particularly in the area of difficult seasons and our mental health. I absolutely loved my time there and I think you will too.
But now, back to season two! For this season I started studying the one another’s of the Bible. You know, all the love one another and bear one another’s burdens verses. Being in school for counselling, I’m fascinated by how the body of Christ should work together to help those who are in need, which is all of us at some time or another. So I started the way I always do - by googling a list of verses with the words one another in them. There were a ton, so I sifted through them, eliminating the ones that didn’t really have anything to do with my topic, they just happened to have those words in them. Then I listed out all the ones that had to do with my thoughts of what one anothering might mean. Still a long list. Get ready for a long season! Anyway, as I studied through the list, I noticed that a huge number of them just said love one another and the rest seemed to give us specific ways to do that. What a great outline! The Bible tells us over and over again to love one another, but God also knew that would be difficult, or that we might fool ourselves into thinking we’re doing a good job of it if we didn’t have a list to follow. So He laid it all out clearly for us.
Today we’re going to talk about what it means to love one another, what the body of Christ should look like, and just generally introduce the series and then we will get into specifics in the next episodes.
John 15:17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.
I John 3:23 And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.
I John 4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
II John 1:5 And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.
I could go on, but the Bible is clear that we are to love one another. And its not just a suggestion either. We are commanded to love one another. At first glance, this seems easy. Can’t we all just love one another? After all we’re all Christians and all on the same team right? Well, spend any time on Twitter and that thought will go away pretty quick. Or stay in the same church for a few years and you’ll quickly find that person that drives you crazy. You’ll be offended, hurt, even sinned against. And suddenly, loving every other Christian seems a little out of reach.
And yet, this is not just a suggestion. And why is this? Several reasons are given in the Bible, including our testimony to the world, but many of them are for the edification of the body of Christ. The body was meant to function together - each part dependent on the others. It’s very difficult to work in sync with a body that you dislike. Each part is equally important, each needs the other, each needs support and one anothering. I grew interested in this topic because one of my professors described counselling as one anothering. Counselling one another is not just for the pastors or counsellors in our churches. In fact, you probably counselled or were counselled by someone in the body of Christ this week. Does that sound crazy to you? It might, but you probably had a conversation with someone where you talked about what is going on in your lives. You probably gave or received advice, or prayer, or commiseration. Maybe the counsel you gave or received was good or maybe it was bad. Either way, you probably have one anothered someone or received it yourself this week. And God made it that way because we need one another. Right from the day man was created, God said that it was not good for him to be alone. And no matter how much of an introvert or how independent you think you are, we all need each other and that is a beautiful thing.
This is a fairly new idea in my life. I struggled with this especially in my 20s. I asked someone once why I seemed to have a hard time making friends and finding support in the church. That person told me that the church was not for friendship but for working to serve God. At the time, I knew they were wrong, but I couldn’t say how I knew that. The past few years I have worked at building community in my life. That’s a popular catch phrase right now, but for good reason. The Bible teaches us that the church is a body and that each part should love each other and in my study I found 31 different ways the Bible tells us to love one another. Specifics abound here! The church is absolutely a place for friendship and love and support and counsel - all aspects of one anothering. And so I’ve been working to build that community in my church and let me tell you - it is absolutely worth the work. I now have many people that I call friends. People that check up on me, that can tell when I’m having a bad day, that encourage me in my writing, that do favours for me, give me advice about my marriage and my kids and my spiritual life. And they are people I try to do the same for. And the body of Christ has become that much more precious to me. I look at my church and know that it is a place of safety and comfort and help and friendship.
This is the function of the body of Christ. Not the only one - we are also to shine as lights to the world, but the Bible clearly tells us that the way we shine is by becoming this kind of community for one another, by loving one another well.
Maybe this has not been your experience. Maybe you’ve been hurt by people in the church. I have too. I think most of us have because the church is full of sinners like you and I. Maybe you’ve had trouble finding that community or the one anothering you need. Can I tell you something? The older I get, the more I love the body of Christ, even while I see even more of her flaws. Loving one another is not easy, otherwise it wouldn’t have had to been commanded and followed up with 31 one different ways to do it. But it is absolutely worth it. Jesus loved us so much that He gave his life for His bride. And we show our love for Him in one way by loving that bride well. May I encourage you to try again? To find a body to be a part of? That might be hard, it might take a while, it might take initiative on your part, but it will be 100% worth it. Being part of a loving community will be one of the greatest things you will ever do because each one of us needs to be loved and supported and one anothered. And the body of Christ needs you to do the same.
Thank you for joining me today for this introduction to season 2 of the podcast - I’m really excited to start this series with you. If you’d like to hear from me more and get almost daily encouragement, I hope you’ll join me on Instagram or Facebook. Just search Jens New Song. You can find transcripts of these episodes on my website if you prefer to read the rest of the season. My website is jensnewsong.com I also have a free mini course available on there on the life of Elijah and what it teaches us about our mental health.
Thank you again for joining us today. If you enjoyed todays episode and you’re excited about this series, would you forward this to a friend? It might be a great way to start building community in your own church! And if you’re really excited, would you go leave a rating and review in itunes? That’s how other people find the podcast. Thanks everyone. Go love someone today!