If you have read this blog very much you will most likely have come to the conclusion that I am a relational person, it’s always surprising to me that there are those who are not. So perhaps I am the strange one, but I remember the very first scripture that was put to memory was a relational one:

“And be ye kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” (Ephesians 4:32)

There are at least 100 verses in the New Testament that use that phrase ‘one another’ so logically it follows that if it has been used by the Spirit so often in the New Testament it has great relevance for us. The great Apostle Paul used that phrase often as he encouraged and instructed the churches that he wrote his epistles to and so it would appear that we should heed these admonishments well. We can only, of course, do that through the power of the Holy Spirit. We will never in this life love one another perfectly but we surely must strive to do that daily and in striving to heed we must follow our own conscience, for ultimately it is our God that we will give account to.

What is it that we are to do and what is it that we are not to do. The scriptures are plain in their teaching to us and so I am doing a bit of a study on both to remind myself, as it doesn’t come from our own nature, what it is the Lord expects from His redeemed Body, the communion we are to have with one another by His Word and His Spirit.

God calls us to avoid and He calls us to cultivate amongst the body so that is how I will look at the scriptures.

To Avoid:

“ And the next day he showed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another? (Acts 7:26)

Moses seeing one of his own suffer had avenged him and struck down the Egyptian, however now it is brethren who are injuring one another and he tried to reconcile them peacefully.

To Cultivate:

“ I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, showing forbearance (bearing with), with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:1-3)

We are to bear with one another patiently in the unity of the Spirit, longsuffering is fruit of the Spirit. Longsuffering is an attribute of our God towards us, and we are being conformed to the image of His Son. We must ask ourselves what longsuffering means and how we are to walk towards one another in that longsuffering.