Someone said to me once, “The Bible doesn’t say a whole lot about the interworkings of believers with one another.” What was surprising about this is that it came from a godly deacon who knew his Bible as well as anyone in the church. I knew he was missing something.

I said, “Remember all those ‘one another’ commands in the Bible? Those are directed toward the Lord’s people. And by ‘one another,’ they don’t mean everyone in the world. They’re talking about how we are to treat other believers.”

The other night, I scanned the New Testament from Matthew to Revelation–no computer either and no concordance; did it with my Bible in a motel room in Indianapolis–and made a list of every ‘one another’ command I could find. I counted thirty-one.

These are elements in Christian fellowship, expressions of God’s will for the members of your church and mine.

Since we’re putting them in order, that explains why the first one is John 13:14 (or, at least, it’s the first one I found).

“Wash one another’s feet.” John 13:14

“Love one another.” That’s given most memorably in John 13:34-35, but is found at least a dozen times throughout the New Testament. It surely must be the most important element in our relations with each other.

“Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.” Romans 12:10

“Give preference to one another in honor.” Romans 12:10

“Contribute to the needs of one another.” Romans 12:13

“Be of the same mind toward one another.” Romans 12:16 and 15:5

“Do not judge one another.” Romans 14:13

“Edify one another.” Romans 14:19

“Let each one of us please one another for his good and to his edification.” Romans 15:2

“Accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.” Romans 15:7

“Admonish one another.” Romans 15:14

“Bear one another’s burdens.” Galatians 6:2

“We are members of one another.” Ephesians 4:25

“Be kind to one another.” Ephesians 4:32

“Forgive one another.” Ephesians 4:32 and Colossians 3:13

“Submit to one another.” Ephesians 5:21

“Regard one another as more important than yourself.” Philippians 2:3

“Do not lie to one another.” Colossians 3:9

“Bear with one another.” Colossians 3:13

“Live in peace with one another.” I Thessalonians 5:13

“Greet one another with a holy kiss.” I Thessalonians 5:26 and a few other places.

“Stimulate one another to love and good deeds.” Hebrews 10:24

“Encourage one another.” Hebrews 3:13 and 10:25.

“Strengthen one another.” Hebrews 12:12

“Do not speak against one another.” James 4:11

“Do not complain against one another.” James 5:9

“Confess your sins to one another.” James 5:16

“Fervently love one another from the heart.” I Peter 1:22 and 4:8

“Be hospitable to one another without complaint.” I Peter 4:9

“Clothe yourself with humility toward one another.” I Peter 5:5

Okay, did I leave out any? If so, please leave it at the end of this article.

A few comments….

1) Notice the commands which keep reappearing: to love, to practice humility, to help.

2) It appears that almost all the commands are summed up in the summons to love one another. No wonder the Scriptures make so much of love. Do that, and you’ve almost done it all. Scripture says, “Love shall cover a multitude of sins.” (I Peter 4:8)

3) Why do we Christians not see these as commands, just as surely as the Ten Commandments? Rather, we tend to look upon them as suggestions. Clearly, they are given with the same force as all other commandments in the Word.

4) Instead of the “church covenant” which some churches display on their walls, what if we simply posted these commands? After all, wouldn’t this cover all the essentials?

5) What if you printed these out as the benchmarks of Christian fellowship and asked the members of your church to rate themselves? Or to rate how the church as a whole is doing?

6) And which would you say is the toughest of all? Or put another way, which expression of love in the list of 31 would be the most difficult to accomplish? My guess is the last one, admonishing one another.

7) That’s a good prayer list. Let’s pray to grow in those directions. Since there are 31 of them, we could pray one a day for a month.