What does First B Jackson teach about one another commands?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First Baptist Jackson, the teaching on the 'one another' commands begins with a single Greek word. Pastor Matt introduced the congregation to the reciprocal pronoun 'allellon,' which sits behind every 'one another' command in the New Testament, and read through the full list: accept one another, bear one another's burdens, forgive one another, spur one another on, and more than a dozen others. He had been, in his own word, obsessed with the list. The point he pressed was that understanding those commands on a Sunday morning is only chemistry class. Living them out together is chemistry lab, and the lab requires showing up.
Pastor Gary returned to the same ground and sharpened it. The thing that will make outsiders recognize followers of Jesus, he said, is not doctrine or morality in the abstract, but love for one another. He quoted Jesus directly: 'by this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.' That is not hard to understand. It is, however, hard to do. He borrowed a line from C. S. Lewis to name why: love requires vulnerability, and a heart that refuses vulnerability will not break, but it will become 'unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.' He also noted something a pastor named Papa Denny used to say: love requires an object, and 'love one another' requires it going in both directions.
Both messages anchor the commands in Paul's argument in Ephesians 4 and 5. Believers have already put off the old self and put on a new one, created in righteousness and holiness. The 'one another' commands are the outworking of that new self, not the path to earning it. Pastor Matt pointed to Ephesians 4:32 as the center of the whole list, noting that the word translated 'tender hearted' carries the sense of something felt in the gut, a deep instinctive care for another person. The motivation Paul gives is the same throughout: God in Christ has already done this for you. Both pastors were equally plain about what cuts a person off from all of it: isolation. Hermits, however sincere, cannot keep these commands. The body of believers has to be close enough to confess to, pray for, and spur each other on.
Taught from Ephesians 4:32 · Ephesians 4:17 - 5:2 · John 13:35 · Galatians 6:2 · Hebrews 10:24
The passage taught · 1 Corinthians 12:25
25 that there should be no division in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- January 14, 2024 Love Requires an Object A Wyoming pastor walks through the New Testament's "one another" commands, showing why Christian community is not hard to understand but is genuinely hard to live.
- September 9, 2012 Chemistry Class and Chemistry Lab A Wyoming pastor walks his congregation through Ephesians 4, showing how the Bible's "one another" commands move Christian learning out of the classroom and into daily life.
Mentioned along the way
- May 12, 2019 Mother's Day - Traditional A Mother's Day sermon from Exodus 20 on honoring your mother, forgiving her failures, and how the "one another" commands of Scripture shape how we treat those closest to us.