The one thing that impacted me the most in my study of one another Scriptures was the number of times that God says “Love one another.” God’s number one desire for each of us is that we “love one another.” It is stated 14 times in the New Testament.

In several of these passages, it states that we are to love each other as God loves us. The love that we are to have for each other is not something we keep working at until we do it. It is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). The fruit of the Spirit are produced out of our relationship with God through the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives. It is not something we accomplish by trying harder but by understanding and receiving God’s love for us. If you want to love “one another” more, then study God’s love for you and see how He ministers to you. “God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.” (Romans 5:5) He wants us to give to others out of the love He has given us.

Anything that God repeats more than once, He does to emphasize that idea. Since the idea of loving one another is repeated more than any of the others, everything we do must be done with that truth in mind. In Colossians 3:14 it says “and over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

These verses are written out at the end of this section. I also included a passage that speaks to the idea of "love”. If God emphasizes love in our relation to each other, what is that love like and how do you live that out? The passage in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 describes love. If you want to know if you love another person, look at these qualities of love. Are you patient? Are you kind? Do you envy? Are you boastful or proud? Are you easily angered? Are you rude? Do you keep a record of wrongs? I would encourage you to examine all of your relationships in light of this principle.

I have found that many of us look at our relationship to our spouse only in reference to the Scriptures that speak directly to marriage and not to the “one another” passages also. Be sure to look at those passages in relation to your marriage, your children, and your employment, all of your relationships.

A new command I give to you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. John 13:34,35

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you…This is my command: Love each other.
John 15:12,17

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law. Romans 13:8

May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.  I Thessalonians 3:12

Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.  I Thessalonians 4:9

…Love one another deeply, from the heart. I Peter 1:22

This is the message you heard from the beginning: we should love one another. I John 3:11

And this is the command: to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as He commanded us. I John 3:23

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. I John 4:11

And now dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. 2 John 5

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. I Corinthians 13:4-7

© 1998, Scope Ministries International, Inc.
Donna Edwards