One Another: Introduction

Many of us have become self-centered when it comes to church. Instead of walking into a church asking, “What can I do for God?” some of us enter asking, “What can these people do for me?”

What would happen if everyone thought this way? Churches would be filled with problems and no solutions. Who would serve? There would be plenty of “needs” but no one to fulfill them. A church filled with self-absorbed, high-maintenance Christians cannot sustain itself. Somebody has to be thinking about others.

Christianity is a “one another” religion. The new commandment Jesus gave to us is to love one another as he loved us (John 13:34-35). We are to consider others more significant than ourselves (Philippians 2:3-4). We cannot be selfish. John asks, “But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, get closes his heart against them, how does God’s love abide in him?” (1 John 3:17). Later, he gives this eye-opening truth: “…he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:20).

Perhaps the advent of social media and our obsession with selfies have helped to create the problem. But selfishness has been around a lot longer than the internet. Social media has just launched it into overdrive. We don’t even see anything wrong with it anymore.

To promote the togetherness God intends for his people, this series of open home meetings will focus on fellowship from the perspective of a different epistle each session.

Don’t forget that being devoted to fellowship is part of our goals for 2022. These discussions should be a good way to close out the year with a reminder of what we intended to focus on in the beginning.