Knowing and Growing - A Sampling of - One Anothers - in Acts & the Epistles

So in looking at things in the church as we've been doing starting this month here, we've been kind of going through different topics. We started earlier with spiritual gifts, and so we looked at what is the purpose of the church, and we mentioned previously that the church ends up being all sorts of things, the different groups of people and the different people within those groups. Just to kind of review, what are some of the things that the church gets thought of in terms of what's the purpose of the church? A good place to go play bingo? For some churches? Must be. Yeah, it's a good place to go play bingo.

A social club? We mentioned last week Brad Mastin worked with two or three different Korean churches in the Denver area and real commonly Brad said that the churches were a place to make business networking connections. By the way, the potlucks, the pastor's wife is assigned to put those on. So rather than so much a potluck, she's supposed to make everything. Wow. That's a lot to put on a lady. Frequently the pastor's wife just totally consumed with getting the meal ready for everyone.

Anything else that you can think of in terms of the purposes of the church, whether biblical or not? Most of the churches we were ever in would break down into small groups, like they do here. And what's the value of the small groups? You get to know these people, you build better relationships, hopefully you're kind of all of a certain kind. And you can study the scriptures and I don't know how accurate it is because a lot of times they don't really have a teacher there. But they make the effort.

One of the things that can happen in really large churches especially is that everything is just kind of en masse and it's impersonal and it's program management. The church that I grew up in when I was a kid got bigger and bigger and bigger. And back in the middle 80s, somebody with a gift of giving basically gifted the church another church building and facility nearby, just the whole thing, just blanket. There's a parking lot and a building and all the peripheral buildings and Sunday school, just everything, just here it is.

And so the church had been doing double and triple services, and so they went and started this new church building, and the first thing that they did was say, we don't have to have double services anymore. That worked not very well for one Sunday. Now both churches had to have double services. Nancy and I were part of a staff of 175, in the Sunday school of the Second Church. So you couldn't even know who all the Sunday school teachers were if you only met with the Sunday school teachers.

It was really something. So we would go months without seeing somebody and say, hey, where have you been? I've been here every week. Where have you been? So the small groups serve a purpose of being personal and actually having relationships that are ongoing. It probably has something to do with why Jesus didn't choose 120 disciples. Which is 12.

We go to Southeast Christian once in a while because that's where our son goes. And they do teach the gospel. But they have retreat cameras going all the time. They have this massive choir. They have, I don't know, how many hundreds of services. Just joking. But seriously, they, Saturday night, three on Sunday. There's thousands of people there. I mean, it's crazy.

You feel like, after you leave, I always feel like I just saw a Broadway presentation. Yeah, it becomes more of a performance. It becomes more about programs. It becomes more about perception. It is there for people who want to go to church and enjoy that sort of church and that type of atmosphere. They wouldn't go if that wasn't there. I mean there's thousands of people that are doing that. And that also talks to the character of our society and Christians. Boy, we want a good show. We want a good performance. Yes.

And that church also has a lot of outreach programs. They have a food bank and they have groups that go out and help clean up the neighborhoods and do things for people that need stuff done in their house. I mean, they have tons. Yes, lots and lots of outreach programs and those kinds of things more often available in larger churches.

What we want to take a look at here is a survey of one another from Acts and the Epistles. In going through these, these are things where we see one another used in different verses. What we have gleaned from this is just a short statement of what the one another that takes place here.

So in Acts, we saw this earlier, learn, share, and worship with one another, as the starting there, beginning from the day of Pentecost. And then Acts 4, 32-37, united in heart with one another. Acts 6, 1-7 care for one another and then encourage one another. This is Acts 11, 22-26.

So these are some we've already seen in the book of Acts. And one of these you'll notice is where we're at now. We're in chapter 13. We're past the one another. Is there a reason for that in Acts? So why do the one and others seem to end after the 11th chapter?

Could it be because they're outside of Jerusalem and Judea and they're now in the rest of the world and so it's more expansive? Yeah, think about it. You use the word expansive. One of the things that happens earlier in Acts, you've got the 12 apostles and things that are happening around Jerusalem and that's what gets described. Once you start moving out, especially with the Apostle Paul going into these different places on different missionary journeys, the focus is more upon what happens with the Apostle Paul, more on what happens with Paul and those he is with, and not so much of a description of what's happening in the church bodies.

But what you do have is after the one another's stop in the Book of Acts, what you do have is the letters which were written during the latter part of the Book of Acts. Those include the one another's, so that's where they are. So they haven't gone away, they've simply been given, and in fact in much more detail, in the letters, including those that Paul wrote. So that's where they went.

His Acts focuses more on what happened to Paul and those who were with him in great part as you get to the last half, but the letters include all those one-anothers. Now, in Acts 2-11, they are in general, the one-another statements are in general descriptive. But what changes with the letters? Are they descriptive so much with the letters? No, they're instructive. They're instructive.

So this is one of the big differences. If you look at the Book of Acts, it's not like suddenly the one and others went away. But you see description of those taking place and how they happened in the Book of Acts early on. And then as the one and others drop off, What you see is more and more the one and others, with a few exceptions, the one and others are directing them to, you know, relate this way or that way with one another. And so the bottom line is we see them in, A number of Paul's letters, and we essentially went through Galatians here, then James, 1 Peter. This is not exhaustive, that's why it's called a survey. But why all the instruction in these letters, and we focus in Paul's letters particularly on Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, and Galatians. Why all the instructions? Why do we need that? Why did they need that? Yes?

It's similar to the Old Testament where you have Proverbs and Psalms. You've got the didactic Psalms, the instructive Psalms, you've got the relationship Psalms between one another. Proverbs basically is very instructive. Now you mentioned Psalms and Proverbs, and who is that primarily directed towards?

The Jews, right? And then these one another's, are they primarily directed towards the Jews? No. And so that's one thing that's different. It doesn't mean that there are no Jews involved, but in general Gentiles are the primary target. So basically you're saying this is more inclusive? One is it's more inclusive because whereas Psalms and Proverbs, essentially you think of it, all the Old Testament was directed primarily to the Jews.

There are a few cases where you can see otherwise, but primarily to the Jews. And so you'll see that focus in the Old Testament. Even going into the Gospels, where Jesus is carrying out His earthly ministry, where was Jesus' earthly ministry focused? Certainly Jerusalem, the temple was a part of it, but it was basically within Israel, right? So just for example, here's Matthew chapter going to send out his disciples two by two. And he's going to send them out to the whole world?

No. Where? Where do you send them? To the Jews. To the Jews. As a matter of fact, the way he phrased it, go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. By the way, that term is out of Jeremiah, right? Go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And he even told them, don't go on a road that leads to the Gentiles. Don't. Don't do it. It's specifically directed to the Jews. In chapter 15, a Gentile woman is trying to get his attention and he says, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So very much focused there.

Aside from his brief escape to Egypt, the only time he went out of Israel was when he went in areas that Israel should have taken. See that? He went outside of Israel only when he went into areas that Israel should have taken but failed to do so. But he still went there. Isn't that interesting?

But still he says, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He's in the temple area during the last week of his life. Some Greeks come into the temple courtyard and want to see him. And so does he say, sure, send them right on over. He doesn't. Isn't that amazing? I was sent only to the Law Sheep of the House of Israel. So it's very focused.

When we get into the book of Acts, and especially when we get into these letters, Jews are a partial audience in almost every case, but they're not the primary audience. I was going to say, I didn't bring that up because I wanted to focus on the Jews, but it's a pattern that God uses, and since it's a different dispensation, you would expect God to use the same pattern, which is instructive, and just like Psalms and Proverbs in the New Testament, we have letters in the New Testament. That's right, so we have the Psalms and Proverbs in the Old Testament, why would there be instructions that are different to those in the New Testament that he's writing to. Why would there be different instructions? It's a different dispensation.

So think about that. Also, the Old Testament primarily focused upon Jews who had at least some commonality of culture and communication. You get into Gentiles, and by the way, was it considered normal for the Gentiles to be moral? There was not any automatic connection between spirituality, among the Gentiles, and morality. There was not necessarily any connection between their backgrounds and how they ought to behave as a church body.

Here's a for instance. Amongst ourselves, does scripture exhort us to be humble towards one another or to be prideful and arrogant towards one another? Humble. What was the secular culture's value? What did the secular culture think about pride and arrogance versus humility? They exalted. They exalted pride and arrogance. As a matter of fact, humility was looked upon as a character defect. Didn't they not have a word for humility? No, they did have a word for humility, but they spoke ill of it. Right? They did have a word for humility, but they spoke ill of it in the secular culture. Somebody's humble, they thought, man, this guy's messed up.

And so here the Apostle Paul has to deliberately instruct them. That's one reason why it's valuable to learn about the culture in which the Bible was written, and especially looking at the New Testament. Here's the value of the Apostle Paul's writings. He has to explain to people that have no connection between spirituality and morals. He has to explain to them a connection.

So here's Ephesians that would say, you're blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. In him we have the redemption, the forgiveness of sins. We're seated with Christ in the heavenlies on into the rolling ages to come. He's going to show us the riches of his grace.

And then he gets four and a half chapters into that and then he says, okay, now let's talk about your lying and stealing problem. It's because the culture in which there was no connection whatsoever between morality and ethics and who you were spiritually. So he had to explain it all. And that's why he would go in Ephesians where three quarters of the book is about who you are in Christ and what Christ has done, and explain that before going in and, you know, hey guys, you stop stealing and lying and, you know, forgive one another and all those things. By the way, in the culture, were you to forgive one another?

No. Absolutely not. So you had to get instruction. So that's why you see these one another's, and really if you think about it, does our culture automatically just teach us to do everything the Christian way? No, it does not. And increasingly, It most certainly does not, right?

More so, the culture is headed in a direction of people not being thankful, but expecting. More and more in our culture, the idea of being faithful to a spouse, you know, it's not like that was ever 100%, but boy, it's just like, you know, really not the deal now. 70% roughly, depending on what survey you read, of people in a younger marrying age are starting off with a live-in relationship. It's only 70%? Pardon? Yeah, it's about 70%.

And surveys say, yeah, that's the way you should do it, right? Now, biblically, that's not the way you should do it, and it doesn't work out well in practice. A lot of problems with that. That is considered to be the wisdom. So we're getting more and more in a position of needing this kind of instruction.

Back in the ancient times, the biblical times, wasn't it a fact that their gods were immoral? Yes. Oh yeah. Zeus, for example, would hide himself in a cloud to commit adultery so that his wife wouldn't know. And this is the chief of the gods, so it doesn't get any better than that. In fact, it doesn't get any worse than that either. So yeah, I think you bring up a good point. The gods were immoral, people were immoral, that's the norm. That's the way you do it. And their gods were not friendly either. They were pretty mean. You had to appease them all the time. So, for example, here's Romans 1. If you go through Romans, most of the one-anothers start with chapter 12. But the first one there, mutually encourage one another in chapter 1. Other than that, you go from chapter 12 to 16 with one-anothers.

Marilyn? The one-another, is that believer to believer or is it believer to the Lord? That's a very good question. The principle message here is believer-to-believer. That doesn't mean it ends with everybody else, but the one another within the church body. So that's a very good question and a good point to get clarified. The primary focus is believer-to-believer. Believer-to-believer. Yes?

When you talk about ethics and morals, It has to be founded on God who is moral, and the one and others are to each other because our relationship with God is that way, or His relationship toward us. Because He loves us, we can love one another. There are multiple principles at play. You bring up one of them, because He loves us, we can love one another.

So one thing that's basic here is the way God deals with us is an example for how we deal with one another. The next thing, and right in parallel with that, is how are these behaviors empowered? How are we enabled to do these? Is it simply, I'm going to try really hard to forgive this guy. I'm going to try my very best to encourage people. Is that what he's talking about? So this is the Lord's doing through us, so we have the example, and you'll find that in Scripture. of the relationship of the Lord to us, being an example of a relationship to one another, and you'll find in addition to that the empowerment to live these things out.

And that's why, here's Galatians, Galatians 2.20, you know, I've been crucified with Christ, it's no longer I who, to expand it a bit, who do the living, it's Christ who does the living in me, And so I see that it is not, you know, Christ died for me and that was a very nice thing and so I'm going to try really hard to be nice to other people. But we do have the example as a starting point.

God does not say, well look, I'm not moral, but you guys try to be moral. Instead, he is both the example and the empowerment and enabling. for ethics and morality. He doesn't ask us to do what he doesn't do, but he also doesn't ask for us to carry these things out, all of our own best efforts.

I think it's interesting that Moses tried to get the focus off of the self and get the focus back onto God and the law. And then we have Jesus who comes and again he's trying to get the focus off of self and get the focus back to God. So the two dispensations are very similar, and the goal is to give God your priority instead of yourself.

It's really cool how that works out. Old and New Testament are very similar. And that's where this principle of comparison and contrast. So the law doesn't have one set of moral principles and things like that, and then we get in the church, it's all completely different. Here under the Old Testament regime, which even Jesus communicated to the Jews, were they to forgive one another.

Yes. So the principle that's in common is they're to forgive one another, we're to forgive one another. They're to forgive one another under law in order that they be forgiven. We're to forgive one another under grace, Ephesians 4, verse 32, because we have been forgiven.

So grace-based forgiveness versus law-based forgiveness, but both of them require forgiveness, right? Why? Yes, God wants forgiveness in both cases. How it gets pulled off and the motivation for forgiving is radically different. But both ask for forgiveness. Why?

Because it's the same God behind it. And by the way, It's the same God behind it, because God never forgives anything. No, in fact, He is a God who purposed before, He said, let there be light to forgive, and to have that basis for forgiveness in place. That's why. It's based on Him. Alright, so as you go down this list, here's His mutually encouraged one another, Romans 1. And starting in chapter 12, it's really 12 to the end where most of these one another's are in Romans. Members of one another.

What does that mean? Members of one another. Is this different from the Elf Club? What's that? We're of the same body. We're of the same body, the same body of Christ. So members of one another. Devoted to one another in brotherly love. honor one another, rejoice with one another, weep with one another. Now, what's behind the weep with one another? Comfort. Okay. One is why should there be any weeping at all? Bad things happen. Bad things happen. Why? for our growth? Our growth, yes. And? Correction. Correction. And? Because the world is not a value that we're supposed to, you know, we live here, but we don't assume its value. The background music is great.

Anyway, if you think about it, why does it say weep with one another? First of all, it's because we live in a world that has sinned, and the earth has been cursed. And so we live in a world, and if it wasn't for that, there wouldn't be any reason for it. When we get to be with the Lord in the new heaven and new earth, will there be weeping? Well, we need to weep with one another. No. And so it is because of the state of the world since Adam sinned.

Right? Since God cursed the ground and Adam sinned. You know, a lot of the translations have, in dying you will die. It's actually a Hebrew double. You're going to die, die. So how do I bring that across? So at any rate, if you look at it, there are things to weep about. Here, now. Ah, that's a very good question.

Will fellowship stop when we're with the Lord? Alright, so fellowship won't stop, so that'll continue. Again, what's the same, what's different? So what will be different when we go to be with the Lord? Fellowship won't end, but what will be different? The sin factor.

We won't be dealing with that anymore. So, we will have fellowship, but that fellowship that we have won't be dealing with, too bad about Joe here, this happened to him, there is no heavenly ER, there is no heavenly fire department. There's no heavenly police and nobody's got 9-1-1. There's no 9-1-1 calls in heaven. So a lot of the stuff that's a problem here is not there. It would be a continuous fellowship, not one that can be lost. Not one that can be kind of corroded or broken or fading or anything. It would be continuous, unbroken fellowship. uncorrupted, untainted. So yeah.

Yes? I think it's interesting if you really try to think about relationships that you have here on earth with our current sin nature and what it must be like in heaven when you don't have that sin nature with the same individuals. That's really a huge difference. And I don't think we can even imagine what that's like. Yeah. Our fellowship now, you know, he says weep with one another. He didn't say, you know, look, we're not going to be doing this in heaven, so stop weeping.

As a matter of fact, here's John. He's told to go and write about the things he sees, right? He gets up on the heavenly scene and an angel announces, you know, who is worthy to break open the seals on the scroll? And what happens? It's quiet for what he estimates is half an hour and then he starts weeping. Why? As far as this dramatic pause is more than he can handle, right? And so far as he can perceive, a half hour has gone by. Instead of this being a dramatic pause, this is a dramatic fall off the cliff. This is the end. Yeah, there's no answer to this thing. And so John starts weeping in heaven. One of the elders goes, stop it! Get a clue! Get a clue! No weeping! And so John is out of context. He has a hard time getting calibrated. Is there ever any cause for weeping in heaven? No. And so if he feels like weeping, he probably doesn't understand something. He probably doesn't understand something.

Yes? This is a very, very good point. Communication is a big deal, isn't it? And we'll have miscommunications, misunderstandings of one another, and sometimes it can be, I misunderstood a tone of voice. Somebody's voice dropped off and I didn't hear the last part of something. A lot of what we say is beyond just simply the words coming out, but other things like, say, tone of voice or body language. Yes, how the other person receives it based on what they're expecting, what they're accustomed to, you know? Yeah, so what you see happening is the sin factor affecting communication, right? And so what communications decline in various ways. And so the sin ends up corrupting communication.

And our example is Jesus when he was on earth. And if we look at the way that he communicated with the Pharisees, with his disciples, and with God, that would be the example that we have that is in heaven, correct? Yeah, now he was dealing in the world, where there was sin. He was dealing with people who were in the world, especially talking to the Pharisees and Sadducees. And even the devil got involved, right? So you have all the enemies of the believer still present in that environment. But we're in a situation where communications can easily head south.

I'll say something and somebody will misunderstand me, even just speaking here. And boy, I can think just kind of over time of some of the different ways people have misunderstood me. And sometimes the outcome, occasionally I find out about it, sometimes I don't until a whole bunch of damage has been done. And, you know, people won't even talk about it.

So, yeah, just communications can head south. Even with the best of intent, communications can head south, right? But Marilyn, you ask a very good question. It's just communications here get impacted by sin. But the only thing is that communications is not the only thing that gets impacted by sin, right? So, yeah, lots of different issues that sin has impacted, and even something that superficially sounds negative.

Someone will say, well, you know, oh, can I do this? Yeah, you can do that. And so the overt statement is, yeah, but the body language is, you know, good luck with that, or some other message. So, yeah, we can easily misunderstand one another, or the sin nature can come out, not with misunderstanding, but very direct statements. Things in the world get miscommunicated.

When I went through business school, I majored in marketing, and one of the things I concluded is marketing is all about lying to people. Tell them what will convince them. Yeah, in one sense, and this tended to be several decades ago, advertising would be oftentimes informative, and the idea that you'd be telling people at least, it may have been a biased truth, but truth, right? And today it's all about manipulating people and communicating messages that bypass their thinking.

So, yeah, the more and more I look at it, it's like, wow, a great deal of distortion there. So, going through the ones, let's look at the ones in 1 Corinthians. Agree with one another. Now this, I would say, agree is actually a simplification. What was the problem is that they all had all sorts of different teachings and that it wasn't just agree, but say the same thing. That you be unified in doctrine was the exhortation. And why is that important? Can't we just agree to disagree? Is that what he means? Well, a whole bunch of different doctrines, but we're united anyway.

No, that's not it. That's not it, is it? And it's very explicit that there be no doctrinal divisions among you. Yep. But then you have the same thing like you do with communication. You have the differences in understanding. Yes. And by the way, can that be a problem among Christians and within churches? It certainly can. Every river church split. Yeah, it happens, and why? A lot of it has to do with communication. It's not the only issue, but a lot of it has to do with communication, and not just say the same thing, and the need to say the same thing, and to pursue that. Do not take pride in one person over another.

This was contrary to the culture, by the way. Remember the culture said what? Being prideful and having I'm better than you, all those things, that was considered culturally healthy. And being humble towards another was considered a character defect. There's something wrong with you if you're humble. That was the message of the culture. Another one that doesn't always come through, but it was considered beyond rude. I mean way beyond rude. It was considered rude to say thank you directly to somebody. Just to say, because here's the thought, here's the mindset behind it.

The gods, who get angry easily, will be extremely upset if I directly say thank you to someone. Because that will make them jealous, where they should have received the thanks. And so you'll find a direct thank you in the New Testament to be very rare. I've looked real hard and here and there you can find it, but it's very rare. In great part you'll find the Apostle Paul particularly writing, I thank God for you. I thank God for the grace that was, you know, those kinds of statements, but not a, you know, hey, thank Crispus and thank Rufus.

Not that, because that was considered, like I say, it wasn't just rude. What you would be interpreted as doing is calling down a curse of the gods upon somebody by thanking them directly. So in our culture we think, wow, that's really surprising. But see, so this is one of the things as you look at this, they were trying to counter things in the culture as they stated these one another. So you had to say, be humble to one another. Why? Because the culture is telling you quite the opposite. The culture is telling you to be prideful.

So this next one, do not take pride in one person over another. Seek the good of one another. The next one, you are members of one another, again. Rejoice with one another. Love one another. Strengthen, encourage, and comfort one another. Greet one another with a holy kiss.

So if you look at these kinds of things, they're talking about believer to believer. And by the way, did that mean that it was never to happen with an unbeliever? You're going to have a whole different set of ethics and whatnot? No. So why is this focused primarily on believers?

Relationships between believers needs instruction because otherwise the culture and the sin nature take over. And a lot of churches, they go around blaming Satan for stuff. Hey, Satan doesn't even need to get involved for there to be big problems. The sin nature and the world culture is plenty of trouble. without Satan getting involved. Besides, I would tend to give him too much credit.

But obviously, one reason it's believer to believer is because of your chart where you have both sides and you have the spiritual aspect, which the unbeliever doesn't have. So it's impossible to have that kind of relationship with an unbeliever. With an unbeliever, the one another aspect of it, you're not appealing to anything spiritually, right?

Say, for example, forgive one another. Well, that wasn't the norm in the culture. As a matter of fact, you would be honor-bound not to forgive, but to get revenge. So to actually be forgiving one another, that's extraordinary. Now, and then to turn around and forgive somebody who's an unbeliever, you could forgive them, but the idea that that would be reciprocal would be ridiculous.

So, now, one more thing as we look at this, how about within other relationships inside the church? For example, inside of families? Couples? People that you are in close contact with may not be in a family relationship, but have close regular contact with. Would this make sense too? These are principles in terms of even assistance in parenting, assistance in dealing with family relationships. Have you ever heard of difficulty with, how do I say, extended family relationships? You may even have some of those here and there. So these are principles that apply in a lot of different circumstances. Certainly within the church body that's the way they're written, but also in other situations that the believer encounters. In 2 Corinthians, by the way, 2 Corinthians chapter 1 is the comfort chapter. It says, comfort one another.

Okay, what does that mean? Well, let's look at what's the opposite of comfort? Discomfort. Pardon? Discomfort. Yes, and what does that mean? Is that just, you know, I take the wooly sweater off so I don't itch? Or what is that talking about? Like Sam said, antagonistic. An antagonism, right? Alright? And then, are there other things about which we might be comforted? That antagonism might be a part of it? Are there other things about which we might be comforted? Yeah. Well, if you're going through suffering or trials, then I think that it relates to the fact that you're supposed to be Jesus in skin. Okay. Just think about this. Let's think about this. If someone is going through something, is it possible for them to be discouraged? And what does discouraged mean? What does that mean, discouraged?

Ah, hope is a big factor in our perspective. Hope is a big factor in our perspective. And so when we say discouraged, we mean we're failing in hope. We're not hopeful. Encouraged, then, means having hope. So one of the things that we have as Christians is we have hope to offer that the world doesn't. We have hope to offer the world does not.

But then again, that goes back to gifting of the person because it's difficult for a person who's not an encourager, not a Barnabas. And if they're a service and a gifted person, they aren't going to be able to encourage, but they may serve. So it's really interesting when you look at the different gifts and how they're done. Yeah, one of the things that we see is there is a place for all believers to, for example, encourage one another. we will find that there are those who are particularly gifted in evangelism, in encouragement, things of that sort. So sometimes a particular giftedness is certainly helpful.

And someone like Barnabas, you found out early on in Acts 4 that his name is Joseph. After that, you never hear that again. What do you hear? It's called Barnabas. The guy had such an encouraging heart And that just overflowed to everyone. Forget Joseph. Who? Barnabas. Just the whole rest of the Bible after the introduction, you get his formal name as Joseph, and you never hear about that again. Not even once. Every time he's brought up, the rest of Acts and elsewhere, he's Barnabas, son of encouragement.

So I think that's a key point. While these one another's are there, there are people who are particularly gifted. But one of the gifts is, for example, a gift of mercy. And should we be merciful to one another? Certainly. There are people who are particularly gifted in that area. So that's a good point, that you'll have different areas where there's a giftedness that the Lord gives for specific people to carry those out particularly.

I've had so many supervisors and bosses in my life that I can say one was an encourager. What a super person to work for. And that's the thing, motivation by encouragement. How many of you get real motivated by a discouraging boss, right? Not so much, right? It's difficult to get motivated in any positive and enduring way. It's kind of like the beatings will continue until morale improves, right? It's tough to have a lot of negativity and have people end up being motivated and encouraged.

So, key. Let's call it quits. We've not gotten through them all, but you're certainly invited to take a look at them. We've not gotten past page one. But there's a lot to look at there and I think a lot to ponder. This is instruction, almost always it's either an urging or an imperative in almost every circumstance. an urging or an imperative for relationships between believers, and something good for other circumstances in which we interact in other groups and things of that sort. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for these one another's. Thank you that as we look at them, it's because you care about relationships, so that's why the instruction.

It's different than what the sin nature would carry out. It is different from what the culture would carry out. And Lord, in addition to that, we also see that these are descriptions of the way that the Holy Spirit works in and among us, and it is also a description of the very life of Christ lived out through us. And we just thank you for these clear and repeated reminders here in these passages. And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.