Prior to mechanically powered tractors, plowing the land for farming was done with horses or oxen. But harnessing two oxen separately made it very difficult to plow because the oxen would not pull in unison. This made it nearly impossible to plow a straight furrow. So a yoke was employed. A yoke was usually made of wood and consisted of a strong crossbar that spanned the backs of both animals. Extending downward from the bar were two U-shaped loops that fitted around the oxen’s necks. The yoke actually bonded them together so they would walk side by side in step and pull the plow in unison.
Prior to receiving God’s divine nature, we could not walk in step with Christ. We were not yoked together with him, and we could not accomplish God’s purpose. As Paul the apostle said, “No matter which way I turn, I can’t make myself do right…When I want to do good, I don’t. And when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway” (Romans 7:18-19). What he needed, as all of us need, was God’s imparted nature as a yoke enabling him to walk together in unison with Christ.
Jesus extends this invitation to each of us: “Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke fits perfectly, and the burden I give you is light” (Matthew 11:29-30). When we are harnessed in Christ’s yoke, he will teach us how to be motivated like him, think like him, and act like him. He wants us to know what his true nature is like and live it out yoked with him. But if we don’t really know the characteristics of his nature and how it is to be acted out, it will be difficult for us to reflect it.
Moses had gotten his instructions. While he was on Mount Sinai, God had provided exacting details for how sacrifices were to be offered. God’s instructions were to be carried out to the letter.
On the first day of presenting the sin offering, burnt offering, and peace offering, Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, who were the priests officiating at the sacrifices, put coals of fire in their incense burners in a way that was in direct contradiction to God’s commands. “So fire blazed forth from the LORD’s presence and burned them up…Then Moses said to Aaron, ‘This is what the LORD meant when he said, “I will show myself holy among those who are near me. I will be glorified before all the people”’” (Leviticus 10:2-3). That day the children of Israel got a clear understanding that their God was a holy God.
God’s holiness could not tolerate sin, and he consumed the offenders with fire. Holiness is the fundamental descriptor of who God is. He is holy, and anything or anyone who is out of character with him is impure and unholy.
Some people have trouble grasping the concept of holiness. What does it really mean to say God is holy? God’s holiness is reflected in his absolute perfection of goodness and righteousness. There is no imperfection of character or motive in God; he is the holiest of the holy, the purest of the pure.
To be holy is to be set apart from the unclean. A blemish or imperfection would mar anything holy, and it would therefore become impure. For example, if you had an absolutely pure glass of water, you would say it is unadulterated—without impurities. But if a dirty sliver of wood dropped into your glass, your water would become adulterated. Since a foreign substance had entered the water, it would be considered unclean and impure. To be holy is to be set apart from the unclean and impure things of life.
No one compares to God’s absolute holiness. When God spoke of himself as “I Am Who I Am” (Exodus 3:14) he was defining himself by himself. He separated himself from all others because there was no other purer being he could compare himself to. Yet God said to his people, “You must be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy” (Leviticus 19:2). Paul the apostle wrote, “God has called us to be holy, not to live impure lives” (1 Thessalonians 4:7). The very essence of God’s nature is holy, and humans created in his likeness are designed to be holy too. We obviously cannot be holy in the absolute sense as God is, yet he does require us to be holy. So the question is, what exactly does holiness look like in the lives of fallen people who cannot be perfectly pure as God is perfectly pure?
If you were to crystallize the essence of what holiness looked like in a person’s life it could be summed up in perhaps two words: “Godlike love.” John, a disciple of Jesus, wrote, “God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we are like Christ here in this world” (1 John 4:16-17).
John was very conscious of God’s holy judgment when he wrote this. God is holy, and his holiness will ultimately consume everything that is unholy. But he said that when love lives in us and we live in love, we don’t need to fear judgment “because we are like Christ here in this world.” The divine nature of God’s holiness is imputed to us. That is, since we as sinners lack holiness on our own, when we submit to him he shares his holiness with us. By that sharing he sets us apart and consecrates us as his holy people (Ephesians 3).
A practical aspect of this setting apart is a Godlike love. And when we receive his holy nature we receive this pure love. Because we are redeemed, justified, sanctified, and adopted into God’s family, we are holy in our standing with God. That enables us to live his love out in relationship to others. So, one of the clear expressions of God’s holiness in our lives is loving as God loves.
A lot of people know that God is love and that we are to love others as he does, but they lack a concise definition as to what Godlike love is. In 1 Corinthians, the apostle Paul gives a good description of what love does and does not do. “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out” (1 Corinthians 13:4-6).
Love is making the security, happiness, and welfare of another person as important as your own.
Paul also wrote that “love does no wrong to anyone” (Romans 13:10). Instead, we are to treat all people as we would like to be treated. Remember the Golden Rule? “Do for others what you would like them to do for you” (Matthew 7:12). Paul put it this way: “Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:4 NIV).
When Jesus was asked to identify the most important commandment, he said it was to love God and “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). Paul gave us a specific application of this principle when he told husbands “to love their wives as they love their own bodies…No one hates his own body but lovingly cares for it” (Ephesians 5:28-29). Loving like this is one way of living out the holiness of God.
Drawing from these verses and others similar, we can derive a concise definition of pure Godlike love. Love is making the security, happiness, and welfare of another person as important as your own. This is Godlike love, a pure love that protects the loved one from harm and provides for his or her good. Godlike love is giving and trusting, unselfish and sacrificial, secure and safe, loyal and forever. And because its priority is to protect and provide for the loved one, Godlike love will not do things that are harmful to the security, happiness, and welfare of another person.
His time on earth was coming to an end. Jesus had spent the last few years pouring his life and teachings into his followers. Just hours before his death he met with them to celebrate Passover, and Scripture says, “He now showed the disciples the full extent of his love” (John 13:1).
“He got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and…began to wash the disciples’ feet” (John 13:4-5). When he was finished he asked his disciples, “Do you understand what I was doing? You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because it is true. And since I, the Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you…That is the path of blessing” (John 13:12-17).
Jesus had just taken on the role of a servant to wash the feet of his followers. And within that context he issues a new commandment: “A new command I give 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 NIV).
This was huge. God had written out Ten Commandments on tablets of stone for all to read and follow. Now Jesus was dictating the eleventh commandment to his disciples. You can’t get much bigger than a commandment coming straight from the mouth of God. And this one command would be the mark of a true Christian. This “love one another as I have loved you” would be the universal identifier—the distinguishing brand—of Jesus’ disciples. Loving as Christ loved would be a clear expression of God’s holiness.
If Jesus had done nothing more than simply pronounce the command, these disciples might have raised the question, Well, if we are to love each other like he loves us, just how has he loved us? What does that look like? Jesus illustrated the command with a demonstration so they would see, firsthand, that to love another is to serve him. A few hours later, they would see love stretched out on the cross, dying in their stead.
Following Jesus’ death and resurrection, God inspired the disciples and apostles to write out specific instructions to show what Christlike love looks like in our lives. Many of these instructions appear in the “one another” passages of Scripture. At least 35 times in the New Testament, we see a recurring word pattern—an action verb followed by the words “one another.” These admonitions give us practical examples of how to love as Jesus loved. We know, for example, the nature of Jesus’ love was gentle, humble, and forgiving. Scripture admonishes us to live out those characteristics of Christ by being gentle to one another (Ephesians 4:2), being humble toward one another (1 Peter 5:5), and forgiving one another (Colossians 3:13). By identifying these “one another” passages, we get a much clearer picture of how Christ wants us to live out his divine nature of love in our lives. Consider the following list in light of “love is making the security, happiness, and welfare of another person as important as your own.”
The “One Anothers” of Scripture
1. Love one another (John 13:34).
2. Accept one another (Romans 15:7).
3. Forgive one another (Ephesians 4:32; Colossians 3:13).
4. Be gentle to one another (Ephesians 4:2).
5. Be clothed in humility toward one another (1 Peter 5:5).
6. Weep with one another (Romans 12:15).
7. Live in harmony with one another (Romans 12:16).
8. Don’t judge one another (Romans 14:13).
9. Be patient with one another (Ephesians 4:2).
10. Admonish one another (Colossians 3:16).
11. Greet one another (Romans 16:16).
12. Wait for one another (1 Corinthians 11:33).
13. Care for one another (1 Corinthians 12:25).
14. Serve one another (Galatians 5:13).
15. Be kind to one another (Ephesians 4:32).
16. Be devoted to one another (Romans 12:10).
17. Be compassionate toward one another (Ephesians 4:32).
18. Encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11).
19. Submit to one another (Ephesians 5:21).
20. Make allowances for one another (Colossians 3:13).
21. Stimulate love in one another (Hebrews 10:24).
22. Offer hospitality to one another (1 Peter 4:9).
23. Minister gifts to one another (1 Peter 4:10).
24. Rejoice with one another (Romans 12:15; 1 Corinthians 12:26).
25. Don’t slander one another (James 4:11).
26. Don’t grumble against one another (James 5:9).
27. Confess your sins to one another (James 5:16).
28. Pray for one another (James 5:16).
29. Fellowship with one another (1 John 1:7).
30. Don’t be puffed up against one another (1 Corinthians 4:6).
31. Carry one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2).
32. Honor one another (Romans 12:10).
33. Depend on one another (Romans 12:5 33. AMP).
34. Prefer one another (Romans 12:10).
35. Comfort one another (2 Corinthians 1:4).
Living Out the “One Anothers”
In the last chapter we talked about how we could feel bound by the “grave clothes” of our old life—things like the negative influences of our family of origin, old friends, old habits, and so on. For me (Josh), living out Christ’s holiness through loving others was not easy. I still needed to shed some of those grave clothes that clung to me after my conversion.
Because I grew up in the home of an alcoholic, I developed a pattern of behavior that made me what psychologists call a “rescuer.” Each time I saw my father try to hurt my mom, I would step in and try to prevent her from being hurt. This became a lifelong psychological and emotional pattern for me. I always tried to rescue hurting, struggling people.
When I became a Christian I continued this unhealthy behavioral pattern, but I didn’t realize it was unhealthy. Each time I saw someone hurting, my compulsion kicked in. But I didn’t know it was a compulsion; I thought it was compassion. I thought I was exhibiting Godlike love. Take the “one another” scripture that says we are to “bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2 NASB). Because of my rescuer compulsion I felt emotionally responsible to solve the person’s problem by removing whatever burden they had. I thought I was fulfilling the “law of Christ” and making the security, happiness, and welfare of the other as important as my own. In reality, I was doing myself harm and in most cases doing the person a disservice, all because I was seeing God’s love through the baggage or grave clothes of my rescuing dysfunction.
It took the help of others more wise and spiritual than I to help unwrap my grave clothes. Through wise and spiritual counsel, I learned that bearing another person’s burden doesn’t mean taking responsibility for that person’s problem or hurt. It means coming alongside and gently helping a person lift the load. Bearing the burdens of others doesn’t mean taking responsibility for their problem; it means being responsible to them—to comfort, encourage, and support them in their pain or difficulties.
It was God’s Word that ultimately brought me around. Yes, Galatians 6:2 tells us that we are to “bear one another’s burdens.” The key to my turnaround was the passage I discovered just three more verses down the page. Galatians 6:5 declares, “Each one will bear his own load” (NASB).
Now, this may sound confusing at first, but it comes together when you consider that there is an important difference between a “burden” and a “load.” The Greek word for “burden” is a word that means “boulder,” a large rock that is too heavy to carry alone. We all face situations that bear down heavily on us, and we need someone to come alongside and share our burden. The situation causing the burden could be an injury, an illness, the death of a loved one, or the loss of a job, for example.
The Greek word for “load” is different, however; it refers to a military knapsack, the supply pack a soldier would carry into the field. It represents something each of us is responsible to carry. It’s yours, it’s assigned to you, and bearing it is your responsibility alone. It’s the idea Paul was conveying when he said, “Each of us will have to give a personal account to God” (Romans 14:12).
We all have personal responsibilities, and when we fail in our responsibilities—by using poor judgment or making wrong choices or harboring bad attitudes—we must face up to the consequences. To step in and remove the natural and corrective consequences of people’s irresponsible behavior may rob them of valuable lessons—lessons which may be critical for their continued growth and maturity.
I can’t possibly express how valuable this revelation from God’s Word has been to me. When I realized that loving others as Christ loved didn’t mean I was responsible for other people, then I was set free to be responsible to others—and particularly to those who were hurting. I then began looking for opportunities to allow his comfort, encouragement, and support to flow through me to others because I knew that in doing this I was loving others as Christ loves me.
The apostle Paul challenges us to “be diligent [in]…accurately handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15 NASB). As we understand accurately from Scripture how God wants us to love and what that looks like in our lives, we can “fulfill the law of Christ,” which is to love others as he has loved us.
Take time this week to do one or more “one anothers” of Scripture. With a servant’s heart and in a spirit of sacrifice, make someone’s security, happiness, and welfare as important as your own. As you do this you will be expressing your transformed, Christlike nature.
We close with Paul’s admonition:
Since God chose you to be the holy people whom he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. You must make allowance for each other’s faults and forgive the person who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. And the most important piece of clothing you must wear is love. Love is what binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are all called to live in peace. And always be thankful (Colossians 3:12-15).
SUMMARY OF PART III
God’s Truth Declaration:
I Am God Incarnate—The God of Redemption
• We believe the truth that God became human. And when we examine the evidence that Jesus is the God-man we can believe this truth with confidence.
Jesus Christ’s coming to earth demonstrates to us that even though we are sinners, God accepts us without condition.
When we accept others as God accepts us, we form secure and intimate relationships.
• We believe the truth that Christ’s death on the cross is an atonement for our sin so that we may be redeemed by God. We can believe this with confidence because there is sufficient evidence to establish the truth that Jesus is God’s Son—a perfect and acceptable sacrifice.
Christ’s sacrificial death is relevant to us specifically because it demonstrates Christ’s love for us and enables God to forgive us our sins.
Christ’s sacrificial death also defines what real love is, a love we are to demonstrate to others. And when we do this we experience the joy of lasting love relationships.
• We believe the truth that being justified before God and completely forgiven of sin is by God’s grace through faith alone in Jesus.
Because there is sufficient evidence that Christ is the Son of God, we can believe with confidence that our justification is secure.
When we experience a relationship with God, being redeemed, justified, sanctified, and adopted as his child, we are changed from dead to alive and have joyful expectation of eternal life.
• We believe the truth that our relationship with God transforms us into a new person.
We can believe this truth with confidence as we see our life being consistently changed into the image of God’s Son.
As we are conformed to the image of God, we discover our purpose for living—to honor God by being and living like Christ. We can know why we are here.
The Christian faith demonstrates the truth that God entered our world to regain an intimate relationship with us. He mercifully raises us from death to life by his grace through faith in Jesus, and is continually conforming us more and more to the image of his Son—which fulfills our purpose in life.
But as amazing and miraculous as that is, the story doesn’t end here. In part IV we will discover the truth of God’s re-creation—his mission to involve us in restoring all things back to a perfect world without sin.