In Context: "Forsake not.." & "I can do all things.." Revisited

There were no chapter or verse separations in the original texts of scripture. The presence of these separations cause us to read a chapter or memorize a verse yet have no understanding of the story and the context.

Many bible studies are based around "reading a chapter" when the next chapter often in the first few verses clarifies what the previous was about. I have come across places in scripture where chapter breaks the context and where verses break the sentence. Many of those places are very popular such as:

Hebrews 10:24-25

"Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near."

A small portion of this text is used to get people to frequent a church building when the meeting doesn't even involve the "one anothers" mentioned not just in the context but in oft quoted verse itself. "One another" means "each and everyone involved." In a typical church service a few perform in front of many and the many have little to no interaction with anyone. The modern church service bares almost no resemblance to the assembling that is being talked about here in Hebrews. Today there are a few big mouths talking to a multitude of passive ears. Is an impersonal and non-interactive monologue (sermon) the same thing as everyone "encouraging one another"? Obviously not. Yet "forsaking not the assembling" as it is taught has ignored the context and come to be taught as "You must sit in the audience at church every week or you are in sin."

Philippians 4:12-13

"I have experienced times of need and times of abundance. In any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of contentment, whether I go satisfied or hungry, have plenty or nothing. I am able to do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Of course "all things" is still "all things" but I find it interesting that contentment, one of humanity's most elusive features, is the context in which Paul says "I am able to do all things through Christ who strengthens me." This is often taken as a license to follow my own selfish ambition in God's name and chase after "greatness" rather than God enabling me to be content with wherever He has me right now.



Read The First Visits:  In Context: "Forsake not the assembling..", In Context: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Love One Another

The Greek word for "one another" or "each other" is "allelon." It indicates that action is given and received by each person involved. For example, I encourage you and you encourage me. If there are three people involved the command to pray for one another would mean the following in practice:  I pray for you. I pray for her. You pray for me. You pray for her. She prays for you. She prays for me. All of us have been prayed for and all of us have prayed for everyone involved. That is what God has in mind when the term "one another" is used in scripture.

The following lists most of the “One Anothers” in the New Testament. It gives us a clear picture of what a Christian community can be like and how the children of God best relate with one another.

Love One Another
Joh 13:34 I give you a new commandment – to love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
Joh 13:35 Everyone will know by this that you are my disciples – if you have love for one another.
Joh 15:12 My commandment is this – to love one another just as I have loved you.
Joh 15:17 This I command you – to love one another.
Rom 12:10 Be devoted to one another with mutual/brotherly love, showing eagerness in honoring one another.
Rom 13:8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.
Gal 5:13 For you were called to be free, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity to indulge your flesh, but through love serve one another.
Eph 4:2 Show tolerance for one another in love
1Th 3:12 May the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another and for all
1Th 4:9 Now on the topic of brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another.
Heb 10:24 Let us take thought of how to motivate one another to love and good works
1Pe 1:22 You have purified your souls by obeying the truth in order to show sincere mutual love. So love one another earnestly from a pure heart.
1Jo 3:11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.
1Jo 3:23 This is His commandment, that we trust in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.
1Jo 4:7 Let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been fathered by God and knows God.
1Jo 4:11 Since God so loved us, then we also ought to love one another.
1Jo 4:12 If we love one another, God resides in us, and his love is perfected in us.
2Jo 1:5 I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another.

One Another Exhortations
Mar 9:50 Be at peace with one other.
Joh 13:14 If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.
Rom 12:10 Be devoted to one another with brotherly love, showing eagerness in honoring one another.
Rom 12:16 Live in harmony with one another; do not be condescendingly proud but associate with the lowly.
Rom 14:19 Let us pursue what makes for peace and for building up one another.
Rom 15:7 Accept one another just as Christ has accepted you so that God will be given glory.
1Co 11:33 When you come together to eat, wait for one another.
Gal 5:13 For you were called to be free, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity to indulge your flesh, but through love serve one another.
Gal 6:2 Carry one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
Eph 4:2-3 Bear with one another in love, making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Eph 4:32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Eph 5:21 Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Phi 2:3 Instead of being motivated by selfish ambition or vanity, each of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself.
Col 3:13 Bear with one another and forgive one another ... Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also forgive others
1Th 5:11 Encourage one another and build up each other, just as you are in fact doing.
1Th 5:15 Always pursue what is good for one another and for all.
Heb 10:24-25 Let us take thought of how to motivate one another to love and good works .. encourage one another
Jam 5:16 Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great effectiveness.
1Pe 4:9 Show hospitality to one another without complaining.
1Pe 5:5 Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another.

One Another Truths
Rom 12:5 We who are many are one body in Christ, and we are members who belong to one another.
1Co 12:25-24 God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the members that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.
Eph 4:25 Having laid aside falsehood, each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.
1Jo 1:7 If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.
1Th 4:14-18 For if we trust that Jesus died and rose again, so also we trust that God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For we tell you this by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will surely not go ahead of those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be suddenly caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

"Do not" One Another Exhortations
Rom 14:13 We must not pass judgment on one another, but rather determine never to place an obstacle or a trap before a brother or sister.
Gal 5:15 If you keep on biting and devouring one another, watch out or you will be destroyed by one another.
Gal 5:26 Let us not become boastful, provoking one another, being envious of one another.
Col 3:9 Do not lie to one another
Jam 4:11 Do not speak evil against one another
Jam 5:9 Do not grumble against one another

Prayers
Rom 15:5 May the God of endurance and comfort give you unity with one another in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1Th 3:12 May the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another and for all

One Another Fulfilled
Rom 1:12 For I long to see you, so that I may use my spiritual gift to strengthen you, so that we may be mutually encouraged by one another’s trust/faith, both yours and mine.
Rom 15:14 I myself am fully convinced about you, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct/admonish one another.
1Th 4:9 Now on the topic of brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another.
1Th 5:11 Encourage one another and build up one another, just as you are in fact doing.
2Th 1:3 We ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your trust is greatly enlarged, and the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater
1Pe 1:22 You have purified your souls by obeying the truth in order to show sincere mutual love. So love one another earnestly from a pure heart.

By Your Love for One Another...
Jesus said in John 13:35, "By your love for one another all people will know that you are My disciples." To show the importance of love as a witness to mankind please note what Jesus did not say.

• He did not say that by your preaching all people will know that you are My disciples.
• He did not say that by your teaching all people will know that you are My disciples.
• He did not say that by the doctrines you hold as true all people will know that you are My disciples.
• He did not say that by your attendance to a church every week all people will know that you are My disciples.
• He did not say that by your singing praise to me all people will know that you are My disciples.
• He did not say that by your education all people will know that you are My disciples.
• He did not say that by your leadership all people will know that you are My disciples.
• He did not say that by your smile and friendly greeting all people will know that you are My disciples.
• He did not say that by your public prayers all people will know that you are My disciples.
• He did not say that by your morality all people will know that you are My disciples.

Jesus said that by your love for one another all people will know that you are My disciples. Some of the things above are good but they are nothing without love (see 1 Corinthians 13:2).  We need to ask ourselves this question. Does what we do when we come together as followers of Christ allow and promote love for one another? One another meaning each and every person involved has the opportunity and encouragement to love. To love both because they are free to love and are being loved by one another and by God.

In Context: "Forsake not the assembling.."

What is often said:  "Forsake not the assembling"

What the Bible actually says:
"Let us consider how to stir one another to love and good works, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another." -Hebrews 10:24-25

This is almost always used as a verse to point out that we are supposed to go to a church weekly. This isn't only taken out of context but it isn't even the entire verse or sentence as it appears in scripture.

This text doesn't simply tell us not to forsake assembling together, it tells us what to do when we assemble. We are to stir one another to love and good works. We are to encourage one another. One another means each other, it indicates that action is given and received by each person involved. I encourage you and you encourage me.

So given that this text is used to tell us to go to a church, how in a typical Sunday morning church service can we practically encourage one another and stir one another to love and good works? Church services are spectator events. The professionals perform and the audience sings along or says "Amen!" There is no "one another" involved or even allowed. Forsaking a weekly church service does not equate to what this scripture speaks of. In fact you can forsake biblical fellowship, which involves participation & contribution, while still going to a church service every week! Don't let anyone pressure you into being in a church building on Sunday morning with this verse.

See this post for more:  In Context: "Forsake not.." & "I can do all things.." Revisited

Growth in Christ Through Relationships

Jesus said, "You search the scriptures they testify of me" The living Word is greater than the written word. We search the scriptures looking for doctrines, commands, plans, etc. What we are looking for are its. We need to be looking for He, Jesus Christ.

First century followers of Christ did not always have Old Testament scriptures. They certainly didn't have the New Testament scriptures because those were still being written. On top of that many people were illiterate. With the emphasis we currently put on personal study of scripture how then were these people such an impactful generation for Christ? The answer is relationships.

These followers of Christ were taught by those who were in Christ before them. Acts 2:42 says, "They were devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." The apostles' teaching was Jesus Christ. Jesus was taught as a living, personal, and interactive being. The apostles' teaching style was personal and interactive, like that of Jesus.

Their fellowship wasn't in name only like much of today's so called fellowship is. Biblical fellowship is friendship and companionship that involves participation and contribution. That is what they were devoted to. These weren't people listening to stale non-participatory sermons. They were filled with joys that brought on questions. They ate together and they prayed together. At this point the Judaizers weren't interfering and they had no systems or traditions to blind & deafen them. They purely got to enjoy Jesus Christ and each other with no bonds or barriers. That is the beauty of how the Christian life ought to be lived.

God's plan for growth in Jesus Christ was never for an individual to just study scripture by himself. God's plan is that we are built together through mutual participation and sharing of His truth (see Ephesians 4:25 & 1 Corinthians 14). His plan is for those who came before us to teach us how Jesus loves so we can "love as Jesus loved."