Whatever the Church wants for the city, it must first become within its own walls. And whatever a Church believes within its walls, it must then translate into its dealings with the city. This community, living as Christ for the world, is captured in a series of “one another” statements. There are 59 such statements in the New Testament, and the most common is to “love one another,” which occurs 17 times. Of the remaining 42, six are apophatic or negative (“do not pass judgment on one another; do not provoke one another”), and 4 speak of “holy kisses.” Subtracting all these from the whole, there are 32 “one another” statements throughout the New Testament that describe, in practical terms, what it means to live as the Body of Christ. This series will cluster these statements around six core themes.
