Tag: love

Posted in theology

The lightning bolt never came

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Link to podcast- (Anchor isn’t working properly at this time)

https://anchor.fm/elizabeth-prata/episodes/The-lightning-bolt-never-came-e1uupni

Yesterday I wrote a post and published a podcast about the things that God hates. It is important to mention these things since they are half of the Gospel.

People rebut. Many people unfortunately don’t believe that the unsaved are due wrath from God, or that God hates anything at all. I repeat what Paul Washer said, ‘OK, well, you’re saved. What did He save you FROM?’

His wrath.

Anyway, I decided to follow up the bad tasting medicine from yesterday with a focus on a tender moment in the Bible. I have been reading commentaries on Habakkuk. I love the Minor Prophets. It is prophet-able to read them. Ha ha see what I did there? Habakkuk’s story is that in three short chapters, he went from doubt and angst, to full and complete trust and joy in God, despite the dire circumstances that Prophet was told to announce. Part of his story is a tender moment in chapter 2:1.

The Prophet had agonized over the sins of the wicked tribes that God was (seemingly) doing nothing about. Habakkuk was indignant. Chapter 1 is his lengthy charge against God. Chapter 2 begins with the Prophet having concluded his complaint to God, and saying he will return to his place at the watchtower, curl up and wait to “see what He will speak to me And how I may respond when I am reproved.” He has spoken out against God and he knew he was in a position to be turned to a cinder.

It’s like he then curled up into a fetal position, all tired out from the constant sight of the wicked prospering, and then protesting to God about it, and collapsing in a heap in the corner of his tower to wait for the lightning bolt.

But God.

But God did not send any lightning. Almost like a parent who bemusedly and compassionately watches their terrible two year old toddler have a tantrum, trying to grapple with emotions that are beyond their ability to control or even understand, when Habakkuk calmed down, the LORD put His arms around the prophet, lifted up his chin and allowed him to gaze upon the LORD of Glory while He explained the future.

Wow.

The LORD did not harshly reprove Habakkuk, instead He gently explained to the perplexed prophet what He was doing in the world and in future history.

There are many such moments in the Old Testament. The Lord tenderly speaking with a heartbroken Hagar (twice)… God sending an angel to be with depressed and broken down Elijah after the 400 Prophets of Baal incident. In that one, Elijah woke up with an angel touching him and offering bread and drink. (1 Kings 19:5-8).

The Lord our God is loving and tender. He loves His own with a heart that’s perfect, a mind that’s holy, with wisdom and compassion. I am grateful to know a God like this.

Habakkuk 1
Habakkuk 2
Habakkuk 3

Habakkuk & Zephaniah- Everyman’s Bible Commentary (Everyman’s Bible Commentaries) Cyril Barber

From Worry to Worship: Studies in Habakkuk, Dr. Warren Wiersbe

Summary of the Book of Habakkuk

Summary of the Book of Habakkuk

Posted in theology

“God is love, so he MUST hate”

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Link to Podcast-

https://anchor.fm/elizabeth-prata/episodes/Episode-361-God-is-love–so-he-MUST-hate-e1ut0pb

So many people have followed soft teaching women’s ministries for so long, with their constant focus on “God is love”, combined with an absence of teaching on sin, holiness, and wrath, that now we have slews of women who disbelieve God hates anything.

I had a Twitter interaction with a woman, who began her interaction with me by calling me a liar. I am very sad that civil discourse seems to have gone by the wayside, and people feel so free to resort to name calling to make their point, and worse, at the outset. She was commenting on my tweet thread on things God hates, which was accompanied by the verse from Proverbs 6. Ignoring the verse, she said that God doesn’t hate those He created.

I agree it would seem to be a contradiction, for God to make people and then hate them. But we must remember the beginning. It didn’t start out that way. He created Adam and then Eve. He created them in love, to have fellowship with them and for them to know Him and have fellowship. Then they sinned, bringing upon the world a curse, and upon themselves a sin nature which reverberates down to this generation and every human ever born (except for Jesus). God didn’t start out hating his created beings.

Remember also, He created the angels and He did not hate them either, until ‘Lucifer’ AKA satan the adversary sinned and brought a third of the angels with him in rebellion. Sin entered the world when he enticed Eve and she disobeyed. God hates sin. Always remember that.

And the phrase, “God hates the sin but loves the sinner”? It isn’t biblical. God does not cast only ‘sin’ into the Lake of Fire. He casts sinners into the Lake of Fire.

While I agree it isn’t profitable to focus only on His hate of sin, His wrath, and His punishment, it is also not good to focus only on His love, His care, and His tenderness in saving us. As my pastor says, there are two wings to the airplane. Love-hate, law-gospel, salvation-wrath, sin-repentance and so on. The plane is lopsided with only one wing, and it won’t fly right.

Our believing lives are two sides of one coin. While the redeemed are loved and no wrath is due us (because of our risen Jesus from the cross), even after salvation we should remember the position of the unredeemed. They dwell on an earth that’s cursed and they personally are dangling on an ephemeral spider’s web strand over the Lake of Fire to be dropped into it for all eternity if they fail to respond to the Gospel.

But that is where we are with so many women’s ministries. A decades-long hyper focus on love has given younger women the notion that no matter what, God is love only.

But God … is holy holy holy.

“Can God be good, and not move against wickedness? No. Can God be good and be apathetic towards evil? Absolutely not.” ~Paul Washer

The Hatred of God

God does hate.

God hates divorce. Malachi 2:16

God hated Esau. Malachi 1:3, Romans 9:13

God hates six things, no, seven…Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood, A heart that devises wicked thoughts, Feet that hasten to run to evil, A false witness who breathes out lies, And one who spreads strife among brothers. Proverbs 6

God hates the deeds of the Nicolaitans. Revelation 2:6

God hates false oaths. Zechariah 8:17

God hates all workers of iniquity. Psalm 5:5, Psalm 11:5

And it isn’t even a comprehensive list of what God hates. Do you notice the last one? It isn’t just the sin God hates, but people who sin.

The title of this blog essay is a quote from Paul Washer. Below is an excerpt of a sermon he delivered years ago, called “The Hatred of God”. To paraphrase something he said in the excerpt of this sermon, ‘if you love babies…you must hate abortion. If you love African Americans…you must hate slavery. If you love the Jewish people…you must hate the Holocaust’. What he was describing there is the two sides of the same coin. One cannot have a holy hate unless you have love. You cannot have a Christian love unless you also hate. We MUST hate what God hates. Washer said:

You know that wonderful statement that goes something like this “God loves the sinner and hates the sin.” Just look at this text. [Psalm 5:5]. Is that what it teaches? It’s not what it teaches. I’m sorry, I know it’s a pretty thing to say and it looks good on the back of a contemporary Christian t-shirt, but it’s not what the scriptures teach.

[Ps 5:5] does not say here that God’s hatred is manifested towards the wicked deed. It says God’s hatred is manifested towards the one who commits it. ~Paul Washer

Don’t be fooled by ministries that omit half the Gospel. God does hate. How could He not? He’s perfectly holy. Therefore sin offends Him. Sinners offend Him!

BUT GOD: We are amazed and grateful that even though He is thoroughly offended by sin AND sinners, hates it, He sent Jesus to die for us!

Now- my disclaimer. This is not to say that we go around hating unbelievers who sin. They can’t help it. And, we redeemed are not perfected yet so we falter when we attempt to have a righteous indignation or a holy hate. Our motivations are born out of love for God so we try our best, but our sin nature can still corrupt the end result.

God is love. God does hate. Never forget that He is perfect, so His hate is perfect, always just the right amount and in the right degree and toward the right things. Dear ladies, please try to have a right view of God, a comprehensive view containing all of His attributes. Look at Him as He is revealed, through scripture, not through ourselves and our own notions of what love and hate is.

,Ladies please take a listen to this 19 minute clip. Washer at his best.

Posted in theology

Potpourri: In the beginning, The Chosen, One Anothering, Eschatology

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

EPrata photo

GENESIS is where it’s at!

I love the ministry of Answers in Genesis. The first book of the Bible is so important to understand and believe literally.

As John MacArthur has said, “If you don’t believe in the literal 6 day creation, when does your belief in what Genesis presents kick in? Chapter 3? Chapter 6? Chapter 11? You see, that is analogous to the issue of creation. You can observe the way things are now but that doesn’t tell you anything about how they became what they are. Creation cannot be understood any other way than by believing the revelation of the creator. And that’s your first test when you open your Bible. I am absolutely astounded at how many people who call themselves Christians, who lead large and effective Christian ministries, don’t have any position on Genesis 1 and 2 except that they find it hard to believe it. And I ask them, “At what chapter do you kick in?” When do we finally get you on board? Is it Genesis 3? Do you buy that? Or maybe 4? What I’m saying is, creation has no connection at all to science, any more than the behavior of Lazarus could in any way reveal how he was raised from the dead. Creation is not a scientific event, cannot be explained scientifically as if natural law played any part. Creation was a massive supernatural miracle…” Source- The Theology of Creation

Here is Answers in Genesis, a ministry I love, with an essay exploring the Effects of the Fall on the Physical Creation: A Biblical Analysis. They look at pre-Fall, the Fall and the Curse, then the effects present day of the former, and last, gloriously, the Restoration!

IDOLS

The Chosen: G3 Ministries discusses the issues with the television series The Chosen, in this fourth episode of Season 3 of the G3 Podcast, Josh Buice, Virgil Walker, and Scott Aniol discuss the television series The Chosen and its connection to Mormonism, the 2nd Commandment, and the way truth is communicated through art and media.

Pastor Gabriel Hughes of When We Understand The Text (WWUTT) has been reviewing The Chosen individual episodes on his podcast. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Responding to listener questions here.

ESCHATOLOGY

I am fervent that the serious Christian should study eschatology, come to a gracious, settled conclusion of the Last Things, as they are known, and then live with the end in mind. We do not want to be counted as believers who are like the pagans, who mock last things and judgment by saying things like where is the promise of His coming? All things are going on as they have been! Why study eschatology?” (2 Peter 3:4). The different stances generate some heat, I know, but still, last things comprise almost 30% of the entire Bible. Study it!

Here is a GotQuestions article explaining eschatology;

Here is an article from Ligonier’s TableTalk Magazine about Eschatological Living. It’s a very short article: here is one quote:

Kingdom citizens, therefore, are looking ahead while living in the present. The believer longs for Jesus to usher in the kingdom in its fullness (Rev. 21–22)

Here is a John MacArthur sermon called The Grim Reality of the Last Days. I call my blog The End Time because we are IN the end of days, which are between Jesus 1st and His 2nd coming. Understanding what is ahead for the non-believer hopefully will undergird your evangelism. Remember, none of the people to whom an angel appeared could stand and cowered in fear, and they came in friendliness! Imagine a sinner facing the full glory & wrath of Jesus Himself as the Lion!! No, live in eschatological fervor on behalf of the glory of God and for those who do not know Him.

KOINONIA

The above is a word for one anothering, or commitment to each other in the Gospel, fellowship Gospel style. Alistair Begg has some things to say about how we should love one another in this devotional

If you like the Puritans, John Owen has a fantastic book called Duties of Christian Fellowship: A Manual for Church Members. In a short 96 pages, “In just a few pages “it sets out in very concise terms the responsibilities all Christians have, first, to their pastors, and then second, to one another within the fellowship of the local church”. Unavailable at Reformation Heritage Books and out of stock at Amazon, but can be read online at Monergism or downloaded as a .pdf from the same site 🙂

MUSIC

Here is Hymnology’s Youtube channel of season 4. The hosts explain the origin of a hymn or its meaning, then sing it. Phillip Webb sings and the music is just beautiful. Strongly doctrinal music in church and in life is a must.

We should not listen to music coming from heretical organizations such as Elevation or Bethel. Michelle Lesley comments here, and also explains further “Why Our Church No Longer Plays Bethel or Hillsong Music (or Elevation or Jesus Culture), and Neither Should Yours” here

Be kind to one another, live as if this day could be your last for the Lord (because one day, it will be!), and watch out for what you watch on media 🙂 Thank you for reading! I appreciate you.

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Posted in theology

I love you ladies!

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I was sitting here this early Saturday morning, thinking of the women who read The End Time Facebook page, my Twitter, the blog, and listen to the podcast. I thought about the comments and encouragements I’ve received lately. I recalled the prayers lifted up for me this week and all the previous weeks. Such kindness.

I thought about how happy it makes me when a sister messages me that they have tried out a book I recommended or a course at ICL or Ligonier, and enjoyed it. THAT is the biggest thrill, when I point sisters to credible ministries and it’s actually pursued. SOOO encouraging.

We really do have a global church, and the sisters who follow, comment, and engage with The End Time are extremely precious to me.

I wanted to let you all know my favorite time of the week, (after church services). I get up early on Saturdays, make coffee, and put on Pandora String Quartets or Mozart channel, softly. I crack my knuckles, hover my hands over the keyboard, take a deep breath, and begin to write. I spend all morning till about noon, writing the blogs for the week. I do them all at once so they are ready to post in the mornings before I go to work.

I truly love this time writing. It’s personally satisfying for me to be able to process my thoughts by scribing them onto paper, or these days, a screen. It’s the way I’d always figured out stuff; think, then write, then think some more.

After salvation, transferring this process to where I strive to understand the Bible more or Jesus more, is deeply fulfilling. And the ministry of doing so for like-minded ladies is personally rewarding.

I really do love your questions, they prompt me to pursue deeper answers. I love the engagement and encouragement, it prompts me to do the same for others. I don’t get tired of it. I think of how Jesus hung on the cross for me, a sinner, and absorbed all God’s wrath to the dregs, for me, it spurs me on to want to be busy for Him, proclaiming His excellencies. When a sister comes to me in life or online and says something that I wrote (thanks to the wisdom of the Spirit) helped them, I just about fall over in gratitude. There is nothing and no one better than Jesus, and learning that other women are growing closer to Him and that I might have been a part is a profoundly gratifying feeling.

I do it because I love Jesus and love you sisters in Jesus.

Posted in theology

God’s love is…

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

“When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.” (Exodus 34:29-30).

His perfection and holiness puts fear into us. That is because we recognize how depraved and evil we are.

Isaiah saw immediately how depraved he was, when confronted by the holiness of God. “And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5).

The delusion satan brings is that we are good, we are innocent, we are pure. Or, at least to the slightly more honest among us, we’re not so bad.  “We’re not like HIM” our minds cry out when we discover that our neighbor was an embezzler. We use each other as a benchmark of progress in the goodness department, when the true standard is God. Our minds want to shrink from using Him as a benchmark because deep down we know what we are:

“The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5).

Do you see how complete that statement is, “so great”, “every intention”, “continually”? We are saturated with sin, permeated down to the last molecule. Paul Washer is right when he preaches on the depravity of man, “All men are born evil.”

Paul Washer is right to say that God’s restraining power upon Hitler was restrained from worse. The restrainer is holding back the full potential of sin in the human heart, and so we enjoy His common grace. But once the restrainer is out of the way,

“Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, … The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders…” (2 Thessalonians 2:7b, 8a, 9).

In other words, watch out! ‘Satan with all power’. Everyone on earth except those who believe in Jesus after the rapture will make Hitler look like a choirboy. God’s common grace will have been removed- which will reveal the undeniable fact that everyone is not just a Hitler, but is an antichrist.

Once we understand this, the shock shifts. We are no longer shocked by the Nazi man puttering in his garden, because we see ourselves as having the same potential. The shock is, GOD LOVES US ANYWAY.

We can have a higher and deeper awe and love for Holy God because he loved each and every little Hitler on earth who was to be saved. Our precious Jesus died and shed His blood to save us who would believe!

“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8).

Posted in theology

The Love of Jesus is…

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

The love of Jesus for His children is

–particular to each of us
–unconditional
–sacrificial.

I looked over my notes from a sermon one my elders gave in 2013. He’d preached from the main text of 1 John 3:1 as the overall opening, then made the three points above.

See how great a love the Father has given us, that we would be called children of God; and in fact we are. For this reason the world does not know us: because it did not know Him.

He used the verse as the example of the perfect Father-child relationship. Then he went on to some verses to show He loves each of us particularly for adoption as His children-

Ephesians 3:18-19, particular love (white-hot)

may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

He began with an anecdote; which I’ll paraphrase-

‘If my wife and I had the opportunity to go to an orphanage and choose a child to adopt, I think that would be pretty cool. If you’re looking over the kids, you’d have to be honest and say that you’d kind of want a likeable one. I mean, you’d look for one that was kind of nice or kind of cute or sort of smart, in other words, had something going for him.’

‘But if you think of looking at the “orphanage of humanity” in truth we are all oozing with hostility toward our potential Father. We are dirty and unintelligent and mean and hostile. We’d all be the smart alecks, and we’d have nothing going for us. Yet God chose us anyway.’

He went on to point two, unconditional love

Romans 8:21-25

that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

He said that there are no conditions on Jesus’s love for us. It’s not like if we have a lengthier quiet time, that He loves us more, of if we forgot to pray, He loves us less. It’s about what we believe, not what we do. He simply loves us. He loves us perfectly, too.

Point three, sacrificial love:

John 13:1

Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that His hour had come that He would depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

He reminded us of the foot washing and the humble service Jesus gave to His disciples and the people. Jesus loved His children to the very end- through torture and through death and through the resurrection and will love us to the end of time when time will never end.

I’d posted about fearing God the other day, now today we looked at the love of God. He has many attributes we can ponder. His love for us is permanent to those who confess and believe unto His Son, and it will never end. No matter what is going on in your life, bask in that truth. May it sustain you through good days and hard days.

Posted in theology

God’s amazing love

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

“There is no point at which God began. Before God ever made a world, He already existed. And the Scriptures make clear that as He existed from all eternity, there was already in His nature from all eternity the attribute of love. God didn’t become loving at the time of creation, for He has always been a God of love.” ~RC Sproul, The Eternal Love of God

I think of the moving story in the Bible about the Prodigal Son. His arrogance in asking for his inheritance before the Father had died, demonstrating where his heart was…leaving to pursue sin with glee and abandon. His realization that he was in fact worse off than the pigs without the Father, his coming back, resolved to be a lowly servant…the Father running toward His son, who He loves!

It’s me. I wandered in the muck of sin for 4 decades before in His timing, the Father plucked me up. He loved me through all that time, my sin and rebellion he loved me through the ages before I was born. He loved me in infinity before the foundation of the world.

His love is tremendous, expansive, unplumbable to the ends.

Would you love a pig of a person who spit on you and hated your guts? Would you wash him, invite him to your home, a mansion, feed you and take care of your every need? Of course we would not. We don’t. But God does. BUT GOD.

The Nature of God’s Love by AW Pink

It is eternal. This [is] of necessity. God Himself is eternal, and God is love; therefore, as God Himself had no beginning, His love had none. Granted that such a concept far transcends the grasp of our finite minds, nevertheless, where we cannot comprehend, we can bow in adoring worship. How clear is the testimony of Jeremiah 31:3, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.”

How blessed to know that the great and holy God loved His people before heaven and earth were called into existence, that He had set His heart upon them from all eternity. This is clear proof that His love is spontaneous, for He loved them endless ages before they had any being.

The same precious truth is set forth in Ephesians 1:4-5, “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us.” What praise should this evoke from each of His children! How quieting for the heart. Since God’s love toward me had no beginning, it can have no ending! Since it is true that “from everlasting to everlasting” He is God, and since God is love, then it is equally true that “from everlasting to everlasting” He loves His people.

LOVE ETERNAL AND UNCHANGEABLE

By Thomas Reade (1776-1841)
GOD is love (1Jo 4:8)! Sweet truth! O my soul, rejoice daily in this blessed revelation, “God is love.” Before all worlds, before any being was formed, “God is love”—love eternal and unchangeable. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is love. How inconceivably great is the love of God! All worlds rolling in the infinite expanse, all beings inhabiting those innumerable spheres, which extend far beyond the boundaries of the most excursive imagination, all the myriads of angelic spirits which dwell forever in the bright effulgence of uncreated light, are only the overflowings of that love, which is inexhaustible. The immense fountain loses not one drop, though countless millions are filled by its streams. It is ever flowing, ever full. “Lord, Thou art love. Oh, fill my soul with Thy love! Thou canst not be diminished, and I shall be made everlastingly blessed.”

By this the love of God was revealed in us, that God has sent His only Son into the world so that we may live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (1 John 4:9-11).

That is just one of many verses in the Bible about the deep and eternal love God has for His people. No matter where you are or what us happening to you, know that if you are a believer, you are loved by God, deeply, thoroughly, eternally.

and I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand (John 10:28).

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Posted in olivet discourse, prophecy, spurgeon, tribulation

Has your love for Christ gone cold?

Posted on by elizabethprata

What word in the New Testament is used only once, in Matthew 24:12?

First, the scene.

“Olive Trees”, Vincent Van Gogh

The disciples had asked Jesus about the Temple, the times, and when His return would be. His answer is the longest discourse in the NT after the Sermon on the Mount, and the longest answer to any question the disciples asked. It comprises the entire chapters of Matthew 24 and goes on to Matthew 25. The response, given on the Mount of Olives and thus known as the Olivet Discourse, is about the Tribulation period. The Time of Jacob’s Trouble, when Jesus pours out His wrath on the unbelieving world, and punishes Israel for the final 7 years of time, three and a half of which are called the Great Tribulation. (Revelation 12:14, Daniel 7:25; Daniel 12:7).

Continue reading “Has your love for Christ gone cold?” →
Posted in thankful, theology

There is no love like that of Christ to and through His people

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

One of my elders told me about a Jerry Bridges book that impacted him a lot, God Took Me by the Hand, so since I trust my elder greatly, I immediately put that book on my Amazon wish list. Then, a kind sister bought it for me, and it came today! Also came with it was The Glory of Grace: An Introduction to the Puritans in Their Own Words by Lewis Allen & Tim Chester. Continue reading “There is no love like that of Christ to and through His people” →

Posted in encouragement, theology

Let’s love each other

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I found this online. It’s a list that is sourced. Recently I’ve been a bit downcast by the in-fighting on social media. I guess after 24 years online going from BBS forums to CompuServe to commenting online newspapers to Disqus to blogs to Facebook to Twitter … I’m finally social media world-weary with the lack of grace and patience. Let’s love each other.

love verse 4

The 59 “One Anothers” of the New Testament

1. …Be at peace with each other. (Mark 9:50)

2. …Wash one another’s feet. (John 13:14)

3. …Love one another… (John 13:34a)

4. …Love one another… (John 13:34b)

5. …Love one another… (John 13:35)

6. …Love one another… (John 15:12)

7. …Love one another (John 15:17)

8. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love… (Romans 12:10)

9. …Honor one another above yourselves. (Romans 12:10)

10. Live in harmony with one another… (Romans 12:16)

11. …Love one another… (Romans 13:8)

12. …Stop passing judgment on one another. (Romans 14:13)

13. Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you… (Romans 15:7)

14. …Instruct one another. (Romans 15:14)

15. Greet one another with a holy kiss… (Romans 16:16)

16. …When you come together to eat, wait for each other. (I Cor. 11:33)

17. …Have equal concern for each other. (I Corinthians 12:25)

18. …Greet one another with a holy kiss. (I Corinthians 16:20)

19. Greet one another with a holy kiss. (II Corinthians 13:12)

20. …Serve one another in love. (Galatians 5:13)

21. If you keep on biting and devouring each other…you will be destroyed by each other.

(Galatians 5:15)

22. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. (Galatians 5:26)

23. Carry each other’s burdens… (Galatians 6:2)

24. …Be patient, bearing with one another in love. (Ephesians 4:2)

25. Be kind and compassionate to one another… (Ephesians 4:32)

26. …Forgiving each other… (Ephesians 4:32)

27. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. (Ephesians 5:19)

28. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. (Ephesians 5:21)

29. …In humility consider others better than yourselves. (Philippians 2:3)

30. Do not lie to each other… (Colossians 3:9)

31. Bear with each other… (Colossians 3:13)

32. …Forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. (Colossians 3:13)

33. Teach…[one another] (Colossians 3:16)

34. …Admonish one another (Colossians 3:16)

35. …Make your love increase and overflow for each other. (I Thessalonians 3:12)

36. …Love each other. (I Thessalonians 4:9)

37. …Encourage each other…(I Thessalonians 4:18)

38. …Encourage each other… I Thessalonians 5:11)

39. …Build each other up… (I Thessalonians 5:11)

40. Encourage one another daily… Hebrews 3:13)

41. …Spur one another on toward love and good deeds. (Hebrews 10:24)

42. …Encourage one another. (Hebrews 10:25)

43. …Do not slander one another. (James 4:11)

44. Don’t grumble against each other… (James 5:9)

45. Confess your sins to each other… (James 5:16)

46. …Pray for each other. (James 5:16)

47. …Love one another deeply, from the heart. (I Peter 3:8)

48. …Live in harmony with one another… (I Peter 3:8)

49. …Love each other deeply… (I Peter 4:8)

50. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. (I Peter 4:9)

51. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others… (I Peter 4:10)

52. …Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another…(I Peter 5:5)

53. Greet one another with a kiss of love. (I Peter 5:14)

54. …Love one another. (I John 3:11)

55. …Love one another. (I John 3:23)

56. …Love one another. (I John 4:7)

57. …Love one another. (I John 4:11)

58. …Love one another. (I John 4:12)

59. …Love one another. (II John 5)

*From Carl F. George, Prepare Your Church for the Future (Tarrytown: Revell, 1991), 129-131.