When Love Crosses Every Line
How the One-Anothers of Scripture Call Us Beyond Comfort.
When was the last time love made you uncomfortable?
For me, it was a chaotic Sunday morning with a screaming toddler, a language barrier, and a car full of people who didn’t grow up like I did. I was trying to drive a refugee family to church, my one-year-old melting down in the backseat while our passengers squirmed with concern, then confusion, then cultural misunderstanding. By the end of it, I was exhausted and embarrassed and strangely thankful.
Because as inconvenient as that moment felt, it was one of the few times I truly had to practice the “one-anothers” of Scripture. And I realized something: it's far easier to obey the one-anothers when we choose who the “one another” is.
But is that how the Bible defines them?
One Another, But Who?
Scripture is full of commands about how believers should treat one another. We’re told to:
“love one another” (Romans 12:10)
“welcome one another” (Romans 15:7)
“forgive one another” (Ephesians 4:32)
“serve one another” (Galatians 5:13)
“comfort one another” (2 Corinthians 13:11)
“build one another up” (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
But who is the one another? If we’re not careful, we’ll subconsciously define them as the people we naturally enjoy: friends, family, those with similar backgrounds or interests. Yet that’s not how Scripture draws the lines.
God defines “one another” with a surprising breadth and depth and it changes everything.
1. They Are Part of the Global Church
The first layer of “one another” applies to every Christian everywhere. When Paul writes, “Greet one another with a holy kiss” (1 Corinthians 16:20), he’s talking to all those who “in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:2). That means your church family includes believers in your city and believers in Syria, South Korea, South Africa.
The “one another” isn’t limited to those nearby. They are global saints we’re called to honor, love, and pray for. Which means God invites you to express spiritual affection for the believer across the pew and across the sea.
2. They Are Members of Your Local Church
The second layer focuses in: the one-anothers are also the people you physically gather with. That means the people you pass the peace to, take communion with, and awkwardly say hi to in the lobby.
Paul told the Corinthians, “When you come together to eat [the Lord’s Supper], wait for one another” (1 Corinthians 11:33). He wasn’t talking about every Christian on earth. He meant their actual church members. The ones who sat beside them, the ones who sang out of tune, the ones who sometimes got on their nerves.
Our local church isn’t just our Sunday morning commitment it’s our training ground for love. It’s where the “one-anothers” get hands and feet.
3. They Are Often Different Than Us
Here’s the challenge most of us avoid: the one-anothers of Scripture aren’t always people we click with. In fact, the call to love is often most powerful and most Christlike when we press into relationships marked by difference.
Jesus himself is our example. He didn’t love those most like him he came to people radically unlike him. Philippians 2 says he emptied himself to become like us. The Son of God chose to enter our mess, embrace our weakness, and love us to the point of death. Not because we were easy to love, but because love is who he is.
“Just as I have loved you,” Jesus said, “you also are to love one another.” (John 13:34)
Loving people who confuse us, stretch us, or even annoy us isn’t failure it’s faithfulness.
Love That Costs Something
In the end, obeying the one-anothers is not about being nice. It’s about being like Christ.
That refugee mom in my car? She was uncomfortable. So was I. But there we were different ages, races, languages, and life stories thrown together because Jesus had made us family.
The early church shocked the world because it crossed every natural dividing line: Jew and Gentile, slave and free, rich and poor. People loved one another despite difference. They forgave across cultural gaps. They served across social lines. They welcomed across walls of suspicion and fear. Why? Because Jesus had welcomed them all.
What about you?
Who in your church do you quietly avoid? Who might you be overlooking because they’re not “your people”? Who’s waiting for someone anyone to love them like Jesus would?
Let’s not settle for loving the ones we handpick. Let’s love the ones God has picked and placed right next to us.
Let’s love one another.
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