I John 4:7, “Dear friends, let us
love one another, because love
is from God, and everyone who
loves has been born of God and
knows God.”
I John 4:10-11, “Love consists of
this: not that we loved God, but
that He loved us and sent His Son to
be the propitiation for our sins.
Dear friends, if God loved us in this
way, we must also love one
another.”
Romans 13:8, “Do not owe
anyone anything, except to love
one another.”
I Peter 1:22, “…Love one another
earnestly from a pure heart.”
I. INVALID INTERPRETATIONS OF
PREFERRING ONE ANOTHER
A. To prefer one another is not
fallacious flattery.
Romans 12:9, “Love must be
sincere.”
I Thessalonians 2:5-6, “For we
never used flattering speech, as
you know, or had greedy
motives—God is our witness—
and we didn’t seek glory from
people, either from you or from
others.”
Proverbs 28:23, “He who rebukes a
man will in the end gain more
favor than he who has a flattering
tongue.”
Proverbs 29:5, “A man who flatters
his neighbor spreads a net at his
feet.”
Jude 16, “Their mouths utter arrogant
words, flattering people for their own
advantage.”
Romans 16:18, “Such people do not serve
our Lord Christ but their appetites, and by
smooth talk and flattering words they
deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.”
A.
To prefer one another is not fallacious
flattery.
B. To prefer one another is not
superficial self-effacement.
I Corinthians 12:14-18, “So, the body is not one
part but many. If the foot should say, ‘Because I’m
not a hand, I don’t belong to the body,’ in spite of
this it still belongs to the body. And if the ear
should say, ‘Because I’m not an eye, I don’t belong
to the body, in spite of this it still belongs to the
body. If the whole body were an eye, where would
the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear,
where would the sense of smell be? But now God
has placed the parts, each one of them, in the
body just as He wanted.”
A.
To prefer one another is not fallacious
flattery.
B. To prefer one another is not superficial selfeffacement.
C. To prefer one another is not
foolhardy favoritism.
I Timothy 5:21, “…Do nothing
out of favoritism.”
James 2:9, “But if you show
favoritism, you commit sin…”
James 2:1-4, “My brothers, hold your faith in our
glorious Lord Jesus Christ without showing
favoritism. For suppose a man comes into your
meeting wearing a gold ring, dressed in fine
clothes, and a poor man dressed in dirty clothes
also comes in. If you look with favor on the man
wearing the fine clothes so that you say, ‘Sit here in
a good place,’ and yet you say to the poor man,
‘Stand over there,’ or ‘Sit here on the floor by my
footstool,’ haven’t you discriminated among
yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?”
Romans 2:11, “There is no
favoritism with God.”
***In a New Testament church,
everybody is somebody and
Jesus is Lord!
I.
INVALID INTERPRETATIONS OF PREFERRING
ONE ANOTHER
II. THE VALID EXPLANATION OF
PREFERRING ONE ANOTHER
Philippians 2:3-4, “Do nothing
out of selfish ambition or vain
conceit, but in humility consider
others better than yourselves.
Each of you should look not only
to your own interests, but also
to the interests of others.”
I Thessalonians 5:12-13, “Now we
ask you, brothers, to give
recognition to those who labor
among you and lead you in the
Lord and admonish you, and to
esteem them very highly in love
because of their work.”
CHARLIE WEIS