Other church gatherings beyond the main Sunday meeting are ready-made opportunities to live out the “one another” commands. Did you ever wonder if you are required to go to the Wednesday Bible study? It’s typically better to think not so much about what is expected, but what is beneficial. Yes, learning more Scripture at the Wednesday night meeting is a blessing, but so also is the interaction with other believers. Think of it — you just might get to “encourage the fainthearted” or “help the weak” if you go (1 Thessalonians 5:14). But if you don’t attend, you’ll miss that critical ministry opportunity.

Once you get past the four Gospels and Acts, the “one another” commands start appearing regularly in the New Testament. Here are just a few:
“Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.” (Romans 12:10)
“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32)
“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” (Philippians 2:3)
“But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” (Hebrews 3:13)
“And 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.” (Hebrews 10:24-25)
We know these commands are prevalent, but they are there to be obeyed. Here are a few ideas to help you accomplish that.
First, adherence to the “one another” commands requires more than just attending church meetings. We don’t gather just to exchange pleasantries. We all need to be loved, and shown honor, and encouraged, and treated as significant, and exhorted, and stirred up to love and good works. We all need to be pointed to the grace of God that is ours because of our union with Christ. Others are called to do this for you, and you are called to do it for others.
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Like him, I want to be an older man who mentors younger men with the confidence that the Lord will use them greatly in the future. Some men, as they grow older, become increasingly critical about younger believers. That’s such an unhelpful attitude. Instead, I want to teach younger men the Bible, believing they will grow and honor Jesus. And I plan on having thousands of thoughtful conversations with them.

One pastor said of William Thomas of Pyle, Wales, “He was better known as William Thomas the pray-er than as William Thomas the preacher” (all information and quotes about Thomas are from The Calvinistic Methodist Fathers of Wales, Vol. 2, Banner of Truth, 2008, 160-5). In his old age, he became deaf, but he could still pray. Though the image perhaps seems strange to us, in his later years he would “stand at the pulpit steps” and the congregation would see his lips moving and “conclude that he was praying for the preacher and for their salvation.”
William Thomas also had a heart for younger people, in particular fellow preachers of the gospel. One story illustrates this well:
“If he came across some young man with indication of ability and of God’s intention of making use of him, he would rejoice greatly. On one occasion a young man from Carmarthenshire came to Pyle to preach and had a fairly successful meeting. He was to sleep that evening at Tydraw [Thomas’ cottage]. After long conversation, they retired to their beds. After a while the young man heard a murmuring from the next room. Full of curiosity, he strained to hear and discovered that William Thomas was praying for him in the next room — pleading with God to grant him success on his journey to keep him from falling, to make him an instrument for the salvation of many.
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