Here Are 59 Biblical Commands the Church Forgot About (and it hurt us!)

How "One-Anothering" Changes Everything About Being the Body of Christ

We’ve memorized John 3:16, the Great Commission, and the Ten Commandments, but have we forgotten the 59 behaviors that show us how to actually live as Jesus’ sons and daughters in a Biblical faith family?

I don’t say that to be harsh. I say it because I lived it.

For years, I have worked on my personal doctrinal beliefs.

• Trinity? Got it, well, as much as any human can.

• Atonement theories? I have opinions.

• Ecclesiology? Can’t get enough.

But ask me to confess a sin to another believer? To actually bear someone’s burden in a way that costs me something? To admonish a brother who was drifting?

🦗 Crickets 🦗

We have theology down cold.

❓But, do we have any idea how to actually BE the church❓

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Click HERE to Download the 59 One Anothers and the 14 Categories

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The Missing Curriculum in the Body of Christ

Here’s what’s wild to me: We’ve built entire discipleship programs around Bible knowledge. We test people on books of the Bible, memorization, doctrine, and church history. And those things matter, don’t hear me wrong.

But the New Testament is absolutely loaded with instructions on how Christians are supposed to relate to one another.

Not suggestions.

Commands.

‼️And most of us couldn’t name more than five of them‼️

When I started taking a look, I thought maybe there were a dozen “one-another” commands scattered through the New Testament.

💥 There’s 59 💥

I think I’m gonna get a 59 tattooed on my arm (just kidding, I don’t do tattoos).

Fifty-nine specific instructions on how followers of Jesus are supposed to treat each other. And I realized I’d been part of churches most of my life that barely practiced a handful of them. So, no shame, it’s never too late to start.

We’ve mastered efficient worship services. We’ve perfected listening to and preaching sermons. We could sing in tune and shake hands at the greeting time. We gladly drop some coin in the offering plate. We may even be able to recite a creed or the Lord’s Prayer.

But “one-anothering”?

That messy, vulnerable, inconvenient way of doing life together that the early church practiced? It made them stand out from the rest of culture. It provided them all they needed to become martyrs for their faith. It multiplied to change the entire known world within a couple of hundred years.

AND THEN…

We canceled that out of the Christian church experience in exchange for efficiency, excellence, and worship team practice.

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What Scripture Actually Says

When you pull all 59 commands together, patterns emerge. I organized them into 14 categories, and honestly, seeing them laid out changed how I think about Christian community and church life, no matter what form that takes (Sunday church, simple church, house church, etc.).

1. Love One Another — This one shows up more than any other. John 13:34-35, Romans 13:8, 1 John 3:11... over and over. It’s the foundation everything else builds on.

2. Serve One Another — Galatians 5:13 tells us to use our freedom to serve, not to indulge ourselves.

3. Accept One Another — Romans 15:7 says to accept each other just as Christ accepted us. Not after people clean up. Not once they agree with us. As Christ accepted us—which, if you remember, was while we were still a mess.

4. Forgive One Another — Colossians 3:13, Ephesians 4:32. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. That’s a high bar.

5. Encourage One Another — Hebrews 3:13 says to do this daily. Not when you feel like it. Daily.

6. Build Up One Another — Romans 14:19, 1 Thessalonians 5:11. Pursue what builds others up, not what tears down.

7. Admonish One Another — Colossians 3:16. This is the uncomfortable one. Speaking truth when someone’s drifting. Most of us avoid this like the plague.

8. Confess to One Another — James 5:16. Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. When’s the last time you actually did this?

9. Bear Burdens for One Another — Galatians 6:2. Carry each other’s loads. This fulfills the law of Christ.

10. Be Kind and Compassionate to One Another — Ephesians 4:32. Sounds simple until you’re stuck in traffic or dealing with that one person at work.

11. Submit to One Another — Ephesians 5:21. Mutual submission out of reverence for Christ. Not hierarchy. Mutual.

12. Be Devoted to One Another — Romans 12:10. Honor others above yourself. Devoted. That’s family language.

13. Live in Harmony with One Another — Romans 12:16. Not uniformity. Harmony. Different notes, same song.

14. Be Hospitable to One Another — 1 Peter 4:9. Without grumbling. (Peter had to add that part, which tells you something about human nature.)

Fifty-nine commands across these categories. This is supposed to be normal Christian community.

So why does it feel so foreign?

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The Hard Truth

Here’s what I’ve learned: You can’t “one-another” from a pew.

You can’t confess sins to someone you only see for an hour on Sunday. You can’t bear burdens for people whose burdens you don’t know. You can’t encourage daily if you don’t have daily access. You can’t admonish in love if there’s no relationship to hold the weight of hard truth.

The 59 “one-anothers” require

• Proximity.

• Consistency.

• Time.

• Margin.

• Vulnerability.

• Real life rubbing up against real life.

This is why I’m convinced disciple-making communities have to be smaller than we’re comfortable with. Not because big gatherings are bad—they’re not. But because the “one-anothers” don’t scale. They happen in living rooms and coffee shops and group texts and driveways.

They happen when you’re close enough to see someone’s real life, not just their Sunday best.

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Your Challenge This Week

I’m not asking you to master all 59 commands. That’s overwhelming, and God doesn’t work that way anyway.

Here’s what I want you to do:

Pick ONE.

Just one “one-another” that you know you’ve been avoiding or neglecting. Maybe it’s confession—you’ve been carrying something alone that needs to be spoken out loud. Maybe it’s encouragement—there’s someone in your life who’s running on empty, and you’ve noticed but haven’t acted.

Maybe it’s admonishment. There’s a hard conversation you’ve been avoiding because it’s easier to stay comfortable than to risk being rejected.

Pick one.

Practice it this week with someone in your life. Not a stranger. Someone you’re actually walking with.

And watch what happens.

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When Communities Actually Do This

I’ve seen what happens when groups of believers take the “one-anothers” seriously. It’s not flashy. It doesn’t make headlines.

• People get free.

• Marriages get restored.

• Addictions lose their grip.

• Loneliness dissolves.

• People who’ve been burned by “church” find family.

The early church didn’t have buildings or budgets or branding. But they had each other.

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to fellowship, to breaking bread, and to prayer.

They shared everything.

They met daily.

They practiced the “one-anothers” as a way of life.

And the Lord added to their number DAILY.

What if that’s still available to us?

What if the revolution we’re waiting for isn’t a new strategy or program—but a return to the relational commands we’ve been ignoring all along?

The 59 are waiting.

Which one will you start with?

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