"It is not good that the man should be alone" (Gn 2:18). Man was made to live with others. But living with others is not always easy. Others are so different from us. They only think of themselves and their own interests – which often clash with our own. Hence: dissensions, quarrels, conflicts. Ever since man has been on earth, there have been struggles and wars everywhere.
God wanted to create a different society where harmony and peace reign: the Church. In the beginning, "all those who had become believers lived in perfect unity of heart and mind" (Ac 4:32).
To achieve this unity in the Churches, we find, in the New Testament, about thirty different verbs associated with the expression "one another." They constitute a powerful antidote to the seeds of division and provide us with the framework for relationships as God would want them for His children: "Love one another, welcome one another, encourage one another, build one another up, honor one another...", but also: "bear with one another, watch over one another, forgive one another..."
These verbs are at once a call and a promise.
In this book, Alfred Kuen examines the imperatives associated with this expression and draws practical applications from them to deepen unity in our Churches and avoid tensions within them.