The New Testament presents the Christian life as a life lived in and through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit dwells within the believer, teaches, leads, strengthens, transforms, and produces the character of Christ within us. Yet His work in the individual never ends with the individual. As believers increasingly yield to the Spirit, His inward work begins to shape the way we see, love, serve, forgive, encourage, and care for one another.

This section, Spirit – Believer, explores that relationship between the Holy Spirit and the individual Christian and asks how the Spirit’s work within us becomes visible in our relationships with other believers. Scripture repeatedly connects spiritual maturity with love. The fruit produced by the Spirit is expressed in relationships, and many of the New Testament commands can only be obeyed in relationship with others.

These studies therefore examine themes such as the nature of Christian love, love as oneness, beholding and becoming like Christ, and the distinctive emphasis on love in the writings of John. They also explore the many “one another” commands of Scripture—loving one another, serving one another, bearing one another’s burdens, forgiving one another, encouraging one another, caring for one another, and many more. Together they help us consider what Spirit-formed relationships actually look like in everyday Christian life.

The emphasis here is on the Spirit’s transforming work within the believer and through the believer toward others. A following section, Spirit – Body, will move the focus outward to consider how the Holy Spirit joins individual believers together and enables them to function as one body in Christ.

As you work through these studies, ask not only, “What is the Holy Spirit doing in me?” but also, “How should His work in me change the way I love and respond to the believers God has placed around me?”

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