“Love Each Other” was written as a deliberate attempt to place listeners into a powerful biblical moment – the Last Supper. Graham Kendrick wanted to create a song that helped people step inside that scene, where Jesus washed the feet of His disciples and gave them the ultimate command to love one another.

Graham reflects, “I think it’s so powerful when you can do that, but it was extremely difficult in very few words to set up a scene so that those who knew the Bible would immediately recognise where we are – at the Last Supper, where Jesus washed His disciples’ feet.”

Capturing the Words of Jesus

The heart of the song comes from the words of Jesus Himself: “Love each other in the way that I love you.” For Graham, weaving this into a worship song was a way of taking listeners beyond just personal worship and into the communal nature of faith.

“A worship song gains so much from a reference to a biblical story like that,” Graham says. “It helps us to step into the moment and respond to Jesus’ words directly.”

Vertical and Horizontal Worship

A key theme of “Love Each Other” is the balance between personal (vertical) and communal (horizontal) worship. Graham points out that many worship songs focus on the vertical relationship between the individual and God, which is important, but there’s a need for more songs that reflect the horizontal aspect of faith: loving one another and supporting each other as the body of Christ.

“We need more songs that enable us to recognise that we are part of the body of Christ here on earth and that we’re not going to get there alone. This is where God’s put us, and this is where we gain strength and encouragement from one another, from loving one another, to become more Christlike.”

A Song for the Church

“Love Each Other” is not just a song about love; it’s a reminder of the foundation of Christian community. It calls us to reflect Jesus’ heart in the way we treat one another and to find strength in the unity of the body of Christ.