Brotherly Love

Lead Vocalist (Kelly)

Welcome & Announcements (Hopson)

Good morning family!

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4 announcements:

1) Bible Reading Plans

Your growth in 2025 will be directly related to your time in God’s Word

And—for most of you—your time in God’s Word will be directly related to how well you plan to be in God’s Word

Explain 5-Day Bible Reading Program

Explain that every week the staff posts five devotional readings on GroupMe that are connected to the previous week's sermon. If you'd like to subscribe to these devotionals, please let us know.

2) Theology Week (1/12-1/16 at Temple Baptist Church),

Third straight year PBC has been involved in this multi-church gathering

Think of something like the old school revivals that Baptist churches used to have, just without the emotional manipulation

Free dinner at 5 PM

A powerful message on the doctrine of Christ at 6 PM

Childcare available

3) Baby Dedication Sunday (1/19 during the morning service)

Please register ASAP if you're interested.

4) Discover Class (begins 1/26 at 9:15)

Sign up using the QR code on the slide, bulletin, or at the announcement wall

Now please take a moment of silence to prepare your heart for worship.

Call to Worship (Ephesians 3:14-19)

Prayer of Praise (Susan Thomas)

How Vast the Love

To God Be the Glory

Prayer of Confession (Failure to love one another), Ronnie Evans

Assurance of Pardon (Psalm 103:8-12)

Jesus Messiah

They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love

Scripture Reading (1 Thess. 4:9-12)

You can find it on page 1173 in the black Bibles underneath a seat near you

If you don’t have a Bible you can take one of those home with you as our gift to you

Pastoral Prayer (Hopson)

Prayer for PBC—Love for one another

Thank you for all the love in this place

Help us to continue to grow in our love for one another

Prayer for kingdom partner—Waite, Luke & Emily (Reaching & Teaching)

Praise for helping them settle into a new home and ministry

Strength for a busy schedule in next few weeks

Faithfulness to evangelize/disciple

Prayer for US—Economy

Bigger than things like GDP, the CPI, unemployment rates, etc.

Represents real financial health of real Americans

No financial system is perfect, but we thank you for all the good present in our economy

We have an agreed-upon currency

Freedom to buy and sell goods

Availability to purchase almost anything we could ask for or imagine

Forgive us for taking these things for granted

Continue to bless our economy, and help Christians to use what we have to build up treasures in heaven

Prayer for the world—The Republic of Turkey*

Leader—President Recep Erdogan (rah-jeep air-doo-wan)

Social issue(s)—Against the soft persecution of Christians—discriminated in jobs, communities, and even in the visa process

Spiritual issue(s)—96% Muslim, 0.2% Christian, less than that evangelical

Local churches—Fethiye Community Church, pastor David Taylor recently deported

Laborers

Pray for the sermon

SERMON

START TIMER!!!

What does a Christian look like? Is there any way to know one when you see one?

Can you tell a Christian based on what they wear? Or the bumper stickers on their cars? Or the signs they put in their yards during election years? Or perhaps it’s jewelry or tattoos with crosses?

What does a Christian look like?

The answer is found in the words of Jesus...

John 13:35—“By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

As we sung a few minutes ago: they will know we are Christians by our love.

Turn to 1 Thessalonians 4:9

About twenty years after Jesus ascended into heaven, the Apostle Paul started a church in the town of Thessalonica.

SHOW THESSALONICA MAP

After a short time with these believers, persecution forced him to leave the city.

But even though he was encouraged by how this church was thriving, he didn’t want them to rest on their laurels.

So he wrote to them, in part, to continue in the things that he taught them when he was with them.

Including their love for one another.

The Big idea I hope to communicate with God’s help is this: A local church can only thrive when its members are committed to loving one another.

In Paul’s words to these believers, we can learn Five Characteristics of Brotherly Love:

It is a focused love,

… a supernatural love,

… a growing love,

… a practical love,

… and a fruitful love.

If we’re going to thrive as a local church, first, we must cultivate...

1) A FOCUSED Love

1 Thessalonians 4:9a—Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, ...

Most scholars believe this is the part of the letter where Paul is responding to questions raised by the Thessalonians.

Apparently when Timothy visited Thessalonica to check on them, he took notes on a few questions that the believers had for Paul, then brought those questions back to Paul for a response.

We’ll see more of these questions as we continue to study these letters.

Now notice their question is not about love in general, but brotherly love.

But what is brotherly love?

In his commentary Ligon Duncan explains it this way: “When philosophers in Paul’s day used this word, they were always talking about family love. . . . Here, Paul takes that language and extends it by applying it to the way that Christians love one another. We need to love one another like family. The ethics of family love apply to the entire Christian community.” [1]

Brotherly love is focused on loving fellow Christians.

And this begins with loving those in your local church.

Perhaps that strikes you as a bit strange. Aren’t we supposed to love everybody?

Imagine a man named Hank who is deeply committed to his community. Hank spends most of his time volunteering at a local soup kitchen, organizing charity events, and even personally delivering food to those in need. While his efforts have helped hundreds of people, his own family is suffering.

Hank has four children and a wife who depend on him for financial and emotional support. However, because he dedicates all his time and resources to serving others, he neglects his family's needs. The family pantry is often empty, and his wife has to work extra hours to make ends meet. Hank’s children feel abandoned and struggle with their dad’s absence at key moments in their lives, like school events and family dinners.

If you could talk to Hank, I’m convinced you would tell him his priorities are misplaced. He needs to focus on his family first, and then love others as he has opportunity.

In the same way, Christians are called to focus on our church family first, and then love others outside as we have opportunity.

The Holy Spirit makes this clear in…

Galatians 6:10—So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

If you’re a member at PBC, how are you doing at focusing your love on the people of God here? Are your priorities misplaced?

If you’re not a member at PBC, have you thought about the importance of church membership? How will you focus your love on God’s people if you don’t belong to one particular group of Christians?

If we’re going to thrive as a local church, we must know where to focus our love.

But second, we must recognize that true brotherly love is…

2) A SUPERNATURAL Love

1 Thessalonians 4:9b—… for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another,

The love Paul describes here is no ordinary love. This is supernatural love!

The Thessalonians have been taught by God Himself how to love one another.

But what does Paul mean when he says God taught them to love?

I think God teaches us to love in three ways...

First, Jesus shows us how to love.

We know what love is because Jesus is the perfect example of love.

1 John 4:10—In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

EXPLAIN THE GOSPEL

Unbeliever: please turn from your sins and trust in Jesus today! You cannot possibly love others the way you should until you first receive the love you don’t deserve from Jesus.

Second, God teaches us how to love through His Word.

Paul faithfully taught the Thessalonians when he started the church there.

And in 1 Thessalonians 2:13 he says, "… when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.”

So God teaches us through His Apostles who spoke God’s Word and faithfully recorded it in the New Testament Scriptures.

This means you and I have been taught by God to a far greater degree than even the Thessalonian Christians because we have the completed word of God!

Third, God helps us to love through His Holy Spirit working in our hearts.

When you become a Christian, God the Holy Spirit lives within your heart and teaches you what it means to love.

Paul puts it this way in…

Romans 5:5 —… God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Almost every popular Disney film teaches us that the power to be the person you want to be is inside you. You just have to let it out. The Bible teaches the exact opposite. The power to be the person you want to be comes from outside, you just need to let Him in.

If you’re a Christian, you have been supernaturally taught how to love through Jesus’ example, through the Scriptures, and by the Holy Spirit.

EVERY CHRISTIAN has what they need to love the church!!!

But just because we’ve received a supernatural love doesn’t mean there’s no work to do.

Paul admonishes the Thessalonians to pursue…

3) A GROWING Love

1 Thessalonians 4:10—for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more,

These Christians not only loved each other, but their love had spread to other churches in their region.

We know from 2 Corinthians 8 that the Macedonian Christians were known for their poverty.

So perhaps this church in Thessalonica had helped support these other churches.

Wouldn’t it be a beautiful thing for PBC to be a church that was known throughout our region for our incredible love?!?

I think in several ways that is already happening. This is a church that loves its leaders very well. You love me and my family very well. You love each other very well.

But no matter how well you love one another, there’s still work to do!

You might think Paul would say, “You guys love so well you can take your foot off the gas a bit. Settle down!” But he doesn’t. He URGES them to KEEP INCREASING their love for one another!

Where do you need to grow in your love for your church?

For some of you, your love needs to grow in BREADTH. You’re showing love to some, but you need to widen your circle. You need to get to know some people that don’t sit near you, that don’t go to your SS class or your FG.

For others, your love needs to grow in DEPTH. You may have relationships with a lot of people, but too many of them are superficial. You need to go deeper. You need to ask better questions and listen more than you speak.

And others need their love to grow in LENGTH. Your love is too thin-skinned and short-fused. You need to grow in patience with those who frustrate you. You need to grow in your ability to forgive those who hurt you.

There’s not a person in here who doesn’t need their love to grow in some way. Let’s pray for help to grow together.

If we’re going to thrive in our love for one another we must also pursue…

4) A PRACTICAL Love

Almost everybody says they’re a loving person, until you get practical. What does it actually mean practically to love another person?

Thankfully the Bible answers that question for us.

In verse 11, Paul gives three practical ways the Thessalonian believers can grow in brotherly love.

1 Thessalonians 4:11—and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you

We could summarize these three practical commands like this: Be Quiet!, Mind Your Business!, and Get to Work!

These three commands are not an exhaustive list, but we will go a long way in loving others if we can obey them.

So let’s look at them one at a time.

A) Be Quiet!

Aspiring to live quietly is NOT about your personality or how loud you speak.

You can be an extrovert with a loud voice who is faithfully obeying this command.

Or you can be a soft-spoken introvert and be living in absolute rebellion to this verse.

Aspiring to live quietly IS about living in a way that’s not drawing attention to yourself.

Love isn’t interested in making a scene. It’s not boisterous or self-focused.

We fail here when we stir up drama on social media. Or when we constantly strive to steal attention. Or when we only want to talk about ourselves rather than other people.

This vision of love—which is more interested in others than self—is beautifully captured by C.S. Lewis in his classic book Mere Christianity. While discussing the virtue of humility, Lewis writes this:

"Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call 'humble' nowadays: he will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody. Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him. . . . He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all." [3]

That’s what quiet love looks like!

How are you doing, Christian? Are you quick to listen and slow to speak? Are you more interested in others or yourself? Are you more interested in hearing, or being heard?

Now if you’re paying attention, that should raise an obvious question. If a practical love is quietly interested in others, why does Paul also say in verse 11 that we should mind our own affairs?

B) Mind Your Business!

Minding your affairs doesn’t mean we aren’t involved in each other’s lives.

Perhaps some of you are tempted to make this phrase your theme verse for church membership.

“Say hello on Sunday mornings, maybe learn a few people’s names, but beyond that everybody just mind your own business and everything will be okay!”

That’s not what Paul means at all! Just consider two examples...

To the church in Corinth, Paul commanded the church to get all up in one of their members business.

1 Corinthians 5:1–2—It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

One of the members at the Corinthian church was involved in unrepentant sexual sin. Paul doesn’t tell the other members to mind their business. He tells them to remove him from membership!

To the church in Philippi, Paul ratchets it up a notch. He hears about two members fighting and he actually calls them out by name in his letter...

Philippians 4:2–3—I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

We don’t know why Euodia and Syntyche were disagreeing. But we know that their disagreement was such a big deal that Paul addresses in his letter to the entire church.

It’s hard to think of something MORE invasive than meddling in someone’s sex life or in an argument between two other people.

But Paul meddles in both, and asks the local church to help him!

So when Paul says “mind your own affairs” he DOESN’T mean we shouldn’t really be involved in one another’s lives.

What does he mean then?

I think Paul is talking about a particular KIND of meddling.

You can get involved in someone’s personal life because you truly love them and you want to help them.

Or, you can get involved in someone’s personal life because you’re being a busybody.

You’re interested in the affairs of others, not to help them, but because you just like to know what’s going on. Or you feel better about yourself when you have a little bit of dirt one everyone else.

To those people Paul says, “mind your own affairs!”

How are you doing, Christian? Are you minding your own affairs in the wrong way—avoiding deep relationships with your church family when you should be loving them and serving them? Or have you swung the pendulum too far in the other direction? Are you interested in other people’s problems—not to help them, but simply because you like to know what’s going on?

One way to help protect you from being a busybody is having plenty of honest work to keep you busy.

1 Thessalonians 4:11—and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you

The third practical command Paul gives us to help us love is to...

C) Get To Work!

As a general rule, God intends for every able-bodied man and woman to be faithfully and consistently involved in meaningful work.

Yes, there are exceptions for those who are physically unable to work, but those should be rare exceptions.

Years ago I went on a tour of the Kentucky School for the Blind in Louisville. It was amazing to me how hard these blind men and women worked to learn skills they could use in the workplace.

There’s something about work—even for the disabled—that brings dignity and meaning and purpose!

I am NOT saying everyone has to have a formal job working for a company somewhere.

Some of you are hard at work at home keeping house, raising babies, or homeschooling children. That is noble—and hard—work!

Some of you are retired, but you’re faithfully working in your retirement to serve your church or your community.

Some of you are in school and your job right now is to study hard and make good grades so you can graduate.

There are plenty of opportunities for meaningful work outside a typical 9-5 job. But if you’re a follower of Jesus, you SHOULD look for opportunities to be engaged in some form of meaningful work.

There is so much more we could say here about the importance of meaningful work.

Lord willing we’ll discuss those things in more detail in a few months when we get to 2 Thessalonians 3.

But for now, I want you to think about why work is an expression of love.

One reason is given in...

1 Thessalonians 4:12—so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.

It’s loving to work because it keeps you from being overly dependent on others.

Perhaps you’re thinking, “Wait a minute! I thought we’re SUPPOSED to help each other!”

Ligon Duncan explains it this way: “This does not mean that we shouldn’t allow our brothers and sisters to love and look after us. The phrase “be dependent on no one” cannot mean cut yourself off from others or get through life on your own because these things would contradict the exhortation to show brotherly love to one another in verses 9–10. What Paul is saying is Don’t burden others unnecessarily. If church members need help, then they should look to their church family to provide it; but if they can support themselves, they should. [4]

PBC has a Benevolence Fund that is dedicated to helping members in need. If you’re in need, please talk to one of the pastors. We cannot help you if we don’t know you need help!

But at the same time, you should strive to work hard and manage your finances well so you’re not an undue burden on your church family.

These are just a few ways we can practically demonstrate our love for one another.

If we love in this way, we will cultivate…

5) A FRUITFUL Love

Every church I’ve ever been a part of wants to reach its community.

We want people outside these walls to know about Jesus!

But what’s the best way to reach our community?

Is it knocking on doors and passing out flyers?

Is it mailing information about our church to people who move in to the area?

Is it posters around town?

Is it special events intended to draw a crowd?

Is it niche ministries meeting a need in the community?

None of these things are bad! All of them have their place in the work a local church does to reach its community. But I believe the most important way we will reach our community is by our love for one another.

Paul hints at this in…

1 Thessalonians 4:12a—so that you may walk properly before outsiders…

Loving this way is what enables us to have the right reputation among our communities.

In the 2nd century, an African pastor named Tertullian said that Christians had become famous in the Roman world because they “shared everything but their wives.”

In a world that is desperate for true community, what sort of impact can we have if we love one another this way?

John 13:35—“By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Prayer of Thanksgiving

And Can It Be

Benediction (1 John 4:7)