Brotherly Kindness

We live in a time of increasing isolation. In spite of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snap Chat or whatever flavor of the week your social media happens to be, we are more isolated than ever before. We are more connected but less committed than EVER before.

People will post or tweet about anything…clothes, vacations, complaints. My favorite type of post to ignore are those of people’s meals. Taking a picture of a half-eaten plate of food and proclaiming its greatness is not my idea of how to deal with good food. If you’re going to share pics of the food and not share the food that is so good, at least link the recipe!

In the midst of this lack of connectedness, what role is the Christian to play?

So, what does Jesus look like in you? Is His amazing love on display in you?

For those who know the grace of Christ, who are being spiritually made new day by day, extending grace to others should be a reflex action, as automatic as breathing.

Brotherly kindness and love are an integral part of the complete Christian’s experience.

Let’s look at our text:

2 Peter 1:5–7 NASB95

Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.

Today we are going to focus on the command to add Brotherly Kindness to our faith.

At this moment I know that some of us are tempted to turn inward and remember the times when others have failed us. “Go ahead, Pastor. Preach your sappy sermon about the milk of human kindness. You don't know how many times I've been hurt, ignored, trampled, and dismissed. You don't know how badly I wish for a friend.”

I am going to be bold and ask you to forget yourself for a few moments. Don't miss the message by becoming a deflector, hoping that someone else is hearing the truth. God can direct it to every hearing ear.

This is a message as old as the gospel itself. In fact, listen to the words of the Apostle John, who is described as “The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved!”

1 John 3:11–17 NASB95

For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous. Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?

Two Great Biblical Examples: Jonathan and David; Jesus and Lazarus

Jonathan and David

Jesus and Lazarus

So, what does Jesus look like in you? Is His amazing love on display in you?

Is His amazingly love on display in you?

Jesus and Lazarus

Signs of Brotherly Kindness in a Church and a Believer

1. Light - You Cannot Hide It

Matthew 5:16 NASB95

“Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

2. Acceptance - You Cannot Limit It

Romans 10:12 NASB95

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him;

3. Giving - You Cannot Hoard It

1 John 3:17 NASB95

But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?

James 2:14–17 NASB95

What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

4. Suffering - You Cannot Avoid It

John 16:33 NASB95

“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

5. Unity - You Cannot Fake It

John 17:20–21 NASB95

“I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.

So, what does Jesus look like in you? Is His amazing love on display in you?

About 40 years ago, a Dutch spinster emerged with a story of her family’s work with Jews in Holland during the Second World War. When the Nazi’s occupied Holland, they began to round up Jews to ship them to work camps in Germany, with many going from there to death camps. Corrie TenBoom’s family, devout Christians, could not do nothing. So they built a hiding place in their home to shelter Jews. After a time someone revealed their activities to the Nazi’s. Corrie, her sister, Betsie, and her aged father were arrested and sent to work camps in Germany.

Her father died soon after arrest and her sister died after short time in Ravensbruck. Corrie survived the war and traveled often to speak about her experiences.

Let me pick up the story in her own words from a article originally published in Guideposts, in 1972.

It was in a church in Munich that I saw him, a balding heavy-set man in a gray overcoat, a brown felt hat clutched between his hands. People were filing out of the basement room where I had just spoken. It was 1947 and I had come from Holland to defeated Germany with the message that God forgives. ...

And that's when I saw him, working his way forward against the others. One moment I saw the overcoat and the brown hat; the next, a blue uniform and a visored cap with its skull and crossbones. It came back with a rush: the huge room with its harsh overhead lights, the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor, the shame of walking naked past this man. I could see my sister's frail form ahead of me, ribs sharp beneath the parchment skin. Betsie, how thin you were!

Betsie and I had been arrested for concealing Jews in our home during the Nazi occupation of Holland; this man had been a guard at Ravensbruck concentration camp where we were sent. ... You mentioned Ravensbruck in your talk," he was saying. "I was a guard in there." No, he did not remember me.

"I had to do it — I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us."

"But since that time," he went on, "I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fraulein, ..." his hand came out, ... "will you forgive me?"

And I stood there — I whose sins had every day to be forgiven — and could not. Betsie had died in that place — could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking?

It could not have been many seconds that he stood there, hand held out, but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do. For I had to do it — I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. "If you do not forgive men their trespasses," Jesus says, "neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses." ...

And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion — I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. "Jesus, help me!" I prayed silently. "I can lift my hand, I can do that much. You supply the feeling."

And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.

"I forgive you, brother!" I cried. "With all my heart!"

For a long moment we grasped each other's hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God's love so intensely as I did then. - http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/questionofgod/voices/boom.html

Where does the strength come from to love the world like this?

So, what does Jesus look like in you? Is His amazing love on display in you?

Brotherly Kindness is Jesus loving the world through me!