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Today, we continue on in those things we are to add to our faith.
We are looking at the last two that we find both in verse 7: brotherly love and love.
Brotherly Kindness
If any of you have brothers and sisters then you know that it is not always easy to get on with them.
Indeed as we grow up we have lots of fighting and bickering and arguments as well as good times together.
It tends to be that as we grow up that we are closer than before.
But not always.
Well, this is how it is in the Church.
Just as we do not have a choice about our biological brothers and sisters we have no choice about who they are in the Church.
The Greek word is where we get Philadelphia from.
This is love between family members.
And as children of God that makes all of us family.
We are all one family, and must regard every member of that family with a truly fraternal affection.
When we speak of brotherly love then this is specifically towards those who are our brothers and sisters in Christ.
We are told elsewhere to have such love:
And Peter in his first letter tells us
[Not included in sermon] Leon Morris put together what brotherly kindness is by listing some of its attributes:
• that binds each other together as a family, as a brotherly clan.
• that binds each other in an unbreakable union.
• that holds each other ever so dearly within the heart.
• that knows deep affection for each other.
• that nourishes and nurtures each other.
• that shows concern and looks after the welfare of each other.
• that joins hands with each other in a common purpose under one father (Leon Morris
The opposite of this is to hate one’s brother.
The very first brothers on this planet end with one murdering the other.
Cain killed Abel mainly because of jealousy.
We read a lot about brotherly love in 1 John.
The first one I am going to read starts with Cain:
And so John says in other places:
and again in
I have met Christians, so called, who have had hatred in their hearts towards their brothers and sisters.
It makes me wonder whether they are Christians at all.
We can only love if we are Christians in the true sense for we love for God first loved us.
It is when we realise how much we are loved and that our debt is too great to pay and know that Jesus paid for it in full on the cross that we can begin to love.
We have to be careful of any root of bitterness that can spring up and spoil the well and split the Church.
We are called to forgiveness.
Let us remember another character in our bibles, one named Joseph who had eleven brothers.
The brothers ganged up on him and sold him to some slave-traders who was then sold into Egypt who then was accused falsely of attempted rape who then was thrown in jail.
We can read about him in Genesis.
We know that God turned all this to good when Joseph was made Prime Minister and as a result saved his own family from famine, his own brothers and their families who had disowned him.
But what do we find afterwards?
Nothing but love and forgiveness.
He spoke kindly to them allaying their fears that he was going to avenge for their wrongdoing.
He was the true brother in this.
We are brothers in Christ.
We are members of one another and this means we have no choice for we are part of each other.
To harm is to harm ourselves.
During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln often visited hospitals to cheer the wounded.
On one occasion he saw a young fellow who was near death.
"Is there anything I can do for you?" asked the compassionate President: "Please write a letter to my mother," came the reply.
Unrecognized by the soldier, Lincoln sat down and wrote as he dictated: "My Dearest Mother; I was badly hurt while doing my duty, and I won't recover.
Don't sorrow too much for me.
May God bless you and Father.
Kiss, Mary and John, for me.”
The young man was too weak to go on, so Lincoln signed the letter for him and then added this postscript: "Written for your son by Abraham Lincoln."
Asking to see the note, the soldier was astonished to discover who had shown him such kindness.
"Are you really our President?" he asked.
"Yes," was the quiet answer.
"Now, is there anything else I can do?"
The soldier replied, "Will you please hold my hand?
I think it would help to see me through to the end.”
Lincoln granted his request; offering warm words of encouragement until death took him in the morning.
Kindness is probably the most underestimated character traits we have at our disposal.
Unkind words start conflict and wars – but kind words and actions can bring peace and comfort.
There are so many ways we can be kind to one another – maybe not in big ways but in so many, many small ways.
Naturally, when people see this sort of brotherly love in action, it is most attractive.
People are deeply drawn to a community where they see others truly caring for each other and loving each other.
In an age of alienation, lack of love and loneliness, this can be one of the most attractive virtues of the Christian community, but it starts with us as individuals.
As Jesus said:
So, let us add to our faith brotherly kindness in every increasing measure.
And then we have the last which seems oddly like the last one but not quite.
Love
And of course it follows that to brotherly kindness we add love.
This is an extended love.
Love not only to the household of faith but to all people.
Love is doing good to all in loving God – it is to love God and our neighbour.
Remember that these do not come easy to us but has to be worked at and each is a foundation that needs to be built.
Love, of course, is the one that is above them all – but it is still love based on the foundation of our faith and all the other additions we have talked about these last few weeks.
True love is discovered as we add to our faith.
This love is the word agape which has no limits or conditions upon it.
The greatest one who loves is God for God is love.
Love is undeserved, unreserved, and unrestricted.
It is self-sacrificial.
Abraham was asked by God to sacrifice his only son Isaac on the very mount that Jesus Himself was crucified.
I was watching a film on Friday when Abraham and Isaac came up in it.
In it the man in the film said that it is not Abraham’s sacrifice that impressed him most but Isaac’s.
What was meant was that Isaac, who by this time was 13 years old, allowed himself to be the sacrifice.
This makes the picture of what Jesus did even more stark.
It was God’s sacrifice but also was willingly done by Jesus.
We read these verses in Scripture:
Jesus said:
And in more than one place Scripture tells us that God is love.
God’s love towards us over abounds.
It follows that our love towards Him should also over abound.
We love because he first loved us
We could read the whole of 1 John for it is all about this love.
So, we have covered the fact that God loves us and we love Him because of His love and now to prove that we love God we must love our brothers and sisters in Christ and we must also love the world that Christ came for.
In the parable of the Good Samaritan we are asked: Who is my neighbour?
And the answer, of course, is everyone.
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