Loving the Brethren

Introduction

Someone has composed the following list of "Cards You'll Never See at Hallmark": "Looking back over the years that we've been together, I can't help but wonder....What was I thinking?!" "I've always wanted to have someone to hold, someone to love....After having met you, I've changed my mind." "As the days go by, I think of how lucky I am....that you're not here to ruin it for me." "As you grow older, Mom, I think of all the gifts you've given me.....Like the need for therapy." "I'm so miserable without you....It's almost like you're here." "You are such a good friend that if we were on a sinking ship and there was only one life jacket....I'd miss you tons and think of you often."

Today we’re going to look at the importance of loving the brethren. We’ll see that it is something that should come naturally - from our spiritual nature. We’ll see that love for the brethren comes from two areas.

Now he instructs in our love of the brethren.

1 Peter 1:22–25 AV

22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: 23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. 24 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: 25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

1. Comes from a Pure Heart

True love of the brethren can only come from the purest of motivations - that means a pure heart that has been purified God’s way.

A. The Revelation of This Love

A word that has become devalued is “love.” We say, “I love pizza”; “I love baseball”; “I love my dog”; what does it mean?

It’s like the little girl who was invited to dinner at her friend’s home. The vegetable was buttered broccoli. The mother asked if she liked it. She replied politely, “Oh, yes, I love it!” But when the broccoli was passed she declined to take any. The hostess said, “I thought you said you loved buttered broccoli.” The girl replied sweetly, “Oh, yes ma’am, I do, but not enough to eat it!”

This kind of love reveals two things about us. In other words, we can make 2 distinct conclusions about you based on your love for the brethren.

1) It Reveals our Relationship to God

1 John 3:14 AV

14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

Love for the brethren reveals that we have been truly saved. The spiritually dead person will have no love for the believers.

1 John 4:7–8 AV

7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

Without God there is no love! Unbelievers cannot show true love. Love gives us a character like God’s.

Love shows that we have been purified (pure water is critical)! Illustration of backpacking and pills used to cleanse the water.

The evidence that you have been purified or are in a right relationship with God is your love for the brethren.

2) It Reveals our Discipleship

John 13:34–35 AV

34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

“Here is our Lord, leaving the world, speaking for the last time, and giving His last charge to the disciples. The very first subject He takes up and presses on them is the great duty of loving one another, and that with no common love; but after the same patient, tender, unwearied manner that He had loved them.” Ryle

Love for one another is the badge of the Christian disciple. The love of Jesus was selfless, sacrificial and forgiving. The world can easily take note of our love, even if they know nothing else.

So our love for the brethren comes from a pure heart which reveals our relationship to God and our discipleship or obedience to Christ.

B. The Qualities of This Love

There’s quite a description given here. Rebirth into God’s family brings certain family obligations…an important goal here.

1) Inwardly Sincere

Unfeigned means sincere; not hypocritical; genuine, authentic.

Romans 12:9 AV

9 Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.

True brotherly love is not a show. This is a sincere and fraternal love for family. Now in this society (and others) family was determined by blood. Kinship determined community.

But with Jesus community determines kinship. Natural bloodlines mean nothing, but those who do the will of God are family.

Matthew 12:50 AV

50 For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.

“When in the following century, Christians were rounded up to die in the arena, R. Lane Fox observes, ‘the crowds, said Tertullian, would shout, ‘Look how these Christians love one another.’” Such Christian love, Fox goes on to note, ‘was public knowledge and must have played its part in drawing outsiders to the faith.’”

Do you have a genuine and sincere love for your Christian brethren?

2) Outwardly Fervent

It’s constant, earnest, unceasing; intense; stretched out. This love will never cease and is permanent. This is not moments with bursts of emotion, but a daily principle of life.

Our church ought to be a church that is bursting with love - VBS is a great opportunity to show that. When another believer has a problem or difficulty that’s our chance. Outreach events, seeing guests, ministering to each other is what a church should look like.

It ought to be fervent - boiling, consistent, on fire. Not happy one day and then upset the next because someone hurt your feelings. The idea is that it stretches out or strains - uses great effort. Hurt feelings often hinder our efforts. News flash - you’re going to get your feelings hurt.

Pastor Joiner’s 11th commandment - ‘Get Thou Over It.’

So loving the brethren comes from a pure heart, a heart that has been changed by God, that follows Christ, that is pure in its motivation

2. Comes From the Word of God

vv. 23-25

Let’s look at the importance of God’s Word in how we love the brethren

A. We Receive Life From the Word

Notice the introductory phrase, being born again…taking us back to verse 3. This logically is dealing with brotherly love and family relations. Our new birth is of divine origin / this is a new spiritual life!

John 1:12–13 AV

12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Here it says we’ve been born again through an incorruptible seed. This seed is permanent, even indestructible.

We see a clear equivalence of the seed to the word of God. What gives us eternal life, is in itself eternal.

The Word of God is both the source and the enduring means of Christian rebirth.

Hebrews 4:12 AV

12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

The HS is active in causing regeneration and the word of God is the means that is used to awaken new life within an unbeliever.

Romans 10:17 AV

17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Note the abideth in v. 23 and endureth in v. 25. This establish a grounds of constancy for what we will see in just a bit.

“Ultimately it is neither our arguments nor our life example that will bring new life to an unbeliever, but the powerful words of God himself – words which we still have preserved in Scripture today.” Grudem

We will see in vv. 24-25 then just how permanent and lasting this Word is.

B. The Word is Incorruptible

Now Peter is going to give Scriptural support for the imperishability of the regenerating word.

The Bible is eternal and eternally true, as compared to:

Isaiah 40:6–8 AV

6 The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: 7 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. 8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

Here we have a contrast of the frailty of human nature with the permanence of God’s Word.

All flesh = all natural human existence, every person.

All the glory of man is no more permanent than the glory of grass…that perishes / or the flower that fades.

Humans perish / God’s word persists. And this word is the Good News! The word that endures forever is the word about Jesus Christ.

It’s living - it’s not a normal book; it has continual life and abiding - it remains for ever.

Believers were redeemed by a superior means (Christ’s blood in 1:18) so we are born again from a superior seed – it’s eternal. We have a superior quality of life.

C. Our Love Should be Enduring

Verse 22 – love one another fervently; Because verse 23 you have been born of incorruptible seed.

Peter is focusing on the eternal nature of the fellowship that believers have to share. We are to love one another because we have been born again into a fellowship of God’s people, which will last forever.

“Christian growth cannot be self-centered and individualistic, for it occurs in the context of fellowship, a fellowship which must deepen and remain for all eternity.”

1. There is a necessity of brotherly and sisterly love by which the internal solidarity of the household of God is maintained. The wholeness of the church is determined by how much you love the brethren.

2. We’re brother and sisters, why? Because we are children of God. Illus of Heather and my devotional - your spouse is a child of God…that church member is a child of God.

3. Your responsibility as a child of God cannot be separated from your responsibility and love for His family. You owe the believers your loyalty and love.

4. This love and loyalty is to be constant and enduring b/c the word through which you were born again is itself enduring. Love for the brethren is to be constant and enduring because the word by which you were born again is constant and enduring. The permanence of the word requires you to have permanent and undying love for each other.

Let’s test it

I am loving the brethren if,

I endure wrong meekly

I reject boasting and calling attention to myslef;

I spend time and energy meeting the needs of others without focusing on my own;

I receive reproof without animosity and defensiveness;

I cover a multitude of sins and put away my grievances;

I rejoice when others prosper but I don't.

So do you love the brethren - if you’re saved you would. If you’re walking according to the Word you would. Love of the brethren is fundamental and necessary for the Christian life.