The Importance of Brotherly Love (Hebrews 13:1-3)
This sermon was preached on 1/1/2014
Usually people want a motto for a coming year. Some also want a suitable resolution for it that will help them assess priorities in their lives. A Christian church may also want such a focus, but they would need to find a resolution or motto within the Bible. Of course, there are many such possible verses within the Bible that can fill this space. I would suggest that the author of Hebrews’ requirement at the beginning of chapter 13 is a suitable one to have at all times. Why is the case?
Before we answer that question, we should
remind ourselves that those who belong to the kingdom of God have to exercise
different kinds of love. Primarily, they show love for God, expressed in
distinct ways to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. They are to express
love to their spouses and children and to members of the extended family. They
also are to love their neighbours and even their enemies; sometimes they might
be the same but usually they are not.
In addition, we need to ask ourselves what
love is. Love is an emotion, just as joy and peace are emotions. Love is
something that is felt within our souls. I have heard some well-meaning people
say of something that ‘it is just emotion’. No doubt that can be true,
nevertheless we must affirm that love is an emotion. It is certainly more than
an emotion, but it is not less. Of course, such love will show different
features depending on the situation. At a wedding, love will show delight; at a
funeral, love will show sorrow. But love does not exist without feelings.
Each of the areas of love that I mentioned
above has overlapping effects. We cannot love God if we don’t love our
neighbours and our enemies. Yet they also have particular benefits or
consequences and I would like to mention briefly some that are connected to
brotherly love. I have six such consequences to mention and they are important
to digest.
First, the necessity of brotherly love was
specified by the Saviour when he commanded his disciples in John 15:12: ‘This
is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you.’ There in that
verse Jesus says how this love will be displayed – ‘as I have loved you.’ Sometimes
people can limit the ‘as I have loved you’ to sacrificial love. Yet I would
suggest that Jesus is saying that his disciples should love one another in the
same areas and ways in which Jesus loved them. So brotherly love is an aspect
of Christlikeness in that we imitate the comprehensive love of Christ.
Second, the presence of brotherly love is a
very powerful witness to the world. ‘A new commandment I give to you, that you
love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for
one another’ (John 15:34-35). The Saviour indicates that this form of
interaction will be so obvious that onlookers will notice it and realise who
Christians are – visible disciples of Christ. ‘All people’ includes every
period of time and every location on earth, which means that it will be an
effective form of witnessing in our postmodern, secular society. Moreover, if
it is declining or lacking, then there will be the opposite effect and the
witness will be affected badly.
Third, brotherly love is an essential element
in obtaining and maintaining assurance. As the apostle John writes, ‘We know
that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers’ (1 John 3:16). Sometimes we
find ourselves lacking assurance, and when that happens it is a good idea to
examine our attitudes to other Christians.
Fourth, brotherly love is a requirement for
authentic worship. Jesus informs his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount that
true worship cannot take place unless there is valid brotherly love. Indeed he
states that God does not want any practical expression of devotion if brotherly
love is lacking. ‘So if you are offering
your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something
against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled
to your brother, and then come and offer your gift’ (Matt. 5:23-24).
Fifth, brotherly love has the potential of
receiving a great reward from Jesus. We can see this future prospect in his
description of the Day of Judgement found in Matthew 25. After listing several
scenarios, Jesus says, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least
of these my brothers, you did it to me’ (Matt. 25:40). The passage also reveals
that expressing brotherly love is one of the most effective ways of serving
Jesus and pleasing him.
Sixth, it is evident that there is always the
potential danger of losing brotherly love, otherwise the author would not have
stressed it. Given that it is mentioned first in his list of requirements, we
can deduce that it is a matter that may disappear first when troubles come. At
the same time, the author insists that brotherly love can continue to exist in
troubled times.
Who
has brotherly love?
The kind of brotherly love specified here is
not love that comes from having a shared ethnicity.
In fact, the people who were showing the greatest hostility towards the Hebrew
Christians were their fellow Jews. Moreover, the brotherly love in view here
did not come from having a shared history
because many of the ones who could look back to their shared past were now
opposing them very strongly and even imagined that they had abandoned their
links with the past.
The brotherly love that is in the author’s
mind is love that comes from belonging to the family of God. As we are by
nature we are outside his family. Yet he wanted us to come into his family,
therefore he arranged for his Son to provide a way for us to get into his
family. That way involved him having to go to the cross where he was punished
in the place of sinners like us in order that sinners like us could come into
the family through repentance and faith.
When a sinner trusts in Jesus he discovers
that he now has new attitudes and one of them is that he loves all others who
love God. Before he came into the family he may not have liked Christians very
much. But now in the family he discovers that he has within his heart a love
that comes from another world and which loves all those who are travelling with
him to that other world.
Why does he have this attitude? He has it
because the Holy Spirit now lives in his heart. The Holy Spirit can do many
amazing things, but although he is omni-competent there are some things that he
will not and cannot do. One of those things that the Spirit will not do is to
lead a Christian to dislike another Christian. It is nowhere recorded in heaven
that on such a date the Holy Spirit led one Christian to say some distasteful
things about another believer. When such a comment is made, it does not come
from the Spirit of adoption.
Two
examples of brotherly love
Obviously, brotherly love was coming under
stress among the community of believers to which the author had sent this
message. The reason for this was the degree of opposition that was being shown
to them and brotherly love, like all other spiritual graces, will be diminished
if a person is contemplating making a response that is not appropriate to the
gospel, with the particular response in their case being connected to giving up
their Christian profession.
Since that was the case, the author mentions
two ways in which they would need to show brotherly love. The first concerns
individual believers who came their way and we can say three things about them.
First, they were strangers, that is, they had not met them before. Second, they
could have been Christians who had been driven from their own localities by
persecution and who had lost everything in the process. Third, some of the
strangers could be travelling Christian teachers, similar to those mentioned in
3 John. It was common practice of such to be given hospitality in different
places by Christians residing there.
The author adds an incentive, which is that
some had entertained angels unawares. Who does the author have in mind? One
possibility is a reference to Abraham and Lot, when angels came to visit them
when Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, although I am not sure that Abraham can
be described as unaware that he had heavenly visitors.
In any case, why mention angels and not
examples of humans who were entertained? Perhaps the answer to that question is
found by asking another, which is, ‘Where were the angels going?’ The answer is
that they were travelling to God, to his presence, which was their home. They
seem also to report back about their visits, as described in the Book of Job,
and it would not be good for any about whom they gave a negative report!
The other example mentioned by the author is
caring for those who are imprisoned or mistreated by the authorities. Ancient
prisons were not obliged to care for their prisoners and any food and clothing
had to be provided by family and friends. Obviously there was an element of
risk in revealing that one cared about prisoners and it would not be easy to
provide the care that the author is requiring here. How does the author say
they could get the necessary desire? He asks them to imagine what it is like to
be on the receiving end ‘as though in prison with them’ and ‘since you also are
in the body’.
What do these two examples say to us today? We
can safely assume that the Lord wants us to consider them and then apply any
lessons to our own situations. Here are a few suggestions that spoke to me.
First, brotherly love indicates the presence
of the Spirit. After all, he is the Spirit of adoption, and several of the
activities he arranges within the church can be linked to family activities. He
works through his people to provide mutual prayer and encouragement.
Second, brotherly love stands out in a society
in which, as far as most of its organisations are concerned, such love is
absent. Of course, there are wonderful examples of loving relationships between
people. Yet our communities are full of strangers, which makes it odd that we
call them communities. In this regard the church can stand out as a community
of love.
Third, brotherly love sweetens. Despite our
many technological advances, and no doubt many more will take place, life now
is not pleasant for many. Loneliness, bitterness, regrets, frustrations,
disappointments and many other aspects of life have combined to give it a very
rough edge. Part of God’s remedy for this is brotherly love.
Fourth, brotherly love strengthens. In what
ways does it provides strength? No doubt, mutual prayer is one way. But I
suspect the most effective way it strengthens is by providing company in which the
children of God can speak about the things of his kingdom. There is no doubt
that the absence of this aspect of Christian living is one explanation for the
weakness of the church.
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