Love Of The Brethren

by Chamings, A. R. G. | Category: General | Oct 1975

God so loved

It may be but a textual coincidence that in the writings of the disciple whom Jesus loved two such verses should occur as John 3:16 and its counterpart, 1 John 3:16, with which we are perhaps less familiar, "Hereby know we love, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren". In the verses preceding this challenging statement John has contrasted "the children of the devil", with their characteristics, and the children of God to whom the message had come "from the beginning, that we should love one another: not as Cain was of the evil one, and slew his brother" (vv.11,12). A preacher addressing his audience on the subject, "Love of the brethren", might well be considered extremist in his utterance by illustrating his theme with Cain's murder of Abel; or for that matter by saying that he did not love God who did not also love his brother. But that is how John puts it.

Who is my brother?

The Master Himself enquired early in His ministry, "Who is My mother and My brethren?" and answered His own question, "Whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is My brother, and sister, and mother" (Mark 3:33-35). With this utterance of the Lord the title "brother" assumed a significance throughout the dispensation, as indeed in every part of the New Testament, and he (or she) who would claim to be numbered among "the brethren" must be prepared to conform to the high standards required of His brethren.

The Master's remaining time with His disciples was running out. On the night of the betrayal Satan put it into the heart of one of the disciples, Judas, to betray Him. That night He had to wash their feet who had forgotten their obligation to Him. They had quarrelled amongst themselves as to who should be the greatest. Peter is to deny Him and all are to forsake Him. Such were the men for whom He prayed within hours of His death, "Holy Father, keep them". And to these, five times over, He reiterated the new commandment - "Love one another".

Love one another

These men, well aware of the divine requirements under the Mosaic law, already knew the commandment, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour". And in their Master's early ministry on the mount they had heard Him say, "But I say unto you, Love your enemies" (Matt. 5:43,44). This word "love" (agape) Vine says is "the characteristic word of Christianity, and since the Spirit of revelation has used it to express ideas previously unknown, enquiry as to its use, whether in Greek literature or in the Septuagint, throws but little light upon its distinctive meaning in the New Testament.... Love can be known only from the actions it prompts. God's love is seen in the gift of His Son, 1 John 4:9,10. But obviously this is not the love of complacency, or affection, that is, it was not drawn out by any excellency in its objects, Rom. 5:8. It was an exercise of the Divine will in deliberate choice.... Love has its perfect expression among men in the Lord Jesus Christ.... Christian love is the fruit of the Spirit in the Christian (Gal. 5:22)".

This is the love wherewith we should love who say, "We love, because He first loved us".

Jesus, the Nazarene, who spoke to those men of Galilee on that day of His crucifixion, knew well the import of that new commandment. In His kingdom here on earth much would depend upon their obedience to it. "Even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another" was the standard of loving set by Him, and by this shall all men "know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:35). Failure in this would mean failure both in discipleship and in subsequent testimony to the world. How constant then should be our prayer:

"Oh come, Thou stricken Lamb of God,

Who shedd'st for us Thine own life-blood

And teach us all Thy love; then pain

Were sweet, and life or death were gain!"

But in that day of days in all man's history Peter three times denied that he even knew Him. Later he was gently questioned by his risen Master, "Lovest thou Me?" With the third question the Lord used a different word for "love" (phileo), one which Vine says "more nearly represents tender affection", a word "never used in a command to men to love God"... a word which "conveys the thought of cherishing the Object above all else, of manifesting an affection characterized by constancy, from the motive of the highest veneration". This is the root word in the New Testament for "to kiss" - "the holy kiss" of which Paul speaks four times, and the "kiss of love" of which Peter writes (1 Pet. 5:14) using both words for "love" (philema, kiss and agape, love). How poignant then the Lord's use of the word to Simon the Pharisee, "Thou gavest Me no kiss", and by contrast, how precious the record, "but she, since the time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss (much) My feet" (Luke 7:44,45)! This is the loving response for which He longs, a love which the Father had for Him and He for the Father, a love expressed in the beautiful word "friend" (philos) which He uses of Lazarus and of His own disciples: "I have called you My friends" (John 5:20; 11:11; 15:15). This was the word used of Abraham, "he was called the friend of God" (James 2:23).

Love of the brethren

"Servants", "brethren", "friends" of His - blest are we to be His servants, precious indeed the thought that we are His friends, but this we see is conditional upon doing His will which requires that we "love one another". The Holy Spirit, in five statements of Peter and Paul, uses the word philadelphia ("love of the brethren") to describe this relationship. And the writer to the Hebrews, having emphasized that "our God is a consuming fire", immediately follows with the words, "Let love of the brethren continue" (Heb. 13:1). And the apostle Paul makes it clear to the Thessalonians that having been "taught of God to love one another" then surely it is hardly necessary to write concerning "love of the brethren" (1 Thess. 4:9). Again, to the saints in Rome he writes, "Let love be without hypocrisy.... In love of the brethren be tenderly affectioned one to another; in honour preferring one another" (Rom. 12:9,10).

Peter reckons that such a calling as ours requires not only the addition of diligence, faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance and godliness but also

of "love of the brethren", and love, without which we are idle and unfruitful. The truths of the house of God, the kingdom of God and the churche.9 of God may be ours, but apart from "unfeigned love of the brethren" and loving one another "from the heart fervently" (1 Pet. 1:22), we are nothing" as Paul says (1 Cor. 13:2). It was the tragedy of those in the church in Ephesus that they "left their first love" (Rev. 2:4), having failed in that which Paul exhorted them, "Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, even as God also in Christ forgave you" (Eph. 4:32). "Be ye therefore imitators of God" he writes, "and walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us" (5:1,2).

In conclusion we pray, "Let love of the brethren continue", for without this the Testimony for which we stand will founder as surely as it so evidently did at the beginning. God forbid that this should happen!

Chamings, A. R. G. | Oct 1975
General