Brotherly Love (2)

The Sweetness in the Church Life

The Lord Jesus once told His followers, “This is my commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you…. These things I command you, that ye may love one another” (John 15:12, 17).

This was no doubt hard for His disciples to understand. John, one of the two “sons of thunder” (Mark 3:17), said to him, “Teacher, we saw one casting out demons in thy name; and we forbade him, because he followed not us.” John did not see this unknown man as another of the Lord’s followers whom he should love, but as a competitor who should be eliminated. Therefore Jesus responded, “Forbid him not: for there is no man who shall do a mighty work in my name, and be able quickly to speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is for us.” He then went on to demonstrate how His followers should behave toward one another in love by saying, “For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink, because ye are Christ's, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward” (Mark 9:38-41).

By saying this, Jesus told us all that brotherly love is not a mere slogan, a declaration shouted in our Christian gatherings. Brotherly love must have hands, feet, and heart. It is expressed in something as practical as a cup of water.

Ever since the Lord spoke this, His followers have been grappling with His words. Brotherly love requires us to each pay a price that the natural man does not want to pay. After the birth of the church as recorded in Acts 2, all the believers met from house to house, and many sold their possessions to meet the need of their less fortunate brethren (Acts 2:44-45; 4:34-35). This was a genuine move of the Spirit and a display of the love that bound them together. It was not long, however, before such a display was replaced by something quite the opposite. Paul writes to the young Corinthian church:

Dare any of you, having a matter against his neighbor, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? …but brother goeth to law with brother, and that before unbelievers? Nay, already it is altogether a defect in you, that ye have lawsuits one with another. Why not rather take wrong? why not rather be defrauded? Nay, but ye yourselves do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren. (1 Corinthians 6:1, 6-8)

Where Christians once sold their possessions to care for their brothers, they now defraud one another and take each other to law court to claim their rights. Paul rightly said, “I say this to your shame” (6:5). Instead of unbelievers seeing Christ through the expression of love between brothers and sisters, they see the expression of a religious world that is no better and perhaps even worse than their own.

Paul was able to tell the Thessalonians, “Concerning love of the brethren ye have no need that one write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another” (1 Thessalonians 4:9). He did not have to write to the Thessalonians about brotherly love, but he did to the Corinthians. Due to their hardness of conscience, they were unable to be taught of God concerning their lawsuits. They no doubt continued to break bread together and gather for prayer with no sensation of the shame they were binging to their Lord. They deluded themselves into thinking that everything was fine even while suing their brothers.

This kind of unloving behavior has characterized the church throughout its history. Even today, when all can easily read the Lord’s command in John 15:12, Paul’s word in 1 Corinthians 6:1-8, and hear God’s teaching in 1 Thessalonians 4:9, Christians bribe their consciences and take one another to court for what they think are God sanctioned purposes. If by chance they win their suit, they feel God has vindicated their action. They proudly say along with John, “Teacher, we saw one casting out demons in thy name; and we forbade him, because he followed not us” (Mark 9:38).

Of course lack of brotherly love is not always so extreme. More often it is displayed through simple neglect. Do we know when our brother or sister is in need of a cup of water? Do we ever visit to find out? If we know, do we do anything about it? Too often the Lord is stopped from answering our prayers for others because He is unable to send us to do the work. Our coldness to one another blinds us from seeing the need or heeding the Lord’s call.

James writes, “Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding your own selves” (James 1:22). “If ye fulfil the royal law, according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well” (2:8). James was very practical. He wanted to make sure we understood him, so he continued,

If a brother or sister be naked and in lack of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Go in peace, be ye warmed and filled; and yet ye give them not the things needful to the body; what doth it profit? (James 2:15-16)

To him therefore that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. (James 4:17)

The cup of water our brothers and sisters need may not be physical. Many times as they pass through various trials and temptations, they desperately need the comfort and support of others. While it is true that “There hath no temptation taken you but such as man can bear: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able” (1 Corinthians 10:13), it often does not seem so to the one passing through the trial. The weight of the circumstance may seem crushing. This verse continues by saying that God “will with the temptation make also the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it.” That way of escape is often the comfort and support received from other Christian brothers and sisters. How strengthening it is to know that others have passed through similar trials, and that they are not alone. Paul writes,

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort them that are in any affliction, through the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound unto us, even so our comfort also aboundeth through Christ. (2 Corinthians 1:3-5)

Of course there is a price to pay for such brotherly love. It is not cheap. Our sinful nature is selfish from birth. Our natural man always wants to protect itself. The Lord Jesus anticipated this when He said,

This is my commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:12-13)

To love one another is to lay down our lives for one another. The Greek word used for “lives” in this verse is psuche, which means we are to lay down our soul-lives for one another. In practice, this means we must surrender our time, money, stuff, and compassion, all out of genuine love and concern. Where these are missing, our love is only talk, “sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1).

Paul wrote that we “should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffereth, all the members suffer with it; or one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it” (1 Corinthians 12:25-26). How will we know with whom to suffer, or with whom to rejoice, without spending time with one another? How will we give care to one another without investing our resources? The sweetness of the church is all found here. This is why John writes,

But whoso hath the world's goods, and beholdeth his brother in need, and shutteth up his compassion from him, how doth the love of God abide in him? My Little children, let us not love in word, neither with the tongue; but in deed and truth. (1 John 3:17-18)

The phrase “love one another,” “love your neighbor,” “love your brother,” or something similar is found over 100 times in the New Testament. It is the most quoted command of our Lord. John, Paul, Peter, and James each admonish us to it. In fact, John confronts all the problems found in the church at the end of the first century by reminding the brothers of the Lord’s command to love one another. One of the last things writes is this:

And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote to thee a new commandment, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another. (2 John 1:5)

May the Lord have mercy on us that we today would have the grace and action to heed our Lord’s commandment. May the Lord sweeten our church life with genuine love for one another. May we always hold a “cup of water” for our brothers and sisters in need.

With His brothers there comes a cross
And to love them we suffer loss
He laid down His life
We lay down our lives for them, Oh Lord!

We know we have passed
From death into life
When we love the brothers


Hymn by Joe Dregallo
 The church in Cambridge, Ohio, 2008
Based on 1 John 3:14, 16