Brotherly Love
Chuck Sligh
October 14, 2012
TEXT: 1 Thessalonians 4:9-10 – “But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. 10 And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more.”
INTRODUCTION
Note the phrase “brotherly love” in verse 9.
This is one word in the Greek: philadelphía (after which the famous city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is named).
Philadelphía is defined by Strong’s as follows: “love of brothers or sisters, brotherly love; in the New Testament, the love which Christians cherish for each other as brethren.”
Note also:
Hebrews 13:1 – “Let brotherly love [philadelphía] continue.”
1 Peter 1:22 – “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren [philadelphía], see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.”
1 Peter 2:17 – “Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.” (Here Peter uses agap_ instead of philadelphía, but it has the same meaning because the object of that agape love is “the brethren”, thus carrying the idea of brotherly love.)
1 Peter 3:8 – “Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love [philadelphos] as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous.”
Go back with me now to 1 Thessalonians 4:9-10 and note with me three things about this love Paul talks about:
I. BROTHERLY LOVE IS DIVINELY TAUGHT – 1 Thessalonians 4:9 – “But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.”
Paul said he didn’t really need to write the Thessalonians about brotherly love, because they were taught that by God. Note the phrase, “ye yourselves are taught of God”. Paul is saying, “you are God-taught.” The idea is that this kind of love is not attained by human effort, but “God-taught”—something automatically instilled by God Himself in the heart of every believer. It is part of the new nature that comes by being born again.
Illus. – I remember getting a call from a man named a man named Mike when I was pastoring in Germany. He asked me some questions over the phone, like did I believe the Bible was the Word of God? and what did we teach was the way to be saved?
In the course of our conversation, he related to me that he had grown up in a Christian home, but had never listened to the Gospel or responded to the invitation by God to salvation. He joined the Army and fought in the Vietnam war and was injured in battle, but recovered. After the war he married and had an unhappy marriage, got into drugs and alcohol, got divorced and basically made a royal mess of his life. He had remarried a German lady and had started to get some order in his life when he started having marital problems with his new wife. God showed him that he had tried to live life his way and failed; now it was time to turn to God and let Him straighten out the mess. With no one witnessing to him, no preacher he knew of, no one to lead him to Christ, he knelt down by his bedside, he repented of his sin and trusted Christ as his Savior.
He got up off his knees a new man. And you know what he said?—He said that as soon as he came to Christ, he had an overwhelming love for, and desire to be around, God’s people.
No preacher taught him that. He didn’t learn it from a discipleship course. He didn’t know where a single Christian in Germany was, but suddenly he had a desire to find one!
Isn’t that amazing? He called his parents and told them of his decision to follow Christ and they found out about our church and told him to call us, but to make sure it was a sound church and told him a few questions to ask the pastor, which is why he had asked me those questions. But you see, nobody had to tell him that he needed to find Christian fellowship and nobody taught him to love brothers and sisters in Christ.
It just came naturally from God.
You see, brotherly love is God-taught—
• Fish swim in schools, but they don’t have to go to schools to learn how to swim. Well, how do they know how to do that? They’re God-taught. You can use a fancy scientific word like instinct if you want, but all instinct means is that they’re God-taught.
• Birds do not have to take flying lessons to learn to fly. Their mothers just one day push them out of the nest and—BAM, they just know what to do and they do it. How do they know they need to flap their wings? God taught them.
• Calves don’t have to read “Ten Easy Lessons on How to Find Milk.” They just nuzzle up for a refreshing drink. They’re God taught. It’s just their nature. These things were put in them naturally by God.
Likewise, brotherly love is part of our new nature. It comes naturally to the Christian who is walking with God. It comes naturally from God. Yes, it can be obscured to the point that it is no longer evident—but that is because of something unnatural in the spiritual realm, when sin is given the upper hand in the Christian’s life. By nature, Christians love the brethren.
In fact, the ABSENCE of brotherly love is an indicator that you are not truly born again – 1 John 4:7-8 – “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.”
Now return to 1 Thessalonians 4 again and let’s look at another truth we find in our text. The first point was that brotherly love IS DIVINELY TAUGHT.
II. SECONDLY, NOTE THAT BROTHERLY LOVE IS TO BE PRACTICALLY MANIFESTED – 1 Thessalonians 4:10 – “And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia…”
The Thessalonians did not just FEEL love for one another—they DID love for one another – “And indeed ye DO it toward all the brethren…” They did not merely PROFESS brotherly love—they EXPRESSED brotherly love. This is exactly the teaching of the Scriptures: 1 John 3:18 – “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.”
Why do we sometimes not show genuine love to the brethren?—SELFISHNESS and SELF-CENTEREDNESS. We live in the age of self.
Illus. – One of the most popular books a few years back was titled, Love Thyself.
Illus. – Not too long ago there was a book by Hans Selve titled, Stress Without Distress. Merv Anderson, reviewing Dr. Selve’s book states that the Canadian doctor prescribes “a strong dose of selfishness as the best way of achieving a happier, saner society.” He even dares to attack one of the Bible’s most celebrated injunctions: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” He brands this as biological heresy. Well, I’ve got news for that guy—what he said is spiritual heresy!
Illus. – Selfishness has even infected the religious realm: Robert Schuller’s book, Self-Love: The Dynamic Force for Success, is a book preoccupied with the concept of loving self.
Folks, I’ve got news for you—self-love is not the answer—it’s the PROBLEM. Self-love is what perverts that which is God-taught in the Christian’s life and robs one of the love that ought to flow forth naturally from the believer’s life.
What does the Bible say about self-love? There are many Scriptures that address the issue, such as one already mentioned where Jesus clearly says we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. But note also with me Philippians 2:3-5 – “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. 4 Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. 5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”
Returning to our text in 1 Thessalonians 4:10, note the “practical love” in verse 10:
They loved “all the brethren”, not just the ones they liked, the ones they shared interests in, or the ones they were compatible with. – “And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren (verse 10)
Note secondly, HOW they showed love. Paul does not give us specifics here of HOW to practically DO love. However, taking all the Scriptures together on brotherly love, five actions come to mind in showing love to the brethren. Since it would take a good while to discuss in detail, keeping us here well after midnight—I shall briefly mention them without saying much about it—
• Giving to the needs of the brethren.
In Romans 12 Paul explains the functioning of the body. He says we are all given gifts for service, and names those seven spiritual gifts. He follows that by saying in verse 10 – “Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love…” Then in the first part of verse 13 he gives a practical application of this kind of brotherly love when he said we should be “Distributing to the necessity of saints…” (Romans 12:13a) If you see a brother with a need that you can help with, and that need is not the result of God’s divine punishment for not handling his money properly, Paul says we should give to that person’s need.
• Secondly, we can practically show brotherly love BY SHOWING HOSPITALITY. Paul continues in Romans 12:13 and says we should be “…given to hospitality.” (Romans 12:13b) This is a lost art today in the hustle and bustle of our busy lives. Yet the early church placed great importance on hospitality. It was a requirement for a pastor according to 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1:8 as well as a requirement for a widow before she could receive help from the church according to 1 Timothy 5:9-10. Peter tied hospitality to brotherly love when he said in 1 Peter 4:8-9 – “And above all things have fervent charity [that is, “love”] among yourselves: for charity [love] shall cover the multitude of sins. 9 Use hospitality one to another without grudging.”
• Another way we can practically show brotherly love is BY ENCOURAGING ONE ANOTHER. Have you ever noticed how some people are a blessing wherever they go and others are a blessing whenever they go? A way that we can show brotherly love is to be an encouragement rather than a discouragement;…to be upbeat instead of negative;…to encourage rather than tear down…to strengthen the brethren, rather than weaken by being critical and contrary and selfish and self-centered.
• Fourth, we can practically show brotherly love BY ADMONISHING ONE ANOTHER. Strong’s defines admonish as “to admonish, warn, exhort.” Perhaps the hardest thing to do is to point out to another believer when he is going astray. Yet true brotherly love compels you to be willing to jeopardize your relationship with that person to help him turn from sin or the wrong path.
• Finally, a way to practically show brotherly love is by FORGIVING ONE ANOTHER. Sometimes, this is the most difficult one of them all isn’t it? When a person who calls himself a brother or sister in Christ hurts you deeply through words or actions, it’s hard to forgive. It’s just natural to hold on to a hurt and nurse it and let it fester into a slow burning bitterness. And yet there is a higher law that God has called us to as believers.—That’s the law of love. And the law of love calls us to go against our natural tendency to hold a grudge and forgive. Paul said, “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: 32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.” (Ephesians 4:30-32)
So we see that brotherly love is first divinely taught and secondly, it is to be practically manifested.
III. THIRDLY, BROTHERLY LOVE IS CAPABLE OF GROWTH – 1 Thessalonians 4:10 – “And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more.”
Paul entreats the Thessalonians to increase their love more and more. Now think about that with me for a moment:
• We cannot be more JUSTIFIED than we are right now. You either are justified, or you aren’t. As someone once said, “There are only two types of people in the world, the saints and the ain’ts.”
• I’ll tell you something else—ye cannot be more REDEEMED than we are right now. Redeemed means “bought, purchased.” Jesus did that once on the cross. You are either still unredeemed or you have been redeemed, but you cannot be MORE redeemed one day than you are another.
• Okay, think about this—you cannot be more ADOPTED than we are right now. Adopted means to be given the full rights of inheritance. We receive all the gifts of our spiritual inheritance from God at our spiritual birth—that is, at our salvation. Now you either already is or you isn’t adopted, but you cannot be MORE adopted a year from now than you are right now.
• We cannot be more REGENERATED than we are right now. Regenerated is the three-dollar theological word for being born again. Now in the physical realm, if someone asks you when your were born, you don’t say, “Well, I’m in the process of being born.” If you are here saying that, you are ALREADY born. In the physical realm, you are either born or unborn. The same with being born again. You are either born again, or not, but you cannot be MORE born again today than you were yesterday.
• However, we CAN be more sanctified. Sanctified means to be set apart FROM the world and set apart UNTO God. Now I know the Bible uses the word SANCTIFICATION in both a positional as well as a practical sense. It’s in the area of practical sanctification I’m talking about right now.
Practical sanctification is the process in which as I grow in the Lord I am progressively more like Christ and less like the world. I can and do grow in sanctification. As we are sanctified, we GROW in various aspects of the Christian life: We grow in GRACE….We grow in FAITH….We grow in HOLINESS….We grow in WORKS….And God also wants us to grow in LOVE—to “increase more and more.”
That means you ought to show brotherly love more this year than you did last year. That means that with each passing year you ought to manifest a greater capacity to give to the needs of needy brethren, to show hospitality, to encourage one another, to admonish one another, and to forgive one another. And if you are more stingy than you used to be, less hospitable than you once were, less apt to encourage and admonish brothers and sisters in Christ than you were last year or are holding on to bitterness and anger for past offenses, guess what—you’ve disobeyed this command and stopped growing in love.
That’s not what God wants for you. When we stop growing, we turn off the spigot of God’s blessings. When we stop growing, we hurt ourselves, our families and our church. Let’s always be growing in love as in other areas of our Christian life.
CONCLUSION
(CLOSE WITH COMMENTS AS LED AFTER READING THE FOLLOWING SCRIPTURE) – John 13:34-35 – “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.”
