Brotherly kindness

1) In Rom. 8:29 Paul said God’s people are to be “conformed to the image of His son.”

2) With these words Paul meant Christians are to become like Jesus.

3) Peter provides a summary of how this can be done in 2 Pet. 1.

4) He said, adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply virtue; and in (your) virtue knowledge; and in (your) knowledge self-control; and in (your) self-control patience; and in (your) patience godliness.

5) In recent weeks we have looked at all these qualities.

6) These qualities take us in several different directons.

a) Some of what Peter spoke about is to be directed inward.

b) Growing in faith and increasing in knowledge are inward items.

c) Godliness (a quality discussed last week) points us in an upward direction.

d) The second to the last item is found in 2 Pet. 1:7; it is described as “brotherly kindness.”

e) This trait points outwardly (to others).

7) In the world we see a lot of people who are unkind.

a) We recently saw on the national news a young man who killed more than 30 people.

b) About that same number were injured and lived to tell about it.

c) Then we saw a shooting at the space center. This week we will surely more sad news.

d) Day after day and time after time there is not a lot of kindness displayed in the world.

e) Peter say to the people of God, “show brotherly kindness.”

8) This kindness is not hard to describe, especially when we look at the original term.

9) Peter used a compound word; the first part of the word means “love” and the second part means “brother.”

10) In simple terms this word means Christians are to love and cherish each other as brethren.

11) Paul used this word in the Roman letter (12:10).

a) He said, “be tenderly affectioned one to another.” In this same verse we find, in love of the brethren.”

b) This kindness calls to the mind the fact that Christians are part of the same spiritual family.

c) We are all in the faith together so we need to be good to one other.

12) God is pretty serious about this point, and this seriousness is found in 1 Jn. 4:7.

a) John said in 1 Jn. 4:7 to “love one another” because “love is of God.”

b) Then in verse 8 He said if we do not love, we cannot know God for God is love.

c) At the end of the chapter we see a contrast.

d) There John speaks of a person who says he loves but hates his brother.

e) John said such a person is a “liar” (verse 20).

f) If a man loves God, he will also love his brethren.

13) This all goes back to 2 Pet. 1; brotherly kindness means brotherly love.

14) Not long ago someone told me how a stranger took about 45 minutes to talk to him about something.

15) That 45 minutes meant a lot to this man; he counted it as a demonstration of love and concern.

16) Jesus spoke about a similar thing in Jn. 13:34-35.

a) He said all men would know His disciples by their “love.”

b) Jesus had in mind non-Christians; the unsaved would see love and be impressed by it.

c) Peter did not have in mind the unsaved; he was thinking about Christians dealing with Christians.

d) If saved people treat the unsaved with love, that certainly must be the case when dealing with Christians.

17) This is God’s plan and it is not hard to explain.

18) We do find, however, times when putting God’s plan into practice is difficult or not done.

19) Back in the Old Testament, before Christianity begun, there is the story of Cain and Able.

20) These two men were brothers, but there was not a lot of brotherly love.

21) Cain killed Able. He slew his own brother.

22) God knows man well enough to realize that brotherly kindness is not always practiced.

23) Thus, the Bible deals with this topic in a number of places.

a) For instance, the word used in 2 Pet. 1:7 is also found in Heb. 13:1.

b) The writer said, “let brotherly love continue.”

c) What did this author know? He knew that Christians can fail with brotherly love.

d) Paul said something about this same trait to the Thessalonians.

24) In 1 Thess. 4:9 he said he did not need to instruct these Christians about it; they already knew.

25) Paul spoke about loving the brethren (brotherly love).

26) What Paul wrote suggests brotherly love of the basic teachings of Christianity.

27) The Christians at Thessalonica did pretty well in this area – verse 10 – READ.

a) The Thessalonians showed brother love to “all the brethren in Macedonia.”

b) Their love and concern was exercised locally as well as outside their local area.

c) This should be one of the goals that Christians today have – we want broad brother love.

d) This does not, as the world often suggests, mean we accept everything that comes along.

e) Brotherly love has never meant tolerating what is wrong or fellowshipping error.

f) It does mean we embrace in the warmest and fullest way possible those following the will of God.

28) At the end of verse 10 Paul said, “that ye increase more and more.”

29) Brotherly love or brotherly kindness is an area wherein we can grow.

30) Every person has some type of relationship with others in life.

a) In the early years, there are relationships with adult figures.

b) Even if a child does not now who his parents are, there is some type of adult in the life.

c) There are also many instances where children have brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, etc.

d) A lot of happiness and contentment comes from having a good relationship with those relatives.

e) Hopefully people see the right kind of love in their families.

f) This love then needs to be brought into the church; Christians need to love each other.

31) This is precisely the point Peter is trying to convey with this spiritual quality in 2 Pet. 1:7.

32) Most want to find happiness and satisfaction in the church.

33) What is a good way to accomplish that? Brother love or brotherly kindness.

34) It is interesting where Peter places this quality in his list of Christian graces.

a) Before this brotherly kindness and love Peter spoke about “godliness.”

b) Last we showed how godliness means a right attitude towards God ass well as right actions.

c) If our attitude towards God is right (1 Jn. 4), there will be love.

d) If our actions towards God are also right, the next logical step is brotherly kindness.

35) We cannot have brotherly kindness without godliness.

36) Neither can we have godliness without brotherly kindness.

37) Godliness is the foundation for the final two qualities in Peter’s list of Christian graces.

38) When I was writing commentary on Romans I struggled a bit with Rom. 1:31.

a) Paul spoke about people who lacked natural affection.

b) This sin is listed with some very terrible actions.

c) Without natural affection means unloving; the bonds of human affection have been destroyed.

d) The people who are nearest and dearest to people are treated in an unloving and caring manner.

e) It was hard for me to define exactly what Paul was describing.

39) As I was trying to convey what this word mean I decided to cite a commentator from several years ago.

40) He said, “Even brutes show such love.”

41) Without natural affection means people get a big fat zero in the love department.

a) Imagine what it would be like for a Christian to say to another,

b) “You treat a stray animal better than you treat me.”

c) “You treat your neighbor’s dog better than you treat me.”

d) “You feed wild birds but treat me with scorn and contempt.”

42) If these types of statements were true, they would be absolutely contemptible.

43) They would be anything but brotherly love. They would mean a person has lost natural affection.

44) Brotherly love is something to create, cultivate, keep, and make grow.

45) There are a lot of ways to see if people have brotherly kindness.

a) Walk into a church building and wait until the service ends.

b) What happens 5 minutes after the service ends will tell you a lot about brotherly concern.

c) If the lights are off and the parking lot is quickly empty, there is probably not a lot of brotherly love.

d) If the lights are still on 30 minutes later and people are still there, people love one another.

46) If a brother is “weak” and the “strong” are mindful of him (Rom. 15:1), there is brotherly love. READ.

47) When brethren are kind in their judgment towards one another there is brotherly love.

48) James spoke about this in Jas. 4:11-12 –11 Speak not one against another, brethren. He that speaketh against a brother, or judgeth his brother, speaketh against the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judgest the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. One (only) is the lawgiver and judge, (even) he who is able to save and to destroy: but who art thou that judgest thy neighbor?

49) Another passage which indicates brother love is 1 Thess. 5:14.

a) Paul spoke about “warning the unruly,” “comforting the faint-hearted,” and “upholding the weak.”

b) In Gal. 6:10 we find a valuable principle: do good unto all men, especially Christians.

c) Have we ever had a Christian “do good to us”?

d) Has a Christian ever come to our aid?

e) If that has happened once, has it happened twice? What about three times? What about many times?

f) This is letting brotherly love continue.

50) We have some strong incentives for brotherly kindness.

51) We have the same spiritual father, the same master (Jesus), and we are all part of the same family.

52) New Testament Christians are all on the same road and wanting to get to the same place.

53) All are headed to the same inheritance promises.

54) Very few trips come without difficulty. In life there are transportation issues.

55) Hotel reservations are lost or cancelled by others.

56) As we go through life we will have problems at time with fellow Christians.

57) In every single case we can decide that we will let brotherly love continue.

58) Peter said (1 Pet. 1:22), “love the brethren fervently.”

59) If that were always easy Peter would not have said it.

60) If there are times when we struggle with this, we can study some Bible examples.

a) One great example is Joseph.

b) His brothers did not have a lot of love for him. They put him in a pit and sold him.

c) Later Joseph had a perfect opportunity to be cruel. He was kind and sought no revenge.

61) Jesus once spoke about being “born anew.”

62) That new birth means there are some changes; one change is brotherly kindness.

63) In the past we may not have practiced a lot of that. It may not be our natural nature.

64) The Bible tells us this a part of the Christian life; it is part of Christian growth.

65) Brother kindness can be summed with a simple question:

66) Do we spent more time cherishing fellow Christians or tearing them down?

67) This single question is a very good indicator of how we are doing with brotherly love.

68) Jesus said the process begins by a new birth. He said this birth requires spirit and water.

69) Have we experienced it?

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