Brotherly Love

30 Oct

I have a hard time with this one. When I quoted 1 Peter 1:13-25 last week, I talked about Jesus’ pattern for us of complete submission to God in terms of head, heart, and body. But the passage doesn’t stop there. Verses 22-23 go on to say, “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and abides forever.” God recently convicted me of my lack in the area of brotherly love through a message by Jason Ching of Grace Community Church in Minden, NV.

He used the metaphor of a burning building when he said that the church could effectively burn itself down by simply ignoring this key mandate of the Christian life. When enough Christians throw sparks at one another, our spiritual “building” could catch fire and destroy itself from the hostility so freely spread among believers.

God calls us, instead to mercy and the rule of God’s peace: “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, tender mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you are called in one body; and be thankful” (Col. 3:12-15).

I want to emphasize here that it is the rule of God’s peace in our hearts, not the suggestion or occasional exercise of the peace of God. We are called to demonstrate the peace of God in our own hearts in love for the other members of the body of Christ.

The First Epistle of John repeats over and over the necessity for this demonstration of our shared faith in God:

“Beloved, let us love one another for love is from God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us because He has given us of His Spirit” 1(John 4:7-13).

Love for one another is the single, most important manifestation of God to the world. As His people, we are the face of God’s love to a world ruled by Satan. It is by our love that the world around us perceives the gospel: “Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3:15).

For myself, where do I start to deal with my critical spirit and lack of love for my brothers and sisters in the Lord? It begins with my own heart condition, my own recognition of and repentance for harbored sin that prevents me from being ruled by the peace of God. This is an intentional choice (note the use of the word “let” in Colossians 3:15) that each of us has to make on our knees before our Lord and Savior. In a nutshell, it has everything to do with holiness. J. C. Ryle advocates that “daily self-consecration and communion with God should be aimed at by everyone who professes to be a believer” (Holiness, first published 1879 in London). Because we are redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, we are instructed to “Be ye holy, for I am holy” (1 Pet. 1:16). Out of that holiness and communion with God comes brotherly love.