Tag Archives: brotherly love

“Let Brotherly Love Continue”

Church Bulletin, Encouragement,

 

By Tiia Monto (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia CommonsLove is the root of our faith. Every aspect of our spiritual live grows from the deep tap root of love. Love was the reason for God’s outreach to man.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in should not perish but have eternal life.”  John 3:16

“God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

The enormity of his love is clear. We were sinners – in rebellion against him – and he sent Jesus for our benefit. The entire blessing of Jesus rests upon mankind. There was no benefit to God for saving us other than his own internal love. From before the creation, God’s love was pouring forth (Ephesians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:20).

We seek to be like God (Ephesians 5:1), therefore, we must learn to love as God loves. That sounds so easy but we know that loving someone can be extraordinarily challenging., especially when that person shows no love themselves. Nevertheless, we must still love.

But what does it mean to love? Is it a warm mushy feeling? Is it words? Or is Biblical love something different?

Love is:

A Choice – Just as God chose to love us, we chose to love others. True love may involve emotions and feelings but it is primarily a choice. Feelings change. Appearances change. Interests change. Love is not so fickle.

Without Profit – As we saw above, to love someone is to do so without expectation of repayment. Love is not a business proposition that is reduced to writing. It is a choice we undertake without prospect of repayment.

Without Evil – Love means desiring the best for the other person. Therefore, we do not desire to harm or to draw another into unrighteousness. Our goal is to bring only good into their lives. To seek evil is to destroy the entire foundation of love.

Forgiving – Is there a better example of forgiveness than Jesus? Like him we must forgive too. Implicit is the fact that people often fail us. Still, we love like Jesus, even “seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:22).

Enduring – Enduring is synonymous with longsuffering. Sometimes the very best people try our nerves and even provoke us to anger. We still love them. We love them because we know that our lives are imperfect. Still, we made a choice to love them and we do not discard that commitment. It may be that we cannot be around them, but we still forgive and hope for the best.

Much of the above arises from 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 and all of it is anchored in the nature of God. May I suggest that we all re-evaluate our relationships and conform them to God’s plan of love. Only goodness will follow. Yes, people will still fail you but with a holy perspective those failings will have less impact. Love like God!

Bryant Evans may be reached at bryant at bryantevans.com. You can follow Bryant on Twitter @J_Bryant_Evans.

Brother to Brother – A Call for Love

Bible General, Church, Daily living,

Love is the fundamental quality of the Christian. Ironically, love is the hardest quality to develop, mature and maintain. Love is often the first casualty in any disagreement. When loves leaves, trouble comes.

A lack of love is directly responsible for violence, crime, domestic abuse, adultery, church divisions and every other social ill one can imagine. It is not an overstatement to say that all of society’s ills relate, in one way or another, to lovelessness.

Love Defined

Love is a choice. Love is not a feeling. We tend to equate love with those physiological changes which makes us feel something. An increased heart rate, a slight flushing of the face, a sense of bodily warmth and maybe even butterflies in the stomach are what we commonly associate with love. While those symptoms often accompany true love they are not themselves love. They are only symptoms which may or may not be present. Ask someone who has been married 50 or more years. I think they will confirm what I am saying.

God loves us. I think you would agree that John 3:16 love is not about heavy breathing and sweaty palms. God decided to love us. The evidence of his love is in Jesus (Romans 5:8).

This is made clear when Paul writes about husbands and wives.

“Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her…” (Ephesians 5:25)

Christ’s decision to love us (the church) is the example for husbands to love their wives. While there is certainly a physical component to the husband/wife relationship the passage here is about a Christ-like love – a decision – exemplified by Jesus.

Love In Action

John often writes about love, especially in his three epistles. Notice the love requirement:

“Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling”  (1 John 2:10).

“…whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God , nor is the one who does not love his brother” (1John 3:10).

“We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death” (1John 3:14).

 “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. ” (1 John 3:16).

“If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:20-21)

Our point is that Christians are to love one another. In fact, this love demonstrates to the world the kind of people we really are (John 13:35). When we fail to show that love to one another we fail.

Love in Practice

Disagreements often arise in matters of faith. There can be no compromise of truth but there must also be no compromise of love either. When we disagree about matters of faith we still treat each other with the love Christ showed and commanded.

What does it say about brethren who call one another names and publicly joust by degrading one another and trying to enhance his status at the expense of another? It’s time to take a deep breath and love one another.

We call for love. We call for continued discussions of the doctrines we divide over but with love as a foundation. Anything less will surely sadden our Lord.