TEXT: Hebrews 13:1

SUBJECT: Brotherly Love

My talk this afternoon is a short one, but highly important. In fact, it’s the second most important thing in the Bible. The believer’s first duty is to love God with all his heart, soul, and mind. His second duty is to love others. He’s to love everyone as himself, but some people have a special claim on his love. The ones mentioned here are the brethren which is a New Testament way of saying our fellow Christians.

You know this, of course, but how often do you think about it? And how often do you put it into practice? Some of you, I know, are deeply committed to Christian. You don’t talk about it much, you just do it. Others of us, however, need a gentle now and then. And that’s what I have for you today.

Our verse assumes something about Christian believers: it assumes we love each other. Is this true? It is—and not just of mature disciples, but of all believers, including the newest convert. He may be sorely lacking in other things (knowledge, wisdom, consistency), but he loves the brotherhood—for God has kindled the sacred fire in his soul.

John tells us that those who don’t love other Christians don’t know God. But believers do know the Lord, and therefore, to some degree or other, love others in Christ.

Believers need exhortation and so there’s a lot of it in the New Testament. The exhortation you find there, however, is not legalism; it’s not do this and live. No, it’s Gospel exhortation, Do this because you are alive. And here it’s not start loving others or you’ll be sorry, but "Let brotherly love continue".

Everyone agrees that we ought to love one another. But what is love? A man once told me that he took love to mean pointing out the faults of other people as often as possible so they could repent of them! It’s true that love wants the best for others and is willing to correct them, sometimes sharply. But this is not the love God has for us and not the love He wants us to feel for others.

More than anything else, love is an attitude. It’s described for us in I Corinthians 13 as being that state of mind that:

• Suffers wrong without retaliation or resentment.

• Is good to others even when they’re so good to you.

• Does not sulk when others have more than you do or receive the praise that you deserve more than they do.

• Does not put its own interests before the needs of others.

• Is not easily angered or frustrated.

• Does not dwell on the wrongs others have done you.

• Is not happy to hear the misfortune of others.

• Is dogged in its commitment to other people—not impulsive or easily bored, but the loving Christian sticks to the people he loves. Paul says it

This is the kind of love God has for us and the kind He wants us to have for each other. If love demands an overpowering passion, let’s face it, most of us can’t work that up in ourselves, no less keep it for years. But it doesn’t require that! Love is a quiet and unassuming grace. It’s about commitment, not feelings.

The writer of Hebrews assumes we have this love for each other already. Now he wants us to do something with it. What is it? He wants us to carry on with it! "Let brotherly love continue" he says. We must not become discouraged and give it up. Our love for each other mustn’t be left to decay; it must grow and become stronger with time.

Is your brotherly love on the increase? If it isn’t, the reason cannot be good. The Hebrews had their reasons, too: they were suffering persecution for the Gospel. Some of them had lost everything and some would eventually die for their faith. Yet the writer doesn’t understand their hardships and tell them that not loving others is all right under the circumstances. It isn’t!

There is no circumstance under which it is all right to not love others. If they were, it would certainly be the cross. Yet, even there, our Lord Jesus Christ thought of others: His mother, John the Apostle, the penitent thief, even the men who crucified Him were in thoughts and love.

I know your schedule is hectic and maybe your health is not too good, either. Yet even busy, sick, and worried Christians are told to "Let brotherly love continue".

The importance of loving other believers cannot be overstated. It is for this that our Lord prayed and it is by this—He said--that the world would know who we are,

Loving others is not always easy. At times, it’s the hardest thing in the world—for loving others cuts into the love we have for ourselves! I want to finish my book, but love calls me to drop in on a discouraged brother or watch the kids for the young couple who need a break.

Loving others, therefore, is always a choice: a choice of putting them ahead of yourself. Or, to use the words of the Bible, of "Denying yourself, taking up your cross and following [Christ]".

Here are some things that may help you to love other Christians more than you do—or more consistently than you do.

• Confess your sin of not loving them. Don’t be vague here—praying that you’ll love "The general assembly and church of the first born whose names are written in heaven". Name the people you don’t love, the people you’ve had a bad attitude about or even the people you’ve ignored. Change always starts with facing the past honestly.

• Ask God to give you a heart to love them. Love is not a work of man, but the gift of God. Ask Him for it and keep on asking Him until He gives it to you. For some things we cannot pray with much confidence because we don’t know they’re according to God’s will. But this one is: you can be sure of that. So pray for it. And remember, we often "Have not because we ask not".

• Make an effort to love others. Don’t wait to feel something before you act in love, act in love until you feel something. The famous story of John Wesley is always worth telling. After failing as a missionary in Georgia, Wesley sailed back to England intending to preach no more. A Moravian pastor was aboard ship and asked him why he was giving up the ministry. Wesley told him its because he didn’t know if he was saved. The Moravian told him to preach until he knew he was saved. Which he did and became one of the greatest evangelists in the history of the church. Maybe you’re a cold fish with a heart of stone. Do good to others until God has made you a warm Christian with a heart overflowing with brotherly love.

• Remember how much your Savior loves His people. It is hard to think about His dying love for my fellow believers without feeling some of it for them myself.

If you do these things—with the blessing of God—then you’ll fulfill our verse and "Let brotherly love continue". God bless you!