Brotherly love

Let's open our Bibles to commence in Hebrews 13, please. Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 1. Let brotherly love continue. Now come back to the first book of the New Testament, chapter 11 of Matthew, please.

Matthew chapter 11, just read verse 19. The son of man came eating and drinking and they say, behold a man gluttonous and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners, but wisdom is justified of her children. John's Gospel, please.

Chapter 13. John 13 and verse 34. A new commandment I give unto you that ye love one another, as I have loved you that ye also love one another.

By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another. One last reference, please, in the book of Romans chapter 12. Pick up at verse 9, Romans 12 and verse 9. Let love be without dissimulation.

Abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love, in honor, preferring one another. Now as with that which is preceded, we trust that God will grant help, considering the relevant truth of what's before us.

It is that subject of love and as Hebrews 13 particularly identifies it, it is brotherly love. As I sat here listening to our two previous brethren and glancing around, I look to what is my left and I can see there are at least two families where I'm sure this expression was heard from time to time and it's a little verse. We pick it up and we've used it lightly in various circumstances over the years when there's bantering back and forth.

We say, well, let brotherly love continue. That's a good thing. But looking at it a little fresh just recently, I was impressed to think of the setting where these words are found.

At home in the assembly in Sherman, the present Bible reading, we're going through the book of James. James would perhaps precede Hebrews by three, four years in that area, but I was just impressed to think that the audience is predominantly the same from James to Hebrews. He's writing to Jewish brethren and yet thinking of the the conditions of their time in which these words were written, let brotherly love continue.

It was that early time frame in church history, not terribly long then after the resurrection and the ascension of the Lord Jesus and Christianity is spreading through Jerusalem, Judea, and that region predominantly and the Christians are suffering. They're suffering. The writer to the Hebrews just in the verses preceding at the close of chapter 12, I'll actually pick up at verse 27, he says, and this word yet once more signifies the removing of those things that are shaken as of things that are made that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

He is reminding the genuine believers in this epistle, this book Hebrews, that there is that which is permanent. Many of them were adhering to what they could see, what was temporary and that is particularly the temple in Jerusalem and the religious ritual that was associated with it, but the man was reminding them that they as verse 28 says, they had received a kingdom which cannot be moved. Things were shaken in their world and it is in that context then that the writer, whoever it is, in Hebrews 13 one says, let brotherly continue.

Things, they were suffering persecution, but when something goes wrong in your life, when there's trauma of some sort, what is the natural tendency? We get very much taken up with what I'm suffering and we really lose the ability to see the others that are around us. We become so distracted by the ill, the affliction, whatever the conditions are, whatever the circumstances are, that our tendency, the natural reaction is just to get totally absorbed with self and it just struck me then when we look at this, that this man now sees, particularly in the book of Hebrews, there is not just persecution, but there's a dreadful movement of abandonment, that is there are people that once confessed to adhere to Christ and the doctrines of the gospel, they're throwing the whole thing aside and they're abandoning the Christian teaching and the persons and they're going back to worship at the temple. I would think that when you're the object of persecution and then there are some that as it were you once, you know, cast your lot in with them and then you see them walking away, that you feel pretty shaky.

You get pretty well self-absorbed and distracted with the circumstances and the writer says, let brotherly love continue. Now I would take it that that's the setting. In the book of James it's appealed to me that way more and just as I said these recent weeks when we're studying it at home, there were those that had still had material wealth in there, of course, many of the Christians were losing everything, jobs, homes and brother speaking about families that completely disowned them and sent them into the streets, whatever the circumstances.

They had nothing in this present world, but there are some that still had means. James makes that obvious. There's still some that had some material resource.

Let brotherly love continue. And the following verses, I have not looked at it this way before until just recent consideration, to my mind were some of the exhortations that would see that fulfilled. Entertaining strangers, verse 2, like a Phoebe arriving in Romans, recognized by those that commended her and then those that would receive her.

Some that we just aren't familiar with. Do you have it, do you find it difficult to relate to people that you haven't had a chance to get to know? If you're anything like me, you will. We're going to look at this word particularly, but the word friend is, it speaks of a reciprocal relationship.

We develop friendships based on things in common, something about the other individual that we find attractive, and I'm not talking opposite gender attraction here, I'm just talking about two persons. We see common interests, we see personality, you know, you're soul mates, you're looking around, well maybe the girls talk that way more than the guys, but the person that they can be so intimate with and familiar with and talk and bear their heart to. But friends are people, it's a reciprocal, it's conditionally based.

This word here, let brotherly love continue, has that in it. It is that friendship to those to whom we are family related. But one of the things I hope that we will be impressed with by the time I'm done is that this friendship in Christian circles is not condition based.

It's not conditional. So there's the entertaining of those that we're not familiar with. There is being willing to associate with those that were suffering and actually had gone to jail for their faith.

If you were to visit the one that was in jail and to seek to succor, the individual that was imprisoned for their faith, you are immediately identified with them. That's verse 5, be without covetousness. Those that were lacking, those that had suffered tremendous loss because of their faith could be looking at those that still had resources and wishing that they, and you can see the covetous spirit as it were boiling up within the individual.

Times were, as it were, directly diametrically opposed to doing anything but being kindly affection to the other saints. The one I found most difficult to see how it would relate was verse 4, marriage is honorable in all and the bad and defiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. I am still not really sure how that would necessarily fit.

I mean, it's just not some random statement that the Spirit of God has dropped here, but in the circumstances of persecution and forsaking of the faith among others, may I just say this faithfully, but pointedly, when people are suffering, people are vulnerable emotionally. James makes it clear that there are widows that likely were widows because of the persecution. Husbands that had gone to jail and never came out and had died for it, and you find people that are vulnerable.

And when we are suffering affliction, we are emotionally vulnerable, and people become sensitive to things that they otherwise, as we've already been hearing, brother sister relationship should have been on guard to. Maybe that's why this verse is dropped into this context. It's just appealing to me that way today.

Then let brotherly love continue. This actually was somewhat aptly demonstrated to me on Wednesday evening back home in Sherman, as I'd just come in and sat down, and a few minutes till the meeting would start, and another brother came in. And another brother, you've got two extremes in size here, big man, a little man.

And the little man happens to be standing unaware that the big man's there at the end of his, quote, pew, where he would normally sit. And the big man says over his shoulder, could you move out of the way so I could sit out? And he says it very lightly. And the little man turns around to look at him and, you know, like, what's your problem? And it's just kind, you know, it's, it's familiar bantering back and forth.

And the big man says, well, okay, let's just all say, let's just have a big hug. Little man says, no way. And we heard afterwards why he said the last time that man hugged me, he broke my ribs.

And I thought to myself, you know, I'm glad I'm here tonight. Because it's just that sense of family interaction, of friendship, of friendship. And I've already said that friendship is basically, generally speaking, reciprocal.

There is a response, it's back and forth, there's a common attraction, we become friends with each other. But that's what brotherly love involves, showing friendship affection to those that we are intimately related to. Brothers, sisters, our world is becoming increasingly hostile to what we believe and what we stand for.

And if there's something that we need to maintain in a society of affliction, and really, it's not going to get any better, brotherly love must continue. This is a love that must continue. Come back with me then to Matthew seven, where we went for our second reference.

As I've been saying that friendship is usually conditional. When the circumstances and the conditions that develop the relationship deteriorate and even fail, then the relationship often fails. Matthew chapter 11, the Lord Jesus was addressing his audience.

And of course, he knew what was in man, he always knows what's in the heart and what the thinking is, but people have been talking, the religious people particularly then. And in contrast to John, who lived an austere life, very, very extremely self disciplined, the Lord Jesus lived a more common life amongst the people. He ate the food and the common beverage of the day.

And so they looked at him, as it says in verse 19, the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold, a man gluttonous and a winebibber. They looked at his life, and they distorted the facts of his life to seek to discredit the Lord Jesus in the eyes of other people. But there is something that they did get right, though they intended it to be a smear of his character.

They said, a friend of publicans and sinners. They thought that that would discredit Christ, if they could identify him as one who was willing to associate with the publicans that despise Roman tax collectors, or even was known to be seen in the company of people that were sinners, who were commonly then the immorals of the community, like a Mary Magdalene, a lady of the city. They thought that that would just discredit him.

But you know, there was truth in what they said. And this is what deeply has been speaking to my heart. Because this one who was a friend to such persons, he initiated a relationship with them.

This was not based on conditions. He didn't see a Mary Magdalene or a Zacchaeus and see, hey, they are worthy of my association. I feel a real kindred spirit with this individual.

I want them to be my friend. He was a friend to them. The critics saw it.

They interpreted it as this mutual relationship. But that's what it became eventually because of what he did for them. But initially, without looking for strings to be attached, without a friendship developing on common interests, as we've said, and a mutual respect, because these people would have backed up from Christ in his righteousness, as they became aware of something of him.

He went to them and was a friend, whether they were friendly or not. What appealed to me is this. We all have our friends.

There are those individuals that we can relate to far. I mean, I'm talking about amongst the believers as well, because this is partly where this is going to go. But we've had friends that are non-believers.

I still have some limited association. Geographic interference maybe affects us more than otherwise, but you know, of course, faithfulness puts a distance too. But I still have some limited association with people I've known since I could cross the street.

They're ungodly people. But now we meet people in our communities, become aware of people that we wouldn't begin to have as a friend, as we would commonly think of as being a friend. What the Lord Jesus did here demonstrates to us, love demonstrated, that really in my mind hit me just this week.

He went from just this philos, this friend to others, friendship, love, and really has blended the other, one of the other New Testament words, the agape or agape, whichever way you would pronounce it, the choice love. This is no longer conditions love. This is choice love.

This is willfully choosing an individual and being a friend to them. That was how the Lord Jesus moved. As people observed, they thought it was something to his discredit.

It was a tremendous demonstration of the very nature and attitude of his heart. We've been hearing about a bad attitude already today. The Lord Jesus was marked by that plenteous in mercy and full of compassion, and he as friend to them arrives.

Are we moving that way in our Christian lives today? Brian made mention of the time here in the gospel earlier this year. Nice to see saints, younger ones, middle-aged ones, still seeking to reach and to interact with the unlovable as far as we might consider because of our place in life and their place in life. The Lord Jesus demonstrated true love in choosing to be a friend to those who could not reciprocate.

Just quickly then in John 13, though, he has John particularly predominantly uses the term love of choice, agape. He says to his disciples as we read in John 13, a new commandment I give unto you. It was just, as it were, new.

It was something that was unaccustomed. He has demonstrated it. God demonstrates it in God loving and giving his son.

He says, a new commandment I give unto you that you love one another. Then he qualifies it, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. Remember he said in this same setting, you've not chosen me, I chose you.

Isn't that a terrible thing when we as believers can never get to that mindset where we think, not if we would consciously put it into words, but you know, I'm saved because of. There was no because of that any of us are saved. He said, you've not chosen me, I have chosen you.

I love how he would one day say to them, you are my friends. Not that he was saying, I'm being friendly to you. You are my friends.

That relationship that he initiated to those that were undeserving of his companionship had now blossomed so there was the return. And he was enjoying genuine friendship with men on this earth. What a tremendous thing.

But he has exhorted them to love one another as he loved. Love by choice. Now, you know, we've got to be, well, this will take me to Romans chapter 12 about being real.

Let love be without dissimulation. Let love be without hypocrisy. No, none of this false humility and trying to make it look right.

But we have to be honest. Sometimes, you know, we don't relate to some believers as well as we do others. I look back over my years and as I was sitting here this morning, I think of one brother particularly.

I'm sorry. The man's no longer among us. He's drifted for years.

But he wasn't a man that I would have chosen as a friend. We were exact opposites. He was a driven businessman and I was just a docile engineer that sat at a drawing board at a desk and to think the two of us could ever really become knitted friends.

But that's what the grace of God does. That's what this love of choice does. We can look beyond the things that we find not appealing in each other and choose each other.

And that's what the Lord Jesus required. He says, you didn't choose me, I chose you. And you really weren't choosable.

And that takes us to Romans chapter 12. Let love, and that is the John love. Of course, it's a New Testament love, the Agape love.

Let that choosing be without hypocrisy. It's got to be genuine. It is that which is born out of us by the Holy Spirit.

And sometimes we have to choose to love some of ourselves among the saints, because there are things that make it very difficult to do. Thank God for this sort of love, initiated in our very hearts, the love of God that is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. So we choose.

But it's got to be real. Can't be by hypocrisy. Well, I'm going to demonstrate the love of Christ and I'll get along with Him for a day and then, you know, I won't talk to Him for three months.

None of that business at all. It's got to be real. Then it says, abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good.

It just seems like a random statement again dropped into a context. But what is it saying? Because the very next verse is still going along with this idea of the relationships that have genuine affection involved in them. Why in the middle of it then is the Spirit of God saying, abhor that which is evil and cleave to that which is good.

I think just simply I would put it this way, at least for this moment, in the context that it exists. Because the word evil here isn't just what is intrinsically wicked, but it is that which has ill influence. So if there are things that you may choose for your life that you know just drive somebody else nuts.

As I say that, I'm starting to chuckle now because I'm thinking of Nancy and I, my wife and I. And I know there are certain things that Nancy just, if I do it, it'll drive her nuts. And I have to keep telling myself, Stu, don't do that. Because she doesn't like it.

Why do I do that? It's because I love her. Abhor that which is evil. If there are things that you know will influence somebody for the ill, then refrain.

Refrain. I was very ill-affected when I was looking at some news on the internet just recently. Two men had tremendous privilege.

They were fishing on the Mississippi. Would I ever expect them not to do that? No. I was just jealous that I didn't get to do it with them.

It's not that kind of thing. There are things that we could do that would corrupt the potential of the other believer to maintain a brotherly love. And cleave to that which is good.

That which benefits the relationships between believers. Cleave to it. This is the Adam and Eve.

Leaving and cleaving. Glue to these things that will nurture that love among the saints. And then he goes on, as time has gone, and he brings in those two other terms to New Testament love.

He says in verse 10, be kindly affectioned one to another. This is the only time it's found in the New Testament. And the word kind here, you know, just spell it in the English, K-I-N-D.

Spell it kindred. Because that's what this is. Be kindredly affectioned.

It's that storge, storgas. It's family. It should come naturally to us to love our fellow believers.

As I thought about this, my mind went back to my boyhood. I have two older brothers. So we have a family of five.

My mother and father, of course, and then I have two older brothers. But I am five years younger than the middle one, and those two are closer. And they were friends to each other.

As I've said to others at times, I was their football. I was just their way of getting kicks at times. And, you know, it really bothered me.

But we were family. One day when I stuck up for my buddy across the road because the neighborhood bully was pushing him around, that neighborhood bully pushed my nose halfway across the front of my face. And when I got home, my oldest brother, that I hardly knew, cared for me, came out the door, asked what had happened, went down the street, and nearly pushed that boy's mother down the front door to get at him in the inside of that house.

And I found out my brother actually does care for me after all those years. That is kindred affection. It ought to come natural.

Families that don't have this interaction within them, this caring for, looking out for, I got your back kind of thing, that's a dysfunctional family. Be kindredly affectioned one to another. And then it adds, in verse 10, with brotherly love.

This is that being friendly to those that we are related to from the womb, literally is what it means. Be a friend to those from the womb. We are commonly born.

We ought to show friendship to us, each other then. So it's not just this enduring, oh, I'm going to show them some Christian love. I, you know, I choose to love them, you know, despite them.

There ought to be some developing of a relationship that, yes, it has conditions, but the Lord Jesus demonstrated that it is a life, or rather is a relationship that has affection, and it has choices, and is demonstrated by the manner of how you care.