Love in God's Family

The New Testament has a lot to say about the love, affection, respect and protectiveness that Christians have for each other as brothers and sisters in God’s family. That is the theme of today’s teaching.

Here are a few NT passages:

Romans 12.10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honour. There is only one competitive element in the Christian life: to outdo others in showing them love!

Hebrews 13.1 Let brotherly love continue. It’s momentum must be carried on. It must not grow stale or slacken. New ways of showing affection for each other must continually be brought out and constantly renewed.

1 Peter 1.22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. We were born again SO THAT we could have hearts that are considerate and affectionate towards our brothers and sisters. We are born again into a family – God’s!

1 Peter 3.8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 9 Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. We were called into faith in Christ so that we could be channels of God’s blessing (and in doing so be blessed ourselves). Brotherly and sisterly love is one of the most significant of these channels.

2 Peter 1.5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Brotherly and sisterly love is part of our fruitfulness. We must bear THAT type of fruit as evidence that Christ is at work in us.

These three apostles have said that brother and sister affection is vital evidence that Christ is alive and working in the Church. Brotherly and sisterly love is something to be highly prized, fostered, celebrated and massively increased.