Lessons.—1. The Divine commands concern man’s highest good. 2. Take heed how ye hear. 3. To despise the Divine message is to be self-consigned to endless woe.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 9, 10.
Brotherly Love the Proof of a True Sanctification.
Love is the bond of perfectness, the golden cincture that binds together and beautifies all the other graces of the Christian character. Christianity has rescued man from barbarism and slavery. It was the first to advocate and insist upon the common brotherhood of humanity, and, by inspiring in the heart the love of Christ, has made it possible for men to love each other as brethren. This was the most striking feature of the Christian spirit in the early times, and to which even the enemies of the Church bore testimony. In the second century the scoffing Lucian declared: “It is incredible to see the ardour with which the people of that religion help each other in their wants. They spare nothing. Their first legislator has put it into their heads that they are all brethren.” The mutual exercise of love towards the brethren is an indisputable evidence of spiritual regeneration (1 John iii. 14); and in this chapter the apostle evidently alludes to it as the proof of a true sanctification. Observe:—
I. That brotherly love is Divinely taught.—“For ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another” (ver. 9).
1. It is commanded by Christ.—“These things I command you, that ye love one another” (John xv. 17). This is a lesson the world never taught and cannot teach. The natural heart is essentially selfish and cruel, and delights in fierce aggression on the rights of others, and in angry retaliation for fancied wrongs. Brotherly love is a fruit of Christianity and is a powerful influence in harmonising the warring interests of humanity. If love prevail, other graces will not be absent.
2. It has the example of Christ.—He frequently reminds His disciples of what should be the scope and character of their love towards each other—“As I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” The same glorious example was also the constant burden of the apostle’s teaching, “Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us” (John xiii. 34, xv. 12; Eph. v. 2). Brotherly love should be pure, humble, self-denying, fervent, unchangeable.
3. It is its own commendation.—“But as touching brotherly love, ye need not that I write unto you.” Love is modest and ingenuous in its exercise, making itself felt without obtrusiveness, and almost hiding itself underneath the multitude of benefits it creates. We should not hesitate to commend whatever good we see in others. The great Searcher of hearts does not pass over any good thing in a Church, though otherwise clouded with infirmities, without a laudatory notice (Rev. ii. 2, 3). A word of prudent commendation will often stimulate the soul in its endeavours after holiness.
4. It is a grace Divinely wrought.—“Ye yourselves are taught of God.” The heart is powerfully inclined to the exercise of this grace by the gracious working of the Holy Spirit, not independent of but in conjunction with the outward ministry of the Word. The invariable method of Divine teaching is explained in Jer. xxxi. 33; Acts xvi. 14. Those are easily taught whom God doth teach.
II. That brotherly love must be practically manifested.—“And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia” (ver. 10). Love is not limited by locality or distance; it is displayed, not only towards those we know and with whom we have Christian communion, but towards those whose faces we have not seen. The foreign missionary enterprise is a magnificent monument of modern Christian charity. Love should be practically manifested in supplying, as far as means and opportunity will allow, each other’s need, in bearing one another’s burdens, in forgiving one another, and, if necessary, in kindly reproving one another. During the retreat of Alfred the Great, at Athelney, in Somersetshire, after the defeat of his forces by the Danes, a beggar came to his little castle there and requested alms. When his queen informed him they had only one small loaf remaining, which was insufficient for themselves and the friends who had gone abroad in quest of food with little hope of success, the king replied: “Give the poor Christian one half of the loaf. He who could feed five thousand men with five loaves and two small fishes, can certainly make that half of the loaf suffice for more than our necessities.” Accordingly, the poor man was relieved, and this noble act of charity was soon recompensed by a providential store of fresh provisions with which the foraging party returned.