HONOR ALL MEN. LOVE THE BROTHERHOOD. FEAR GOD.
HONOR THE KING. -KJV
This blog is blog number 2 of 4. If you haven’t yet, please go find and read
part one, “Honor All Men”. In these four
blogs, I am unpacking the four commands listed in 1 Peter 2:17. This blog will focus on the second command
from this verse, “Love the brotherhood.”
This will piggy back a little on the first one in the series.
LOVE THE BROTHERHOOD.
I want to structure this blog the same as the last. Start with defining the sentence. Then see what other scriptures have to say
that might help us better understand what this one is saying. What’s a brotherhood and how do we love
it? Let’s find out.
- Brotherhood: per the Merriam-Webster dictionary, brotherhood may be defined as “1. The quality or state of being brothers, 2. Fellowship, or alliance, 3. An association (such as a labor union or monastic society) for a particular purpose, 4. The whole body of persons engaged in a business or profession.”
That sounds a lot like a group of people all with the same
goals or overall purpose. Kinda like the
Church? Not a specific church, not a
specific denomination, but the body of believers that profess Jesus Christ as
their Lord and Savior.
If I may go on a little tangent for a second, I believe
denominations are tearing the “brotherhood” of believers apart. We are called to be united. We are called to all worship the same God and
serve the same purpose: bring Him glory.
Why do we let the “gray areas” of Christianity divide us in such a way
that one denomination believes all others that don’t believe the same way they
do are going to hell? Why do we rival
with fellow believers about who has the better version of Christianity? Why do we think we can play God and decide
this person is going to hell and that person is going to Heaven? Show me in the Bible where Jesus said only
certain denominations get into Heaven, and I’ll show you where He says all we
have to do is confess our sins and profess our faith in Jesus Christ as our
Lord and Savior and follow Him. Maybe
this wasn’t a tangent at all. Maybe this
has EVERYTHING to do with this portion of the verse.
Love. The. Brotherhood.
Not some of the brotherhood.
Not the part of the brotherhood that believes exactly the same as
you. The whole freaking thing. Love the fact that there is a body of believers
all serving the same God and thanking the same Jesus for taking all of our sins
away.
Now. Let’s see how
the Bible says we are to love.
- Romans 12:10 “Love one another with brotherly affection. Out do one another in showing honor.”
I talked about what “showing honor” means in the preceding
blog to this one, so I won’t repeat that information. But don’t just show honor. Out do the people around you in showing
honor.
1 Corinthians 13 is a great chapter to read regarding
love. It explains what love is and
isn’t, how it should be shown, and how important it is. I won’t post the whole thing here because I
am trying to keep these posts as short as possible. But please read it. Love is so important that at the end of the
chapter, Paul mentions that of faith, hope, and love, the greatest is love.
Love. I believe it’s
so important, I’ve got it permanently written on my forearm as a reminder to me
that I should constantly be spreading love.
Genuine, caring about everyone, type of love. Unfailing, unconditional love.
This is the kinda love we should have for all people, and
the kinda love that we should express towards the fact that there is a body of
believers serving the same savior as you and me.
Go love the brotherhood.
No comments:
Post a Comment