Wednesday Bible Study: The add-tos part 7

 

2Pe 1:7  and with godliness, brotherly kindness....

You would think that, as famous as these verses are, I wouldn't have had such a time tearing them down!  But if there are two things God is trying to get through our heads with them, they are 1) they are gifts from Him, and 2) we need to WORK at them- and apparently that applies to the research, as well.  So let's get right to the breakdown.

You may already know that "brotherly kindness" comes from the Greek words that give us "Philadelphia".  And that is where we start (no, not in Philly!). Philos works out to 'actively fond' of someone.  Adelphos is "a brother".  It is the same word used when John talks about the Brethren...

1Jn 3:16  Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 

...and so we better realize that that word "active" covers a LOT of territory.  But what about the word brother?  One linkage I found was in Leviticus...

Lev 19:17  "You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. 

Lev 19:18  You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. 

Clearly drawn here is the link between 'brother' and 'neighbor'.  Interesting to look at the words used for each.  The word translated 'brother' is expressly noted as being 'in the widest possible sense'; That for 'neighbor' actually connects to the bond between a shepherd and his flock.  Thus, what God was expressing to Moses was, that EVERY man should be treated as your CLOSEST friend.

And that is HARD.  I got side-involved in an X discussion between a Christian friend and someone who took her to task over her stance on immigration.  This is highly charged politically, but we fail to see it from a SPIRITUAL side near as much.  The friend had a well-deserved blind spot: the weakness of border security has allowed "immigrants" to bring fentanyl into this country, and fentanyl killed a relative.  The other person was coming at it from another angle, one that shows Christian love even to our enemies.  Where I jumped in was trying to explain to her, if she disagreed with everything else the other person said, he was dead right on one thing: "Fentanyl kills the body; hate kills the soul".  Her response to me began with "This person is 100% infected with Marxism."

That is a reason to disagree; not to judge, name-call, or hate.  And the person's response, I hope, hit her dead center:

If you think it is your job to stop evil, you don't really believe Jesus saved the world

Jesus forgave all sins 

Your job is turn away from your own.

Now his theology is just slightly off, but the point is there: Brotherly kindness means we CANNOT hate our enemies.

In closing, I am brought to mind how many times a different commandment- "Honor your mother and father"- is the only one that comes with a promise.  But this one, adding brotherly kindness, comes with one as well, from Jesus's own lips:

Mat 10:41  The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward. 

Mat 10:42  And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward."