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e
philadelphia meneto (3SPAM)
LET LOVE OF THE BRETHREN (continually) CONTINUE: e philadelphia
meneto (3SPAM): A command to let this be your lifestyle.
Continue indicates that such love already exists. (see
Heb6:10) The use of the verb meno suggests that the bond had been in
danger of being severed. The fruit of a faithful live rooted in
Christ, the Source of life & godliness 2Pe1:3,v7. Brotherly love is
the natural outflow of the Christian life. It cannot be generated, but
it can be stifled as well as nurtured. We are therefore not told to
make it happen but to let it continue. When a person is saved he is
naturally drawn to fellowship with other believers.
The deepest fellowship is not based on blood but on whether you are
''under the blood of Jesus'' and have a future and a hope to share.
For brotherly love see: Ro12:10, 1Th4:9-10, 1pe1:22
Self-love perverts everything. Self must die if brotherly love is to
continue. Pride and self-love are fatal to brotherly love. Jesus,
God’s own Son, came not to be ministered to but to minister, not to do
His own will but His Father’s. Who had more reason to be proud than
Jesus, the Creator and Lord of the universe? Yet He said, “Take My
yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart”
(Mt11:29). The only source of brotherly love is a gentle and humble
heart, like the heart of Jesus.
As Christians, these Hebrew recipients no doubt had been rejected by
their friends and families. But the deepest kind of fellowship is not
based on race or family relationship; it is based on the spiritual
life we have in Christ. A church fellowship based on anything other
than love for Christ and for one another simply will not last.
How is it possible to love this way? Clue is present in Heb12:28 where
"have gratitude" could also be translated "continually having
grace"... in this way you are to offer to God an acceptable service in
reverence and awe. Grace is through the New Covenant but is not
internal as the Law is written on our hearts Heb8:10. See Ezek36:27,
Php2:12,13, Ro8:4. So this love is now possible because of a new
motivation within & a new power to carry it out...the Holy Spirit.
There had been an evident flagging of brotherly affection among the
members of the tiny Jewish congregation as it rode the increasingly
hostile seas of Roman culture. History and experience show that
persecution and the accompanying sense of dissonance with pagan and
secular culture can bring two opposite effects. One is to draw God’s
people together, but the other is to promote disaffection. For
example, in the 1830s two New York Christians, Reverend John McDowall
and Mr. Arthur Tappan, were drawn together in their battle against the
abuse of women fallen to prostitution, and the two men formed the
Magdalen Society. But when their work began to probe too close to the
heart of New York society, both found that they could, “scarcely go
into a hotel, or step for a moment on board a steamboat, without being
annoyed by ... angry hissing.” This, along with threats from Tammany
Hall and derisive newspaper coverage that branded Mr. Tappan as
“Arthur D. Fanaticus,” brought immense stress upon the two men, which
served to exacerbate their differences and finally ended their
friendship.
I have witnessed the same phenomenon when ministering in Europe at a
conference attended by some expatriate Eastern Europeans who under
lengthy persecution had become increasingly rigid, legalistic and
judgmental. I learned then that persecution can definitely have a
spiritual downside.
The structure of the command here to “Keep on loving each other as
brothers” (literally, “Let the brotherly love remain”) suggests that
the brotherly and sisterly bonds in the little church were dangerously
frayed among some of the members. This was not the way they had begun
because initially the fresh experience of salvation in Christ had
brought with it the discovery of a shared paternity, the joyous sense
of being brothers and sisters with the same Father, and the experience
of philadelphia—the word used here, meaning “brotherly love.”
At first, this love had come to those new believers as naturally as
one’s first steps, very much like Paul’s allusion to the similar
experience of the Thessalonians: “Now about brotherly love
[philadelphia] we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have
been taught by God to love each other” (1 Thessalonians 4:9). For
these new Christians, loving other believers was as easy as “falling
off a log.”They could not wait to get to church where they could drink
in the fellowship of the godly. The fellowship of their new brothers
and sisters was delectably mysterious to them, and they rejoiced in
plumbing the depth of each other’s souls.
Indeed, their brotherly love was a telltale sign of their salvation.
As the Apostle John would later write: “We know that we have passed
from death to life, because we love our brothers” (1 John 3:14). Their
impulse to brotherly love provided a sweet, inner self-authentication.
It also announced to the world that their faith was the real thing,
for Jesus had said, “All men will know that you are my disciples if
you love one another” (John 13:35).
What a glorious phenomenon brotherly love is—a sense of the same
paternity (a brotherly and sisterliness taught by God, a desire to
climb into each other’s souls), a sweet inner authentication, and the
sign of the real thing to the world.
But it had been waning in the little house-church with the years of
stress and uncertainty. Some of the brethren had grown weary of each
other. And a few actually seemed to exchange mutual hatred.
What to do? The answer given here is utterly volitional—they were to
will to practice brotherly love! Inwardly, this requires that we will
to consider the stupendous implications of our shared generation—that
we truly are “brothers” and sisters (the terms are not merely
sentimental but are objective fact)—that though we are millions, we
share only one Father—that we will still be brothers and sisters when
the sun turns to ice—that God is pleased when brothers and sisters
dwell together in unity (cf. Psalm 133 and John 17).
Outwardly, we must will to say and do only those things that will
enhance our philadelphia. To paraphrase Will Rogers, we must so order
our lips that we would not be afraid to sell the family parrot to the
pastor—or to any other Christian friend.
We must will to love one another. George Whitefield and John Wesley
did this even though they disagreed in matters of theology.
Whitefield’s words say it all:
My honored friend and brother… hearken to a child who is willing to
wash your feet. I beseech you, by the mercies of God in Christ Jesus
our Lord, if you would have my love confirmed toward you.… Why should
we dispute, when there is no possibility of convincing? Will it not,
in the end, destroy brotherly love, and insensibly take from us that
cordial union and sweetness of soul, which I pray God may always
subsist between us? How glad would the enemies of our Lord be to see
us divided.… Honored sir, let us offer salvation freely to all by the
blood of Jesus, and whatever light God has communicated to us, let us
freely communicate to others.
The will to let brotherly love remain—this is a divine duty. |
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tes philoxenias me epilanthanesthe (2PPMM) dia tautes gar elathon
(3PAAI) tines xenisantes (AAPMPN) aggelous
DO NOT NEGLECT (Stop completely forgetting) TO SHOW HOSPITALITY
(philos = affection) TO STRANGERS: tes philoxenias me epilanthanesthe:
(2PPMM):
Stop completely forgetting showing affection to xenos (strangers)
because it is an "acceptable service in reverance & awe" (12:28). How
does one do this? By grace (12:28), that power which transforms us
from our natural tendency toward selfism to the supernaturally
empowered reaching out to others who are not necessarily in our "in
group." After all the writer says you might even bump into an angel
this way! Cp OT teaching: Lev 19:34, Dt 10:18,19, Job 31:19,32, Isa
58:7
HOSPITALITY was an important
ministry in the early church because persecution drove many believers
away from their homes. Also, there were traveling ministers who needed
places to stay (3Jn5-8). Many poor saints could not afford to stay in
an inn; and since the churches met in homes (Ro16:5), it was natural
for a visitor to just stay with his host.
On entertaining strangers, see
Lv19:34 and Mt25:35-45 Since there were very few inns, the
entertainment and showing of hospitality to travelers was an important
part of Jewish home life. The early church met in homes, ministers
traveled (3Jn5-8), persecutions drove many believers from homes (10:34
"accepted joyfully the seizure of your property"), they were poor and
could not afford inns
FOR BY THIS: dia tautes gar:
SOME HAVE (shown hospitality to) ENTERTAINED ANGELS WITHOUT KNOWING
IT: elathon (AAInd) tines xenisantes (AAPMPN) aggelous:
Notice the angels who ate with
Abraham and later with Lot (Ge 18:2; 19:1-3).
Hospitality was a highly valued
Greek and Jewish virtue. It was absolutely necessary for the expansion
of the gospel and necessary for the maintenance of the fellowship
within the church as well as the image of the church from without.
In the ancient world there were
always many who were on the move. Inns were notoriously expensive,
dirty and immoral; and it was essential that the wayfaring Christian
should find an open door within the Christian community. To this day
no one needs Christian fellowship more than the stranger in a strange
place.
A person who is hospitable gives practical help to anyone who is in
need, friend or stranger, believer or unbeliever. He freely offers his
time, his resources, and his encouragement to meet the needs of
others. Jesus elevated hospitality in (Lu14:12,13,14). The Lord was
not, of course, saying that we are never to invite friends and
relatives over for a meal. He was pointing out that the true test of
godly, self-giving hospitality is not what we do for those that we
like to be around or who are likely to repay us in some way, but is
what we do for others solely out of sincere concern for their welfare.
You and I may not entertain
angels in a literal sense (though it is possible); but any stranger
could turn out to be a messenger of blessing to us. (The word “angel”
simply means “messenger.”) Often we have had guests in our home who
have turned out to be messengers of God’s blessings. |
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