Growth in Grace 18 — Summary Applications

In this series I have been writing about what I called the Bible’s most systematic and detailed call to growth in grace.  It is found in 2 Peter 1:5-7,  “Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge,  6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness,  7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.”   In this blog it is my purpose to set before you first a summary illustration and then five summary applications of these verses.

I.       Summary Illustration

I remember being quite bothered by this passage when I first began to study it.  Here is why.  I have told you a number of times especially early on in this series that it cannot and does not teach the building block or lego-block view of sanctification and growth in grace.  Now I have had to say that because at first hearing the passages may sound like that to many people.  Are we not to add or supply these graces to one another?  This sounds like laying one brick of sanctification on top of another.  Now we know that this building block view of growth in grace is wrong.  Let me give you two good reasons for this.

  • First, this is a description of what Peter calls “growing in grace.”  Look at 2 Peter 3:18:  “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”  Indisputably 2 Peter 1:5-7 is Peter’s extended description of what it means to grow in grace.  Growth is not a building block kind of thing.  It is an organic development kind of thing.
  • Second, we know that none of these graces is genuine unless it is only in connection with the others.  Faith is not genuine unless it is attended with moral excellence.  Peter cannot mean to imply that at some time or for some period faith is without moral excellence.  If that were the case, it would not be true faith.  This is true for all of these graces.  For instance, Paul says that if we don’t have love we are nothing and no true Christians in 1 Corinthians 13:1-3.  “I am nothing,” he says.  Thus, the building block image of what Peter is saying here cannot be correct.  It would contradict everything we know about the inter-relatedness of all saving grace.

After considerable thought trying to find an image or illustration which did more justice than the building block image to what Peter is saying here, the illustration that finally came to me was very helpful to me.  I hope it is to you.  It is drawn from the arena of plant life and better fits with the image of growth in grace with which Peter is working.

It is the image of wonderful flower.  You have seen how flowers, say roses, which you may buy in the bud gradually open wider and wider revealing more and more petals within the initial bud.  Suppose a flower in which each opening internal circle of petals was a new and splendid color.  The initial bud might be white, but as it opened the next petals visible might blue, and then yellow, and finally at the center of it all perhaps red petals would be revealed.  You could say that as the flower opened it was supplying the initial and external white petals with blue, yellow, and red petals.  Thus, it is with growth in grace.  It is not as though faith is without moral excellence, but as it opens it reveals within moral excellence.  It is not as though moral excellence is ever truly without knowledge, but as it opens within it you see knowledge.  It is not as though knowledge is ever without self-control, but as it opens you see self-control within the knowledge.  I want you to think of growth in grace like this wonderful gradually opening flower.  Love is the innermost bud, but it is contained in the faith which is the first visible grace.  Thus what you have is an artificial and external building block structure, but a gradually unfolding organic development in which the full splendor of grace is progressively revealed in its full glory.  So Peter is saying to the Christian grow, unfold, bloom, and reveal in your life the full splendor of the glory of the grace of Christ!  Each of my summary applications builds on the image and illustration of this beautiful flower.

The Basis of Progressive Sanctification:  This beautiful flower of which I have been speaking can only be opened up by the power of God’s grace!

Under this heading it is my burden to remind you and press upon you the emphasis with which Peter began this exhortation.  It is that growth in grace is not a self-help program, but a gospel program that takes place by grace through faith.  This is why faith is first.  This is why nothing goes before it.  This is the whole point of verses 1-4.  God by His sovereign grace lays the foundation for the Christian life by giving us faith, putting us into possession of faith.  Then it is through this faith trusting the great promises of God that we grow in grace.

The Christian life is not a bicycle.  It is an automobile.  Its power is not your spiritual muscles, but God’s sovereign grace.   Its secret is not the exhausting pumping of your spiritual legs, but the pressure of faith on the accelerator of grace.  The engine of faith running on the gasoline of grace powers the Christian life.  This is the power plant of the Christian life.  God purifies our hearts by faith.  He breaks into the human heart by creating the doorway of faith and through that doorway come the resources of His sovereign grace.  The life that we live in the flesh, then, we live by faith in the Son of God.  We must keep on believing in the power of God’s grace to forgive and subdue our sins and keep taking that grace by the empty hand of faith.  By faith we keep putting on the Lord Jesus Christ.  This is Peter’s point in beginning the list with faith.  Nothing goes before faith, because we are saved by grace through faith, and we live the Christian life by grace through faith.

The Danger of Spiritual Complacency (especially for mature Christians): This beautiful flower must be continually opening throughout the Christian life!

2 Peter is written to those who have been Christians for some period of time.  It is written to those who are viewed as established Christians.   Just a few verses later than our passage in the first chapter and then again in the third chapter Peter himself makes this application to established Christians.

2 Peter 1:12 Therefore, I shall always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you.

2 Peter 3:17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard lest, being carried away by the error of unprincipled men, you fall from your own steadfastness

One of Peter’s clear purposes in this exhortation to growth in grace is, then, to warn established Christians about the danger of spiritual complacency.

The Identity of Christian Priorities: The opening up of this beautiful flower in our lives is the true priority of the Christian life!

Another great value of this exhortation and its list of virtues is that it reminds us what the true priorities of the Christian life are.  Every brand of Christianity is in danger of degenerating into a kind of formalism and externalism that equates Christianity with things that may be fine in themselves, but are not its true priorities.  Thus, witnessing becomes the mark of maturity in some churches.  In others it has been not going to movies, or super-strict Sabbath observance, or not smoking, or not dancing, or not drinking.  In others it is a certain style of dress to which you must conform.  In other churches the mark of Christian maturity is being active in church-work, Christian service, or Christian volunteer organizations.  I am not commenting on the merits or demerits of any of these things.  My simple point is that Peter’s list of virtues puts the priority on the heart, heart-graces, and spiritual virtues.  It is possible to be perfectly conformed to all the externals I mentioned and many others, and not be growing in grace at all.

The Mark of Authentic Christianity: If the flower of a supposed faith opens only to show a black center, what you have is not the Christian flower or genuine Christianity!

In the immediate context of this exhortation Peter lays out five reasons why growth in these graces is so important.  The substance of each one is that these graces are the indispensable mark of genuine Christianity.  Let me quickly summarize those reasons:

  • 1st Reason – Growth in grace constitutes us those who are not fruitless (v. 8).
  • 2nd Reason – Growth in grace means that we are not spiritually blind (v. 9).
  • 3rd Reason – Growth in grace makes certain that God has called and chosen us (v. 10a).
  • 4th Reason – Growth in grace assures us that we will never apostatize (v. 10b).
  • 5th Reason – Growth in grace assures us of an entrance into the eternal kingdom (v. 11).

You see the point?  It is the face of a monster and not a human face if it is without a chin, or a forehead, or two eyes, or a nose, or a mouth.  Even so it is not genuine Christianity if any of these graces are simply missing.  True Christianity may not be mature, but it is complete.  Every false way is hated.  Every true virtue is pursued.

The Attractiveness of Growing Grace: Growth in grace is the secret of an attractive and useful Christian life.  Each grace unfolds within the previous like a flower opens to display more and more of its beauty.  Such a flower is attractive to men.  Such growth in grace is useful and attractive as well.

Look at 2 Peter 1:8.  Two words are used in this verse to describe the state of uselessness that is the opposite of the attractive and useful condition of the growing in Christian.

The professing Christian who is not supplying these graces in his faith is described as useless.  The word also means unprofitable, worthless, idle, or unemployed.

The professing Christian who is not supplying these graces in his faith is also described in verse 8 as unfruitful.  The word also means barren, useless, or unproductive.

If we have this wonderful flower of grace opening more and more in our lives.  It will make us both useful and fruitful Christians.  There is a tremendous attraction and usefulness in the Christian who is genuinely growing in grace. There is no contradiction between growing in grace and being truly useful and fruitful to others.  Growth in grace is the path to true usefulness.

The secret to increased fruitfulness and usefulness in the kingdom of God is growth in grace.  Do you mourn over your comparative unfruitfulness?  Here is what you can do about it.  Grow in grace.  Supply these graces in your faith.  Grow in moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love.  These qualities in you and increasing will according to Peter make you fruitful and useful.

Growth in Grace 17 — Brotherly Kindness Must Be Supplied with Love 2

We are considering 2 Peter 1:7 and its teaching that brotherly kindness (or love) must be supplied with love.  In expounding this text I am answering three questions.

I.       What is this love?
II.      Why must brotherly kindness be supplied with it?
III.     Why is this love the last virtue mentioned and in no need of being supplied with another virtue?

Having answered the first of these questions in the last post, I come to the second:

II.      Why must brotherly kindness be supplied with it?

We have observed again and again that the reason Peter follows the precise order that he does in these verses is that the previous grace or virtue has a deformed twin with the same name.  Faith un-supplied with moral excellence is the faith of demons.  True faith is always permeated with moral excellence.  Now what deformity does brotherly kindness turn into without love?  In other words, what counterfeit with the name of brotherly love—that some people call brotherly love—is marked by the fact that it is empty and devoid and un-supplied with universal benevolence?  It turns into the kind of exclusivistic preference for our own kind which is manifested in prejudice and racism.  It is this kind of racial preference and prejudice and hatred which made the Jews reject the Gentiles as unworthy of any love or concern.

Thus, even brotherly kindness is capable of being perverted and being turned into an exclusivistic preference for those who are like us. It is the need for supplying brotherly kindness with love which was in Jesus’ mind when he exhorted his disciples to love their enemies (Matt. 5:43-48).  The Jews provide the example of those who claimed to love the brethren, but were devoid of this universal benevolence.  They even perverted the Old Testament Scriptures in favor of their spiritual deformity.

Matthew 5:43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR, and hate your enemy.’ 44 “But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you 45 in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax-gatherers do the same? 47 “And if you greet your brothers only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Any so-called brotherly love that does not overflow in a spirit of genuine good will towards its enemies and towards those outside its little spiritual circle is counterfeit.  The true grace of brotherly kindness overflows in the grace of universal benevolence.

III.    Why is this love the last virtue mentioned and in no need of being supplied with another virtue?

The peculiar thing about love in this list of virtues is that it is the last one.  This is significant because all the other virtues Peter is careful to say must be supplied with some balancing and completing grace.  Not so love!  Love is not completed or supplied by any further grace.  Love is the end and goal.  The reason is that love is the essence of Christian maturity.  When love is reached, the finish line is crossed.  If we are familiar with the New Testament, it will not surprise us that with love the goal is attained.  There are at least three other passages that speak of love as the goal and perfection and fulfillment of Christian grace.

Colossians 3:14 And beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity (literally, the bond of perfection or completeness).

Romans 13:8 Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. 9 For this, “YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, YOU SHALL NOT COVET,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; love therefore is the fulfillment of the law.

1 Timothy 1:5 But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

Has the goal of the gospel been achieved in you? You love those who are like you and perhaps many of them are Christians.  That is not bad.  But the farthest end of the gospel is not fulfilled in this.  The farthest end of the gospel is only attained in universal benevolence or love.  True brotherly kindness will overflow in a desire for the welfare and blessing of all men.  In this the heart of God possesses our hearts and we become perfect like our Father in heaven is perfect.

We have here a wonderful magnifying glass with which to examine ourselves.  It is so easy to justify ourselves in arguments with our spouses and in the breakdown of marital relationships.  A simple lack of benevolent love is so often the problem.  We cannot see our own sinfulness.  We are focused on how unlovely and unloving our mate is being. But even if this is the case, you still must look at your own attitudes and conduct under the magnifying glass of the love we are talking about this morning—universal benevolence!  Do you see how your words, conduct, and behavior are lacking in this simple love of sheer good will which does not depend on the other person’s character or conduct?  Rebuke yourself and repent and ask forgiveness through the blood of Christ and confess your sin of a lack of love to your spouse or friend or child.  Only then will you put the relationship in question on the road to recovery.

A heart for the evangelism of the lost is rooted in this love of universal benevolence.  A lack of heart for evangelism is a dreadful manifestation of the lack of this love.  How in your life is such love manifesting itself? How are you helping to forward the church’s fulfillment of the Great Commission?

Growth in Grace 16 — Brotherly Kindness Must Be Supplied with Love

The old popular song, you know who sang it, goes like this: “All you need is love, All you need is love, All you need is love, love, Love is all you need.”  Sadly, the generation which grew up with these lyrics has shown that it actually understands so little about love.  This alone should attract our intention to what the Bible teaches about this whole matter of love.  This especially is true because in the passage which we have been studying two kinds of love are contrasted.  Please consider 2 Peter 1:7 and its teaching that brotherly kindness (or love) must be supplied with love.  In expounding this text I want to ask, answer, and apply three questions.  The three questions are …

I.       What is this love?
II.      Why must brotherly kindness be supplied with it?
III.     Why is this love the last virtue mentioned and in no need of being supplied with another virtue?

I. What is this love?

The word used here is the famous Greek word, agape.  Everyone who has been a  Bible-believing Christian for any amount of time has probably heard some preacher or other refer to God’s agape love.  Of course, in our text it is not God’s love in itself that is in view, but a love that is a grace found in the heart and lives of Christians.  I will argue later that there is no more important grace than this one.  I will do so under five D’s.

A. Its Distinction

This love is clearly distinguished by Peter from brotherly love or kindness.  The previous grace is translated by the NASB, brotherly kindness.  But if you look at the word in the original, it is literally, brotherly love.  But the word for love used in this word is different than the one we have been studying.  Remember it is Philadelphia. In philadelphia the phil part is from a Greek word which also means love, but it is not the word we are studying this morning, agape.  Agape is to be supplied into brotherly love and, therefore, must be different than brotherly love or kindness.  A different word is used, and a different concept is in view.   John Brown states the distinction of this love from the previous love when he says, Brotherly kindness is to be the social character of the Christian in reference to the church–…love, in reference to the world.  It is not love for the brethren, but a love that includes the whole world that is here in view.

B. Its Demand

This love is demanded by the express and fundamental command of God.  Many times the Creator requires that we love our neighbor and not just our brother.  This command is presented as one of the basic requirements of the law of God.

Leviticus 19:18 ‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.

Matthew 22:35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And He said to him, “‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ 38 “This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 “The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ 40 “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

Luke 10:29 But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

The biblical answer to the question, Who is my neighbor? Is the one we teach our children in their catechism:  All my fellow men are my neighbors.  We are to love our fellow men because they are made in the image of God and bear His likeness.  One of the most interesting passages in the Bible with which to illustrate this is Genesis 9:1-6.   The very theme of this passage is that God loves people.  This is why He commands that the earth be filled with people by procreation.  This is why He makes provision for people to be fed by giving them both plants and animals to eat.  This is why He institutes the death penalty for those who kill people.  The whole Noahic Covenant teaches plainly that God loves people, and the Noahic Covenant tells us why God loves people.  He loves people because they are made in the image of God (Gen. 9:6).  It is important to realize that people are still made in the image of God in a fallen world.  Speaking of fallen and sinful human beings God commands that they not be murdered because they are made in the image of God.  Even fallen human beings are made in the image of God and are to be loved because of it.  Anything that cheapens human life is contrary to one of the most basic commands of the Bible. 

C. The Definition

So far we have talked about the distinction of this love as love for the whole world of men and not just for Christian brothers.  We have also talked about the fact that this love is demanded by God simply because men are made in the image of God.  Now we must ask, What exactly is this love?  How should this love be defined?

Here again we must note that this love is contrasted with brotherly kindness.  The nature of brotherly love, as I said last week, is that it is rooted in the fact that I am a Christian brother and the one I am loving is a Christian brother.  Because we are both born again, we love each other.  Thus, this brotherly love has its basis in who and what the other person is.  It is a love of delight that finds something spiritually worthy of love in the other person.

Now the love to be supplied in this brotherly kindness is according to Peter something different.  This love may be defined as good-will, a desire for the good and happiness of the other person, no matter what they are.  A philosopher or theologian might call it universal benevolence.  In the church we speak of giving a person benevolence.  We mean that we are going to give them some charity.  Benevolence or charity is not given to someone because they earned it.  Benevolence is not pay.  It is charity.  Now this love of which Peter is speaking is universal benevolence.  It is love shown to men just because they are men and no matter what their spiritual or moral character might be.  It is not a love of delight.  It is a love of benevolence.  These are two different kinds of love. And we learn, thus, from 2 Peter 1:5-7 that there are two different kinds of love.

Let me illustrate this distinction to you.  Suppose you and your wife volunteer once a week at one of the institutions which feeds and houses druggies and drunks.  Now suppose you and your wife wanted to spend a relaxing evening of fellowship with friends.  Who would you choose to spend it with?  Would you go down to that local half-way house and spend your evening talking with criminals and druggies?  No?  You would prefer to spend it with Christian brethren.  Well, what’s your problem?  Don’t you love the people in that half-way house?  Well, you do, and your life proves you do, but there is a difference between the love of delight you have for your Christian friends and the love of benevolence you have for the inhabitants of the local half-way house.

The Bible, in fact, teaches that we are not to love the world with a love of delight, even though we are to love the world with a love of benevolence.  Recall 1 John 2:15: “Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”  We are to have a love of delight for our brethren.  We are not to have a love of spiritual delight for the world.  For the world we are to feel good will and benevolence, but not delight.  We are to wish for their happiness.  We are to pity them, but we are not to delight in them spiritually.  It is a love of benevolence for all mankind of which Peter is speaking in our text.

D. Its Demonstration

How is such a love of benevolence manifested or demonstrated?  Negatively, it is manifested by doing no injury to our fellow men.  Romans 13:10 teaches:  “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; love therefore is the fulfillment of the law.”  Positively, love is demonstrated when we relieve the needs and especially the spiritual needs of our fellow men.

Matthew 5:44 “But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you”

Luke 6:35 “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.

It is not just to our fellow believers that we are to be benevolent.  There is to be a benevolent place in our heart for any of our fellow men that we see in need.  Galatians 6:10 makes this clear:  So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.

E. Its Divinity

It is important to realize that in calling us to this love Peter is asking us to be like God.  There is something peculiarly divine about universal benevolence.  God’s love for men is sincere and universal.  Listen to the words of John Brown on this subject:

As to the characteristic qualities of this love, they may all be described in one word.  This love to the world of mankind, should resemble God’s.  It should be sincere and universal.  God does not, cannot love the world, as he loves His own.  Christians do not, cannot, love the world as they love the brotherhood.  But God does love the world; He loves man as man; His love is philanthropy—the love of man; and so should be the Christians.  That man is wicked, is no reason that I should not love him: when men were sinners, Christ, God’s Son, died for them.  He makes His sun to shine, and His rain to fall, on the unthankful and evil.  It is no reason why I should not love a man, that he is my enemy: when men were enemies, they were reconciled to God through the death of His son.  God’s love to the world is an active love.  What human being does not enjoy innumerable fruits of His love?  And this is the most remarkable fruit of His love—He gave His only-begotten Son to suffer and die, that any man—every man, however guilty and depraved, believing in Him, “might not perish but have everlasting life.”  Our love to man should be fruitful love , and one of its chief fruits should be the carrying to all men the soul-saving truth—that God loves the world, and that whosoever believes in His Son who died, the just in the room of the unjust, shall not perish.  God’s love to the world is patient, long-suffering love.  Had it been otherwise, where would our guilty race have been?—Not in the land of the living, not in the place of hope.  “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.”  Our love to a perishing world should “suffer long and be kind;” our compassions should not fail.  No obstinacy nor ingratitude should induce us to relinquish, or even to abate, our labours of love among our guilty, depraved, perishing brethren.  They can never try us as we have tried God—we never can bear with them as He has borne with us.

Several Applications:

First, let me apply this by way of instruction.  Confusion has reigned among some Calvinists over whether God loves everybody.  Those who deny this do not have a hard time finding texts which tell Christians not to love the world.  They do not even have a hard time finding texts which say that God does not love the ungodly.

Psalm 5:5 The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity.

Psalm 11:5  The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked, And the one who loves violence His soul hates.

But these texts are not the whole of the story.  “Does God love the wicked?” is not one of those questions that can be answered in just one word.  If you say either “yes” or “no,” you are wrong.  Why?  Because there is more than one kind of love!  So both the tract that tells unconverted men that God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their life, and the tract that tells them that God hates them and has a terrible plan for their life—both of them are wrong and one-sided.  The fact is that God does not love the wicked with a love of delight, but He does love them with a love of benevolence.

Second, let me apply this by way of clarification.  I have said in the previous application Be like God—love the unlovely!  Now here I want to say Be like God in the way you love the unlovely and the ungodly.  Do not feel that you have to like the wicked or delight in them in order to truly love them.  I believe that sincere Christians often struggle with the command to love their ungodly enemies.  I know I did when I had to rub shoulders with some of them every day at work in Amway’s Central Warehouse in Ada, Michigan.  This distinction between a love of delight and a love of benevolence is one great help in those struggles.  You are not called to like the wicked or delight in them.  If they are ungodly, you cannot and you should not delight in them or like them.  You are called to have good will toward them.  You are called to pray for them.  You are called to greet them.  You are called to do good to them.  You are not called to delight in them!

Growth in Grace 15 — Brotherly Kindness Must Be Supplied into Godliness 2

2 Peter 1:7 commands, “and in your godliness, (supply) brotherly kindness.”  My outline is similar to that of previous posts on this passage.  We have considered: The Virtue Viewed

Now consider The Connection Clarified.

Again and again we have observed that there is a reason for the careful order that Peter observes in his list as he tells to supply one grace after another in the previously mentioned grace.  Why does brotherly kindness follow godliness?  And why is it precisely godliness into which brotherly kindness must be supplied?

John Brown proposes that the connection between godliness and brotherly kindness is that brotherly kindness grows out of godliness.  He says:

There can be no brotherly kindness where there is no godliness.  It is by God’s becoming our spiritual Father that we become spiritual brethren.   While I am ungodly, godly men are not my brethren; I am of my father the devil, and his children are my brethren.  It is by becoming godly that I am brought into God’s family…

Now all that Brown says is truth, but it is not in my opinion the truth taught in our text.  The text does not say brotherly kindness originates in godliness, but that godliness must be supplied with brotherly kindness.  It is the possible deficiency of godliness, not its positive fruitfulness that is under discussion.

Godliness must be supplied with brotherly kindness because too often the profession of religion, the form of godliness, has been associated with the most harsh and unfeeling attitudes towards other Christians.  May I put it this way?  Some people become so godly that they become inhuman.  Remember the synagogue official in Luke 13:14 who became indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath?  Here was a man who certainly had the form of godliness.  He did not become what the Greek calls the synagogue ruler by being irreligious, you can be sure.   He no doubt was very dedicated to the public worship of the synagogue. No doubt he attended worship carefully, gave His tithes religiously, and was meticulous in seeing that worship was carried according to the strict traditions of the Jews. Most manifestly, he observed God’s Sabbath.

Remember the Pharisees’ view of Sabbath-keeping.  Their religious Sabbath-keeping had become so strict, that Jesus had to remind them of several important qualifications to the complete rest required on the Sabbath.  He reminded them that the Sabbath was made for man—not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27).  He reminded them that God desired compassion and not sacrifice (Matt. 12:7) in the keeping of the Sabbath.  He told them that works of necessity and mercy do not violate God’s Sabbath (Matt. 12:3, 4, 11, 12).

Here, then, was a man—a Pharisee—who had failed to supply in his godliness brotherly kindness.  Such godliness, such religion, is the reason James said, “This is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father, to visit orphans and widows in their distress…” (Jas. 1:27)

It is the characteristic of this series of blogs with each new grace I have to qualify what I have previously.  The reason is that Peter after naming each grace tells us that it must be supplemented or supplied with another.  Previously, I stressed to you the importance of godliness.  I told you how empty self-control and even perseverance were if they were not the kind of self-control and perseverance permeated with godliness.  Now I have to tell you that there is a false kind of godliness or religiosity that is just as empty if it is not supplemented and supplied with brotherly love. 

Here we are reminded of the importance of balance in the Christian life.  I will let Lloyd-Jones speak to this matter:

We see that each of these qualities adds and contributes to the others; every one has its own importance and yet each one influences the others.  We see the importance vigour, and yet we see the importance of controlling vigour by knowledge.  Every one has its own function, and yet each affects the others and therefore contributes to the whole.  In other words, what impresses me most of all about this list is its perfect balance.  There is no other life that has this balance.  There are people who are highly intellectual and very cultured, but perhaps not moral; there are others who are morally blameless, but not very intelligent; and there are those who have great will power, but somehow there is something lacking.  There is no life that shows this perfect balance but the Christian life that is depicted here.

All the graces that Peter refers to in this list are marks and signs of election.  Cf. the following passage, 2 Peter 1:8-11, especially v. 10.  I believe, however, that the New Testament lays special emphasis on brotherly love as an especially helpful mark of being born of God.  We have already looked at two passages that clearly suggest this.  1 Thessalonians 4:10 and 1 Peter 1:22 closely associate coming to love the brethren with the great change that takes place when a man is truly converted to Jesus Christ.  But the greatest and most concentrated emphasis is on love for the brethren as a mark of the new birth, and it comes in 1 John.

Consider 1 John 3:10-14:

10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.  11 For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another;  12 not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.  13 Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you.  14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.

Love for the brethren is a two-edged sword.  Its presence shows that we are the children of God and have come into life.  Its absence shows that we have are the children of the devil and abide in death.  Do you see the implication?  It is not that love for the brethren is a good sign of conversion, but that if we lack it we may still be Christians.  No!  Love for the brethren is an essential necessary mark of being born again.  Its absence means that we are lost.

Faithfulness requires me here to speak to the subject of the marks of grace.  Whenever people hear about the marks of grace or the signs that someone is really a Christian, they have a tendency to focus on those signs and practically forget everything they ought to know about the gospel of Christ.  Before, therefore, I come to press this subject; I want to take the opportunity to remind you that salvation is by grace alone.  We do nothing to earn God’s favor.  We do nothing to make God be kindly disposed towards our salvation.  Our righteousness before God by which we are justified in His sight does not consist in anything we do, and it certainly does not consist in our righteously loving our brethren.  Our righteousness is the obedience of Christ imputed to us, put to our account.  It is an alien righteousness that we did not make or earn, but a righteousness that is simply given to us.

The question I am addressing is not how someone can be righteous in the sight of God.  The answer to that question is by faith in Christ alone. The question I am addressing is a different.  I am addressing the question: How can I be sure that I have genuine faith in Christ?  The problem is a real one, because the Bible teaches that there is a kind of faith that is not saving.  There is a false faith that is not supplied with moral excellence and that James says is dead being by itself.  This is a reality of which the Bible speaks.  It presents a real problem for the assurance of some Christians.  Chief among those who struggle with this problem are those raised in Christian homes and who have not had a dramatic conversion experience from a life in the world to a life in Christ.  I know because I myself struggled with just such a problem of assurance as one raised in a Christian home.  The question with which someone like that may struggle is: Do I have genuine faith?  Or do I have the false faith of the devils that believe and tremble? There is no avoiding such questions.  I think it is good to face them and answer them before God with judgment day honesty.

The New Testament teaches that one of the most helpful things for such a person to do is to look at themselves in light of this whole matter of brotherly love or love for the brethren.  It can be hard to see if you love a God who is an unseen, but it is not so hard to see if you love God’s people.  Your relationship to God and Christ will be outwardly and tangibly and clearly reflected in your relationships with people.  In the world there are two and only two kinds of people.  There are believers and there are unbelievers.  There are the righteous and the wicked.  There are the children of God, and there are the children of the devil.  The question is simply this.  Which group do you love?  Do you gravitate to people that you look at as Christians?  Do you seek friendship and relationships among those who in your opinion are believers?  Or do you find in the secret of your heart a desire to be with those whom you know are worldly?  This is not a difficult question to answer, and it becomes more and more clear the more you become an adult.  You can tell who someone is by looking at his friends.  If he loves the brethren, he has passed from death to life.  If he loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Growth in Grace 14 — Brotherly Kindness Must Be Supplied into Godliness

One of the most important and practical questions that any Christian can face is: How can I know if I am a Christian?  There is a kind of spiritual instinct by which any one in earnest about his soul is intensely interested in such a question.  In our study of growth in grace, we come to consider a virtue that is of great help in answering the question: How can I know if I am a Christian?  2 Peter 1:7 commands, “and in your godliness, (supply) brotherly kindness.”  My outline is similar to that of previous posts on this passage.  We will consider:

I.       The Virtue Viewed
II.     The Connection Clarified
III.   The Distinction Displayed

I.                  The Virtue Viewed

A.      Its Focus

The NASB translates the Greek word for the virtue under discussion as brotherly kindness.  This is a fine translation, but it may disguise the fact that the Greek word is literally brotherly love.  We have a famous city in our country the name of which is an exact English transliteration of the Greek word used.  The birthplace of our nation is called the city of brotherly love.  It is called that because its name, Philadelphia, means that in the Greek language.  Philadelphia is the Greek word used in our text.

Now the brother in view here in 2 Peter 1:7 is our fellow Christian.  It is perfectly possible, of course, for this word, brotherly love, elsewhere in Greek literature and in the  Bible to be used of affection for our physical brothers—either our siblings or our countryman.  This is, however, clearly not how the word is used in the New Testament.  In the New Testament it is always used of love for our spiritual brothers, our fellow believers in Christ.  A simple reading of the other four texts will, I think, persuade you of this.

Romans 12:10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor

1 Thessalonians 4:9 Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another

Hebrews 13:1 Let love of the brethren continue.

1 Peter 1:22 Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart

Another thing that assures us that it is love for our fellow believers that is in view in this passage is that Peter distinguishes this brotherly love from love.   Brotherly affection or kindness, as we will see in future posts, is to be supplied with love.  Thus, Peter distinguishes the two.

Finally, love for our physical brothers is one of those things that the Bible describes as a natural affection.  In this passage, however, Peter is talking about Christian graces.  He is exhorting Christians to grow in grace.  In such a list it does not make sense for him to refer to something that is merely a natural affection and not a Christian grace.  Everything about this passage persuades us that the love in view is love for our spiritual brothers, our fellow believers in Christ.

The media-molders of our society may talk bravely about loving everybody, but I have noticed that they have a hard time practicing what they preach when it comes to born again Christians.  Every other minority finds a special place in their affections.  It is just born again Christians that they have a hard time saying a decent word about.

The distinctive virtue we are looking at today is just the opposite.  It has a special place in its heart exactly for born again Christians and the more consistently they act like born again Christians the more this special affection is kindled in their hearts.  The great question I am raising today has to do with whether this grace is in your heart and growing there, or whether any love you have is more like that of the world.

B.               Its Foundations

This love is grounded in the fact that God has given spiritual birth to both individuals—the one loving and the one loved—and they view each other as God’s sons and their Christian brothers.  The key passage is 1 Peter 1:22, 23:  “Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of God.”

Here the love of the brethren is closely associated with being saved.  Strikingly, verse 22 speaks of conversion when it says that in obedience to the truth you purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren.  Brotherly love is the direct result of being converted.  Verse 23 goes on to explain why we should have a fervent love for our brethren by saying for you have been born again of imperishable seed.  One of the great marks or results of being born again is love for the brethren.

This same thing is implied in 1 Thessalonians 4:9: Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another.  The language of taught by God refers to the work of God in drawing men to come to Christ (John 6:44, 45).  Thus, Paul is saying that one of the basic results of coming to Christ is learning to love the brethren.

Now an understanding that these are the foundations of Christian love is crucial for understanding that brotherly love is universal or catholic.  In other words a unique feature of this brotherly love is that it is extended to all Christian brothers simply because they are Christian brothers.

This is a deduction from the foundations of this love.  Men are loved in and because of their identity as born again Christians.  Thus, brotherly love is love for all and only those who are born again.  Mistakes may be made in two directions with regard to this matter.  There is the mistake of sectarianism and the mistake of ecumenism.

There is the sectarian mistake.  Here the problem is that no one is recognized as a Christian Brother except those of my own denomination or movement.  Here we must remind ourselves that our love is for those who are born again.  It is not simply for those who share my distinctive doctrinal or practical understanding of the Bible.

There is the ecumenical mistake.  Here the problem is that brotherly love is extended in an unprincipled way to all that profess Christ’s name.  Brotherly love is affection for the reality and not merely for the name.  It is a love of delight for those who bear Christ’s image and show the spiritual marks of the new birth.  Yet more, brotherly love is even love for those who are most like Christ in their living and their thinking.  Thus, there are clear doctrinal and practical limits and motives to brotherly love.

Sectarianism and ecumenism are not the brotherly love of our text.  They do, however, often masquerade as if they are.  We must beware of both extremes.

C.               Its Fervency

There is a tremendous emphasis in the passages where this word is used in the New Testament on the fervency or zeal or intensity by which this love for the brethren should be characterized (Romans 12:10, 1 Thess. 4:10, 1 Peter 1:22).

1 Peter 1:22 Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart

Romans 12:10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor

1 Thessalonians 4:10 for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more

In these three texts the fervency of this love is emphasized in three ways:  fervently, be devoted, excel still more are the emphasizing words.  The word fervently comes from a word that means to extend.  The word devoted comes from a word used of the loyalty and commitment we should feel to our own family.  The word excel comes from a word that means to abound or increase.   Our love for the brethren should be characterized by great extent, loyal commitment, and abounding increase.

D.               Its Fruit

The Bible teaches that brotherly love will have many and various fruits.  A number of passages impress us with the biblical emphasis on the many and various kinds of fruit that the tree of brotherly love will bear.

Romans 12:10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; 11 not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; 12 rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, 13 contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and curse not. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. 16 Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation.

Hebrews 13:2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. 3 Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body.

1 Peter 3:8 To sum up, let all be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit

1 John 3:16 We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoever has the world’s goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.

Let me close this post with several applicatory questions:  What are the tangible expressions of this brotherly love for other believers in your life?  How can you abound still more in love for the brethren?  How can you practice the brotherly kindness which is the grace on which God will command a blessing in your church? (See Psalm 133.) 

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