Skip to main content

The Brother of Him

             Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. (I John 4:20-21)

I felt the need to check an interlinear Bible, to look at the Greek as well as the word-for-word translation, centering on the words “a brother or sister.” First, of course, “or sister” wasn’t there because brother was understood in a universal sense that took in both male and female. But that wasn’t what I was looking for. I wanted to know about the article. The NIV says “a brother.” The interlinear says “the brother of him.” So, the NIV version is “his brother” made politically correct. And I’m not criticizing, just verifying.

So, keeping in mind that the sibling language was used to indicate fellow Christians, it comes down to this: if you hate another Christian, you are hating God. We are directed to love other Christians, even if we don’t agree with them. We are not commanded to agree with them, but we are commanded to love them, even if they are of a different denomination, whether religious, cultural, or political.  

This includes taking the stance that “I don’t need ______ to be a Christian.” Technically, there are a lot of things you could put in that blank that would be true. You don’t need a building, though buildings are handy places to meet other Christians. If you say you don’t need people, or “those people,” you’re not loving those people, which means you’re not loving God. And claiming you don’t hate them when you want to have nothing to do with them doesn’t work.

Jesus said that the greatest commandment was to love God with all our hearts, all our souls, all our minds, and all our strengths, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. (Matthew 22:38-40, paraphrased.) If we reject the greatest commandment God gave, can we claim to be fulfilling it?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

Listen To Him

              The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him . (Deuteronomy 18:15)           Today, we switch from Jesus’ claims of “I am” to prophecies made about Him. My Bible platform is starting in Deuteronomy. I’d start in Genesis, where we would learn that the one who would save us would be a descendant of Eve (Genesis 3:15), of Noah (by default), Abram and Sara(Genesis 12:1-3). Isaac (Genesis 17:19), Jacob (Genesis 25:23), Judah (Genesis 29:8), and David (II Samuel 7:12-16). There were also references to a new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 36:22-32). In addition, there were prophecies about when and where the prophet/Messiah would be born and what would happen to him.           Of course, naysayers will claim that Jesus’ life was retrofitted or reverse enginee...
Post a Comment
Read more