Skip to main content

Brother and Sister

           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 4:21-22)

          For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” (Matthew 12:50)


           This is easy because we all live in such stable, healthy, functional families, right? I heard that. Maybe it was just my own snort, not yours. Have I “been there” for my sister? Was I ever there for my brother? OK, I was certainly around when each of my parents died, but was my care for them, or was it to show what a good, caring, dutiful daughter I was? And if (heaven forbid!) members of my family were of a different religious or political affiliation – or more different than they were, what then? Did I love them, or did I love my reflection in them?

          I’m not saying I am a terrible, unloving person. I’m a busy person, trying to live my own life, dealing with my own problems. I can’t possibly live theirs, too – and they wouldn’t want me to. I’m not suggesting we should be co-dependent … just a little reflective occasionally, and honest with ourselves and them as often as possible. God will forgive, even if they won’t. Grace is abundant and available. Improvement is possible. Reconciliations do happen. Look at Joseph.

          Of course, loving family is tougher than just about any other love except spousal. The betrayals, negligence, abandonments, lies, and secrets strike deeper somehow. Years of close living wear us raw when they should build our callouses. But for the Church, one’s brother or sister may not have the same parents, live in the same household, or even have the same culture as you do. “Who is my brother?” and, “Who is my sister?” are like the question asked by the lawyer, “Who is my neighbor?”  

In today’s second passage, Jesus tells us that those who do God’s will are our brothers and sisters. So, the street person may be your brother or sister and have a claim to your love, as might the wealthy businessman in the fancy house. The person you declare to be a hypocrite may be a brother or sister Scripture obligates you to love. In fact, because you don’t know whether some person is a brother or a sister, or because the person might a brother or sister in spiritual Utero (not yet born again but gestating spiritually) Scripture suggests that you love them anyway, just in case.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
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