Brotherly Love (Hebrews 13:1) | Worship Service

Praise him, praise him. I just have one announcement that is in your bulletin, and that is the resuming of the men's study coming up here in the middle of this month or toward the end of this month, January, next month, I should say.

We are at the end of this month, January 22nd. So sign up is available for that out in the foyer. So I would encourage you men to take advantage of that. It is Bible study methods and tools and how to use them, and your soul will be benefited by that.

Just point that out to you in the bulletin and follow the instructions there to take advantage of that. Will you please turn to the book of Hebrews to chapter 13 for our scripture reading. Hebrews 13, and we're gonna read this entire chapter this morning.

Hebrews 13, beginning of verse one. Let love of the brethren continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember the prisoners as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves are in the body.

Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled. For fornicators and adulterers, God will judge. Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have, for he himself has said, I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you, so that we may confidently say, Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid.

What will man do to me? Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you, and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever.

Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited. We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat, for the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp.

Therefore, Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside the gate. So let us go out to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach, for here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.

Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of lips that give thanks to his name. And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you. Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a good conscience, desiring to conduct ourselves honorably in all things.

And I urge you all the more to do this, so that I may be restored to you the sooner. Now the God of peace who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever, amen.

But I urge you, brethren, bear with this word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly. Take notice that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom, if he comes soon, I will see you. Greet all of your leaders and all the saints.

Those from Italy greet you. Grace be with you all. Before I ask you to stand for a moment of prayer, I just want to give you a couple words of encouragement. We are at the end of the past year. And of course, though it is just the turning of another page of the calendar, and we're just a little bit further around our trip around the sun than we were yesterday, there's always something about turning the year page of the calendar that makes us realize that another year has passed and God has brought us safely through that year and another year is ahead of us.

So it does kind of make us look forward to the coming year. And among various conversations that I've been having in the last few weeks, I hear this constant refrain, but I just don't know what the next year is going to hold.

And that was true in November and July, just as it's true today. We never know what the next year is going to hold, the next 12 months. But we do know that what it will hold is a God who is sovereign, who is in control, who reigns, who rules, and who has our best in mind, who does all things for his own glory and for the sake of those who are his.

So that we can trust. And I wanted to encourage you with that. There are a lot of things that we don't know what's going to happen. We have elections ahead of us. We have economies that are changing. We have a lot of stuff changing in our world and in our culture.

And we should just remember that as different as things might be for us in any given coming year, we still have it so good. We are still so blessed, so immensely lavished with God's goodness and grace and his provision into each and every calendar year.

And the fellowship that you enjoy together as a body of Christ, the brotherhood that you have, the love that you have for one another, the giftedness, the spiritual giftedness that is here, the compassion and everything that has been so evident for all the years that I have been here.

And this last year, it is going to continue in the coming year, no matter what the world does and no matter how crazy the world gets. So with that in mind, we have read here in Hebrews chapter 13, that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Let that be our constant solace and our comfort. So will you stand with me as we pray? This is about our heads. Our Father, you are an unchanging God. Your purposes do not change. Your plans do not change.

Your intentions, your will, your desires, none of those things change. With you, there is no shadow of changing. You are the same yesterday, today, and forever. The Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And the Spirit of God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And we thank you that having been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, that you have brought us to salvation in time and that you have secured our everlasting glory, our everlasting joy in your Son through the salvation that you have brought to us.

And the salvation that is planned in eternity past has been procured by the Son and then has been sealed to us by the Holy Spirit. And you have given us a kingdom, already granted to us that immense blessing.

The future is ours and our God who holds the future is ours. And we thank you for all of these. We pray that in this coming year, whatever turmoil and trouble may await this nation, your people around the world, us individually, that you would be honored and glorified to comfort us through that, to sustain us through that, to encourage us.

And we pray that above all of those things even, that you would sanctify us in our lives and draw us closer to you in holiness and in truth, that you would unite our hearts in love, that you would unite our hearts in compassion and service to one another, to our spouses, to our children, to our community.

We pray that you would be honored and glorified through the obedience that we render to you and that you would sanctify this church, this gathering of people, making Christ precious to us. Pray that you would strengthen us to mortify sin in the coming year, to go to battle with the temptations of our flesh, to say no to the desires of our flesh and give us the strength, we pray, to walk in holiness and to pursue holiness without which we cannot see you.

May this next year be marked with growth in grace and in gratitude and in glory for us as we are changed and conformed into the image of Christ from one degree of glory to another. Pray that you would strengthen us in our inner man and strengthen our marriages and our families, our witness, our testimony, our desire to serve and love one another.

We pray that you would continue to conform us to the image of Christ and may we grow greatly in that way in the coming year, not only as a church but as individuals. We love you and we thank you for the salvation that you have brought to us and we thank you for the joy and privilege that it is to worship you for that salvation.

It is only because you have renewed our hearts that we are able to stand here before you today and to give you the praise to which you are due. And we ask that you would bless this worship and the reflection of our hearts here today as we seek to honor you in thought, in word, and in deed.

We ask in Christ's name, amen.

46, one through seven. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth should change and though the mountains shake into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake at its lofty pride.

See you. There's a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy dwelling places of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. She will not be shaken. God will help her when morning dawns. The nations roar, the kingdoms shake, he gives his voice, the earth melts.

Yahweh of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our stronghold. See you.

Should mountains melt into the, the earth give way, lights grow, be still.

You turn now please to Hebrews chapter 13. Again, if you're not already there, let's pray together before we begin. Father, we're so overcome with gratitude for your word, for the clarity of it, for the simplicity of it.

We thank you that you have revealed to us everything that we need for life and for godliness, for obedience and for holiness. You have called us to, you've called us to pursue Christ and to be conformed to his image, to model his character, his life in every way, in our homes, in our relationships with one another, in our response to hostility and abuse that is hurled at us from the world.

And then you have given us the strength and the indwelling of your spirit by which we may obey those commands. And you have given us the guidance in your word to know what being conformed to the image of Christ looks like.

And we pray now that you would open our eyes to that and our hearts to understand and to obey what is clearly before us in scripture. Thank you for the grace that you have lavished upon us. We thank you for the love that exists here in this fellowship and we pray that it would continue to excel still more and more and that you would accomplish and work within us every good thing that is pleasing in your sight through your word and by the power of your spirit.

For the glory of Christ we pray, amen. Well, we are returning today to the book of Hebrews to chapter 13. It's been two months since we were in Hebrews. We left off just after the beginning of the month of November because we finished chapter 12, you all remember, and then I did two weeks on subjects that are included here in Hebrews chapter 13, in love and thanksgiving.

And then we had a Christmas series through the months of December. So it is now almost eight weeks since we've been in Hebrews. And though we finished chapter 12 and I'm starting chapter 13, we shouldn't think in our minds that there has been some major change of subject matter or intention in the mind and the theme of the author here.

That really, if you just eliminate the chapter division in your mind, you can see how chapter 12 very naturally flows into chapter 13. Chapter 13 begins with a section of the epistle that is very heavy with exhortation, commandments and encouragements and applications of all the truth that we have looked at in the first 12 chapters.

So the first 12 chapters were very doctrinally heavy. Chapter 12 ends with a warning passage. And of course we are warned about not laying hold of the sacrifice that is described to us in the first 12 chapters of this book.

And in the first 12 chapters, the author has been talking about the person and the work of Christ. Heavy emphasis on his work. The book begins by describing the person of Christ, his deity, what scripture says about him, what to expect about him in the Old Testament.

And then this book describes the self-giving sacrifice of the son, whereby he came into the world and offered a sacrifice that would pay for the sins of his people. And having done that, he has cleansed our conscience.

He has taken away our guilt. He has removed our sin and our shame. He has made us his own, and he has brought us into the new covenant with all of the blessings that attend the new covenant that have been promised in the Old Testament.

And Christ has done all of that. And that is his work that he has accomplished. And now you get to the end of chapter 12 and we get these closing exhortations, closing encouragements. So if you wanna know what does the author want us to leave with as we finish up the book, what does he want the readers to have ringing in their ears, fresh on their mind, on the surface of their heart, that's where we get this in chapter 13.

These are the applications, the implications of all the truth that he has expounded in the first 12 chapters. We have these five warning passages that warn us of the judgment that is to come if we do not lay hold of that sacrifice that he has described earlier in this book.

If you will not repent and lay hold of Christ, there is no more sacrifice for sin. There is no atonement. There is no salvation outside of him. So lay hold of him or perish. That is the message of the book.

And if you will not lay hold of him, then you will certainly perish. And in the words of chapter 10, verse 27, you can expect nothing but the judgment that is to come and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.

That's chapter 10, verse 27. Such a great sacrifice of Christ is not without its aim and its purpose. Why has Christ offered up himself for his people? Not just to save us, but to present to the Father his people sanctified, holy, and pure.

He has saved us for himself, a people zealous for good works. As Paul says in Titus 2, verse 11, the grace of God has appeared, instructing us, bringing salvation, and instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desire and to live sensibly and righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds.

Ephesians 2, verse 10, you and I are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. The sacrifice that he made is not without its goal and its purpose.

And if you want something to inform your approach to this coming year, let it be that, Titus 2, verse 11 and 14, to deny ungodliness and worldly desire and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

That is a 2024 motto for you, looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of Christ. So since this is the case, since Christ has suffered, since he has atoned for the sins of his people, and since he has purchased a people for his own possession who are zealous for good deeds, a people whose good deeds have been foreordained and prepared for us beforehand that we should walk in them, since that is the case, then we ought to produce the peaceful fruits of righteousness or pursue the peaceful fruits of righteousness, Hebrews 12, verse 11.

I will make it my New Year's resolution to speak, no, I won't. Hebrews 12, verse 14, since that is the case, we should pursue holiness without which no one will see the Lord. That should be our goal. If we are those who have been brought to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, if we have been brought to the heavenly Jerusalem, to the myriads of the angels, to the general assembly and the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and if we have been brought to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and if you and I have been brought to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant and to the sprinkled blood which speaks better than the blood of Abel, then how shall we live?

That's the question. What should our conduct look like? What should mark us as different? How should we be set apart from the world? If something that amazing has happened to you, if you have been secured out of the world and called out and purchased by the blood of Christ, and you have been brought into a covenant relationship with him in the new covenant, and all of the blessings of that kingdom have been made yours, then how then shall I live?

What should my conduct be like? It will leave a mark on you. You cannot be saved by Jesus Christ and not be radically changed at the most fundamental level of your life. You cannot be. Salvation is life transformation.

It is heart transformation. It is the removing of a heart of stone and having a heart of flesh put in its place. It is being taken out of the kingdom of darkness and being transferred into the kingdom of God's dear son.

It is to be given new affections, new desires. The sealing of the Holy Spirit now dwells within his people, and God begins the process of conforming us to the image of his son so that Christ and Christlikeness become the goal of the conduct and the life and everything that God does in the hearts of his people.

And then he disciplines us in that process, bringing into our life affliction and trials and difficulties and appointing and ordaining all of those things for our good so that he might train us in righteousness.

And so then you get to the end of all of that at the end of chapter 12. And of course, this question then remains, then what does such a person look like? You will be changed at the most fundamental level.

If you have received an unshakable kingdom, then how do you live? Because kingdom citizens live different than worldlings. That's just a fact. Kingdom citizens live different than worldlings. The gratitude, the service, the reverence, and the appropriate awe that accompanies all of that is the outgrowth and the fruits of being given an unshakable kingdom.

This glory is yours. This future is yours, purchased for you, secured for you, and held for you until it is given to you and you are given to it. All of that is true, how then ought you to live? And the author begins to answer this at the end of chapter 12, show gratitude, offer to God acceptable service with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire.

And then he continues into chapter 13, ignore the chapter division, let love of the brethren continue. This is the next step. This is the next application. If you have received an unshakable kingdom, you'll show gratitude, you'll serve with reverence and awe.

Our God is a consuming fire and you will let brotherly love continue. And that is our text this morning. Hebrews chapter 13, verse one. This is a rather straightforward command. And I want us to consider together, not just what this means, but how this command is to be worked out in the life of a church and in the life of a individual believer.

Verses two through seven are all expressions or applications of this command in chapter 13, verse one. We are to let love of the brethren continue. And then he gives us examples of a right love in verses two and three, wrong love in verses four and five.

And again, another expression of right love in verses six and seven. So love is the overarching theme here of verses one through seven. And today we're just gonna consider what brotherly love is and how it is natural to the believer.

Sometimes I have two points for you to consider if you're taking notes, sometimes three, sometimes four, sometimes five, and then it becomes five sermons. You know the story there. I have one point for you this morning and that's it.

So this is your outline, that love of the brethren is natural for the believer. That's the only thing I want you to remember. Well, not the only thing, but that's the primary thing I want you to remember.

Love of the brethren is natural for the believer. That's what we're gonna consider this morning. Verse one is only three words in the Greek, in the original. Two of them are main words. One of them is just an article.

One of the words, I'm just gonna define these words for you. So you have sort of an idea of what the author is describing here. One of those two main words is the word Philadelphia. And I didn't get the accent on the wrong syllable with that, like we would pronounce Philadelphia.

They actually accent that wrong. It's Philadelphia. And it is the word from which we get our city's name, Philadelphia. And it is a combination of two different Greek words. One of them is phileo, which describes a love or a kind of affection.

It is related to the word philos, which is a friend, describes a friend. So the phileo is the love that would exist between friends. All right, now keep in mind that we're talking about holy love, virtuous love, pure love.

We're not talking about lust at all. That's a different kind of love. Phileo is a kind affection. It means to cherish or to regard or to treat one another with affection. It can refer to a friendly love, a love between friends or brothers.

And so that word phileo is combined with adelphos, which is the word for brother or kin. So phileo, adelphos, philea, delphia is the idea there. It is the type of love, a brotherly love, the kind of love that exists between brothers.

And the word adelphos is a word that can describe one's countryman or neighbor. In other words, somebody who is kin, a fellow countryman or somebody of the same tribe or ethnicity, one that would come from the same womb or the same lineage.

But it is used in a spiritual sense in Scripture to describe those who are our spiritual kin. That is our spiritual brothers and sisters in Christ. The word remain or continue, the love of the brethren or brotherly love, phileo delphia, continue.

The word continue there is a Greek word that is used frequently in the New Testament. It is from the word meno, which means to remain or to stay or to abide. So it's just two words, the brotherly love abiding or continuing, that's the idea.

The love between brothers is to abide or continue. That word abide or what is translated there continue is used in the New Testament. It's a frequent word, it's used all over the place. It's used 118 times in your New Testament, 118 times.

Now what I found this significant, and I don't know if this is significant or not, but more than half of the times that it is used, it is used by John in one of his writings. For instance, in the Gospel of John, that word is used 40 times.

In 1 John, it is used 24 times. And in 2 John, it's used three times. So that means that 67 out of its 118 times, John uses that verb to remain or to continue, to endure. A good synonym might be persevere or continue in something.

And so just as you and I are to persevere or endure or continue in the faith, in the face of hostility, so it is that we are to remain or abide or continue in this virtue of Philadelphia, brotherly love, the love between brothers.

That word is used to describe negative things continuing to persist, like for instance, in John 3, verse 36, where it says, he who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains, continues, abides, that's the idea, on him.

That is, the one who is outside of Christ who will not repent and embrace salvation in Jesus Christ, the wrath of God continues to remain on that person. Not will come upon that person, but remains on that person.

It's a state of continuing wrath. And then of course, it is used in a positive sense, John 15, verse four, abide in me and I in you as a branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, and so neither can you unless you abide in me.

Again, from John, all three of these examples are from John's writings. First John 2, six, the one who abides in, says he abides in him ought himself to walk in the same manner as he walked. See, John uses this language of abiding to describe a reality.

The reality being that we who are in Christ remain or continue in Christ, and thus Christ continues or remains in those who are his. And of course, there is a consequence then if we remain in Christ and Christ remains in us, then there are certain things that will also remain in the believer.

The one who is in Christ and remains in him, certain things will abide in him, in that one. Certain things will remain true of him to continue in him. Just as you endure in faith through that adversity, so we are to endure in our brotherly love and continue in it and persevere in it because that is the natural condition of a believer is to love the brethren.

Now I need you to find something about love that is particularly culturally relevant. And there's something that we need to make sure that we frame in our minds, and it is this, and you obviously know exactly where this is going.

Our culture does not determine what love is. There's that old 80s song, I wanna know what love is. I'll tell you what love is, love is what scripture says that love is. The culture, the world does not know what love is.

They get approximations of love because they feel kind affections toward one another. And there are certain things that they say that they love. And they use the term love all of the time. In fact, they throw the idea of love around towards those of us who have revelation that tells us what love actually is.

And they try and trip us up by saying, well, that's not very loving. And see, Jesus was all about love. That was the big thing. You ask most pagans, your average garden variety pagan on the street, what is the central idea of Jesus' teaching?

And they would say, well, just love one another. You just need to experience love and know love. Jesus was loving, he was all about love. God is love and love is God. That's their idea of what love is.

In fact, the world cannot think any more deeply about love than to come up with that tautological statement, love is love. As if love is love just defines what love is. You can't define something if you just simply say it is what it is.

Love is love. You ask the world, what is love? Well, love is love. What they mean by that is love is whatever I say it is. It's whatever I feel it is. It's whatever makes me comfortable. It's whatever doesn't offend somebody else.

Love just is whatever you say that it is. And that is obviously patently false. It must be patently false. What if my idea of love is to take your wife from you, to have her as my own? What if that's my idea of love?

Do I get to define then what love is? Is that love? What if my idea of love is small children? You see where the world goes with this? There is no limiting parameter upon such nonsense that love is love.

Obviously, love is a certain thing. It is a specific thing. And it is defined and described in scripture. It is in fact limited by the confines of scripture. And let me give you one of those limiting confines.

And it is that truth and love can never be divorced from one another. It is never loving to condone sin or to condone falsehood. It is never loving to withhold truth. It is never loving to endorse or accept what God forbids.

Those things are never loving. It is never loving to contradict scripture or to ignore it or to endorse what scripture condemns. So brotherly love has a biblical definition. It is the kind sacrificial affection that exists between people who are friends with one another.

This is the love that is to continue. You'll notice that the author in verse one does not say, let the love of the brethren start. Let the love of the brethren begin. Let the love of the brethren be taught in a Sunday school class so people would know how to do it.

In fact, it was already going on. In Hebrews chapter six, verse 10, the author says, for God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward his name, having ministered and in still ministering to the saints.

They already had ministry to one another going on in the church. And in Hebrews chapter six, verse 10, which I just read to you there, that is on the heels of the warning passage there in chapter five and through chapter six.

And as he gets out of the warning passages, that warning passage, he is reaffirming to the Hebrew Christians the evidences of their genuine salvation. And one of the evidences of their genuine salvation was the love that they had for one another and their expression in ministering and in still ministering to the saints.

Then in chapter 10, verse 32 and 34, he says, remember the former days when after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated, for you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one.

These are people who had already been involved so much in loving the brethren that they were remembering the prisoners and they were giving to one another and they were sacrificing their own possessions for the sake of others, ministering to one another.

The love was there and it existed. And the author is simply saying, let it continue. When he says, let love of the brethren continue, he is not suggesting that it had ceased. He's recognizing that it was ongoing and he is encouraging them to let that love flourish and abound and to pursue it even more.

So just as it was going on, it was to not just continue, but he is telling them to press in on that. And then he gives them some very practical ways to do that in the next couple of verses. It is just as if Paul had said in 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 9 and 10, he says to the Thessalonians now, as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you.

I love that verse. He's saying to the Thessalonians, when it comes to loving the brethren, you guys have this down. In other words, it was natural for them. Remember Thessalonica, Paul had only spent three weeks with them before he was run out of town.

He writes to them shortly after that and he hadn't spent the three weeks teaching them how to love one another, but he writes to them shortly after he's run out of town and says, you guys love of the brethren?

It just exists and you have no need for me to even mention it. Then he says, you are taught by God to love one another for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in Macedonia, but we urge you brethren just to excel even more.

It's already going on. And so he just comes alongside. So no need for me to correct you or to even instruct you in it. Just pursue it. Pursue it even more. Let it continue. It is natural. It doesn't need to be manufactured.

And you know why it doesn't need to be manufactured? Because it's the fruit of the spirit. That's why. So when the spirit comes into us and dwells within us, he begins to produce in us what? Love. Love.

That's the fruit of the indwelling of the spirit of God. It is the natural result of regeneration. You don't have to take somebody who is genuinely be born again and then bring them aside and say, okay, look, here's Christianity 101.

We're gonna teach you what love is. We're gonna instruct you on how to love the brethren. It is the most natural thing in the world for a new born again believer to say, all of a sudden, I love those people who are also in the same family of God as I am.

And their perspective, this happened to you if you were born again, your perspective towards the world changed and your perspective toward believers changed. Because suddenly you have a love for the brethren.

And I would say that it is inexplicable. It is inexplicable. It is natural. And it is not something that you need to create within you. It is something that the spirit of God creates in you in response and in conjunction with the truth.

It's natural. Siblings love one another. Now, if you come from a dysfunctional family, that's gonna sound as, it's gonna be shocking to you. Siblings love one another. That's natural. You see a family where all the brothers and sisters love each other.

They all get along. Do you say to yourself, that's completely unnatural? Or do you think, yeah, that's what I should expect? Listen, it's what you should expect. When siblings hate each other, something has gone on.

You talk to somebody and say, so tell me about your brothers and sisters. Oh, I haven't talked to my brothers and sisters for years, decades. I never talked to them. I hate them. We all hate each other.

We don't talk to one another. We haven't seen each other. There's no communication at all. As far as I'm concerned, all of them could die and it'd make the world a better place. And they think the same thing of me.

Now, if you talk to somebody and they said that, what do you assume? You assume that fundamentally, somewhere, something happened that was egregious and sinful, that something is not natural. Because what is natural, when sin is dealt with and when things go as it should in the natural realm, siblings love one another.

And so it is in the family of God. When Christians are at war and they hate one another, they won't talk to one another, something is wrong. Something is wrong. The most natural thing is for the child of God to have affection for other children of God.

It is connected to our salvation. 1 Peter 1, verse 22 says, "'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 enduring word of God.'".

Peter says, you love one another from the heart, do so fervently because you've been born again. In other words, the love is the natural expression of a regenerated heart. It is so natural, in fact, that John includes love of the brethren as a distinguishing mark of believers.

How is it that I know that I am saved? The answer to that question, you will have a love for the brethren. Conversely, the same thing is true. If you have no love for the brethren, mark it, friend. You have every reason to question whether or not you are genuinely saved.