1 Thessalonians - Brotherly Love

Father in heaven, we give thanks for our great Savior and for the great salvation we have through Him. We’re thankful for the Word of God. Open our eyes to understand Your Word. Open our hearts to love and receive Your Word, and may we be nourished and encouraged and helped today. I pray, Father, for our worldwide listening audience, that Your grace will be upon each listener. May each one hear the Word of God and respond to it, and bless and meet the needs that are in each life. I pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen.

When I was a university student, I had some professors who were constantly extolling the virtues of the ancient world. They kept talking about the glory of Greece and the grandeur of Rome and so on. But you know, when you really look at the lives of the common people in the great days of Greece and Rome, you find very little glory and very little grandeur. Oh, I know we have the philosophy books and the history books on our shelves, and we talk about these great men and women, but when you look at everyday life in the ancient world, it breaks your heart. 

What kind of a society was it? Well, it was a very immoral society because it was an idolatrous society. Religious prostitution was one of the in things. And it was expected of a wife that she would allow her husband to have mistresses and so forth. Homosexuality was prevalent. It was an immoral society. And this is why when Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians 4, he spent the first eight verses talking about sexual morality, keeping your life clean. 

Also, the ancient world was a fragmented society. There wasn’t much love, brotherly love. There wasn’t much love for people just because they were people. You were a hand, you were a worker. You might have been a royal person, you might have been a slave, but the society was just fragmented. There was no unity, there was no equality before the law—a broken society racially and nationally and culturally and economically and perhaps every other way. And this is why when Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians 4, he talked about brotherly love. 

1 Thessalonians 4:9, "But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; and indeed you do so toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more; that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing."

Philadelphia is the city of brotherly love. William Penn chose that name from the Bible. It’s the combination of two Greek words, phileo, which means love, and adelphos, which means brother. In fact, "brother" is one of the key names for Christians in the Word of God. You’ll find it about thirty times in the book of Acts. Paul uses it a hundred and thirty times in his letters—brother. And here in 1 Thessalonians, you find "brethren" seventeen times. And so every church ought to be a community of brotherly love. 

We today take this for granted, but if you and I had lived back in the day when Paul lived, brotherly love would have been an altogether new thing. The Gospel brought two very special wonders to the world of that day. One was the hope of immortality. Paul talks about that in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. There was no hope. People just simply had no hope. Let me read you some of the statements that the great philosophers made about life and death. 

Here’s one: "Suns may set and rise again, but we, when once our brief light goes down, must sleep an endless night." That’s encouraging. "No one awakes and arises who has once been overtaken by the chilling end of life." "Of a man once dead, there is no resurrection." "Hopes are among the living; the dead are without hope." In fact, here’s an inscription that was actually dug up at Thessalonica: "After death there is no revival; after the grave no meeting of those who have loved each other on earth." Well, so much for the great Roman and Greek philosophers. 

When you read the inscriptions on the gravestones, they just break your heart because they had no hope for the future. Secondly, there was no such thing as brotherly love, a love for humanity. The world of that day was a fragmented world—the rich and the poor, the free and the slaves, the Jews and the Gentiles, the conquerors and the conquered, the rich and the poor. It was just a fragmented world. 

And along came the church and tied everyone together who believed in Jesus Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, bond nor free, male nor female. We might go on and say rich or poor, ignorant or educated. The Word of God makes it clear that we’re brothers, we’re all one in Jesus Christ—brotherly love. This was a brand new thing. And it was a miracle. People couldn’t understand, "Why would these people love each other? Why would this wealthy man love poor people? Why would these people be accepted in his home?" That’s the difference it made when the Gospel came. 

Paul prayed for them that they might abound in love. 1 Thessalonians 3:12, "And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you." That word "abound" is the picture of a river overflowing its banks. Paul is telling us, "Don’t confine your love. Don’t have a little stream and you love your family and you love a few people in your church and your denomination." He said, "I want that river of love in your heart to overflow and just keep on reaching out wider and wider." 

In fact, did you notice that when I read 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12, Paul describes a growing influence of love? If we are really practicing brotherly love, if love is the controlling motive of our lives, then that love is going to reach out and reach out and touch more people. In verse 9, we have our love for God. In verse 10, we have our love for the brethren—see, it’s getting wider now. Verses 11 and 12, our love for those outside the fellowship, where we work and where we walk. Did you notice that? Paul is telling me it’s not enough just to love God, or even to love the brethren; that love ought to overflow the banks and reach out and touch people where I work—that’s verse 11—and where I walk—that’s verse 12. 

We have a series of concentric circles here. The small circle in the very center is my relationship to God. I’m taught of God to love. God did that miracle in my life. Then there’s a little wider circle, the fellowship of God’s people. Then there’s the widest circle of all, my love overflowing to touch those who are outside of the fellowship. Just look at verse 9 and remind ourselves that all love begins with God’s love for us and our love for God. "But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another." 1 John 4:8, "God is love." That’s a simple statement, but oh how profound it is.

What’s love got to do with it? Everything. Let’s find out more about brotherly love. "Beloved, let us love one another," says 1 John 4:7, "for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love." So God is love. Verse 8 tells me that and verse 16 tells me that. 1 John 4:16, "God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him." 

Now, this love that the Bible is talking about is not a feeling. Many people have the idea that Christian love is a certain kind of feeling, and they’re always trying to manufacture some emotional cataclysm, some great emotional earthquake. And that’s not the way it is. The word that is used for God’s love for us means a sacrificing, self-giving act of the will. Christian love means I treat you the way God treats me. It’s as simple as that. 

God wants to reproduce His love in me so that the way He treats me, I treat you. That means before I can love you, I have to learn to love God. I have to experience the love of God in my own heart. Now, Paul says you’re taught of God to love one another. Paul did not have to give them a lecture about love. He said, "You’re taught of God to love one another." 

God the Father teaches us to love one another, how? By sending Jesus. 1 John 4:9, "In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." So God the Father teaches us to love one another by sending His Son. Romans 5:8, "God proved His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." 

God the Son teaches us to love one another. You know these words so well. John 13:34-35. Our Lord is talking to His disciples. John 13:34, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." So God the Son teaches us to love one another, and God the Holy Spirit teaches us to love one another. Romans 5:5, "The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us." 

Now, this love is poured out in our hearts and Paul says, "I want it to overflow to other people." So we have the inner circle of our love, our love for God. Now it gets wider, and we have to love one another. The circle of love gets wider, the river of love gets wider and deeper. "You’re taught of God to love one another and indeed," says verse 10, "you do so toward all the brethren who are in Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more." You can never love too much. 

Now, God expects brothers to love each other. Brotherly love means that we belong to the same family, we share the same Father, we have the same nature, we enjoy the same blessings, we’re heading for the same heavenly home. It’s so unfortunate in the Bible to see instances where brothers did not love one another. The first murder in the Bible: Cain killed Abel his brother. Abraham and Lot had a disagreement, and Abraham said, "Let’s not argue, we’re brothers." The brothers of Joseph hated him. There was even rivalry among the apostles when our Lord was ministering on earth. And today we have divisions in churches. Oh my, people show up for business meetings who haven’t been in church for a long time so they have the privilege of voting against something. 

Brotherly love. Oh, he says, "I want your brotherly love to continue and to grow and to get deeper." Now let’s be practical. How do we show brotherly love? He tells us here. One way we show brotherly love is by working: "that you aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, to work with your own hands, as we commanded you." If you read 2 Thessalonians 3, you discover that some of the saints in the church had the idea that because Jesus was coming back, they didn’t have to work. And so they became freeloaders. They just sponged off of other people. 

And Paul said, "You don’t do that. If you love your brother, you’ll pay your bills. If you love your brother, you’ll work. If you love your brother, you won’t meddle. If you love your brother, you’ll mind your own business." That’s brotherly love. Oh, people get on the telephone to share prayer requests—they’re really just gossiping over the Lord’s shoulder. Well, we work to show our brotherly love. 

Romans 12:10 talks about brotherly love. Romans 12:10, "Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another." Paul wrote and said, "Let everybody esteem others more important than themselves." If you have brotherly love, you don’t push yourself in front of other people. Have you ever been in a line someplace, you’ve been waiting for a long time and somebody comes and pushes in ahead of you? This has happened to us often. Well, it’s not good, is it? It’s not loving. And in the local church, we’ve got to be very careful to love one another in brotherly love and not to push ourselves before other people. 

Hebrews 13 talks about this. Hebrews 13:1, "Let brotherly love continue." How do you do this? "Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels." In other words, just opening your home, hospitality shows brotherly love. Don’t forget in the early church there were no hotels and motels where they could stay. Some people were chased out of their homes in persecution. Where would they go? They’d go to the homes of other believers and there they’d find hospitality. "Remember the prisoners as if chained with them—and those who are mistreated—since you yourselves are in the body also." Are you praying for prisoners? Are you praying for Christian prisoners who are in prison? They’ve gotten saved, now they want to live for the Lord. Are you praying for ministries that help these prisoners? 

You see, it’s practical. Brotherly love is not just some ethereal feeling that we generate. No, if there’s brotherly love, we work and pay our bills. We mind our own business. We don’t meddle in other people’s affairs. We show honor to one another. We share in encouragement and hospitality. We lay aside the wicked things of life and we live to please God because we have brotherly love. This brotherly love ought to abound and get deeper and deeper. 

Finally, he tells us in verses 11 and 12 of 1 Thessalonians 4 that we should have love to those outside the fellowship. Outside of what? Outside of Christ. "That you might walk properly toward those who are outside." Outside of the life of God, outside of the light, outside of the hope, these who have no hope. In 1 Thessalonians 4:13, "But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope." These others are the outsiders, outside of salvation. 

What he’s saying is simply this: we need to love lost souls. If we love God, we’re going to love the brethren. If we love the brethren, we ought to reach out and love those on the outside. How do you show your love for people outside of Christ? Well, by leading a quiet life, not being a troublemaker, by minding our own business, by working with our own hands. You don’t go to work, my friend, to be a preacher; you go to work to do your job. Now, you can best preach by doing your job and doing it well. And if you’re making life difficult for other people who work with you, you’re not acting like a good Christian. 

Brotherly love means I love lost souls and I’m going to do everything I can to influence them. And if that means working hard on my job, I’m going to work hard on my job. There are three problems Christians have to watch out for: restlessness, meddlesomeness, and idleness. Paul has a lot to say about that in 2 Thessalonians. He warns them: don’t be so restless. Yes, Jesus is coming back, but the best way for you to be ready for Him is doing your job. Now don’t be sitting around gossiping. Don’t be putting on white robes and climbing up a mountain waiting for the Lord to come back. Get busy. Mind your own business. Do your work, as we commanded you. Walk properly. Walk with beauty and with good dedication toward those who are outside, because they’re watching you. 

You say, "Oh, God’s going to take care of our needs." Well, he says that you may lack nothing. If you’re not doing your work, God can’t take care of your needs. Now, if you can’t get a job, that’s another story. God has promised to meet every need. But he’s talking here to people who were working and he says the best testimony you can be is a testimony of faithful work for the Lord. 1 Timothy 5:8, Paul wrote and said if a man doesn't provide for his own household, he's worse than an unbeliever. 

What a tragedy it is when the Christian in the office is the worst worker, when the Christian in the shop does the poorest job. That’s a poor testimony. Spend all your time "witnessing," quote-unquote, trying to get people’s lives straightened out when you ought to be perfecting your typing and your filing and running that machine and driving that car. Paul makes the Christian life very practical. He says brotherly love is important. 

Walk in love. First of all, your love to God. God is teaching us day by day to love Him and to love one another. Now, the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts, poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. We’ve been to Calvary, we’ve tasted the love of God. Now, let that river of love overflow to the brethren in the church, to the brethren in other churches. Let it overflow to the unsaved around us. Let’s love people to the Lord Jesus Christ. Let brotherly love continue. Let’s make every church and every community Philadelphia, brotherly love.

Father, thank You for this letter that Paul wrote. Thank You for the Holy Spirit who inspired this letter. And now I pray as we have studied it and reviewed it, help us to practice it. Help us to live our lives in the light of the coming of Jesus Christ, for I pray this in His name and for His sake, amen.