BROTHERLY LOVE
Recently, I read an article from “Bulletin Digest” that teaches a great lesson on brotherly love. Listen, “Once upon a time there lived two brothers on adjoining farms. One single, the other married. It chanced that in a certain year drought cut the wheat crop short. Each would be hard pressed to have enough for basic needs. One night the married man lay awake thinking of his brother: ‘The poor fellow is single, and does not have the comfort and happiness of home as I do. He is worried about his harvest. I will get up and carry some sheaves into his field and he will feel better and happier.” On the same night the bachelor was also sleepless, thinking of his brother. ‘The poor fellow is married and has a host of burdens and cares that I do not have to bear. Without doubt he is worried about his small wheat field yield. I will get up and carry some wheat from my field into his and make him happier. From the darkness of the night the two came, each lugging wheat from his own field into that of his brother. As the moon came from behind the cloud these two stood facing each other with wheat sheaves under each arm! What a wonderful example of brotherly love.”
We are told by Paul in Philippians 2:3-4, “Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things but also every man on the things of others.” There’s so much selfishness in our society and in the church, many have lost sight of what it means to think of others. It’s amazing how small our problems become when we begin to think of others and what we can do for them. This fact is illustrated so well in the above story. What we need is more people like these two brothers. The Hebrew writer said, “Let brotherly love continue.” (Hebrews 13:1)
Ken Tyler via The Exhorter, Arab Church of Christ January 12th 1992
LOVE NEVER ENDS
In the great love chapter of the New Testament, 1st Corinthians 13, the apostle Paul says that love never ends (v 8). At the beginning of this chapter he said of love that it is, “a more excellent way.”
The more excellent way contrasts with the situation in the church at Corinth where there were some jealousy, confusion, and disruption due to the exercise of spiritual and miraculous gifts with which many were endowed. For example, those who spoke in tongues or languages felt that their gift was superior to all the others! All had to be reminded, however, that “to each is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good.” (1st Corinthians 12:7).
We are accustomed to things having a beginning and an ending. We are born, we die. We start school, we graduate etc. . . but love is said to have no end. Because God is love, love has no beginning. How can this be? First, the Bible says that God is love (1 John 4:16). God/love had no beginning and will have no ending. He is eternal, the ever present One! Second, love will find its fulfillment or culmination in heaven. There will be nothing but love there. The place where love can end is in the human heart, resulting finally an eternal hell!
For the follower of God, the Christian, love is the prospect. Someone has suggested that we will be loving a million years from now, so we’d better practice it now. We should practice it in all relationships, and especially in the relationship of marriage. That is the kind of love that is selfless, that grows, that gives, that is unconditional- the kind that is patient; not jealous or boastful; isn’t arrogant or rude; doesn’t insist on its own way; is not irritable or resentful; doesn’t rejoice in wrong, but in the right. “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Corinthians 13:7).
Love never ends
Robert Wingfield via Go Teach Christ Forest Park Church of Christ Valdosta GA October 15th 1989.
TWO GREAT articles. We should be practicing love for our brothers and sisters every day – love those for whom we care enough to be there when needed; love that cares enough to reprove or rebuke so as to help the one loved save their soul. Love comes from God Himself – hence, this is the reason why he abhors and loathes sin – GOD KNOWS WHAT SIN DOES TO ALL OF US! A lack of love leads to all kinds of sin against others, such as lying, cheating, hatred, dismissing a soul that God loves, joy when we see an enemy suffer. . .
Beloved, LOVE ONE ANOTHER!
