Brotherly Love

VIEW:42 DATA:01-04-2020

BROTHERLY LOVE.—Philadelphia is not’ brother-like love,’ but ‘brother-love,’ the love one has for brothers or sisters, scil, ‘love of the brethren,’—so AV [Note: Authorized Version.] in 1Pe_1:22 and RV [Note: Revised Version.] uniformly (add Rom_12:10, 1Th_4:9, Heb_13:1, 2Pe_1:7). The adjective in 1Pe_3:8 should be rendered ‘loving your brethren,’ not ‘loving as brethren’ (AV [Note: Authorized Version.] , RV [Note: Revised Version.] ). This adj. appears in classical Gr. in its primary (family) sense, as the epithet, e.g., of the Græco-Egyptian king Ptolemy Philadelphus, and of Attains II. of Pergamus, founder of Philadelphia (Rev_1:11 etc.), named after this king. The term received no wider application in either Greek or Jewish (OT) ethics; Jews called each other ‘brethren’ as being ‘children of the stock of Abraham’ (Act_13:26). First occurring in its religious use in 1 Thess., Philadelphia looks like a coinage of St. Paul’s; but its elements lie in the teaching of Jesus. ‘Calling no one on earth father’ because they ‘have one Father, the heavenly Father,’ His disciples are ‘all brothers’ (Mat_23:8-9; cf. Mat_6:9): the love of the natural household is transferred, with a deepened sense, to ‘the household of faith’ (see Gal_6:10, Eph_2:19). This sentiment is formed in the community gathered around Christ its ‘first-born,’ the family of the ‘sons’ and ‘heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ’ (Rom_8:14-17; Rom_8:29). ‘Go to my brethren,’ the Risen Lord had said, ‘and tell them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father’ (Joh_20:17; cf. Mat_12:49-50; Mat_28:10); He required them to cherish toward each other the love He showed toward them, making this the mark of discipleship (Joh_13:34-35; Joh_15:12-13, 1Jn_2:7-8; 1Jn_3:11; 1Jn_4:20-21, 2Jn_1:5, 1Co_8:11 etc.). The body to which this love belongs is called ‘the brotherhood’ in 1Pe_2:17 (also 1Pe_5:9), where ‘love to the brotherhood’ is associated with respect for humanity and fear of God as a fundamental Christian instinct (cf. 1Th_4:9, Col_3:14, 1Co_13:1-13, etc.). St. Paul describes this affection as the mutual ‘care’ of ‘members’ of ‘one body’ (1Co_12:12-27): it forbids envy, unkindness, schism; it animates, and virtually includes, all services and duties of Christians towards each other (1Co_13:1-13, Gal_5:13-15); it is the first ‘fruit of the Spirit’ (Gal_5:22, cf. Gal_4:6-7; Gal_5:6), the fruit of God’s love to us and the test of our love to God (1Jn_4:11-21), ‘the fulfilment of the law’ (Rom_13:8-10), and the crown of Christian purity (1Pe_1:22); the Cross supplies its model and its inspiration (Eph_4:31 to Eph_5:2, 1Jn_3:16). When St. Paul speaks of ‘love,’ he means ‘brother-love’ in the first place, but not exclusively (Gal_6:10, 1Th_5:15, Rom_12:18-21; cf. Mat_5:43-48 etc.). Amongst the manifestations of Philadelphia, hospitality (philoxenia) is conspicuous (Heb_13:1-2, 1Pe_4:8-10, 3Jn_1:5-8); also ‘communication’ or ‘ministering to the necessities of the saints’ (Rom_12:12-13; Rom_15:25, Heb_6:10; Heb_13:16, 1Jn_3:17-18). The prominence, and strangeness to the world, of this feature of primitive Christianity are strikingly attested by the Epistle to Diognetus, § 1, Tertullian’s Apol. § 39, and (from outside) Lucian’s de Morte Peregrini, xii. 16, and Julian’s Epist. 49.
G. G. Findlay.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

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