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Bible Is The Immutable Living Word
Of The Eternal God.
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Brothers And Neighbours by Peter James
In the Bible there is
a difference between a Brother and a Neighbour.
Five of the ten
commandments are directly related to commanding how we should
treat our neighbour.
Exodus 20:13 Thou shalt not kill.
Exodus 20:14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Exodus 20:15 Thou shalt not steal.
Exodus 20:16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against
thy neighbour.
Exodus 20:17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house,
thou shalt not covet
thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant,
nor his maidservant,
nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.
This of course
applies to how we should treat every human being.
Every human being is
our neighbour.
In the New Testament
we see the importance of this greatly emphasized, by Christ, Himself,
when He tells us that
we should love our neighbour as ourself.
Mark 12:31 And the second is
like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
There is none other
commandment greater than these.
We are also told that
love works no ill to our neighbour.
Romans 13:10 Love worketh no ill to
his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
We also see that the
law and the prophets are summarised by loving God and loving our neighbour.
Matthew 22:37 Jesus said unto him,
Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Matthew 22:38 This is the first and great commandment.
Matthew 22:39 And the second is like unto it, Thou
shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Matthew 22:40 On these two commandments hang all the law
and the prophets.
We have seen that it
is a very crucial and important thing to love our neighbour.
Therefore we should
seek to live in harmony with our neighbours.
Romans 15:2 Let every one of us
please his neighbour for his good to edification.
We should speak the
truth with our neighbour and not lies.
Ephesians 4:25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every
man truth with his neighbour:
for we are members
one of another.
This is an important
statement, when your consider the definition of Truth.
This means that when
the opportunity arises and you are led by the Holy Spirit,
you should speak
truth to your neighbour.
Of course there is
never a time that you should speak lies.
John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him,
I am the way, the truth, and the life:
no man cometh unto
the Father, but by me.
We can see that the
result of truly loving God and our neighbour, we fulfil the Royal law.
James 2:8 If ye fulfil the royal
law according to the scripture,
Thou shalt love
thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:
We have seen how we
should conduct ourselves regarding our neighbour,
but does that make
him our brother?
It is not how we
treat our neighbour that makes him our brother.
Regardless of how I
treat my neighbour across the road, there is nothing that I can do
which will make him
my brother.
He can never become
my blood brother, unless he was that in the first place.
There is a great deal
of advice on how we should treat our brother.
It does appear to
give much more detail than how we should treat our neighbour.
The term brothers
here includes sisters.
What makes us
brothers?
It is because we have
been born anew and have become new creatures by the indwelling
of the Holy Spirit,
indeed the entire Godhead.
This means that our
brothers are by definition of all human races and both sexes.
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily,
verily, I say unto thee,
Except a man be born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
When we are born
again
Ezekiel 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a
new spirit will I put within you:
and I will take away
the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
Ezekiel 36:27 And I will put My
Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my
statutes,
and ye shall keep my
judgments, and do them.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be
in Christ, he is a new creature:
old things are passed
away; behold, all things are become new.
Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by
the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
We are brothers
because the converted redeemed Christian is a son of God.
We can see from this
that there is a very significant difference between
a neighbour and a
brother.
In view of the many
instructions given on how we should treat our brothers,
a listing of most of
these scriptures follows.
We need to understand
them as a Father giving instructions to His children, His sons.
The Eternal points
out problems that His family members can encounter,
and He wants us to
operate within a frame work of love which is pleasing to Him.
Unfortunately many
brothers and sisters do not conform to these commands.
We have to forgive
our brothers.
If we do not how can
we expect to be forgiven?
Luke 17:3 Take heed to yourselves:
If thy
brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he
repent, forgive him.
We should not judge
our brother and make him appear worthless.
Romans 14:10 But why
dost thou judge thy brother?
or why
dost thou set at nought thy brother?
This does not mean
that we should not evaluate situations which confront us,
however, we are not
in a position to judge. The Eternal reserves this for Himself.
We know nothing of
all the circumstances which befall others, therefore we should
simply obey. Even if
we did know all the circumstances our judgment would be wrong.
Acts 10:38 How God anointed Jesus
of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power:
who went about doing
good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil;
for God was with him.
Acts 10:42 And he commanded us to preach unto the
people, and to testify that it is he which
was ordained of God to
be the Judge of quick and dead.
We should be
considerate and not do anything that would cause our brother to stumble.
This is of course not
referring to sin, but rather to deeds that in themselves are not
wrong but could cause
someone who is not as strong as we are to stumble and even fall.
Romans 14:21 It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to
drink wine,
nor any thing whereby
thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.
for we shall all
stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
We should avoid the
company of an unrepentant brother who insists on continuing
his life of sin.
1 Corinthians 5:11 But now I have written unto you not
to keep company,
if any man that is
called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater,
or a railer, or a
drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
We see ‘believers’
taking other believers to court and this is wrong.
1 Corinthians 6:6 But brother goeth to law
with brother, and that before the unbelievers.
We should be tolerant
of our husband/wife if he/her is an unbeliever, but who is pleased
to live with their
unconverted partner.
1 Corinthians 7:12
But to the rest speak I, not the Lord:
If any brother hath a
wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him,
let him not put her
away.
We should not be
weary about looking after well being of our brothers.
This is not referring
to exploitation.
If you suffer wrongly
at the hand of your brother, leave it up to the Eternal
to deal with the
situation.
2 Thessalonians 3:13 But ye, brethren, be not weary in well
doing.
1 Thessalonians 4:6 That no man go beyond and defraud his
brother in any matter:
because that the Lord
is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.
1 John 2:10 He that loveth his brother abideth in the
light,
and there is none
occasion of stumbling in him.
1 John 2:11 But he that hateth his brother is in
darkness, and walketh in darkness,
and knoweth not
whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.
To hate our brother
is to be a murderer.
1 John3:15 Whosoever hateth his
brother is a murderer:
and ye know that no
murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.
To love our brother
is to be in ‘life’.
1 John 3:14 We know that we have passed from death unto
life,
because we love the
brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.
We should be generous
with the goods of this world and not see our brothers
suffer privation
while we have the means to assist him.
1 John 3:17 But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth
his brother have need,
and shutteth up his
bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
If we cannot love our
brother whom we see, how can we love the invisible God?
1 John 4:20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his
brother, he is a liar:
for he that loveth
not his brother whom he hath seen,
how can he love God
whom he hath not seen?
We are very prone to
desire to correct our brothers and fail to see the huge problems
which confront us and
are easily visible to those around us.
Matthew 7:5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out
of thine own eye;
and then shalt thou
see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother‘s eye.
We have to forgive
our brothers as a normal event, as the Eternal has forgiven
us far more than we
will ever have to forgive others.
Matthew 18:21 Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord,
how oft shall my
brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?
Matthew 18:35 So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also
unto you,
if ye from your
hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.
Finally we can see
that for us obedience is absolutely critical.
Those who listen to
and obey the Eternal God, are literally his close family in reality.
Matthew 12:50 For whosoever shall do the will of my Father
which is in heaven,
the same is my
brother, and sister, and mother.
We have seen that
there is a difference between a neighbour, who is all the rest of humanity,
and a brother who is
a born again believer, a member of the body of Christ.
We have also seen
that we have been given many instructions on how brothers should
conduct themselves.
This information was
given to us by Christ our Elder Brother.
Be Humble Repent Listen To The
Eternal God Obey Him.
This is very easy to say, but I assure you that it is
physically impossible without
the empowerment of the Eternal God.
Just going up to some altar call, running to some
church, or isolating yourself
in the hope that somehow it will all go away, will not
do it.
What are you going to do
about it before it is too late?
See Video: Obedience
Is The Only Way Of Escape
