Safeguards to Fellowship--Part 3

This is the last message in the three part series entitled “Safeguards to Fellowship.” These are tests of how much we love the Lord as well as safeguards to our fellowship with Him. The first was “keeping Christ’s word.” The second was “walking as Christ walked.” Today we will cover the third—“loving the brethren.”

Loving the Brethren

The third safeguard, which is “loving the brethren,” is the fruit of loving Christ; and loving Christ is the fruit of the Spirit of regeneration (I John 2:10). God’s love is manifested to the elect by being poured out in our hearts in the new birth (Rom. 5:5). This love is apprehended by its recipients: “We love, because He first loved us” (I John 4:19). “And to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge…” (Eph. 3:19). God’s love is reproduced in Christians. We love God (I John 4:19), His word (Ps. 119:97), and His people (I John 3:14).

There are degrees of love in God’s people. Believers go from the inception, to the expansion, to the completion of love. These three stages of love are beautifully illustrated in the Song of Solomon. This Song is greater than Solomon’s other writings (I Kings 4:32-34). Its theme is a consciousness of Christ’s love. When Christ’s love is valued more than all earthly joys, its personal intimacy will be experienced. This Song is the holy of holies of all Solomon’s songs. It is a revelation of the chaste and virtuous love which no splendor can dazzle and no flattery can seduce. Christians are attracted to Jesus Christ because of WHO HE IS, the holy One of God, and not merely for what He has done.

The inception of love is stated in the words of the Song of Solomon 2:16—“My beloved is mine, and I am his.” This statement is characteristic of a baby in Christ. The baby thinks chiefly of Christ being his and for his own pleasure. At this stage of the Christian life, one does not realize all that transpired in order for Christ to become his Savior. Jesus Christ could never have become the baby’s Savior apart from the Father’s giving him to the Son (John 17), Christ’s redeeming him (Rom. 3:24-26), and the Holy Spirit’s regenerating him (John 3:8). All the baby sees at this point in his Christian life is Jesus Christ dying on the cross for him and his faith in Him (I John 5:1). The statement, “I am his,” comes second in the confession of the baby because he has much to learn concerning what his belonging to Christ means. He is Christ’s by creation (John 1:3), gift (John 6:37), inheritance (Eph. 1:18), purchase (I Cor. 6:20), and the new birth (II Cor. 5:17).

The expansion of love is declared in the Song of Solomon 6:3—“I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine….” Expanding love acknowledges that Christ’s ownership takes precedence over personal considerations; therefore, the order is reversed from what it was in chapter 2:16. In the beginning of the Christian life, one is taken up with personal considerations. The Lord allows this for a time, but the babyhood stage must be corrected. Sonship is inherent in all believers, but one experiences it through development in the Christian life. Growth and maturity are required for a believer to attain the stature of sonship in love. The best way to discern growth to the stage of sonship is the change in one’s conversation. A conversation filled with the way the Lord is blessing one is a manifestation of self-love. Paul said, “No longer I who live, but Christ” (Gal. 2:20). The apostle manifested the spirit of sonship. Continually talking about what one is doing also calls attention to oneself. The person who works for the Lord without calling attention to himself has passed the babyhood stage.

The completion of love is set forth in the Song of Solomon 7:10—“I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me.” This is the highest manifestation of love in the Christian life. Completed love drops the word “mine” in the assurance that belonging to Christ includes all, and love owes to Him full obedience. One with this love fully realizes that Christ’s desire, which includes eternity as well as time, is toward His people. John had the completion of love in mind when he said, “But whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him” (I John 2:5). The believer with present experiential knowledge and fully developed love can say with Paul, “But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24).

John gave one of the proofs of completed or fully developed love in I John 2:10—“The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him.” The Christian who causes his brother to stumble or sin is not abiding in the Light. “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another, for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law” (Rom. 13:8). Paul warned against the stronger brother’s destroying the weaker brother’s peace of mind by wrong conduct. “For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died” (Rom. 14:15).

The sin of the brother’s walking in darkness is a violation of the demands of love to his brother. The exhortation to not tear down the work of God for the sake of food is directed to the stronger brother: “Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense. It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine, or to do anything by which your brother stumbles” (Rom. 14:20-21).

All mistakes and problems that arise in the Christian life and in the assembly can be traced to either ignorance of, or disobedience to, Scripture. The title “brother” has caused great controversy. Some have the opinion that “brother” in I John 2:9 and 11 is set against “brother” in verse 10. They explain that the claim of being in the Light is nullified by hating a brother. Their conclusion is that the brother who hates and the brother who loves are opposites, as darkness and light and hate and love. On the surface, this all sounds good; but what about the term “beloved” in I John 2:7? Furthermore, does the title “brother” in verse 10 mean something different than in verses 9 and 11? Hating is possible when one is either walking in the darkness of ignorance or has deliberately stepped out of the Light. However, a brother’s stepping out of the Light is not habitual. It is incidental and occasional. Therefore, the safeguard is to obey the command to love one another. Christ said to His disciples in John 13:34, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” If the disciples needed that commandment, so do we. In what sense was the commandment new? Such a commandment had already been given in Leviticus 19:18—“…you shall love your neighbor as yourself….” Its newness was found in John 13:34 in the words, “…even as I have loved you….” John 13:35 says, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” This harmonizes with I John 3:14—“We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.”

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The NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE—UPDATED EDITION is the source of all Scripture quotations in this message, unless otherwise noted.