Brotherly love without stumbling

“The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him.” (1 John 2:10)

            How often do you go up to your church on Sunday to worship and praise God, knowing that “your brother has something against you” (Mt. 5:23), and that you aren’t reconciled to him yet?  Even when we go up to the church on a Sunday morning, there seem to be times when we give praise and worship God in a rather difficult relationship with each other, such as couple argue with each other, and parents argues even with their children, and church members argue with each other.  That’s why Jesus tells us first to go and be reconciled to our brother, then come and offering worship to Him (v. 24).  Are we really obeying this word of Jesus?

                For some reason, even within the community of the church, I think there are some people who have a difficult relationship with each other.  Even though they have a difficult relationship with each other, on the surface, they come up to the church and shake hands or greet each other while sitting in one place to worship the Holy God.  Indeed, it is certain that human love is fragile, scarce, and unreliable.  Therefore, we must love each other only with the love of God.  When we do so by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us and produces the fruit of the Spirit, that is love, then we can keep the unity of the church. Regarding this kind of brotherly love, I would like to say that it is ‘Brotherly love without stumbling’ based on 1 John 2:10.

                But if there is stumbling to the brotherly love that exists within us, why is there stumbling?  The reason is because we hate our brother (1 Jn. 2:11).  So I want to think about three things and receive lessons regarding the sin of hating our brother in Christ with our hearts even though we may say we love him with our lips.

                First, he who hates his brother is in darkness.

                Look at 1 John 2:11 – “But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”  God is Light.  And there is no darkness in Him (1:5).  Therefore, if we say that we have fellowship with God, but do not love our brother but hate him, we are lying because we are walking in darkness (v. 6).  The Bible says that such liars walk in darkness and don’t know where we are going (2:11).  The darkness has blinded us who hate our brother (v. 11).  As a result, because we cannot see or feel the love of God, not only we don’t walk in the truth, but also we cannot do so.  Though our heads we know that we should love our brother, but our hearts not only love our brother but refuse to even receive our brother’s love because our dark hearts are filled with hatred.  We who say we are in the Light and hate our brother are still in the darkness (2:9).  The love of God has not truly been perfected in us (v. 5).  We aren’t living a worthy life as children of the Light.  Rather, they are committing the sin of obscuring the glory of God.

                Second, he who hates his brother is a murderer.

Look at 1 John 3:15 – “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.”  It's no wonder the world hates us (3:13).  In a way, I think this is perfectly normal.  But what is strange is that brothers in Christ hating each other, even though it is perfectly normal for them to love each other.  When the brothers hate each other like this, the Bible says, ‘They are murderers’ (v. 15).  Isn't that surprising?  Usually when we think of murder, we think of killing people with a knife, a gun, etc.  But the Apostle John says that hating a brother is a murderer.  Among the Ten Commandments we know, the 7th commandment, “You shall not murder” (Exod. 20:13), comes in the New Testament and is Jesus’ second commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mk. 12:31).  When we think about it, if we don't love our brother and hate him, we aren’t loving our neighbor, but killing our brother.  Even though we are committing such a great sin, I think we consider hating our brother a light sin.  Therefore, I think that we are slow to repent of committing the sin of murder before God by hardening our hearts.

The Bible says that since Jesus laid down His life for us, we also ought to lay down our lives for our brother (1 Jn. 3:16).  Also, the Bible says, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (Jn. 15:13).  God demonstrates His own love for us is this: While we were still powerless, sinners, and enemies, Christ died for us on the cross (Rom. 8:6, 8, 10).  Therefore, we also must demonstrate God’s love by loving our brother with His love.  We should never commit the sin of murder by hating our brother.

                Third and last, he who hates his brother cannot love God.

Look at 1 John 4:20 – “If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.”  I think this truth is very common sense.  How can we say that we love God whom we cannot see when we don’t love our brother whom we see?  However, I think we are committing a number of actions that go beyond this very common sense.  In other words, while praising and worshiping God whom we cannot see and professing our love for Him countless times, we hate our brother so easily whom we can see.  I think we have a tendency to judge and criticize our brother too easily, and to take too lightly to forgive our brother.  As a result, we see both sides that seem to love the invisible God so much, but don’t love the visible brother.  This is by no means the love of God (vertical love) or the neighbor love (horizontal love) taught in the Bible.

The love taught in the Bible is to love our neighbor because we love God, and to love God because we love our neighbor.  In other words, love for God and love for neighbor are inextricably linked.  If we love God, we must love our neighbor.  And to love our neighbor is to express (demonstrate) our love for God.  Therefore, to hate the brother we see is not loving God.  In other words, it could also be said that to hate our brother is to hate God.  He who hates his brother doesn’t love God and cannot love Him.

We have entered an age when the love of many will grow cold because iniquity has increased (Mt. 24:12).  Human love inevitably decreases over time, but God's love cannot but increase (Ps. 117:2).  Our hearts and consciences will be free from stumbling when we love our brother with the ever-increasing great love of God.  I hope and pray that we will never come to the Lord to give praise and worship to Him with a stumbling block in our hearts because we hate our brother.

Pursuing brotherly love without stumbling,

James Kim

(On November 14, 2008, Thinking of my beloved father-in-law who first sent his older brother to heaven today)