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What Is Brotherly Love

“Now concerning love of the brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anyone write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another…”

Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:9

If our love of one another is cold, if we call social pleasantries (which are actually quite distant) as examples of our love. Then we are deceiving ourselves and one another.

To really love someone is to spend entire Christian gatherings speaking with them back and forth.

Brotherly love involves a good deal of conflict, it involves confession of sins back and forth. It is giving of things, it is in helping our brothers and they us. It is not a distant hand shake and a “how you doing?, and a “boy that was a good sermon”

If we don’t get past a distant periodic hand shake and a “how you doing?” God is not able to teach us as Christians how to love one another. God cannot get to teaching us because of coldness, we won’t allow it, our collective tradition of coldness prevents him.

Hearing sermons accomplishes close to nothing spiritually.

A two-hour banquet and face to face gathering can be more spiritual than 500 hours of sermons.

Most sermons are like a nagging wife or husband, like a constant dripping on your ceiling of a leaky roof. Forever reminding us to do things we already know to do, but never quite giving us the ability to do them.

But Jesus does give us the ability, he teaches us the impossible then he empowers us. And he miraculously does both through fellow Christians. I hear and see Jesus in fellow Christians, even immature ones. Even ones I don’t enjoy being around.

Brotherly love is defined by the ecclesia. It is seen exclusively in the gatherings of Christian brothers and sisters.

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Word of God Teller

All teachings and declarations of truth in the church was designed to have checks and balances. There should not be top-down, one-shepherd feeding many sheep the word of God. At least not beyond an initial phase of training and discipleship (maybe a year).

Periodic times of special teaching are fine, but this is rare and only by an equal member of the body. Or special teachings come by someone outside the body who come to help a group get through a problem. These equal members are not permanently above in some hierarchy over the other members. In all things there is to be equality. These are a few of the ways that bodies of Christ functioned in the New Testament.

A permanent class or office of “word of God teller” who receive tithes from to a large group of inactive “Word of God hearers.” Otherwise known as tithe payers, is just not scriptural…it is actually unbecoming a Christian fellowship. In whom Jesus himself dwells. I realize that is hard to hear by someone raised in a church system but it is true nonetheless.

Christians are equal and we work out the mind of Christ together in back and forth spiritual fellowship and conversation. All Christians are intended to be word of God tellers and word of God hearers.

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moon in kingdom of darkness
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The Real Foundation of Christian Love

Christian loyalty and love one for another is nullified and torn apart if it is not within Jesus Christ!

So then how can we know if it originates from Jesus Christ?

It is Very Simple, so simple it is often overlooked.

ANY hint whatsoever of permanent hierarchy, favoritism, ongoing preeminence of one Christian or family over many. (Today we call these pastors or priests or bishops)

This nullifies the entire group as being from the lord and pushes the entire group outside of the rule and reign of Jesus Christ. Still Christians yes but now just a general association of Christians. Something vital and life-giving is gone. Where Jesus is not in charge essentially becomes a religious club, a ministry of a certain skilled man or families, it also can easily become then a cult of personality.

Good people, good motives, but not a group that’s of, by, and to our Lord Jesus. Their loyalty, unity with, and and love for one another will then necessarily become shallow and cold and human based and then will cease to be love at all.

Only in submission to and cooperation with Jesus Christ can real love and loyalty grow and happen between Jesus followers. This is the real church, the ecclesia, growing upon the ground of equality, and of Christ living and expressing himself through each member freely, as he wants. Unmanageable by any man. Uncontrollable by any marketing program or business leader. Pastors are to train their people to meet this way, then lay down all permanent dominance over a group.

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