WHAT IS PROPER TO BRETHREN

WHAT IS PROPER TO BRETHREN

Genesis 4:1,2; Genesis 4:8-11; Genesis 14:13-20; 1 John 3:10-17

I wish to speak, dear brethren, of the brother and what is proper to us as brethren. And when I speak of the brother, I include of course, sisters. That is, I am thinking of the saints as spoken of as the brethren. We love the brethren, it says. And I am speaking of the brother as an individual member, whether a brother or a sister of that company which Scripture speaks of as the brethren. The term, I think, is intended to convey what we are in our affinity with one another as born of God. That is we are of the same family, as being born of God, and therefore have the affections and feelings proper to that family. And God has set us in relation to one another as brethren, I think for a two-fold purpose. First of all, as here in this world and the children of God, we are here in testimony to what God is in His nature and attributes. That is, God is to be known in His children. The children of God are the brethren. He is to be known in the world in His children. That is one thought connected with children, that they normally convey some feature of resemblance to their parents; and the children of God are in the world as those who are born of God, in order that they might express in their life and conduct what God is in His nature and attributes, especially love, which is His nature, and righteousness, that is, the pursuit of what is right, morally right. Those two things are the two outstanding things which the epistle of John speaks of. Now as seen in that position of testimony, we are likely to incur opposition and hatred in the world, and therefore the second object in mind in being set here as brethren, is that, as in a scene of hostility in testimony, we should be of mutual support to one another. That is that we are not intended to be in it in a merely isolated, individual way, but as moving together with the affections and mutual care proper to the family to which we belong. And therefore the circle of the brethren is provided as a means of support to those who are in the world in the testimony. We have already alluded to it in our readings on the Acts, that when Peter and John were threatened by those who were opposed, it says, “being let go they went to their own company” - their own company. There was no other such company in Jerusalem. It was the company of the brethren, and Peter and John being let go went, it says, to their own company, and the whole company took up the matter in prayer with God. Well now I said that what we are as brethren from this point of view, stands related to what we are in relation to one another as born of God, as being of the same family. There is, of course, a higher view of the saints as brethren of Christ. It says that, “Both he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one; for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren.” That is, the saints are regarded as of the same order as Christ, and I believe that consists in the fact that, not only are we born of God, but that we have received the Spirit of the ascended Man. The Holy Spirit whom we have received is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and I believe it is that which constitutes us heavenly and of the order of Christ. You remember that in John 20 it is said of the Lord that He breathed into the disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” That is He set them up in the possession of His own spirit, and so, being all of one He is not ashamed to call us brethren. And so we read in Romans 8 that, “whom he has foreknown he has also predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he should be the firstborn among many brethren.” That is it is sonship that is in God’s mind; it is that to which He has predestinated us, the pattern of it being seen in Christ Himself, and the full thought of sonship is realised when we are conformed to His image in every way, and there God will have Christ before Him pre-eminent among many of His brethren, many of those of His own order.

But I wish to speak now of what we are as brethren of one another - as those who are born of God. And that involves that we are to love one another, and that involves too that we are to care for one another’s souls. It is interesting that at the outset, as we read in Genesis 4, God makes so much of Abel being a brother. Adam and Eve had been recovered, you might say, to God. God had brought home to them their guilt, and then He had clothed them with coats of skin, so that, typically at any rate, and I have no doubt in some measure of consciousness of acceptance, they were now set up as being instructed in righteousness, having a judgment of sin, but there as in the value of redeeming love. I am not speaking of how far they were intelligent, but that is what we can see in it. That they had been convicted of sin, and that God had provided them with a righteousness, based on the death of a substitute, so that they were really set up now as a witness to righteousness and a witness to redeeming love. But now Cain is born and Eve thinks she has acquired a man from the Lord; she thinks that the seed of the woman has already arrived in this son Cain who was born, and she names him Cain, meaning “Acquisition” and saying, “I have acquired a man with Jehovah,” but she turned out to be mistaken; her son turned out to be the beginning of the line of “the wicked one” - that is what John’s epistle tells us, that “Cain was of the wicked one.” So that God having recovered Adam and Eve and set them up in this world as a testimony to righteousness and love, the devil now contests the matter. He brings on the scene a man who was going to prove himself to be characteristically of the wicked one. But then it says of Eve, “She further bore his brother Abel.” The second one that was born was a brother. God saw to it that a brother was brought on the scene, and moreover it says, “And Abel was a shepherd.” The first brother was a shepherd, and that is an important matter, showing that one idea connected with a brother is that he is to care for the souls of the saints. He is first of all to learn to care for his own soul. We read in the first epistle of John that, “He that has been begotten of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him,” therefore we have to learn first of all to care for our own souls, and that I believe is illustrated in David’s history as a young man. You remember how he tells Saul, when he was proposing to go to meet the giant, that he was keeping his father’s flock and a lion and a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, and he says he went after them and smote them and he rescued the lamb from the lion and the bear. Why he did it was because he accepted responsibility for every lamb in the flock, which belonged to his father, and he put his trust in God. I believe the lamb is really a picture of one’s own soul, that we have, in early history to learn how to preserve our own souls, because Satan will try to ensnare us. He will try to capture us. He will try to rob God of the portion that He has a right to in each of the souls of His own; and therefore he will come against us in one form or another. It might be the terrifying form of a lion, the intimidating idea, or it might be the more seductive form of the bear; but whatever the form of his attack, we have got to learn to meet him. The way we meet the devil, dear brethren, is by just maintaining what is right. Overcoming in spiritual things is not a matter of something heroic, it is a matter simply of not surrendering or compromising what is right. And God’s support and the support of the Spirit are proved as we are on that line. You remember how the Lord met the devil in the wilderness. He did not meet him with divine power, but he simply met him in a way that is proper to a man, He says, “It is written,” and He would not allow for a moment any departure from what was written, and He met Satan on those lines, that He maintained what was right in a man in his relations with God, and Satan was thus completely defeated. And therefore, as I was saying, we need to learn first of all, to keep our own souls, and David proved faithful in that respect in regard of the lamb, he recovered it, and hence it says in the Psalm that God took him from the sheepfolds to feed Jacob His people and Israel His inheritance. That is, having proved faithful in that which is least, he became advanced to have charge of that which was great. So as I was saying, the first brother was a shepherd. And so in these verses we have read, from verse 8 onward, six times Abel is spoken of as Cain’s brother. The thought of the brother is emphasised, and Jehovah tells Cain that Abel’s desire would be toward him; I think that means that Abel loved Cain. There was that element there in Abel. These features of righteousness and love were there in Abel. He was maintaining the truth for the moment: that is, he approached God with a sacrifice which was in keeping with the way God had clothed his parents with coats of skin, and he was loving his brother. He was maintaining righteousness and expressing love, and that is why he became the object of the hatred of this one who was of the wicked one, and he slew his brother. Cain says to God, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” That is exactly what we are, dear brethren, we are our brother’s keeper, and that is what we shall come to in the first epistle of John, that the brother is intended to have his eyes open that he may see his brother having need, and he is not to ignore it, for according to chapter 5 of the epistle, he may see his brother sin, and if he sees his brother sin, a sin not unto death, he is to ask for him. He is not to ignore it, he is not to say to himself that it is not his affair, he is to get to God about it, because we are our brother’s keeper. Each one of us is responsible for the souls of those that are near to us, and this particularly applies in any locality. We cannot, of course, in any practical way, be the keeper of the souls of all the brethren, but we can accept responsibility for those amongst whom God has immediately placed us, and therefore in any locality there should be developed among the brethren the care of one another. First of all, pray for one another. Keep our eyes open and see what the need is. Pray for those who are getting on, that they may get on still better, and pray for those who are not getting on, that the Lord may exercise them and help them. But then, if we are to be an influence for good among our brethren, and if we are to have power with God, in our prayers, we must see to it that we are going on ourselves. That is of the greatest importance. And of course, it is a very serious matter for anyone to stumble a little one. That is another matter which the older brothers and sisters, especially, have to beware of, the great seriousness of becoming a stumbling block to one of the little ones. And so as I was saying, the brother is a shepherd, and he is responsible for his brother’s soul. “Am I my brother’s keeper,” Cain says, but God does not answer his question, but the Scriptures show that the thought is that we are to accept responsibility in regard of our brethren.

Now when we come to the next passage, that is seen in Abraham, and Abraham is spoken of in scripture as the father of us all. And that means that we are to look to Abraham as an example. Normally, children in a family, look to their father. They like to do the same things that they see their father do, I mean that is normal. And that is the idea, among other things, in connection with Abraham being father of us all: that he sets out the features of those who are truly of faith. He was the beginning, you might say, of the household of faith. Not that there were not those marked by faith before him, because there were. Abel and Enoch and Noah and so on, only it was in Abraham the great principle of living by faith was set out, and so he is said to be the father of us all. So now we read in this 14th chapter, that Abram the Hebrew, was dwelling by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, the brother of Eschol, and the brother of Aner. That is, Abram was dwelling by the oaks of Mamre in the region at any rate, in the company, it would seem, of these three men who are called brothers. It says they were Abram’s allies. Now that is an important matter. First of all that we should dwell by the oaks of Mamre, for Mamre is Hebron, and Hebron in Scripture always refers to the purpose of God. We are told that it was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt, the town which was, I understand, a seat of learning in Egypt. Seven years before that was built, Hebron was built. So that whatever wisdom there may be attaching to this world, God has in His thoughts for the saints an order of wisdom, infinitely superior to it and that precedes it. God’s thoughts for the saints go back before the foundation of the world, and therefore in Corinthians we are told about that “hidden wisdom” which God prepared before the world for our glory. And Abram was dwelling in the light of that. He was dwelling by the oaks of Mamre. The oaks speak of great stability. And it is a great thing to have the purpose of God in our minds and hearts, for it gives great stability. Whatever happens in this world, the purpose of God is going through, and if we are the subjects of that purpose, we are going through too. And if we are the subjects of the purpose of God it means that we are the objects of the love of God - that is another thing. And so our portion is absolutely immovable, it is absolutely stable and we ourselves are the objects of the love of God. There is nothing like the sense of that to give stability in the soul. And Abram was dwelling there, he was not just visiting the place, but he dwelt there. And he dwelt there with three brothers, that is to say, there is a suggestion of not only having the purpose of God in our souls, but also that we appreciate the circle of the brethren. They were his allies. There was no divergence between them but they were co-operating with him. But now news is brought to him about another brother, Lot. It says, “And one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew... and Abram heard that his brother was taken captive.” That is a brother who has been caught by the world. There is no reason to suppose that Lot had any part in the wickedness of Sodom. Indeed we know from Peter’s epistle, in which he is called the righteous man, that he tormented his righteous soul day after day on account of the wickedness of Sodom. So that Lot, personally, was a righteous man, but yet he was occupying a place in Sodom. He chose it too, deliberately, and he acquired a certain position of prominence, apparently that of a magistrate. He acquired a position in Sodom, and the result was that when king Chedorlaomer and those with him came and defeated the king of Sodom, and his allies, Lot was carried away captive. Well now, Abram does not say, “It is his own fault, I am afraid it is just the end of a course; he looked toward Sodom and fancied it and this is the result “: he did not leave it at that. He set out to recover his brother if possible. And what is to be noted is that he had three hundred and eighteen trained servants born in his house. That is, there is a suggestion of a kind of system with which Abram is connected, entirely outside the world system by which Lot had been captivated. And that, I think we can say humbly, we know something of. There is, thank God, a system, the Christian circle, the Christian fellowship and all that belongs to it there is that system in which we find our life and move freely, and Abram had three hundred and eighteen trained servants, born in his house. That is, he had those who belonged to the system; they had not taken on the features of Sodom, but they belonged to this system to which Abram belonged. They were trained in it. That is a very important matter, that those who are born, born in Zion, as you might say, those who are given to us as a result of the work of God, should be trained in what belongs to the truth. They must be instructed in divine principles, and Abram had a large number of them, three hundred and eighteen trained servants born in his house, who were available to him for this work of saving his brother. I suppose there is nothing so calculated to impress Christians who get carried away by the world, but find out how empty and hollow it is, as to bring before them by some means that there is a system in which life and satisfaction and contentment are to be found. Abram, at any rate, used what was available under his hand, and went forth and was successful in saving his brother Lot. Alas! we know that Lot did not benefit by it. We know that eventually he goes back to Sodom and has to be dragged out of it in God’s mercy by the angels when Sodom was overthrown; but at any rate Abram had proved himself a true brother. Whatever the result was, or lack of result, Abram had proved himself to be a true brother. And then as he returns from the slaughter of the kings it says that “Melchisedec, king of Salem brought out bread and wine, and he was priest of the Most High God.” It is as though in all these exercises the Lord would always bring before us the thought of the service of God. Abram might have felt jubilant at the success of his efforts, in the way that he had recovered all the persons and all the property: he might have been inclined to be jubilant but Melchisedec comes out with bread and wine, “And he was priest of the Most High God,” and he blesses Abram on the part of the Most High God. So it is a question of the Lord being before us, that the greatest thing of all is that we know God, and that we have part in the service of God. And if saints are to be delivered, the point is that they are to have part in the service of God too. We must be delivered from the world to be available to serve God acceptably, and at this point Melchisedec comes out - type of Christ - and he brings out bread and wine; I suppose to bring home to Abram that there was sustenance for him which the world could not afford: spiritual food, spiritual stimulation, all in view of his being maintained in liberty and power to serve God. And he blesses Abram. He blesses God, too, but he first blesses Abram. “Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, possessor of heavens and earth.” It is a far greater thing to be blessed by God, especially God known as the possessor of heavens and earth, as it says in Ephesians, “I bow my knees to the Father... of whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named.” What a vast extent of glory and blessing God has before Him. And we are blessed by Him, blessed in a most exalted way. And so all that is brought to bear on Abram, typically upon ourselves, in order to deliver us completely, and preserve us completely, from any taint of this world, from any allowance of the principles of the world, in self-exaltation or self-complacency or whatever it might be, and to remind us that our great business and responsibility, whatever else is done, and we are responsible to care for our brethren, is to be engaged with the service of God, and to be engaged in it not formally, but in spiritual power and liberty. If we are maintained in exercise we soon discover anything that hinders our spiritual liberty and power, and it helps us if we keep before us the thought that God has taken us up to serve Him. Melchisedec was priest of the Most High God, and he sets before Abram the thought of the service of the Most High God because he was priest. But he came out to serve Abram, in order that he might convey to Abram that he was blessed of God. And of course if God blesses us His intention is that we should bless God, that we should be secured for His service. And so Abram gave him, it says, the tenth part of all.

But now I pass on to John’s epistle, and that really gives us in teaching what we have been referring to in type in the passages in Genesis. It says, “In this are manifest the children of God and the children of the devil. Whoever does not practise righteousness is not of God, and he who does not love his brother.” These are the two things which God is looking for pre-eminently in His children as here in testimony. That we should practise righteousness, that is, what is right in the sight of God is to govern us in all that we do. Follow righteousness, Paul says to Timothy. That is the first principle. I know he brings that in particularly in relation to religious associations, but at the same time it is the principle that is to govern us in all things, in the smallest thing as well as the biggest thing. Follow righteousness. And righteousness is simply what is right in the sight of God. Not what is right in the sight of men but what is right in the sight of God is to be followed, and it is to be followed because we are here as children of God, and if we fail in righteousness practically we deny the character of God. And that is a very solemn matter. We are here as born of God to be a testimony in the world to what God is in His attributes and in His nature. And God is righteous, He is essentially righteous, and therefore what is right in the sight of God is to characterise His children. And then love is also to characterise us because God is love, and that is where the brother comes in. If I am living in an isolated spot and have no brethren I have very little opportunity to express love and very little opportunity to develop in love. The circle of the brethren is given us as the circle in which love is to be expressed and developed! The reason for that is that love is of God, and God has in mind that there should be a circle maintained here on earth, in the very presence of all that is of the wicked one, in which what is of Himself is expressed. We may rest assured that Satan will attack. He always will, wherever there is what is of God Satan is not far off. I know no more solemn instance of that than we have in John 13 where we have the Lord with His disciples at supper time, and the devil had put into the heart of Judas Iscariote, one of the disciples of Jesus, to betray Him. And then when Jesus gave to Judas the sop while he was still at table, it says, “then entered Satan into him.” Think of that! How near Satan is, that there were Jesus and His disciples, a circle of love, and Satan was nearby. There was what was of God there and Satan was nearby try to get in, and there was one of the company who afforded him a loop-hole and Satan got in. And that is something that we are always to bear in mind, dear brethren, that as long as we are here and we are going on with what is of God, Satan is not far off. And therefore we must be watchful not to allow any loop-holes. If I begin to allow the principle of covetousness, if I begin to allow the principle of pride, if I begin to allow any false principle, then I am affording a loop-hole for Satan. And that is one reason, dear brethren, why the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is such a very great matter. It is such a preservative, such a privilege, that we should have God’s Holy Spirit dwelling in us. He has holy sensibilities, I need not say, and if we do not quench Him, if we do not grieve Him, He will promote similar sensibilities with us. And if we are quick to His touch, and if we are sensitive as He gives us the consciousness that we have grieved Him, then there is immediate recovery open to us, so that we do not become a tool for the enemy. And so it says, “This is the message which ye have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.” And then it goes on to say, “Do not wonder, brethren, if the world hate you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren.” It is a good thing, dear brethren, to cultivate this. And love, I would say, expresses itself in activity, and in sacrifice. Love does not demand. Love on my part does not demand that the saints should love me; love in my heart expresses itself in serving the saints and seeking their good. Love never demands, love never makes itself an object. If we want to see a description of love in the abstract we should read the 13th chapter of the 1st epistle to Corinthians, “Love... does not seek what is its own,” it says, “Love... bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things,” and so on. And in that same chapter we are told that one might have prophecy and knowledge and faith, and yet if I have not love I am nothing. Our power in service is not our measure. Our real measure is love and how much we do love. But here it says, “Do not wonder brethren if the world hate you, we know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.” And now it says, “Hereby we have known love.” It is a question, not now of brotherly love, although love is to find expression in the circle of the brethren, and development there, but now it is love in its absoluteness, what God is in His nature. We are taught in Peter’s epistle that in brotherly love we are to have love. So it says, “Hereby we have known love, because He has laid down his life for us.” That is always to be before our minds and hearts, that love has come into expression. God is love, and what God is has come into perfect expression in Jesus. He has laid down His life for us, and we ought, it says - it is now a question of moral obligation - “we ought, for the brethren, to lay down our lives.” That shows that the circle of the brethren is constituted for the express purpose of the expression and development of love, because God is love. And one of the ways in which love expresses itself is that we accept the responsibility to care for our brethren, and especially to care for their souls. Remember what it says in the epistle to the Ephesians, “Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, even as the Christ loved us, and delivered Himself up for us, an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.” Love is of God, and we are to be imitators of God, but if we are to learn love in its expression, we learn it in Christ, as it is said, “the Christ loved us and delivered himself up for us, an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.” I believe the expression of love was so perfect in Christ when He gave Himself for us, that it went up to God as a sweet-smelling savour. Love in activity as of God was seen in Christ in such perfection in self-sacrifice, that it went up to God as a sweet-smelling savour. And now we are to take on the same features, we are to walk in love as imitators of God, as beloved children.

And so, as I was saying a moment ago, in order that these things should not be theoretical with us, the epistle contemplates that we should keep our eyes open, so it says, “Whoso may have the world’s substance, and see his brother having need, and shut up his bowels from him, how abides the love of God in him?” And then chapter 5 says, “If anyone see his brother sinning a sin, not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life, for those that do not sin unto death.” That is in material things and in spiritual things we are to have our eyes open to see how the brethren are getting on, and if anyone sees his brother, or of course, his sister, sinning a sin, not unto death, the first thing he should do is to ask for him - to ask God. He should get to God about him, and plead on his behalf that he may be allowed to continue, that he may be restored in his soul and continue in life. And then, dear brethren, if we get to God about someone else who has sinned, we shall very likely find that God will raise exercises with ourselves, and all that will be for our help, and as we face those exercises with God, we may acquire a little power and influence, and be able to save our brother. Indeed in Galatians, as has been much brought before our notice in recent years, it says, “If even a man be taken in some fault, ye who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of meekness, considering thyself lest thou also be tempted.” The Lord places on the spiritual the responsibility of restoring one taken in a fault. Here John says you are to ask for him, and use your influence with God that such an one might be recovered. But Galatians would go further, and say you are to restore such an one. As has been said by another, if we pray for people we gain power with them. If we get to God about them in secret we may acquire a certain amount of moral power with them, so as to be able, like Abram, to recover our brother.

I think from what I have said, dear brethren, that the importance of the brother, that is, the brotherly element, seen in sisters as well as in actual brothers, will be manifest. And you will remember too that Paul constantly brings in a brother. In writing to the Corinthians in his first epistle he says, “Paul, a called apostle of Jesus Christ by God’s will, and Sosthenes the brother.” As an apostle he is authoritative, he brings in the mind of the Lord, and it is the Lord’s commandment and it must be obeyed, but then he brings in the brother with him. The brother would not assert authority, but he would move about as caring for the souls of the brethren. So Paul always looks for the support of the ministry by the influence and power of the brother. And so in writing his second epistle to Corinthians he says again, “Paul, apostle of Jesus Christ by God’s will, and the brother Timotheus.” He brings in another brother. And then in writing to the Corinthians too, in the first epistle he says, “Aquila and Priscilla... salute you much.” “Salute you much in the Lord,” why does he say that? Because Aquila and Priscilla had been local brethren at Corinth at one time, and the Corinthians would know them well, and know indeed, the kind of line that they were on, and when they heard that Aquila and Priscilla, who were with Paul when he wrote his first epistle, saluted them much in the Lord, they would say to themselves, what is the force of that word “much”? And they would perhaps realise that Aquila and Priscilla were very much concerned about them, and the assembly in their house also. And as they began to think on those lines, they would begin to understand why they were concerned about them. It would just be a means of bringing home to them that not only was their condition serious in the sight of the Lord and of His servant the apostle, but this brother and sister, and the assembly in their house,

were feeling it too. They were a known brother and sister, who had been local at Corinth, and now they would bring their influence to bear upon the Corinthians, and say, We are thinking much about you, as though to emphasise tenderly without saying it, We hope you will soon get right!

I need not say more, dear brethren. All through the epistles we shall find the influence and importance of a brother. God has set us together as brethren, and we are brethren because we are born of God. We are born of God and children of God and that is what constitutes us brethren of one another, and our first responsibility, if I may say so, as children of God in the world is to express God in His nature and moral attributes. But then we are also a support to one another. The circle of the brethren is a great support to us as in a world in which we are in testimony, and in this circle we are to accept responsibility as brethren to care for one another’s souls. And so the first brother was a shepherd.