A BROTHER

Matthew 10:25 (to “his Lord”); 1 Thessalonians 1:7,8 (to “gone abroad”); Philemon:4,5

I have been affected as thinking about our beloved brother in these past weeks, and this scripture has come to me: “It is sufficient for the disciple that he should become as his teacher, and the bondman as his lord”. As a man according to nature, our brother was a father, a grandfather, a husband, and a son. I feel that we have gathered today to bury a brother. We were privileged locally to know him as a brother, and that affected me deeply. A brother is a believer and therefore one who is like the Master; that is what we love in one another, dear friends. What we love in one another are the features of the Lord that we see in each other, which we shall enjoy in eternity.

The Authorised Version renders this verse slightly differently: “It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master” – “enough”. One impression that I gained of our brother when he was still available to us is that he was one who had found sufficiency in Christ. He had found that Christ was enough. Dear friend, is that the portion of our souls? Have we found sufficiency in Christ? This world knows nothing of sufficiency: if persons have a lot, they want more. Then there are people who have very little, and this world will never give them enough. That is the character of the world around us, that sufficiency is a matter unknown; yet to the believer in Christ, we well know sufficiency because we know it in Him. I think our brother found sufficiency in Christ; although this scripture does not quite say that we find sufficiency in Christ; it says that sufficiency is to be found in being like Him.

I read in Thessalonians because it speaks of the brethren there as being models: “ye became models to all that believe in Macedonia”. That is another impression I had of our brother, that he was trustworthy; and he was trustworthy because his walk matched his ministry. He did what he said; he would exhort us as to the Lord’s things, and you could see these things modelled in himself. Another feature we like to see in a brother is that he is what he says. Our brother had a great desire for the truth, he had a great desire to know how you were getting on in the truth, to know that you were going on well. I recall one occasion after the Lord’s supper when I had expressed myself in thanksgiving in a way that was not according to Scripture. I had already shaken hands with our brother, but he came up to me again and he took me by both of my hands, and he laid out the way of God more exactly. It was done in such a brotherly way, even the worst spirit could not have taken offence at the way he spoke.

His desire was for the truth; he would not let anything pass, but what love, what affection, what brotherly feeling was in him, what a model of the Lord’s things he was. We do not want eulogy in an occasion like this, but let us take account of spiritual characteristics in one another. That is what we shall know in eternity, but let us take account of them now. We have been bereft of our brother. We have felt his absence among us for some years now. He was a great practical help to us and we miss him. We take account of what he was and of the help that he was to us. Do we take account of one another? Let us do that and let us be able to look to one another as models of the truth. Let us also be models of it ourselves. That is, that we are in the truth not simply in words, but we are in the truth in our deeds. Our brother was one to whom we looked, and we saw the character in which a believer should walk. That was very helpful to me: it was not simply a matter of telling me how the truth stood, but he was showing us how it should be. Are we like that – are we models?

It says, “so that ye became models to all that believe in Macedonia and in Achaia: for the word of the Lord sounded out from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith which is towards God has gone abroad”. We are not to be believers in secret. Our brother was a believer in practice. There was nothing secret about it. Another thing that I appreciated often – this has already been spoken about – was that after a meeting he was always willing to speak about what had impressed him, what was on his soul. That is what being a model conveys, that the truth is set out in a person. A model is something of substance.

When the apostle Paul wrote to Philemon, he was in straitened circumstances, very straitened and difficult circumstances. Our brother knew such circumstances. What impressed me was that he always wanted to know what your circumstances were – although he endured very difficult circumstances himself, he was always asking how you were getting on: How are you getting on? What did you get today? How is your soul? What are you enjoying? What circumstances Paul was in: what could we say about them? But he says to Philemon, “I thank my God, always making mention of thee at my prayers”. Paul had every reason to be praying about his own circumstances, but was he doing that? No; he was thanking God for what he could see in his brethren, and he could thank God for Philemon. He could thank Him as hearing of his love and his faith; Paul could thank God for these things. We have much to thank God for in one another, if we would take account of it. Let us take account of spiritual characteristics in one another.

Often in occasions like this, and in the prayer meeting, brethren will pray that we may fill up the ranks. That is, we feel bereft, we feel that there has been a loss, and we do indeed. But we cannot fill up the ranks if we do not know where the gaps are; so let us take account of one another so that, should the Lord choose – as it is His right and prerogative to do – to take a brother or sister to Himself, we know what needs to be done. We might say, ‘this brother filled up that position’; well, let us fill it up so that there may be no gaps. Paul could take account of those around him, and he could give thanks to God for them. We gave thanks to God for our brother, and still do. We have these examples; we have had many examples, brothers I knew, sisters too, when I was a younger person and they are with the Lord now. We think about the example that they were to us and they remain examples. Let us take account of spiritual characteristics in one another and let us appreciate what is yet available to us in one another.

Paul, in writing to Philemon and sending Onesimus back, says he is sending him back “not any longer as a bondman, but above a bondman, a beloved brother”. We are burying a beloved brother here today. But then he says, “that thou mightest possess him fully for ever” (v.16). We are to possess one another for ever; let us appreciate one another now. That is not according to nature, not merely in affability or natural characteristics, but let us appreciate the divine work in one another, and we shall possess it fully for ever.

May we be encouraged, for His name’s sake.

 

Mark Buchan

 

Words at a burial meeting, Peterhead

27 March 2026

 

 

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