Add to your faith: brotherly affection

Welcome back to our Add to your Faith study. Today we are focusing on verse 7 of 2 Peter 1.

" ...and (add) godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love."

We have been looking at this passage for several weeks. If you are just joining us, you can click on the underlined words to read the other lessons.

First we learned to add to our faith-goodness...

then, add to goodness-knowledge.

to knowledge we add self-control.

and to self-control add perseverance.

Last lesson we looked at adding to our perseverance, godliness.

Today we see adding to godliness, brotherly Affection.

(Next lesson will be on adding to affection, love, so stay tuned for that one)

Brotherly affection comes from the word φιλαδελφίαν,-brotherly love, kindness., love of the brethren.

There are several verses that use brotherly love like In Romans chapter 12 we read the marks of a true Christian.

9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit,serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. 17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

What does it look like when we have true brotherly affection for each other?

I could write a whole different series on this....just from this passage. Here we see Paul's admonition to live out the Christian life in a tangible way. Starting with genuine love, we are to have brotherly affection that competes for who can show more honor to the other.....being generous and hospitable to each other, sharing emotions (rejoicing or weeping together) and living peaceably with all in unity. This is God's perfect plan for the church and the lives of believers.

Is your church life like this? Sometimes church becomes a place of competing with each other, showing arrogance, hiding emotions, racism, pride, greed, personal agendas and many other opposites of God's plan for our lives.

Looking at 2 Peter, we have seen the progression of maturing in our faith. As we carefully study and pursue a relationship with God in obedience and surrender, then we can add each attribute to our faith by the power of the Holy Spirit. I have heard a lot of people teach how we just need to love one another, but very few start with supplementing our faith with goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance and godliness to get to where we can honestly have true brotherly affection for each other, so it usually is a faked behavior that looks like love but is not genuine.

We cannot skip to brotherly affection and ignore the spiritual disciplines that it takes to get there....nor can we just choose to be ignorant and not grow in the faith while faking affection and love.

In John 13:35 Jesus says, "A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so also you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.”

Do non-Christians in your community know that you are a believer because of your love that you have for others? Is your church known for being a place of brotherly affection and unity?

If not, it is time to realize how seriously God emphasizes love all through Scripture, and has given us the divine promises so that we can partake of his power and grow in our faith until we can truly honestly and openly love one another with brotherly affection.

Do you have any thoughts or questions you would like to talk about? head over to the conversation cafe link or click on the chat to talk to me about this lesson.

Thanks for reading, God bless you!