As we know, John writes in his first epistle:
"...We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother." (4:19-21)
"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers." (3:16)
So we love our Christian brothers, we give our lives for them - our free time, our private life etc.
"...We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother." (4:19-21)
"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers." (3:16)
So we love our Christian brothers, we give our lives for them - our free time, our private life etc.
"Who Loves God Must Love his Brother"
We are admonished not to give up
meeting the congregation (Heb 10:25). If we love our spiritual family,
of cause we like to be together. We need our brothers-sisters and they
need us. So we spent all our free time together.
Let's have a look what we can learn about it from Jesus' and apostles' examples.
During his public ministry, Jesus spent all the time together with his disciples. Sometimes he only went to pray alone to the Father. We can say: Jesus prayed alone because the disciples didn't understand Him yet deeply enough. Was this the only reason for His private prayers or did He need personal talks with the Father?
It looks like also Peter prayed alone in Acts 10.9ff, after receiving the Holy Spirit and the foundation of the Church. As we see from the context he had brothers in this town with whom he could have had fellowship, even during preparing the meal. (According to our understanding he wouldn't probably stay in a house of an unbeliever.) Did Peter sin because he preferred personal prayer to fellowship with brothers/sisters?
Let's have a look what we can learn about it from Jesus' and apostles' examples.
During his public ministry, Jesus spent all the time together with his disciples. Sometimes he only went to pray alone to the Father. We can say: Jesus prayed alone because the disciples didn't understand Him yet deeply enough. Was this the only reason for His private prayers or did He need personal talks with the Father?
It looks like also Peter prayed alone in Acts 10.9ff, after receiving the Holy Spirit and the foundation of the Church. As we see from the context he had brothers in this town with whom he could have had fellowship, even during preparing the meal. (According to our understanding he wouldn't probably stay in a house of an unbeliever.) Did Peter sin because he preferred personal prayer to fellowship with brothers/sisters?
"We Love Because He First Loved Us"
Our love for brethren shows our love for God. But 'we love because He
loved us first' and because we love God. We know that we cannot help
each other well, when we are more dependent on each other than on God.
We took time for personal talks with a brother (or sister) to get to
know him and to support him in his walk with Christ. But we cannot change anyone, the changing power comes from Him who
created and called us. Our wisdom to help a brother should come from
Him as well. The aim of our Christian life is to became more and more
sanctified, more and more similar to Him in purity, serving, love etc.
Our Christianity is expressed and we grow spiritually through practical
love & serving of brothers. But we are really able to love and serve
others only when we are deeply rooted in Jesus & empowered by Him.
So shouldn't we also take more time for personal fellowship (prayer,
Bible reading) with Him, to know Him better, to be strengthened by Him?
I mean that we had a tendency to see dealing with personal relationship with God, thinking, reading alone, as selfish. Probably from fear that someone becomes individualistic, proud of personal recognition or something like that. But if our Father wants us to be one, in unity and able to love, support, compliment each other, why should we be afraid when someone talks with Him longer alone? Surely He can also show to that person how he has to love others.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Back to the letter |
Holy Love | Marriage | Unity | Church Authority
