2 Peter 1:5-7 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;… I. This same apostle has, in his earlier epistle, enjoined ii upon the disciples of Christ to "LOVE THE BROTHERHOOD." And whom has the Saviour taught us to regard as being thus our kindred and our brethren? We turn to the Gospels for the needful light in interpreting the Epistles. 1. When our Lord was celebrating with His apostles, the last religious ordinance of His life on earth, He said to them, "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:34, 35). This law was new in its authorship. The Decalogue on Sinai had been given through Moses. The Son Himself was now come to speak, face to face, that law of Love which crowned and solved all the earlier commandments. It was, again, novel in its motives. To intimate His equal Deity, the Son here makes love to Himself, the motive of holy obedience. As it was new, too, in its evidence. It would become, before the world, the badge and public pledge of Christian discipleship. 2. But whilst I am required to cherish a brother's warm regard for these, are none but these my brethren? We answer to this question: Spiritual ties, whilst overriding, do not annul all natural bonds. And who are our brethren, by these earlier and human ties? We suppose all who are near to us — those attached and grappled to us by the domestic charities; those, again, with whom we are united of our free choice by the bonds of friendship; and those, lastly, who are our countrymen, one with us by the law of patriotism. II. HOW, THEN, IS IT THAT GODLINESS NEEDS THE ADDITION OF BROTHERLY KINDNESS? 1. Far as the range of worldly brotherhood extends, in our relations to the home, to the circles of friendship, and to our countrymen generally, godliness should be guarded by this grace of human sympathy, to counteract an unjust, but common imputation against true piety. The monk, fleeing to the wilderness; the spiritualist, overlooking his engagements to society and the household, in the care of the closet and his soul, are answerable for an error here. Their godliness lacks brotherly kindness. So, too, the hostility of the worldly to true piety, venting itself of old by statutes and penalties; venting itself in our times, rather in derision and cruel mockery, may easily provoke in the minds of the truly godly an alienation that would, unchecked, issue in utter isolation. But this is rather natural than justifiable. It is not so much the strength of the Christian's godliness, as the human weakness intermingled with, and diluting that piety, which thus teaches him to withdraw, because he has cause of complaint. 2. But not only may the bonds of worldly and human brotherhood, thus, with or without the Christian's fault, be seemingly sundered by his godliness; a man's piety may seem to hinder his recognition at times of the ties of spiritual brotherhood also. If it be asked, how this can be, let it be remembered in reply, that a man of eminent devoutness may easily become absorbed and abstracted in manner. 3. But a more disastrous barrier to this brotherly kindness is the existence and range of controversy among Christians. III. We now reach that division of our subject in which we consider now THE CHRISTIAN GRACE OF BROTHERLY KINDNESS IS TO FILL UP THE SPHERE OF WORLDLY BROTHERHOOD, EMBRACING AS THAT DOES, FRIENDSHIP, KINDRED, AND COUNTRY. 1. As to the power of religion to adorn and cement friendship, the history of the Church speaks emphatically. 2. As to the effects of religion on those who are our brethren because our countrymen, the topic of Christianity in its relations to the nation is too vast and complicated to be at this time discussed. It is evidently a duty of Christian patriotism, to urge thoroughly the work of Home Missions, and to send the Bible and Sabbath-school and ministry on the very crest of the westward waves of emigration. IV. THE MANNER IN WHICH THE CHRISTIAN GRACE, WHICH THE APOSTLE HERE ENJOINS, SHOULD BE DISPLAYED IN THE DISTINCT SPHERE OF SPIRITUAL BROTHERHOOD. 1. Within the same church, then, the disciples of our Saviour need to be more and more given to mutual intercession. 2. Christians in this day need, again to ponder the warnings of James as to social and terrestrial distinctions, unduly dwelt upon in the intercourse of fellow-disciples. Fraternity among Christians, again, requires that we do not abandon merely to the care of the State, the poor and dependent of our fellow-disciples. (W. R. Williams.) Parallel Verses KJV: And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; |
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