Bible Class E book 2013_divine and brotherly love

Divine Law

“And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.� II John vs. 6.

Divine Law Divine love is the first great commandment. It is the first part of the royal law. All of the law and all of the prophets are founded upon the love of God. Love is the fulfilling of the law. Christ said, “If ye love me keep my commandments.” John 14:15. He also said, “He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” John 14:21.

We must love God with all of our heart, mind and soul. In this way we are sure to obey the law. The law of God was from the beginning. At first it was an oral

law. It was taught directly from God to the ancient fathers.

It was said that they called upon the Lord, they knew God, feared God or walked with God. It was at that time, and was always supposed to be taught and demonstrated from father to son (parent to child). After the flood and the division of the people (tower of Babel), God chose one man to establish his covenant and blessing with. The law and righteousness continued from Abraham and his seed to the children of Israel. The law was first written after Israel became a nation. When the children of Israel were delivered out of Egypt they came to Mt Sinai and were given the Ten Commandments by God. They heard God’s voice speak directly to them from heaven, and it was the hand of God, and not of man that wrote the law on two tables of stone. What God has established man cannot change. God also gave them many other laws, ordinances, precepts, statutes and judgments.

Moses wrote these other laws, dictated directly from the mouth of God. Moses taught all of these things to the children of Israel and left them to all generations in a document that we call the five books of Moses and that

Christ referred to them simply as the law. The law of God begins with divine love and brotherly love. Hanging upon these two greatest commandments are all of the details, broken down to the very least commandments.

After Christ’s first coming all of the ordinances pertaining to the law of sacrifice was fulfilled. The temple was destroyed and the sacrifices were forcibly ended. The law of sacrifice continued until the first coming of Christ who fulfilled all at his death and resurrection. But the law of life, the law that teaches us how to love God and how to love our neighbor continues forever, even through eternity. It remains in full effect today. The punishment for breaking the law is death, but grace, through the blood of Christ brought forth repentance and forgiveness. By Christ’s blood we are saved.

Satan has a way of deceiving people. He gives them all kinds of excuses to disobey the first four commandments.

The first four are very specific to the worship and love of God. Satan uses brotherly love to usurp divine love.

Whatever people do in the name of brotherly love is never

an excuse for disobeying the law of God, for not worshipping God on the day that he established, and not reverencing his church. Relationships with our brethren are very important, but they are not more important than our relationship with God. When your mother, father, sister, brother, children and spouse cannot help you, who do you call for help? When these same people are sick or in trouble or danger who do you call for help? When you are all alone in pain or suffering, when you are afraid for your life, your job, your marriage, when all hope seems lost, who is your help and your hope? Who created you? Who died for you? Who gave you your family, your job, your home, and who could take it all away in one stroke? Whose breath goes in and out of your body? Keep in mind that any “good” thing that you want to do that in any wise interferes or diminishes the most holy thing, the obedience and worship of God which is our most solemn duty and our first commandment, is not of God but of the devil. The devil does not want you to worship or obey God. The “good” must not usurp the holy.

The love of God requires sacrifice. There is temptation all around and we must resist it. A true Christian is like Christ.

There was no greater sacrifice than the sacrifice of Christ for his children. We must be willing to sacrifice the very temporary pleasures in this world in order to obey the Lord. People who love the world cannot love God. I John 2:15-17, Matthew 19:27-29 Some good examples of those who loved God first above all things are Job and Abraham. We will also read more of what Christ taught us about this.

Please read: Job 1:1-22, Job 2:1-10, Genesis 22:1-18, Luke 14:25-26 and Matthew 10:34-38. 56 verses

The 2nd Great Commandment Matthew 22:36-40, “Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.�

The Second Great Commandment Romans 13:8-10, “Owe no man anything, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”

Galations 5:14, For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”

Love cannot be described as emotion when it is said that love is the royal law. The law of God describes the action of love. Our emotions are bound to the flesh, and in the flesh are the motions of sin. Our emotions are not sin, but the sin that is in the flesh takes advantage of our emotions to cause us to sin against God. We therefore have to love according to the spirit of God, and not through the weak emotions that often cannot distinguish between love and

lust, or love and loyalty. Many times people love the things, through their emotions that are wicked, dangerous and sinful. God has a better way. The word charity means love in the Greek, but it defines what that perfect love is, the love that is measured and purged through the Spirit of God and obedience to the word of God. The word of God teaches us what true love is, and how to love God and to love our brother. The word of God teaches us to distinguish between love and lust and even kinship. In Romans 13:10 when it says that love is the fulfilling of the law, it does not mean that if you feel affection toward your brother then God considers that you have kept the law (which is what many people believe). It means that if you fulfill the law, as Paul

described in verses 8-9 then that means that you love your brother.

Brotherly love is the love that you show to everyone that is not God.

This includes

the love of

family

members

such as your

spouse, your

children, your

parents, and

your brothers

and sisters.

It also means

your

neighbors,

friends and

coworkers. It

includes

strangers and

even enemies. And it includes you too. In other words, your brother is every one. Since brotherly love must be shown to people who are enemies as well as friends, strangers as well as close relatives, Christ has taught us how to apply this law in every occasion. Christ taught us that we must forgive our brother when he trespasses against us, if we want him to forgive us when we do wrong, and he taught us that if we have trespassed against our brother (this is the aught that our brother has against us),

then we must go to our brother to make amends before we come up to the altar. He said that we may get angry, but to not let the sun go down on our wrath. He warned us against anger, pride, hate, covetousness and envy. He said that we must love even our enemies, and that we should not salute (speak to) only the people that we like, but we must salute our enemies also. He said that we must do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Parents are to instruct their children in righteousness and to discipline them as needed, but to bring them before God. Children even as adults must honor their parents. Spouses must love each other as much as they love themselves showing affection and respect for one another. There are so many things that the word has taught us. The entire bible teaches us how to love our brothers. In fact it cautions us in I John 4:20-21, “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from Him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.�

We must do to our brothers as we would have him do to us, and we must love him, forgive him, have compassion for him when he is in need, but we must not love him more than we love ourselves. How we love ourselves is a measuring rod for brotherly love. There is only one person that we must love more than ourselves and that is God. Divine love is our highest calling. If we love ourselves more than God then we will not sacrifice for him because sacrifices can be painful. If you are so in love with a spouse or a child more than yourself then you are putting them in the place of God, you will fall trying to please them. Always put God first, and never love anyone more than yourself.

Often times as parents and spouses we make certain sacrifices for our families. This does not mean that we love them more than ourselves. What we must do with our spouses and our dependent children is to consider the needs and the weaknesses of every person, because they are all a part of you, you love them as yourself. Just as God considers the needs and weaknesses of all of his children because we are part of him, and he is patient with us and gives us the things that we need to live, and has given us

his mercy and love and patience. Christ is our greatest example of love because he laid down his life for us, and before he died he taught us through his word and left it for all generations. And Christ also considered us as his brother.

We are made in the image of God. We ought to bare that in mind when we think of our brother. You will never get into the kingdom of heaven hating someone, never forgiving, holding grudges. The very person that you are so angry at may be a child of God, and remember that the things that we do to our brothers, Christ considers that we are doing those things to him, whether it is good or whether it is evil.

Concerning our enemies or even our brothers that may lead us astray, showing brotherly love to them does not mean we must associate or keep company with them. We must avoid any thing or any one that may lead us to sin or that may harm us. We treat them as we would want to be treated, we speak to them, and we pray for them but we keep them at arm’s length. Everyone is not a friend. I Corinthians 5:9-11.

We will read about brotherly love n both the New Testament and in Genesis.

We will start with the words of Christ. The entire Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapters 5-7, gives us so much instruction in righteousness and brotherly love that we should read it often, but we must limit ourselves in this class.

76 verses Please read: Matthew 5:38-48, Matthew 25:34-46, I John 3:11-24, I Corinthians 13:1-13, and finally about Joseph who was an example of forgiveness and compassion, Genesis 45:1-15