Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from the “Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide”, is titled “Let brotherly Love Continue.” Brotherly love. Are only fellow “believers” (quarterly for March 19) our brothers? Are not all part of the family of God? “It is true that you claim to be a child of God; but if this claim be true, it is ‘thy brother’ that was ‘dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.’ He is bound to you by the closest ties; for God recognizes him as a son. Deny your relationship to him, and you show that you are but a hireling in the household, not a child in the family of God” (Christ’s Object Lessons pg. 211). And we know what happens to a hireling (a servant)… a “servant does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever” (John 8:35).
This is truly one of the greatest imperatives from the mouth of God Himself… to “love one another; as I have loved you” (John 13:34; 15:12). To love all others as our brother/ sister. “It is not earthly rank, nor birth, nor nationality, nor religious privilege, which proves that we are members of the family of God; it is love, a love that embraces all humanity. . .. To be kind to the unthankful and to the evil, to do good hoping for nothing again, is the insignia of the royalty of heaven, the sure token by which the children of the Highest reveal their high estate” (“The Faith I Live By” pg. 38).
If we love all others as our brother/ sister we will be always watchful for ways to cheer and to bless them. “Human beings belong to one great family, --the family of God. The Creator designed that they should respect and love one another, ever manifesting a pure, unselfish interest in one another's welfare. But Satan's aim has been to lead men to self first; and yielding themselves to his control, they have developed a selfishness that has filled the world with misery and strife, setting human beings at variance with one another” (Review and Herald 6/25/1908).
I hope these quotes from EGW are meaningful. It is long overdue that we Christians who know our Father, and have chosen Him as our Father just as He has chosen us, will seek with all diligence to eliminate dissension in His family. To consider all mankind as our family and to work for reconciliation. May we be true to our high calling. May we not be content with the blessing of basking in the warmth and love of “Home”, while our brothers and sisters starve and freeze outside, in the sterile mansions of their own creation. Dad is beckoning through us to all everywhere; “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:20 GNB).
With brotherly love,
Jim