2.03.25. The brotherhood
XXV. THE BROTHERHOOD.
“Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear GkxL Honour the king.” 1 Peter 2:17.
N this letter Peter teaches the scattered Christians that in the lowest sphere they should highly value human beings as such, and in the highest sphere reverently worship the Supreme. Between these two he recognizes a brotherhood to whom a diflTerent species of regard is due: “ Love the brotherhood.”
Distinct, on the one hand, from the respect due to immortal man as the Creator’s greatest work, and, on the other hand, from the worship due to Deity, brotherly love, pure and fervent, should be cherished towards all who have been redeemed by the Saviour’s blood and renewed into the Saviour’s likeness. The “brotherhood” here manifestly means, not those who have been born into the same family on earth, but those who have been born again into the family of God. The obvious order here is, the object first, and then the emotion; the brotherhood whom Christians love, and the love with which they regard the brotherhood. The brotherhood is a winsome word. It falls kindly on one’s wearied ear in the intervals of the world’s strife.
Like the term in the preceding clause, it is universal It includes a whole class without exception, although the class is less numerous than the other. As the whole is greater than a part, the brotherhood is a group indefinitely smaller than the “ all men “ of the first clause. When we say “ honour all men,” it is as if we should say “ all waters,” comprehending those that are in the sea, on the earth, and in the air; comprehending the salt and the fresh, the pure and the impure, — absolutely and universally all waters. When we speak of the smaller class, “the brotherhood,” it is as if we should say the waters that float in the air, — the clouds. These are waters too. These waters once lay in the sea, lashing themselves into fury there, or seething, putrifying under the sun in hollows of the earth’s surface. But they have been sublimed thence; they are now in their regenerated state, and their impurity has been left behind. These waters float now in the atmosphere, far above the defilements of the earth and the tumults of the sea. Although they remain essentially of the same nature with that which stagnates on the earth or rages in the ocean, they are sustained aloft by the soft, strong grasp of a secret universal law. No hand is seen to hold them, yet they are held on high. Their Maker has given them the command, “ Come out from among them, and be ye separate, and I will receive you.” As the clouds which soar in the air are to the universal mass of waters, so are the brotherhood of God’s renewed children to the whole human family. Of mankind these brothers are in origin and nature; but they have been drawn out and up from the rest by an unseen omnipotent law. Their nature remains the same, and yet it is a new nature. They are men of flesh and blood, yet they have been elevated in station and purified in character. They are nearer God in place, and liker him in holiness. They have been “ washed and justified and sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” The command, “Come out from among them,” having been obeyed, the promise has also been fulfilled to them, — “ To shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”
Let none think that the expressions employed to designate this change are extravagant. The language is not too strong, but too feeble. When a guilty man has been forgiven and reconciled to God through the death of Christ, the change of condition is greater than can be expressed iq human language. No formula can adequately express the distance between the carnal mind, which is enmity agarnst God, and the spirit of adoption, that cries, Abba, Father. In the nature of the case, those who have experienced only one of these conditions cannot compute the distance between them. Only they who have passed from the one to the other can appreciate the magnitude of the transition. To pass spiritually from death unto life is a great passage. From the sullen enmity of the guilty to the glad confidence of the forgiven, is as far as from east to west, or from earth to heaven. This whole class in the spiritual sphere is, by a figure borrowed from human life, designated the brotherhood.
It is one of the relations by which human creatures are bound into one. The conjugal, parental, and fraternal bonds constitute the strands of the three-fold cord by which our Creator, in the constitution of our nature, has knit his intelligent offspring in groups for their mutual support and comfort. The brotherhood are those who have been born together into the same family. They have one Father, a pervading likeness, and 8 common home. This human relation is a great and good thing. It is one of the wonderful works of God. It is a contrivance in the system of the universe for binding a number of feeble rods into one, so that each of the fragile offshoots may, in the period of its weakness, enjoy all the strength of a tree. The natural affections of brothers and sisters in a family are stronger than the general affinities of man to man in the world. All history testifies that attempts to substitute artificial communism for the natural divinelyappointed constitution of the family, only torture the individual and dislocate the machinery of society. But this precious earthly thing is not introduced here merely for its own sake; it is borrowed as a term to express a spiritual and heavenly relation. The brotherhood in Peter’s pointed precept means that great company on earth, of every nation and kindred and tongue, who are in the regeneration sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty.
It is by comparison with the first of the three precepts that the import of the second may be most certainly ascertained. Honour — that is, count precious, value highly — “ all men: “ these terms include all of humankind born. But two births are possible for man. Many learners, like Nicodemus, find this lesson hard, — “How can a man be born when he is old? “ But those who simply sit at Jesus’ feet, and ask for the Spirit, will surmount the difficulty. Those who are born again believe in the new birth. All men are born, and the brotherhood are born again. They have become new creatures in Christ Jesus. Their life now is hid with Christ in God. The two connected precepts point to these two births and these two lives. We should highly value the generation — all humankind; but we should fondly love the regeneration — those who are forgiven and reconciled and renewed. Clasp fellow-disciples to your bosom; walk hand in hand with them across the pilgrimage of life, expecting to enter with them at length into the joy of the Lord.