“Let Brotherly Love Continue”
How often our Lord encourages us to love one another! Nothing is more like our Savior than love. Nothing is more unlike him than the absence of love. As he brings his Epistle to its inspired conclusion, the Apostle Paul makes his final word of instruction an encouragement to brotherly love. The last chapter of the Book of Hebrews begins with these words—”Let brotherly love continue.”
Paul has been encouraging us to persevere in the faith, to continue in the grace of God, to run with patience the race that is set before us. Then, he says, “Let brotherly love continue.” It is as though he is saying, “The way to run this race, the way to persevere in grace, the way to walk in faith is to keep on loving one another.”
Multitudes live in religious bondage, trying to obey rules and regulations imposed upon them by their leaders. These rules of bondage people everywhere call “practical godliness.” Our Lord calls them “vain traditions,” “works of the flesh,” “a vain show in the flesh,” and “a form of godliness.” Here, in these seven verses of Inspiration, the Holy Spirit shows us that godliness is to be measured by love. This is very much the same thing that James says in James 1:26-27.
First, we see that love is expressed by deeds (vv.1-4). As was his custom, having finished his doctrinal instruction, Paul here applies his doctrine to our everyday lives. He begins the application of his doctrine with these words, “Let brotherly love continue.” He is saying, “Children of God, never cease loving one another. Let nothing divide your hearts. Make it your life’s business to love one another and to show your love to one another. Let brotherly love continue in you and among you.”
We are to love all men, even our enemies; but the love Paul is talking about here is that special family love that God plants in the hearts of his people for one another. It is the love of hearts united to Christ. – “The fruit of the Spirit is love” Gal. 5:22; John 13:35; 1 John 3:7-11; 4:20; 5:1).
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I am not talking about lip love. Anyone can say, “I love you,” or “I love my brethren.” Lip love is no love. Love is manifest by deeds. And the deeds, by which the love of Christ in us is manifest, are not matters about which we have to guess. If we love one another, we pray for one another. — That’s how Christ loves us. Isn’t it? If we love one another, we bear one another's burdens. — That’s how Christ loves us. Isn’t it? If we love one another, we are forbearing, patient, longsuffering, and forgiving with one another. — That’s how Christ loves us. Isn’t it? If we love one another, we meet together to encourage and exhort one another. — That’s how Christ loves us. Isn’t it?
If we do not love one another, any profession of faith we have is but a meaningless, vain delusion (1 Pet. 2:17; 1 John 3:14-18; 1 Cor. 13:1-7). Paul says, “Brethren, see that you make this the fixed principle by which you live, the unbroken habit of your lives. Love one another. As you grow in love for Christ, grow in love for one another.”
“Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (v. 2). Here the Holy Spirit tells us something about how this love for the brethren is to be expressed. Love is hospitable, given to hospitality. We know that a pastor must be a man given to hospitality; but the reason that is a requirement for one who preaches the gospel is simply the fact that faith in Christ makes people loving, gracious, hospitable.
The Amplified Version gives us an excellent paraphrase of this verse. — “Do not forget or neglect or refuse to extend hospitality to strangers [in the brotherhood ― being friendly, cordial, and gracious, sharing the comforts of your home and doing your part generously], for through it some have entertained angels without knowing it.”
We must never neglect or fail to care for and meet the needs of God’s people in this world. When the Apostle tells us to “entertain strangers” he is not suggesting that we open our homes and invite people into them who are strangers to us, though that may certainly be included. We have a responsibility to protect our families. The strangers he speaks of here are the “strangers” spoken of in verse 13 of chapter 11. They are our brethren who are “strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” We must never fail to use that which God has trusted to our hands, as stewards in his house, to benefit, minister to, and comfort his people in this world. We are to make it a matter of conscious effort to be friendly, cordial, and gracious toward God’s people (especially those who cannot return the kindness), sharing the comforts and provisions of our homes generously.
When you invite one of God’s people into your home and into your life, you may just be inviting an angel of God, a special messenger of God into your home and life ― “for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Gen. 18:1-8; 19:1-3; Lk. 24:28-31). And our Savior tells us that entertaining one of his people is entertaining him (Matt. 25:38-40).