Additional Perspectives on Brotherly Love

The point: Consider what would be the indispensable marks of a true work of grace in someone for whom you prayed for conversion.

Martin asks what evidence one would look for if a loved one for whom they prayed professed conversion, setting up the discussion on the indispensable marks of grace.

Now I want to begin to open up this biblical perspective with a question. Suppose you had a relative, a loved one, perhaps a friend from past associations, not living near you, but in the providence of God, that relationship has been one that you've not been able to slough off. But as you think of that friend, you find yourself praying for his or her conversion. You find yourself praying that God would perhaps even use you as an instrument to bring the gospel or others that they might come to a knowledge of Christ.

6:06 - 6:44 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not separate what God has joined: faith in Christ and love for the brethren. If you claim faith, ensure it is accompanied by love.

Martin shares his personal testimony of how, before conversion, he was embarrassed by his mother's open faith, but after conversion, he found himself loving her and other believers with a new, spiritual affection.

that where there was true faith in the person of Christ there would be love for the people of Christ the ability to love given by God in his gracious work in the purification of the soul and in the divine begetting and some of us can remember when God was pleased to save us how real these two things became at once to us where Christ had been a household name where hymns and songs about Christ were part of the dawning of consciousness but there was no real trust in Christ and one of the indications that there was no real trust in Christ is that there was no real delight in the people of Christ ...

21:04 - 22:33 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are a young person who resents your parents' 'Jesus stuff,' recognize that this indicates a fundamental problem and a lack of true faith and new birth.

Martin recounts how, as a teenager, his conversion immediately created an affinity and love for older, 'creaking bones' men in the church, despite having no common interests outside of Christ.

associated with her she was a religious fanatic and one of the most amazing things when God saved me as a senior in high school was I used to gang up with her on anyone that came to the door I found myself loving my mother in the family of God not merely loving her with the love of a son who owed so much to a caring giving sacrificial mother there was some love in the realm of common grace but you see what she was in Christ I hated I had an aversion I was embarrassed by it I felt uncomfortable around it but when God was pleased to bring me to faith in the person of Christ Christ crucified rise...

22:33 - 24:02 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are a young person who resents your parents' 'Jesus stuff,' recognize that this indicates a fundamental problem and a lack of true faith and new birth.

Martin illustrates how unconverted children may appreciate their parents' stability but resent or be irritated by their 'Jesus stuff' (Bible reading, prayer), demonstrating the absence of spiritual love.

his own ends what does he have in common with crotchety oh not crotchety but not crotchety that's not a good description but creaking bones guys who couldn't go out and shoot hoops and throw a football with me and knock a baseball with me what did I have in common with them I'll tell you what I had in common with them immediately a common savior a common destiny a common love for a common savior and by this I knew they were brethren because of what they were in Christ because of what they had become by the divine beginning life had an affinity toward life and you see with some of you kids that...

24:02 - 25:31 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Love is not a self exegeting disposition affection or principle of God's grace it is not self exegeting one of the old writers has very quaintly and helpfully stated that law is love's eyes and without it love is blind l…

Martin prefaces his use of Proverbs 27:14 by noting that he finds humor in the Bible, setting a lighthearted tone for the illustration.

with respect to how love is to manifest itself. There's a rather humorous expression of this in the book of Proverbs. I pity people who say there's no humor in the Bible. There are times when I'm reading my Bible and I do laugh out loud.

29:55 - 30:08 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Love is not a self exegeting disposition affection or principle of God's grace it is not self exegeting one of the old writers has very quaintly and helpfully stated that law is love's eyes and without it love is blind l…

Martin vividly describes a scenario from Proverbs 27:14 where a well-meaning friend blesses another with a loud voice early in the morning, causing it to be perceived as a curse, illustrating the need for proper expression of love.

Proverbs 27, verse 14. He that blesses his friend with a loud voice rising early in the morning, it shall be counted a curse to him. Now here's a man, he's got a friend. He loves him.

30:32 - 30:46 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And so the moment any man, any woman, feels the slightest twitch of a relationship, romantic interest towards someone other than his or her spouse, if he or she is married, they know immediately, this is not love, this i…

Martin recounts the blasphemous story of two young women in a Christian college thanking God for their lesbian relationship, highlighting how a lack of instructed conscience can lead to perversion under the guise of 'love'.

How desperately the two young women needed this passage, who had the gall to get on their knees in the dormitory room of a Christian college and thank God for their beautiful lesbian relationship.

36:15 - 36:29 Read in full sermon

The point: Read over, and better yet, memorize the Shorter Catechism definitions of what is commanded and forbidden in God's precepts.

Martin mentions circling the negatives in his Greek text of 1 Corinthians 13, emphasizing how Paul explicitly defines what love does NOT do, reinforcing the need for specific instruction.

7 negatives, what love never does. It stands out so powerfully in the original. I recently had occasion sitting on the plane to take my Greek text and just circle the structure and the negatives stand out. Love does not do this, not this, not this, not this, not this.

38:16 - 38:37 Read in full sermon

The point: Above all, imitate the Lord Jesus in His love, accommodating, bearing with, reproving, rebuking, encouraging, and instructing others.

Martin quotes John Brown's collation of scriptural injunctions, which lists numerous specific ways brotherly love is to be manifested, demonstrating how an instructed conscience applies love in real life.

Look at Him in His love to His brethren, accommodating to their ignorance, bearing with them in their spiritual dullness, coming to them where necessary and reproving and rebuking, encouraging, instructing, bearing with them. He that says he abides in Him ought himself so to walk even as He walked. John Brown again has so helpfully collated a number of the injunctions, and notice what he has done in this very relatively brief paragraph. This love that we are to have one to another is to be manifested in, and then he brings together a number of scriptures by just picking out the fundamental dir...

39:43 - 41:10 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Now if God has put with respect to other duties a disproportionate in our perspective emphasis upon love for the brethren do you see the propriety then of being reminded again and again of the duty of brotherly love?

Martin suggests that if 1 John were not inspired, one might think the author was forgetful due to the repeated emphasis on Christian love, illustrating the divine propriety of such repetition.

Paul could say in 1 Thessalonians I don't need to write to you and say anything about love of the brethren for you yourselves are taught of God to love one another. He said at the end of the day there is no ultimate necessity to write to you and admonish you to love one another for commensurate with coming into a saving knowledge of God in Jesus Christ the Spirit of God has taught you the obligation to love one another. Yet he goes right on in the next verse and says but we exhort you to abound yet more and more. Though he knows the Spirit of God has implanted the basic principle he knows that...

46:10 - 47:36 Read in full sermon

The point: If God summoned you to judgment tonight, would there be sufficient evidence to vindicate that you are truly one of His, having faith in Christ and loving attachment to His people?

Martin quotes John Owen's sermon on church unity, where Owen declares that without evangelical love among the congregation, they will not give account with joy to Christ, underscoring the vital importance of this grace for corporate spiritual health.

This is serious business, dear people. I close with what to me was a moving statement by John Owen. I referred to the sermon this morning, the sermon that John Owen preached when two churches united into one. And Owen was recognized as pastor.

53:18 - 53:37 Read in full sermon