Brotherly Kindness
“And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness;…” 2 Peter 1:5-7a
The Greek word for brotherly love is philadelphia which is a combination of two words “philia” (love) and “adelphos” (brother). It means to have kindness or love towards your brother. Romans 12:10 admonishes us to “Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love”. Affectioned is to cherish one’s kindred.
The way to develop brotherly kindness towards others is to spend time with other believers. This is not just socializing with them before and after services. This is putting into practice the commands found in scripture which tell us to not “forsake the assembly of ourselves together,…but exhorting one another…” (Hebrews 10:24). When we spend time in fellowship with other believers we not only build relationships, but we also exhort (encourage) and spur (provide the needed prodding) to seek the Lord.
Notice that in order to obtain brotherly kindness in our lives we must first have faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, and godliness? Once we become a part of God’s family we do not automatically have brotherly kindness towards others. Kindness is an important ingredient in dealing with relationships “especially unto them that are of the household of faith” Galatians 6:10. If we are to grow in our walk with the Lord, we must work on developing brotherly kindness, which is having true love of the brethren (1 Peter 1:22).
