A few weeks ago, I was in church and saw something I’d never noticed before. Mark Bruce was speaking on Heb 13:1-6. As he discussed verse 1, which simply says, “Let brotherly love continue,” I was looking at the Greek text. It reads Hē philadelphia menetō, Let brotherly love remain/continue/dwell. But it could be translated Let philadelphia continue, since the Greek word philadelphia means brotherly love. Philadelphia is the city of brotherly love, though you won’t convince Dallas Cowboys fans of that.
Believers should dwell in an atmosphere of brotherly love in our homes, churches, neighborhoods, workplaces, and even automobiles. We should be loving our neighbors, especially fellow believers (Gal 6:6-10), as ourselves. John’s first epistle is all about our calling to love one another. The word love occurs forty-six times in just five short chapters (the verb, agapaō, twenty-eight times, the noun, agapē, eighteen times).
One of the songs we used to sing at College Life meetings was “Beloved, let us love one another” from 1 John 4:7-8. I’m not sure we grasped the meaning of those verses. When John says, “everyone who loves is born of God and knows God,” he does not mean that all believers always love one another. Note how verse 8 leaves out the words “is born of God”: “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” John does not say, “He who does not love is not born of God.” The issue is knowing God, not being born of God. We only know God in our experience as we continue to love one another. That is, only if we let brotherly love continue are we walking in fellowship with God, who is love. But whether we love one another or not, we have been born of God since we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ for the gift of life everlasting (1 John 2:24-26).
Concerning brotherly love in Heb 13:1, Paul Tanner writes,
13:1. The author begins with a general plea, Let brotherly love continue, which sets the tone for all that follows. A strong loving fellowship was essential to counter the temptation to forsake their assembling with other Christians on account of persecution and hardships. Such brotherly love ought to manifest itself in good deeds and sharing, true sacrifices before God (cf. v 16) (“Hebrews” in The Grace New Testament Commentary, p. 1093).
Lenski adds,
In our times, when so many false brotherhoods are established that claim to be superior to our brotherhood in Christ and urge their claims and their benefits to the detriment and even the disruption of our spiritual brotherhood in the faith and the confession of Christ, it is especially necessary to emphasize the divine character of the bond of brotherly love which unites us as believers in Christ and to urge all our brethren ever to continue therein and to cut loose from every antagonistic tie (Hebrews and James, pp. 468-69).
Let Philadelphia continue.
Keep grace in focus.
