Keep on loving each other.

Sermon Transcript

Introduction

Good morning! We just read from the book that Christians believe is the very word of God. This part of the Christian worship service is designed to bring our attention fully to a specific passage of scripture. The sermon is designed to help us understand the meaning of the passage and the responsibility we have to respond its meaning. Ultimately though, the goal isn’t to leave inspired or with a nice long checklist of things to do, but to hear the good news of what God has done for us. When you’re in a proper conversation with someone, you don’t focus on simply the words they’re saying, but the person behind the words. That’s the goal this morning, so let’s pause and pray that God would help that be our experience.

Pray

Our passage today starts out with this command: “Let brotherly love continue.” Now those of us from around here in Philadelphia should know a thing or two about this. We live in the city of brotherly love.

People who aren’t from Philly – they sneer at our name don’t they. When they think of Philly they think of booing. We were once named the most hostile city in America, a label which most true Philadelphians wear with pride. All they see is the grit. Now I’ve been here 11 years at this point. And I think that’s long enough where I’ve seen the love that’s under the grit.

My three girls are true Philadelphians, born and raised. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows at my house. At any given moment, they could be crying, or just flat out screaming at each other. But man do they love each other. They have that gritty kind of sibling love, the in your face, the “I can be angry with you but I still love you” kind of love. The “I can pick on her, but you better not pick on her” kind of love.

Here’s the thing – my girls didn’t have to learn to love each other. They just do because they’re sisters. But (and this is important) they do need us to teach them how to keep loving each other, how to endure in it, persist in it. And we need to teach them about the kinds of things that can kill the love they have.

Our passage doesn’t say “start showing brotherly love to each other”, it says “Let brotherly love continue.” The author of Hebrews is writing to a pretty beat up and persecuted church, and as you know, when stress gets high, so can conflict. Yet even to this stressed-out church, he assumes they love each other. It’s hanging onto it that’s the hard thing.

So that’s the big idea this morning: Keep on loving each other. And as we walk through the passage, we’ll look at three questions:
1. What is brotherly love? 2. How do we endure in brotherly love? 3. What kills love?

First, what is brotherly love?

We got at the concept a little bit already, but it needs some more biblical explanation. The phrase brotherly love comes from the Greek word “Philadelphia” (some of you just put that together!). That’s the word the author uses here in verse 1 “Let Philadelphia continue.”

Brotherly love the “affectionate bond that exists between siblings.” But let’s expand it a little bit. It’s affection, yes, but it’s more than affection. You don’t always feel affection for your brother or sister, although something would be wrong if you never felt it. But it’s more than it. It’s a profoundly humanizing love, where you clearly see the other, where you recognize them as your family, and you affectionately long for their wellbeing.

Let me illustrate what I mean. If you’ve never been to New York City and you go for the first time, one place you’ll probably walk through is Times Square. It’s just a massive commercial crossroads and entertainment hub in the middle of Manhattan. If you’ve ever watched the ball drop on New Years Eve in the East Coast, then you’ve seen Times Square. (picture on the screen).

Walking through Times Square is a unique experience. You’re usually in a hurry to get somewhere but it’s hard to ignore everything going on around you. Look down and you may see a homeless person. Look up and you may see a sexually provocative billboard. Look straight ahead and you may see pickpockets and scam artists targeting naïve tourists. Now try to picture walking through this place for a minute.

It can be a very discomforting experience. It’s all very dehumanizing. Here’s what I mean. In 5 minutes, you may witness human beings in all kinds of sin and distress, and you just keep walking. The plight of the homeless person laying on the ground calls something inside of you to do something to help, but you feel helpless and you’re on your way someplace, so you avoid eye contact keep on moving. The billboard may cause you to lust and feel discontent with your life and so you feel that too while you keep moving.

But how different is that experience if when you look at the beggar.. their face comes into view, and it’s dirty, and warn out.. but something about them is recognizable. It dawns on you.. You realize you know them. Now imagine it was your flesh and blood brother or sister.

The entire experience slows down and the person comes into view. The love you have for your brother has humanized the struggle of the beggar and you’re moved with compassion ot help them. Why? Because when we see someone and recognize them as our brother, we long for their well-being and we’re motivated to do something to alleviate their suffering.

How does this relate to you and to me?

The Bible says those of us in this room who are Christians – we’re all adopted sons and daughters of God. When you trusted Christ, when you did that, all your sins were forgiven, and God adopted you as his son or his daughter. Which means we are quite literally brothers and sisters. Earlier in Hebrews the author says this “For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers,” (Hebrews 2:10-11 ESV). Do you see what this is saying? It’s saying that Jesus is our brother. Why? Because we have the same Father. We’ve been adopted into his family. We are the sons and daughters he’s bringing to glory.

This basic principle underscores the entire passage. Christians are family. Not pretend or metaphorical brothers and sisters like a fraternity or sorority. But true spiritual family, adopted by God. You are a child of God. I am a child of God. We are brothers and sisters. Believe that, and let that marinate in your heart, and you won’t need to be taught to love other Christians.

But we do need to learn how to endure in that love, how to keep fanning the flame so-to-speak, and how to avoid those things that kill it.

And this brings us to our second question: How do we endure in brotherly love? For this, we’ll turn to verses 2-3.

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.
(Hebrews 13:2–3 ESV)

There are two commands here which help us get to the heart of how to endure in brotherly love. Notice the commands in verse 2 and 3: Do not neglect… and remember.

Do not neglect to show hospitality. Hospitality is a word that literally means “love of stranger” which is why the translation we read adds the phrase “to strangers” which isn’t in the original Greek. For us this means we don’t just see those people in the church who are our friends, but we notice and welcome those we haven’t met yet.

When we gather for worship on Sundays, we’re not too busy, too late or too distracted to notice the people around us, but we pay attention to who seems to be connected here, and who may not be yet. When we gather in our citygroups and someone we don’t know shows up, we invite them to coffee next week so they feel welcomed. Hospitality is in the details. It’s the thousand little interactions that happen each Sunday morning that show our guests whether they’re welcome here or not.

Often times this happens naturally in a church, until it doesn’t. Until the church matures and there are strong bonds in the church, a good thing by the way. But one byproduct is that practicing hospitality may take more intentionality. A church can easily lose that welcoming spirit that was so natural at first, and they didn’t lose it intentionally, it just happened as they naturally connected with people and formed bonds. And so the first command is not “show hospitality” but “do not neglect to show hospitality”. We fall out of the habit by neglect.

Cliques will form when we neglect hospitality. These can be so destructive to a church. Cliques aren’t the same thing as friend groups. Cliques form when we only associate with those who share our tastes, our political affiliations, identifications, or past times. But the unity of the church shines the brightest when it displays the rich tapestry of diversity God has created, all welcoming one another as family members in Christ.

One way to actively avoid cliques is to commit yourself to a citygroup — our small group communities meeting in homes throughout the week. These are formed geographically — and not around affinity or interest. In my citygroup we have old, young, families, singles, black, white, Brazilian, and Chilean all under one roof. The rich diversity is good for our souls because it’s a visible reminder that our bond is rooted in Christ, not our shared interests.

What’s our motivation to show hospitality? The author says that some have entertained angels unawares? It’s a strange motivation for sure, and he’s certainly not saying “hey it might be BETTER than a human, it might be an angel!” I think he’s pointing out something profound here. That when we show hospitality to one another in the church, we’re aligning ourselves with a purpose far greater than we could ever imagine. We’re putting ourselves right where God wants us. It pleases him. When you show hospitality to another Christian, you don’t welcome a mere human. You welcome a brother or sister who will one day be glorified, worshiping with you around the throne of Christ.

As C. S. Lewis says, “The dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship.” (The Weight of Glory)

And so we don’t neglect to show hospitality. But we also remember. Remember those among us who are struggling. We do this naturally for family. We affectionately long for one another’s wellbeing.

It was said about the early church that “there were no needy to be found among them.” May the same be said of us! That we are a people who open our homes to brothers and sisters, who give away things like food, drink, entertainment, and places to sleep to others in the church, because we trust God will provide for us, and we see that they have a need.

In the church this author is writing to, there were some who were thrown in prison for the faith, others who had their property plundered for what they believed. We may not be so persecuted in our context.

Yet there are many among us who have been abused or mistreated, or are imprisoned by patterns of sin, or ways they’ve been sinned against. Many of us have been hurt. Some of us are in financial distress, or recently suffered a breakup or a miscarriage.

The command here is to humanize the strugglers around us. Remember those in prison, he says, as if in prison with them. He says “turn on your compassion”. You’re going to be so tempted to dehumanize people in their suffering. To ignore the gnawing feeling that God intends you to help them. Don’t ignore that. Switch it on. Press into it. Know them well enough to know their pain. Remember they’re your brother and your sister. Think about what it would be like if you were going through that.

Galatians 6:2 says this, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” This is the culture of endurance in brotherly love. When love isn’t easy any longer, but demands something of us. If I walk past a homeless person and I realize it’s my sister, I have a new priority for my day. A claim has been made on my life that reorganizes my hopes for the day. Love does that. Press into it. We need family now more than ever.

Don’t neglect hospitality. Remember the needy among us. That’s how you endure in brotherly love.

But there’s one more set of commands, which leads us to our final question. What kills love?

Verses 4 and 5.

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
(Hebrews 13:4–5)

With a broad brush, the author of Hebrews picks two love killing sins: sexual immorality and love of money and gives beautiful gospel motivations to avoid both.

The command in verse 4 is a dual command: let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled. Why? God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. The command is parallel to the judgment. You could think of it like this: let marriage be held in honor among all – because God will judge the sexually immoral. Let the marriage bed be undefiled, because God will judge the adulterous.

In other words, sexual immorality is condemned because it dishonors marriage. Adultery is condemned because it defiles the marriage bed. Adultery is cheating on your husband or wife. Sexual immorality is broader, the Bible defines it as all sexual activity outside of marriage between one man and one woman.

Sexual immorality is a love killer. Why? Because in every case, when sex is expressed outside an exclusive life-long covenant of marriage, it’s dehumanizing. When you lust and masturbate over someone you’re looking at on your phone, you utterly dehumanize the person you’re looking at for the purpose of our own pleasure.

Yeah but you might say if it’s consensual, that’s all that matters. But the scriptures teach that even consensual sex outside the covenant of marriage leads to exploitation and ultimately dehumanization. This fact is agreed upon by all branches of Christianity from orthodox to Roman Catholic to Protestant.

But we’re taught that sexual expression is a key part of the authentic expression of our identity. But is this true? Who taught this to us? The dominos start to fall once we begin to question where we got this idea in the first place. Do you see the problem? We’ve made sexual expression into the exact opposite of what God created it for. We’ve turned it into a way to express ourselves.

But you see God created sex not just for pleasure and certainly not for self-expression, but for mutual self-giving. Rightly understood it’s a profound act of selfless love, the giving of oneself as completely as you can in the context of a safe, covenantal relationship, and one that creates a deep permanent union, forms character and creates new human life. It’s powerfully saying to the other “I belong completely and exclusively to you.” Use it to say anything less than that, and you’re not respecting its power, depth and force. You ultimately harden yourself and very often one or both parties wind up being exploited.

“It’s not hurting anyone” you say. Are you so sure? In the class I taught on gender and sexuality, in a room of 25 people we all filled out an anonymous survey. Everyone circled “yes” or “no”. Imagine for a minute you were taking this survey. We took it, folded it up and swapped the anonymous answers from each half of the room so no one knew whose surveys they were holding. Then one by one we read the questions and people just stood up. Here are the questions.

1 Have you ever intentionally not eaten or starved yourself to lose weight?
2 Have you ever been diagnosed with an eating disorder?
3 Have you ever abused working out (i.e. working out excessively?
4 Do you struggle with body image issues or battle self-hatred?
5 Have you ever been physically abused?
6 Have you ever been sexually abused?
7 Have you ever been verbally abused?
8 Have you ever been emotionally abused?
9 Have you had sex outside of marriage?
11 Have you ever had sex against your will?
12 Have you struggled with pornography or erotic literature?
13 Have you ever viewed your sexuality as shameful?
14 Have you experienced difficulties in your marital sexual relationship?
15 Have you ever had an abortion?
16 Have you experienced divorce in your family?
17 Have you been divorced?
18 Have you felt less valued because / when you were single?
19 Have you experienced ongoing difficulty in your marriage?
20 Do you come from a single parent home?
21 Have you struggled with same sex attraction?
22 Does a member of your family have gender dysphoria?
23 Have you ever struggled with gender dysphoria?
24 Have you kept the things you’ve struggled with above a secret?

One by one we read the questions and watched as people in that small room of 25 stood up. 6 standing. Next question. Half the room. Next question, nearly all the room. One by one as the questions are asked our own brokenness became apparent. The sexual revolution has lied to our parents and as generation after generation presses it further, our brokenness grows deeper and deeper.

The antidote? Remember God’s judgment. “Why? How could he judge?” Because of love. God’s fierce wrath and his great love are one and the same. The greater the love, the greater the wrath. I hear a story about sexual exploitation, I might be upset or saddened by it, even angry. But someone exploits my daughter… why? Entire movies could be written about my wrath. The stronger the love, the fiercer the wrath.

Now think about how powerful God’s love for the church must be that he was willing to give his perfect son over to die for her. And how he dreamed up sexual intimacy and gave it to humanity a gift that points to the great self-giving sacrifice of that son he gave on her behalf. And how Christ’s ministry to the church is purifying herself as his bride. And healthy marriage and sexuality points to all of this.

Yet those who call themselves his sons and daughters give ourselves over to sexual brokenness time and time again. “Christ’s not enough for me” we say. Your gift of sex within its proper bounds. It’s not enough for me. We’re so discontent and unfulfilled. We betray our bridegroom and surely will face God’s wrath.

Persist in sexual sin and you may become so desensitized, dehumanized by it, that you no longer know how to love at all. Sexual sin is a snare that has destroyed countless brothers and sisters. It will kill love. Remember his judgment and maybe fear of God will save you.

The love of money is no different. Love money and you’ll become greedy. You’ll never have enough. Become greedy and you’ll be willing to dehumanize and exploit others for your own gain, or else you’ll fail and you’ll be so jealous of those who have more than you, that you’ll be filled with hate for them.

Be content is his instruction. Why? Because God is with you. We have him! What else could we need?

Your reaction might be similar to mine as you come to understand these commands. So all we need to do to please God is to sacrificially love one another, practicing hospitality to strangers, remembering all of those who have needs and seeking their welfare, and then avoiding all sexual immorality and love of money and being perfectly content? Is that all?

These commands aren’t simply hard, they’re ultimately impossible. And if you see that, you’re on your way to seeing Christ this morning.

Gospel Conclusion

Look at verse 6 as we close, and we’ll see how all of this is ultimately good news.

6 So we can confidently say,

“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear;
what can man do to me?”

Do you see that? He is with us, and he helps us. You can be confident of that this morning.

We love because he first loved us.

Christ was abandoned by all his friends. He was arrested, abused and mistreated. But he welcomed us when we were strangers to God. He sets the captives free. He heals all our wounds. He’s preparing his people as his spotless bride and in the end he’s given us the greatest thing we could ever have: God himself.

When he died, he took all of God’s judgment for sin – born in the furnace of his holiness and love – he bore it for you and for me. He took our sin and gave us his righteousness. He made love possible between sinful humans and a holy God. He is always with you. He will never forsake you. He’s enough for you.

He’ll help you to keep on loving your brothers and sisters. He’ll help you provide for their needs. He’ll help you out of sexual sin. He’ll help you gain contentment and repent of the love of money. He’ll help you learn to see and humanize others in a world that skillfully and pervasively dehumanizes us all. It’s because of him that we’re a church who loves one another deeply with brotherly love forged in the family of God. We merely reflect his love outward to one another. I’ll close with Isaiah 33:22.

For the LORD is our judge; the LORD is our lawgiver;
the LORD is our king; he will save us.