1 Peter 2:17 - "Honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king."
The second command in this short verse is "love the brotherhood." Loving our brothers and sisters in Christ is a theme throughout the entire New Testament and to even quote every verse on the subject would take several pages. But what I want to do in this short time is just pull out a few of the many verses that talk about the love of the brotherhood, and I'm going to begin with a command given by Jesus in John 15:17 where He says - "This I command you, that you love one another." That we love one another is a direct command from our Lord Jesus Christ. It's not a suggestion and it's not conditional. Despite the way they may treat you and despite that fact that some of them may get one your nerves Christ commands us to love other believers. Two chapters prior to this command, Jesus says in John 13:35 - "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." Our love for one another identifies us as part of His body. The unbelieving world is going to identify us as belonging to Christ based on whether or not we have a love one for another. They'll see our relationship with Jesus Christ playing out in our relationship with fellow believers.
Peter tells us in First Peter chapter 1 that our love for one another is to be a fervent love, or an intense love. The writer of the book of Hebrews says in chapter 13 verse 1 - "Let love of the brethren continue." So it's to be a continuous, unconditional love. In 1 Peter 4:10 Peter tells us how our love for one another works itself out. There we read - "As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." God has given each one of us gifts, special talents and abilities, physical gifts as well as spiritual gifts, and we need use the gifts that God has given us to serve His people that He may receive the honor and glory. We love one another by taking what God has given us and laying it down for others. 1 John 3:16-18 says - "We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth." Christ demonstrated His love for us by laying down His life for us, and John tells us that we also ought to demonstrate our love for one another by laying down our lives for them. This isn't only talking about dying, although if it comes to that Jesus said in John 15:13 - "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends." So that would definitely show our love for one another. But laying down our lives for the brethren means putting aside my own interests and always looking out for the well being of my brothers and sisters in Christ. It means being willing to die for them, and proving that by laying aside my life, my own interests daily. The Bible says in Philippians 2:3-4 - "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others." The passage then goes on to say that we need to follow Christ example in humility.
In Romans chapter 12 Paul gives us a description of what true love looks like. We read in verses 9-18 - "Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men." The first verse in this passage literally reads "Love without hypocrisy." This is a title over this passage, and what follows is a extensive description of true love, love without hypocrisy. Hypocritical love is merely a love of self. A love that you have for someone else based solely on what you can gain out of the relationship and not looking out for what's best for the other person. It's a selfish, self-seeking, self-pleasing, self-gratifying love rather than a pure love. In First Timothy chapter 5 Paul is telling Timothy to address the brethren as family. To treat the older men as fathers, the older women as mothers, the younger men as brothers and the younger women as sisters, but after telling him how to treat the younger women he adds, "in all purity." Paul knew that for Timothy, being a young man, it would be easy for him to have selfish motivation behind his love for his sisters in Christ, so he urges him to have a love for the younger women, but make sure it's a pure love. Not a love that seeks to gratify oneself, not a love with selfish motives or hidden agendas, but a love that truly seeks what's best for the other person despite personal loss.
1 Peter 3:8-9 - "To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit; not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing."
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