Matthew 5.25-26 [b] Brethren...'

R&R Devotional Bible Study
040 - Matthew 5.25-26
'Brothers – Neighbors...'

'21-You have heard that the ancients were told, 'You shall not murder' and 'Whoever murders shall be guilty before the court.' 22-But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says, 'Raca' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. 23-Therefore if you are presenting an offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24-leave your offering there before the alter and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.'

'25-Make friends quickly with your opponent at law whilst you are with him on the way, so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and to be thrown into prison. 26-Truly I say to you, you will not come out of there until you have paid up the last quadrans.'

A question arises here:
Who is our brother?

'...[if] your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the alter and go...'

The Lord Christ Jesus tells us that the brethren are those who do the will of The Father.
-Matthew 12.49-50:
'49-Stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, 'Behold My mother and My brothers! 50-For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.'

John 13:35 tells us:
'By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.'

But, we have to look a little beyond this. We are further exhorted in Romans 12.17-18:
'17-Never paying back evil for evil to anyone, respecting what is good in the sight of all men, 18-if possible, so far as it depends on you, being at peace with all men...'

Why?

Because, we cannot act one way with one group of people, and another way with another group of people.
-We are not to be 'two-faced'...

Now, let us look at another question here:
Can we really [or are we really] supposed to have deep relationships with the outside world?

Our relationship with the brethren is going to be different than our relationship to the outside world...
-But once again, we are supposed to have the same attitude toward the whole of mankind...
-If we come to worship Yahweh, and we have animosity and in-fighting amongst one another, or even our neighbors, how can there be true worship?

1 Timothy 5.1-2 tells us:
'1-Do not sharply rebuke an older man, but rather plead with him as a father, to the younger men as brothers, 2-the older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters, in all purity.'

Here in this passage, we are exhorted to treat all in purity...
-We are not to be sharp with anyone...
-We are to treat all in purity because the whole of mankind is created in the image of Yahweh...

But then again, only those who do the will of The Father are our actual family.
-So what do we do here with '...if our brother has something against us...'

I think it is safe to deduce that we are to make sure to act in a proper manner, and we are to not have animosity against anyone, and try to make sure no one has anything against us either...
-Both our fellow brethren, as well as the outside world...

Well, first we must remember that we are not to harbor animosity against anyone, not just the brethren in Christ, but we are not to harbor animosity against anyone...
-Murder is akin to ill will/animosity from the heart, and we are commanded to not murder anyone...

We are supposed to keep peace as much as possible with all mankind...
-This actually ties in with how we are to be lowly, merciful, and peacemakers...
-When we are worshiping God, we are not to be harboring anything against one another...

Ill will and animosity really flow out of our self focus and self will because we think that we are the center of the universe, and that everyone should bow down and worship us...
-We see this in the mindset of: I will live my life with no regard for how it effects you, and you have to deal with it...

Once again, we should recall what agape actually is. 1 Corinthians 13.4-7
'4-Love is patient, love is kind, is not jealous, does not brag, is not puffed up; 5-it does not act unbecomingly, does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered; 6-it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with/in truth; 7-it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. [Love never fails]'

Why consider this?

Well, if we look at this, this is the template for how mankind is to interact with one another...
-This to be our internal demeanor toward the whole of mankind: both the brethren and the outside world

But, how this plays out in action is a little different, cause how we show our love to the brethren in action differes from how we show agape to the outside world

If we are truly of Yahweh, we are in the family of Yahweh through Christ...
-We are adopted as sons, joint heirs with/in Christ
-We are slaves of Christ; slaves to righteousness

If we are not truly of Yahweh, we are of the world...
-We are in the family of the evil one
-We are slaves to the evil one, to sin, to the world system...

In the family of Yahweh, we exhort one another, sharpen one another, admonish one another [when needed]...
-This is how we interact with fellow brethren

To the outside world, the only way we show agape is to, as Paul states, '...knowing the terror of The Lord, we urge men to repentance...'
-Something to note here again: Giving things, feeding the poor, toy drives...These are not love in and of themselves...

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