"...and godliness with brotherly affection..." - 2 Peter 1:7 (ESV)

Brotherly affection is the sixth quality with which Peter calls Christians to supplement their faith. Of the six qualities, this one has received my most conscious sustained attention. This is not because I consider brotherly affection one of my strengths, but because I consider it one of my weaknesses. There have been occasional periods in my life in which I have examined myself to discern what the Lord would have me work on most. During the last seven years or so, the most obvious lack has often been in the area of brotherly affection.

Of course, it would be ridiculous to say that I have mastered any of the other qualities. I have not. Instead, I have treated the qualities in this passage like seven indicators that need to be monitored. And whereas the others may have been low, my lack of brotherly affection has seemed rather acute. I thank and praise God that he has grown me. I am grateful in particular for some in my life who have pointed out the perceived lack and affirmed my hunch that I sometimes lack warmth.

What is brotherly affection? The NASB translates it as "brotherly kindness". The NIV translates it as "mutual affection". The Greek term is transliterated as philadelphia, like the city in Pennsylvania. "Phila" comes from a Greek word for "love" and "adelphia" comes from a Greek word for "brother". The term is used in four other places in Scripture that are worth listing below:

Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. - Romans 12:10 (ESV)

Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, - 1 Thessalonians 4:9 (ESV)

Let brotherly love continue. - Hebrews 13:1 (ESV)

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, - 1 Peter 1:22 (ESV)

I am unsure why the ESV translating team chose to translate the term "brotherly love" in every case except in 2 Peter. But what we glean from these uses is helpful. In 1 Thessalonians 4:9 and 1 Peter 1:22, the other terms for love are the well-known "agape" love, the kind of love that is commonly used throughout the New Testament to describe God's love for people (e.g. John 3:16; Romans 8:37) and the love that believers ought to have for one another, as we see in the above passages. Interestingly, Romans 12:10 uses another Greek word for love that only occurs here in the New Testament. It is not agape love but storge love, specifically philostorgos, so a compound of two words for "love". Anyone who has read C.S. Lewis's The Four Loves will recognize the term storge as the love that describes affection of the kind that results from a shared experience of some kind, especially a prolonged shared experience.

Putting all of the above together, it seems clear that the uses of the term for brotherly affection are intended to specify a particular application of the general love that believers are to have for one another. Lewis summarizes this kind of love as friendship. Given the particular uses of the term in the New Testament, it seems to evoke a kind of fraternal warmth. A proper Christian love may be present but not expressed. But these verses seem to rule that out as improper. This brotherly affection, in other words, is required to be actively demonstrated rather than held for a particular time of need.

What does brotherly affection look like, then? It seems most simple to be understood as a proactive demonstration to others of the internal love we ought to possess for them. The command to love with brotherly affection is a command to show our love for one another. It is a call to proactively pursue a loving connection with other believers. It is a command that preempts the all-too-common progressive fading and distancing of believers from one another. The command to grow in brotherly affection is a command to make the distance between us smaller rather than larger.

Why do we need brotherly affection? The need should be clear. Too many fade away and out of the body of Christ like modules of the International Space Station disconnected and left to drift away into the empty spaces of our galaxy. There are too many pieces of the body of Christ adrift from any active connection to a vital body of believers. And there are too many believers who enjoy physical proximity with the body without any active and sustained connection of their hearts as united in Christ. It is too easy to allow physical proximity at Sunday morning worship services to substitute for relational closeness. Proximity does not guarantee intimacy. People come mourning, but no one knows, or no one cares, and the mourner mourns alone. People come ready to weep but hold it in, or they weep but no one comes to weep with them. People come rejoicing but do not share, or they share and no one listens, so they rejoice alone.

Brotherly affection is applying our Christian love to shared experiences with one another. Brotherly affection pursues those shared connections to augment the joy and share the sorrow. I have heard it said in more than one place that joy shared is increased, while sorrow shared is diminished. Brotherly affection has a way of increasing what is good so that it is shared among all involved, while it also has a way of decreasing the acuteness of the pain of what is bad so that it is dissipated among those involved.

Brotherly affection functions like an immune system's cells that reinforce what is healthy and break apart what is deadly. Like our own bodies' immune systems, it is essential to reinforce and attack the right things. This is one reason why brotherly affection cannot be without discernment.

How do we cultivate brotherly affection? We must recognize that as believers we must love one another with brotherly affection. A Christian who knows he ought to pursue brotherly affection and refuses to do it has cause to examine himself to see whether he is really in the faith. What is the hold-up? Why is there reticence to love? There could be any number of reasons, but they need to be discovered, whatever they are.

The recognition of brotherly affection as a duty is an essential first step to prioritizing Christ's word to us on the matter. Brotherly affection is not optional, yet many treat it as though it were.

At a basic level, we can ask ourselves what is our fundamental disposition toward other believers if it is not one of brotherly affection. Is it indifference? Distrust? Disdain? Contempt? Fear? If our fundamental disposition toward one another is not love, then what is it? It needs to be discerned. It may need to be confessed and repented of.

There is no list of actions to do to comply with the command to love with brotherly affection. It is a disposition of the heart, and therefore the heart must be examined and guided if we are going to obey.

It is difficult for some to accept that they must love fellow believers with an active love. There may be great pain in their lives from people in the church. Yet these failures within the church to love as the church is called do not create an excuse for failing to cultivate brotherly affection. These failures are part of the reason why brotherly affection is so important. Brotherly affection is essential to flourishing in Christ. We cannot expect to flourish in Christ if we do not love the people whom he gave us to flourish with. At the very least, our flourishing will be limited to some extent by our failure to love one another with brotherly affection. Our love in Christ is not to be restricted to Christ alone but spread to others. Otherwise, how will the world know that we are his disciples (John 13:35)?