The apostles and elders, your brothers, To the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia:
Greetings.

Acts 15:22-24 and 28- 31

22 Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose some of their own men and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas (called Barsabbas) and Silas, men who were leaders among the believers. 23 With them they sent the following letter:
The apostles and elders, your brothers,
To the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia:
Greetings.
24 We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said. 2288 It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: 29 You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell. 30 So the men were sent off and went down to Antioch, where they gathered the church together and delivered the letter. 31 The people read it and were glad for its encouraging message.



Today’s title is “Brothers In Christ”

Christians often call each other brothers and sisters. This may look strange to outsiders. But it has a clear biblical and logical basis. Christians have one spiritual Father. Since we share the same father, it should be ok to call all the people who believe in God as their father brothers or sisters in God. Not only we Christians share the same Father, but we also share the same blood of the same savior. Because we share the same Father and the same blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, we share the same goal of life and similar lifestyle. So we can easily open up our hearts toward other Christians even if we never met them before. We feel brotherly love toward each other. Yes, we often argue with each other. The arguments and debates within us can sometimes be long and tiring. Noticing such divisiveness among Christians, outsiders often criticize us. We Christians need to work harder for unity. Still, the brotherhood among Christians far exceeds the divisiveness among us in my opinion. At least I have personally experienced far more brotherhood from other Christians than a divisive attitude. I often shared far greater intimacy than any others. We see such brotherly love demonstrated between the Jewish believers in Jerusalem and the newly converted gentile Christians outside Israel in today’s passage. In the letter that the apostles in Jerusalem wrote to the gentile believers, the apostles address themselves as “your brothers”. Their letter to the gentile believers is full of brotherly love toward the new gentile Christians. They reassured the new gentile Christians of the salvation and freedom in Christ. They painstakingly removed any spiritual hurdles for them. They even sent some of their own people to completely make sure of such confidence and care in them. The gentile believers who were once shaken by the false teachers read the letter and were greatly encouraged. Imagine how grateful those gentile Christians must have felt toward the apostles and believers in Jerusalem! Have you ever experienced such brotherly love from some Christians whom you never met before? I had countless times. A certain brother in Christ tried so hard to bring me back to Christ when I was backsliding. Another brother whom I met for the first time at a visiting church invited me to their house and shared a hot meal. It goes on and on. How about you? Have you also shared such brotherly love with other Christians? I am sure you have. But what about us? Are we also sharing such brotherly love with other Christians? Since we are indebted so much to the brotherly love of those nameless Christians, It is fitting that we do express the same brotherly love toward other Christian brothers and sisters whether we know them by a person or not. Are you showing such brotherly love?