# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1914_S24
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

24 Proceedings of the twenty-fifth convention

is your Master, Christ; but you are all brothers." (Matt. 23:8.) But faith is worked by the Gospel; for "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Rom. 10:17.) So it is the Gospel that makes us brothers in Christ. Therefore we should also hold the servants of the Gospel in honor and pray for them, that the Lord may bless their work. "And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you. Esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake, and be at peace among yourselves." (1 Thess. 5:12, 13; cf. also 2 Thess. 2:1; Rom. 15:30, 31.) Therefore we should also work to bring people under the sound of the Gospel, so that they become our brothers in Christ.

What now is the proper brotherly disposition? In a word, it is brotherly love. Whoever loves Christ must also love the brothers in Christ. This is so simple that the Apostle writes: "If anyone says: I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?" (1 John 4:20.) For this we also have God's express commandment. "And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should love his brother also." (1 John 4:21; cf. 3:23; 4:11.) "Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently." (1 Pet. 1:22.) —

How, however, is this brotherly love shown? It is not an empty feeling but a power that urges toward abundant activity. Brothers take up the necessities of the saints. "But whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth." (1 John 3:17, 18; cf. Rom. 12:13; James 2:15–17.) Thus brotherly love has shown itself from the very beginning, as the example of the Antiochenes shows. (Acts 11:27–30.) — Brothers serve one another. "For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another." (Rom. 12:4, 5.) But in order to serve the brother properly, no one is to think more highly of himself than it is fitting to think, but to think soberly, each as God has dealt to him the measure of faith. "Let each give precedence to the other with deference. Do not set your mind on high things, but condescend to those of low estate!" (Rom. 12:3, 10, 16.) — Brothers are not self-satisfied fault-finders and speck-pickers. "And why do you behold the mote that is in your brother's eye, but do not consider the beam that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first cast out the beam