The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1919, Page 65

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~ Che Lutheran Pioneer.

A. MISSIONARY MON THLY.,.

PUBLISHED BY THE HvanoenicaL LUTHERAN SynoprcaL Conrerence or Norte AMERICA.

Rey. F. J. LANKENAUDU, Eprror.

Published monthiy by Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, Mo. Subscription price, 25 cts. per annum, payable strictly in advance.
Hntered as second-class matter at the Post Office at St. Louis, Mo., under the Act of March 8, 1879. aie
Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October 8, 1917, authorized on July 5, 1918,

Vol. XLI.

ST. LOUIS, MO., SEPTEMBER, 1919.

No. 9,

Brotherly Love.
1 Joun 3, 13—18.

How singular is God’s love to us! He has
made us His children (1 John 3, 1. 2). We should
therefore obediently fulfil His commandments
(vv. 83—10) and love one another as brethren
(v.11). Hatred should not be found in us (ye L2)e

™ L%rder to make plain our Christian duty of
mutual love, the Apostle in these verses also points
to the opposite vice of hating the brethren. In
verse 13 he writes: Marvel not, my brethren, if the
world hate you. John here addresses his fellow-
Christians, whom he calls his brethren, they having
the same faith, confessing the same truth, practising
she same love, and undergoing the same sufferings
with him. The unbelieving world is alienated from
God, antagonizes the Christian religion, and is ruled
by Satan. Both as a whole and in its individual
members it hates the Christians. Fruits of such
enmity, which appear more or less in the unbe-
lievers’ conduct toward the Christians, are scorn,
“et contempt, slander, persecution, all kinds of harm,
and finally murder. Bitter enmity against Christ
and the Christians is a mark of the world. While
there are many points of divergence in the charac-
ters of its members, they all are unanimous in this
ill will towards God’s children. Compare John 15,
18.19; 17, 14; Matt. 10, 16.

5 An inexperienced Christian may perhaps marvel
painfully at this absolutely unjust hatred on the
part of the unbelievers. For God’s children do not

a only not hurt or harm the children of this world,
deporting themselves justly and peacefully toward

rg

them, but even do them a great deal of good. To
mention only what is most important: they seek
to acquaint them with the one thing needful.

But let us not think this enmity strange. Can
we expect anything else from the world? Indeed
not. The children of this world perform the works
of their father, the devil, John 8, 41, who worketh
in the children of disobedience, Eph. 2, 2, and who
is a murderer, hence full of hatred, from the be-
ginning, John 8, 44.

The reason for the world’s hatred is given in
v.12: Not as Cain, who was of that Wicked One,
and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him?
Because his own works were evil and his brother's
righteous. Luther writes: “Thus the world does,
as holy Cain’s obedient daughter; she must needs
be inimical to Christianity for no other reason than
the highest love and benefits.” The world, which
loves and performs evil, cannot tolerate Christians
because of the good which they love and practise
by divine grace. The darkness does not comprehend
the light, but opposes and hates it 3 spirit and flesh
are against each other.

We should not be offended at the world’s atti-
tude. God permits such hatred in order to test and
confirm our faith and love, 1 Pet. He On ie 4. Oo ea
We should not be led thereby to repay evil with evil,
but follow Christ’s example, Luke 23, 34.

V.14a. We know that we have passed from
death unto life because we love the brethren. Chris-
tians are entirely different from the world. They
have passed from death to life. By nature we were
spiritually dead in sin. In consequence we were
subject not only to temporal death, but also to
eternal damnation. We were estranged from God,