This week’s study is on brotherhood. We began by talking about different characteristics we display toward our brothers in Christ. Some things that were mentioned are:

*Encouragement
*Accountability
*Trust
*We challenge each other to grow
*We teach by example to one another

These are all very true characteristics that we need to always display. But to have a real understanding of who we are in Christ and in brotherhood, we need to go way deeper than that. This study will take us through seven areas of God’s Word that are sure to teach us a lot.

Proverbs 22:2
Rich and poor have this in common:
The LORD is the Maker of them all.

This verse shows how God has value in every man. We as brothers are equal in Christ and need to realize who made us and why. Let’s look at the definitions of two words that effect most people at some time in their life:

Condescending: Behaving toward other people in a way that shows you consider yourself socially or intellectually superior to them.

Self-righteous: Believing in own virtue, sure of the moral superiority of personal beliefs and actions, usually to an irritating degree.

We as brothers need to be very careful when it comes to allowing this type of behavior to enter our lives. We are all at different places in our walk with God, but none of us are more superior than the other.

Malichi 2:10
Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our fathers by breaking faith with one another?

There are many we ways we can break faith with one another. Even as men of faith we can allow our egos to become destructive. This is not the work of God, but the work of the enemy. We should be careful not to compare each other to show our better worth. Or step on one another for our own gain or out of fear take from our brothers in anyway. Breaking a commitment is something we can easily fall victim to. When we commit to something regardless of how big or small it is and we do not honor that commitment we are in many ways breaking faith with our fellow Christ follower. It tarnishes our integrity and the trust our brother should have for us.

Mark 3:31-35
Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”

“Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked. Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

Jesus makes it very clear about who is in his family. He was trying to show the importance of following Him. He wanted to say that as close as people are to their own family that is how close He is to those who believe and follow Him. We are the family of Christ. We who follow Him are His brothers and sisters.

Acts 17:26
From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.

We all have the same Father. He knew our hearts long before and determined when and where He would choose us to be in His service. We are serving together and for one purpose. We need to remember this when we are deceivingly led down a different path or stray away from our fellow believers.

Romans 14:13
Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way.

When Jesus gave the beatitudes he said, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

We should never pass judgment on one another. Whether it is on one’s family, spouse, children, parenting, actions or their strength in faith. This could create stumbling blocks before them. Notice how the verse says make up your mind. To make up our mind is to decide something. Putting stumbling blocks of any kind is to actually make a decision to harm our brother. We need not forget it is the Holy Spirit’s job to convict and judge. This being said, we must always guard our tongue and speech.

Mark 9:35
Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

The key words here are servant of all. We need to serve each other as we serve our amazing God. We need to serve all, not just who we choose to serve. We should all be competing for last place by putting each other’s needs before ours. By doing this we will be living more like the Christ we profess to be following.

Romans 8:5-14
Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

Wow…I feel like I could write about these verses for hours, but we need to be focused on brotherhood and how it is to lead as brothers. If God does live in the hearts of those professing Christ as Lord we all have the same Spirit guiding us. Because of this we need to discern God’s Will together and anticipate the needs of Him and our fellow brother’s in Christ.

I don’t see any possible way we can be great leaders without knowing, understanding and applying all these things to our daily lives. God created us differently so we would need each other. We have to have a strong need for our brothers. Without them we are fighting too big of a battle alone and with nobody following us.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 24th, 2007 at 9:07 pm and is filed under Leadership Study. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.