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Some Thoughts Concerning Brotherhood and Friendship

When you obeyed the gospel from the heart, God added you to His family. When God added others to His family, by the same means, they became your spiritual siblings. It is reasonable, then, to refer to the body of Christ as "the brotherhood." We have a common salvation (Jude 3), mutual goals, and shared beliefs that bring us together in unity. Concerning these God-given items we must have our hands clasped together, our feet must be pointed in the same direction, and we must be speaking the same things (1 Corinthians 1:10).

Your spiritual family is like your earthly one in that you did not choose your siblings. God did. Your family did not specifically select you. We have different personalities, interests, ways of doing things, foibles, strengths and shortcomings. A cookie cutter did not fall upon you as you arose from the watery grave of baptism, making you identical with your brothers and sisters in Christ. We can be grateful for this because different roles seem to call for different abilities and tendencies (1 Corinthians 12:12-31). It seems that the world would be a boring place if all were identical in every way.

It seems, though, that we can also struggle with some of these differences. It is a shame to notice that some still persist in racial prejudices that have no basis in fact. Some allow nationality to become a barrier between themselves and others. Some seem to allow distance between themselves and others on the basis of other categories (educated/uneducated, professional/non-professional, athletic/unathletic, extrovert/introvert, musically inclined/tone deaf....). I suppose that this listing could go on forever, but I hope that this much has allowed you to begin to think about unreasonable walls that you may have constructed in your own mind that keep you from really enjoying the fellowship of your brothers and sisters in Christ. God has made us brethren. Friendship is up to us.

While it is true that it takes two to form a friendship, and that resistance on the part of another can keep you from making a friend, please make sure that you are not the one resisting. Become more tolerant. Be slower to judge what God has not judged. Be the first to take a step in the direction of another. Don't think yourself too inferior to speak to the one you perceive to be higher in some sense (or vice versa). I remember seeing the commanding general enter a mess hall (a rare sight) and sit alone at a table. I guess

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