We Christadelphians are fond of calling each other “brother” and “sister” – we are, after all, brethren in Christ. But I fear that sometimes it can be used more as an official title than anything else. In correspondence, like when someone is asking me to speak at their ecclesia, I will be addressed as “Brother Richard.” However, the one and only time the term is used for someone in the New Testament is in Acts 9 where Ananias calls Saul of Tarsus “Brother Saul” before he was baptized.

Being a brother or sister to one another in our community isn’t meant to be a title but our identity. It should mean something far more than a way to signal that are baptized members of a Christadelphian ecclesia. 

In his first epistle, Peter uses the same word, philadelphia, placing it in a list of related characteristics, all of which define the sort of relationship we ought to have with one another. He tells us to “have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind” (1 Pet. 3:8).

The word “sympathy,” the Greek word sympathes, and describes someone who is affected in the same way as somebody else, someone who has experienced the same sufferings and emotions. It’s a word that perfectly describes having a fellow feeling with our brothers and sisters. We’re on the same journey. 

The writer to the Hebrew expresses the same sort of principle after exhorting us “let brotherly love continue” (Heb. 13:1) and qualifies that first by talking about the importance of hospitality (v.2) and then to “remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body” (v.3). That’s what true brotherly love is all about, having empathy and sympathy for others, sharing in their sufferings, helping one another on the journey towards God’s kingdom.

How do we develop this kind of brotherly affection? It can’t be manufactured. I might feel affectionate and loving to a brother or sister in Christ, but that might just be because I like them and get on well with them. Birds of a feather flock together, and it’s easy to fool ourselves into thinking we’re manifesting brotherly affection when really, we’re just enjoying spending time with people who have similar interests. But is that true godly friendship? 

Once again, there is no substitute for faith. How am I meant to treat my brothers and sisters? With an iron fist, strictly? Or God’s way? We tend to treat people differently depending on whether they’re our sort of people or not. If we haven’t developed sympathy, then we will more likely treat others harshly when they’re not our natural friends, and they run into difficulty. However, faith says that God’s way is the right way, and faith truly believes that way is good. So, we will be better able to treat others with compassion, generosity, patience, steadfast love, faithfulness, forgiveness, and justice – because that’s God’s way!