Brethren Beloved A 7-day devotional

1 Thessalonians 1:
2 We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers,
3 remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope
in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father,
4 knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God.

Paul introduces a term in his letters to the Thessalonians that he had not used in any
of his other epistles: beloved brethren=adelphos agapao. Notice he does not use philos,
as in Philadelphia=city of brotherly love. He speaks of a deeper love anchored to a mutual commitment to Christ, and a love of the Truth. I just can’t seem to stop thinking about this expression. It is a meditation that creates a longing in me to see the face of Christ in his faithful, and be able to somehow love as He loves.

2 Thessalonians 2:
13 But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth,
14 to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle.

Fellow Workers For The Truth

3 John 1:
5 Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers,
6 who have borne witness of your love before the church. If you send them forward
on their journey in a manner worthy of God, you will do well,
7 because they went forth for His name’s sake, taking nothing from the Gentiles.
8 We therefore ought to receive such, that we may become fellow workers for the truth.

He makes us accepted in the Beloved
Ephesians 1:
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us
with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love,
5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according
to the good pleasure of His will,
6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

The Bond Of Perfection
Colossians 3:
12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies,
kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering;
13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint
against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.
14 But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.
15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in
one body; and be thankful.

The Commandment You Heard From The Beginning
1 John 2:
7 Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which
you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you
heard from the beginning.
8 Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you,
because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.
9 He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now.
10 He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for
stumbling in him.
11 But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not
know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Love In Deed And In Truth
1 John 3:
10 In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does
not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.
11 For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another,
12 not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he
murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.
13 Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you.
14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren.
He who does not love his brother abides in death.
15 Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has
eternal life abiding in him.
16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And
we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
17 But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up
his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?
18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

The Love Of God Manifested Toward Us
1 John 4:
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves
is born of God and knows God.
8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent
His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son,
the propitiation for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.