(9) В¶ But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. (10) And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more; (11) And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; (12) That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.
I do not think it necessary to offer a single observation upon these verses. Brotherly love towards one another in those who are members of Christ's body, is not only a principle which carries with it, its own conviction, but is so strongly enforced, from the very relationship in which those members are knit to each other; that, as the Apostle saith, it is not needful to write upon it. Truly regenerated, souls, are one in Christ. And where they are so, there can be no schism. The sorrow, or joy, which one hath, all must partake in; if this membership be truly a living principle. 1 Corinthians 12:25-26. And, in relation to Church members, walking honestly toward them that are without; it were a reproach to the name of Christ, if the ungodly had any charge to bring against them. Very sweet to this purpose, is that comprehensive exhortation, by the Holy Ghost to the Church: that whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report; believers in Christ are expected above all men, to be eminent in the practice of these things. Philippians 4:8.