How can I be kind to him after what he just did to me?

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2 Peter 1:5-6 “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith…brotherly kindness.”

The very next thing we’re admonished to add to our faith after godliness is brotherly kindness. When I think of “brotherly kindness,” I immediately think of my two youngest sons when they were small. Donnie was only two when David was born, and oh, how he loved him!

They were totally different...Donnie was laid back while David was a bundle of energy. But I’ve never seen a toddler who was kinder to his brother, and Donnie was patient and gentle regardless of how David acted. That’s the kind of brotherly kindness referred to in our text verse.

As I meditated on this verse, another similar verse came to mind, the one that says we are to love one another. (Rom 13:8) The word translated “one another” means of a kind or alike. It means we are to love those people who are like us even though it’s a challenge with some people.

It isn’t always easy to do that, is it? Family members who share the same heritage and even live in the same house should be kind to one another, shouldn’t they? Of course, we know better. Families often treat one another with a cruelty and rudeness they wouldn’t show to a stranger.

Then there are the people we interact with on a daily basis. Shared interests, shared goals and even our shared faith don’t guarantee we’ll be loved or treated well. And it isn’t easy to be kind to people who have hurt us. It goes against everything within us to respond with kindness when we’ve been hurt. And that’s especially true if the hurt comes from our church family.

Think about that woman two rows over and one row back who snubs you every Sunday. You know the one I mean. She couldn’t say something good about you if her life depended on it, and she’s critical of everything you do. Yep. That’s the very one we are supposed to love with a “brotherly love.”

As if that weren’t hard enough, Romans 8 goes even further by telling us we are to “love another.” That’s different from “loving one another” and is a different word in the Greek. “Loving another” means we go beyond loving people who are like us and show love to those people who are different from us. And that doesn’t mean to love them in a condescending, patronizing way.

That means we show kindness to the Republicans and the Democrats, the conservatives and the liberals, the alcoholic who can’t seem to figure it out, the unwed mother, and the person who is as different from us as day is from night.

I don’t know about you, but both those things are a challenge for me. No wonder we aren’t told to do this until we’ve already added self-control and patience! Even then it isn’t something I always want to do. However, Romans 8 reminds me that it’s a debt I owe.

God loved you and me when we didn’t love Him, and He continues to love us even when we act our worst. Because of that, He expects…no, He requires that we love others in the same way…both those who are like us and those who are totally different from us. It’s not easy to do, but then the right thing seldom is.

Challenge for Today: What might happen if we, just for today, made a conscious decision to treat everyone with “brotherly kindness?”