To abide, to remain, to continue on. As Christ’s followers, our care for one another is assumed, admonished in the now, and expected in the future. The Pastor exhorts that His own will be known by their love (John 13:35). We are to forebear (Ephesians 4:2), be devoted to (Romans 12:10a), honor (Romans 12:10b), instruct (Romans 15:15:14), serve (Galatians 5:13), uphold (Galatians 6:2), submit to (!) (Ephesians 5: 21), comfort (1 Thessalonians 5:11), speak only good of (James 4:11), confess to (James 5:16), pray for (James 5:16), and forgive one another (Colossians 3:13). Is there an ending to forbearance? Is there a boundary at which abiding in care for one another demarcates when it is time to cease that care? Certainly, there are times where care endures despite sin and is even revealed in discipline. After all, we are to admonish one another to not be idle in doing good (Colossians 3:16).
Before this simple admonition is a grand and powerful description of God’s reach and scope among us: “Our God is a consuming fire.” Does our dislike of the behavior of our brother or sister in Christ dictate the limits of our responsibility or our love for one another? Sometimes our dislike of another becomes our “consuming fire” rather than love. Our God of all-encompassing love does not stop short, does our “brotherly love”?
Mike Copeland