Brotherly Kindness
Spiritual Building-Stone No. 127

I John 2:9-10, "He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him."

Listen what God's Prophet has said about it:

If you want to be a blessing, and get a blessing, when a man has done you wrong, and he has absolutely justly, he... I mean he has done you wrong and you know that he's done you wrong; he's done you evil. Don't mention that; you take him to prayer before God. And don't take it in a way of just a selfish and say, "Well, I'm supposed to do this." But stand with your shoulder to his shoulder, and stand in the Presence of God our Father, way a prayer should be made in the Presence of God, say, "Father, here's my brother, and he is justly; he deserves punishment because he's done me evil. And I don't see why he did it."

Then let God go to talking to you. And you'll see maybe, what that man's been through. The Devil has twisted him up somewhere and caused him to do that. Though he's absolutely wrong, before you leave the throne of God you'll be feeling sorry for that man. You'll be sympathizing with that brother. And when you get back down to where--earth again, you'll go over to that brother and shake his hand, 'cause you know what he's been through. You can't stand with a mortal in the Presence of God and condemn anybody, I don't believe, no, sir, even if he is a rank sinner.

And what about a brother that has made a mistake? Though I say he's wrong. Sometimes he's accused wrong when he's not wrong. But if he is wrong, well, if we will take him to the throne of God, stand there shoulder-to-shoulder with our brother, knowing he's a mortal, and maybe his destination rests upon our atti-tude towards him, when we come back from the throne of God, we'll realize that we're everyone guilty, and we all need help one from the other. And the best way to do is pray.

All right. Coming in to perfection now... All right. Then sixthly, let's add, the Bible said here, adding brotherly love--brotherly kindness (II Peter 1:3-11). Now, that's a good one. Right here, the sixth one--seventh. All right, adding brotherly kindness. All right. When we get to that, brotherly kindness, put yourself in his place on the matter (Luke 6:31). Now, you say, "My brother sinned against me," said Peter, "Shall I forgive him?" He said, "Seven times a day?" (Matt. 18:21-22).

He said, "Seventy times seven." See, brotherly kindness. Now, you see, if a brother's all out of tune, don't be impatient with him. See? No. See? Be kind to him. Go anyhow.

Somebody said not long ago, said, "How can you believe these things the way you do and still go to the Assemblies of God, and the Oneness, all the rest of them? Well, see, brotherly kindness, hoping someday. See? Patience with him, temperance, enduring with him, knowledge to understand what he believes. And remember, it's in his heart. That's what it is; virtue in yourself to let it go out with kindness, meekness to him; having faith that someday God will bring him in. See? Brotherly kindness.

"You can't draw me out, 'cause I love you. See, you just can't do it." I said, "There's too many of your brethren out there that love me and believe in me." I said, "They'll come anyhow." I said, "They'll come, and you can't draw me out. If you draw me out, I'll draw you back in." I said.... "When you make one circle, God, by His grace, will let me draw another one and pull you right back in." That's right. Draw them right back again...

I have constantly done my very best to try to in disagreeing with men in reli-gious terms; but if I couldn't take his hand afterwards, no matter how sharp the thing might be, and take ahold of his hands, and say, "this is in the light of a better understanding between us, and still love the person (not just say it from my lips, but from my heart), then I'm no subject at all to go out there and to try to talk to people. Because we must do that, we must love the person. See? And going amongst the people in all kinds of classes, and different cults, and clans, and relig-ions and so forth, and trying to lay the Bible down, and say, "Let's discuss it not from your creed or from your book of ethics, but from the Bible." Maybe some-time men get up real sharp; but if I got one thought that I didn't like that per-son, then I know one thing, the Spirit of Christ has departed from me. If I can feel that I don't like that person, there's something wrong with me.

Because the Spirit of Christ, when they... At crucifying Him, and His Own people driving the nails, and His very creation that He created was putting the nails that He created back into His human flesh, and yet, with a heart full of love He cried, "Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing." You see? (John 19:30).

Now, don't you listen to one foul thing the devil's got to say. See? If the devil shows you some, or tells you something evil about one of the members of the body of Christ, don't you believe it. For as soon as you believe it, you mar your experience.

And if you see one of the members of the Body of Christ doing something evil, don't tell nobody else; but go to that member, and with love, and see if you can't bring them back to Christ again. And if you can't do it, then tell one person, or let them go with you. Do it the way the Scripture said (Matt. 18:15-17).

If somebody said, "Sister So-and-so, or Brother So-and-so," don't you believe one word of it. You just leave it go. Because, remember, it's the devil trying to tear you to pieces. Now, just look for him to come in, 'cause he'll do it. Now, you let the good man of the house, faith, stand right there, and don't you receive one thing. These people have been set in heavenly places with you, fellowship together around the blessings of God, taking the communion at the table, and the Holy Spirit has witnessed that they are the children of God. So let's just be real sweet, kindhearted, forgiving, loving. And if the other person talks evil against you, you talk sweet against them. Watch how sweeter it comes to you then. That's right. Just always return good for evil, love for hate (Matt. 5:43-48).

Now, be sure to do that. Pledge yourself that to God, "God, by Your grace, that's what I'll do." No matter when anyone says evil; return good. Don't think evil. If you do think evil, and you're just hypocritically saying it, then you're wrong. You just keep on consecrating yourself to God until you really feel good to that person. That's the way to do it. Then the sweetness of God's blessings will just, oh, it'll just cover your soul. That's the way to live victorious; then nothing can harm you as long as you're in love (I John 4:16).

See, "If you have tongues, they'll cease. And if you have wisdom, it'll vanish. Prophecies, it'll fail. But when you got love, it'll endure for ever." (I Cor. 13:1-10). See?

And don't love only those who love you, but love those who do not love you. For it's easy for me to love anybody that loves me, but try to love somebody who doesn't love you. That's where you can test whether you're a Christian or not; somebody that don't love you, and yet in your heart you love them... Now, if you don't do that, then just keep holding onto God. It's there, 'cause I know it to be the truth. Amen. I know that it's the truth.

There's many times that a minister will make a mistake. And if he comes into a neighborhood, a precious brother who's trying to do what's right and to lead the people right, everything that the devil can point to the unbeliever or the so-called Christian in that neighborhood to throw off on that man, he'll do it. You know, the real Christian way is to hide everything you can from a brother. Don't tell his bad things; just tell his good things. Just tell what you know about him that's good. If anything's bad, let it alone. The poor fellow's got enough against him anyhow. Don't try to take a pole and shove a man further into the ditch. The Christian attitude is to pick him up and take him out of the ditch. See? Don't never try to shove him down; he's down already. Try to help him up. But too many of us today, too many people today, I might say, try to do that. If they could just get something another that they could say that was real bad.

Now, for instance, if one of you brethren would make a mistake and do some-thing's wrong, which you're subject to do it; I am too, every one of us. But as we go along, let's remember we're brothers; we are brothers. And if we've got any fighting, let's fight with one another. Bring it together. Bring it before our brethren and settle it.

Now, they used to in the Branham family, if one of the little ones done some-thing, they was going to tell Bill about it, 'cause I was the biggest. And I had to stand there and see which was right and wrong. Well, my decision was that if they, which one was right and wrong. If they still didn't believe it, then they got around behind my back and fought it out. But they were still brothers. You see? They'd fight in the back yard with one another and fight in the front yard for one another. So that's the way it was, and it, were we still brothers.

Well, that's the way we got to do this. See? And if you got something against somebody, your brother, don't tell somebody else about it if it's wrong, go to him and tell him. And then if he's going to argue with you, then take somebody else with you. Then bring it up the way the Bible said.

As we see the great ensign of the time at hand, warning us: time is at hand... Oh, take this solemnly. We should love one another. Oh, my. We should be so in love. Don't never speak evil against one another. If somebody makes a mis-take, pray for him, right quick. We are together in this with God.

We are brothers and sisters. Oh, live godly. Live like daughters of God. Live like sons of God. Live sweet, kind, humble. Let no evil come in your mind in your thinking; just dismiss it (Phil. 4:8). If it knocks on the door, take it away, just show your Token. Just keep walking. "I'm under the Blood."
You should love one another (John 13:34-35). Believers should separate them-selves from the world. Don't just take it now, lightly. And then, you people that's listening to this on tape, you women, you men, you listen a minute. If you ever believed me, you believe it now. It's time to quit fussing with one another. Believe the message of the Bible. Believe Jesus Christ; and love, and honor, and respect one another. Men, respect your wives; you respect your home. Bring your home together, because, you remember, this Lamb was for the home, not just one. The whole home too had to be brought, everything had to be brought in. We should love each other, and believers should separate themselves from the world.

Reference:
"The Great Commission" (58-0301B), par. E12-E13
"Stature Of A Perfect Man", pg. 45 / "The Godhead Explained", par. 253-254 / "Shalom", par. 45-46
"Super Sense", par. 35-41 / "Taking Sides With Jesus", par. 130-133 / "Token" (63-0901M), pg. 34-35

Spiritual Building-Stone No. 127 from the revealed Word of this hour, compiled by: Gerd Rodewald; Friedenstr. 69; D-75328 Schömberg; Germany
Phone: (0049) 7235 7613, Fax: (0049) 7235 3306

There's coming one with a Message that's straight on the Bible, and quick work will circle the earth. The seeds will go in newspapers, reading material, until every predestinated Seed of God has heard It.
[Bro. Branham in "Conduct-Order-Doctrine", pg. 724]