“Where is your Brother?”

May 22, 2025

“Genesis 4:9”

Shalom Mishpacha, (family)

Why did God begin the story of mankind with such a tragic episode? It’s only the fourth chapter–why not rewind and start over?

The answer is it happened.

God pleaded with Cain not to do it, but he chose otherwise.

Where is your brother was not a question, it was a harsh rebuke.

God wanted Cain to consider his ways. His brother was no longer in his life, and he could never be replaced.

To understand the enormity of this casualty, Abel literally means “breath.” The very essence of life had departed from Cain. The consequence of discarding the value of his brother would never go away. We know that God’s mercy could remove his guilt but never bring Able home. Cain would live in a place of limitation without his brother whom God intended to be a source of life support.

Brothers play an important role in the biblical history. Unfortunately, it is not a love story.

Isaac and Ishmael were continually at odds, Essau hated Jacob and threatened to kill him, Joseph was sold as a slave by his brothers.

Abimelech killed all seventy of his brothers.

If man was made in God’s image, and God is love why do we hate?

It is an age-old question that I will not attempt to simplify, other than what Cain should have learned from his parents. Made in God’s image allows us to think and decide. However, we cannot decide the consequences of our choices. Cain was left breathless and his ability to make a difference in his world, choked.

This first episode in the world outside the Garden is the world we live in. It demands our attention. If we love God, we must love our brother.

Brotherly love is the fabric of life for Jesus followers. Resistance to that is fraudulent.

It was not my intention, but at the onset of Covid, I began writing my thoughts which evolved into a book named Inappropriate. When I asked God why I felt compelled to write, He told me.

He wanted me to see my life through two lenses. My plans and decisions were to be made:

^{*For the Vindication of God}

My words and actions need to represent the God I love and serve.

Too much of history is filled with hatred and violence. Why is it that so much of it was done in the name of religion? Why is it that any of it was done by self-proclaimed Christians?

*According to His eternal purpose 

Brotherly love is a major theme of the New Testament. Being born again produces a new heart so we can exercise it. Jesus said we must be born again to live like Him and for Him. He said the world would know Him by the love we have for one another.

The major emphasis of 1 John is brotherly love. Not only is it a command but He says a person who does not love his brother, cannot be of God.

He even writes that we are not to be like Cain who was of the devil.

Our love for our brothers is the vindication of God.

Why?

Because love for your brothers is an expression of free will.

We choose to because we are re-made into the image of Jesus. We have been given His nature and Jesus is the very image of God.  Authentic brotherly love is like a billboard on the highway.

It commands the attention of any passerby. It loudly proclaims that

God is real, just look at those who choose to follow Him.

It vindicates Him for introducing free will into the human equation.

Sadly, the opposite is true. If self-identifying Christians display no love for their brothers, life is senseless, and God is to blame.

Multiply that out over the years and we are left in a godless state.

So, who is your brother?

The tribes of Israel emerged from the12 sons of Jacob, who were brothers. They did not always display love for each other, which is an understatement. When the Jews were scattered into the nations in the first century, the Rabbis agreed on the reason. They called it “sinat chinam,” which meant hatred without a cause. Brothers were intended to love one another, and they were not.

The only solution they had was “ahavat chinam,” which meant irrational love, more simply, brotherly love. Sadly, it was too late, they were scattered and God was blasphemed among the nations for choosing them.

If only they embraced their Messiah, they would have become equipped to love each other as Jesus taught–they (we) must be born again. His Jewish disciples carried that message a step further as they were driven from Israel into the Gentile world. Their message—you don’t have to be Jewish to follow Jesus! In fact, when Gentiles receive Jesus, they also receive a new heart to love and a mind to make godly decisions. Even more, Jews and Gentiles can be at peace with each other because of the love of God in Jesus.

That brings me to the second lens which I discovered in Ephesians 2 and 3. I must have read Ephesians a hundred times before I saw it.

Without elaborating, the central theme of those two chapters is the One New Man, created by Jesus on the cross according to His eternal purpose.

Paul, the apostle, wrote that the fruit of this “new creation” was peace, which made possible brotherly love between two people groups—Jews and Gentiles. They were perpetual enemies until Jesus  destroyed their hostility and made the two one. Paul termed this new creation “God’s masterpiece”.

 Together they became a witness of God’s authority to the forces of darkness in spiritual places.

The early church, which grew out of the ruins of Israel, was a snapshot of the one new man in action. Together they turned the world right side up in record breaking time. It was Jesus’ love on display.

“And they all lived happily ever after…”

Oops, wrong story!

 Shortly, a theology developed in the second century that was codified by the church leaders in 325 AD. By then the Gentiles far outnumbered the Jewish believers. The consensus was that God was finished with the Jews. They were no longer permitted to be members of the Church, unless they renounced their identity.

That theology became embedded in Church history and remains in whole or in part ever since.

Briefly, that is why it is rare to find “Jews in the pews.”

Brotherly love became the most vulnerable victim.

Knowing all things and that His end was near, Jesus taught one last lesson before His arrest. It is more accurately a prophecy than a parable. In it He separated the sheep from the goats as an illustration of the gathering of all people at the end of time.

It was His final verdict in which He distinguished the righteous from those who claimed to follow Him. Their faith was exposed based on one indication—how they treated Jesus when He was clothed in desperation. The sheep “saw” Him and gave Him comfort, the goats ignored Him.

Is that the criteria for Heaven? Of course not.

But when the righteous questioned their welcome into His Kingdom, they asked the King, “on what grounds?”

The King replied, 

Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.   

(Matthew 25:40)

Please don’t be hasty to determine who Jesus’ brothers are. Remember Jesus words were for their day and ours. He is the Prophet who alone knows the future, and like every other prophet, warned accordingly. This verse is one that has been overlooked for centuries. For the health of the Church, don’t let it bypass you.

Please take time to consider this and share, if this is of value to you. We are living in a day that demands our attention and response, for the “blood of righteous Abel still cries out.” (Genesis 4:10)

With much love and deep concern,

Shalom,

“And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.” (1 John 4:21)

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