Malachi 2:10 - Homiletics

The brotherhood of men.

"Liberty, equality, fraternity," are Divine ideas, though men have sometimes striven to embody them in crude or even repulsive and brutal forms. Men are equals, inasmuch as they are all the creatures of the one God who created them. The revelation of that Creator as "the Father of spirits" constitutes those created spirits into a brotherhood. From this fraternal relation the claim to liberty and more than liberty follows.

I. SOUND ETHICS MUST BE BASED ON A TRUE THEOLOGY . Our relations to men depend on our relation to God. Our treatment of them will vary with our conceptions of those relations. False views of God are fatal to consistent conduct towards our brethren. And though our ethics may be partially true, they will be practically powerless unless supported by "the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness." Hence the practical impotence of heathen ethics, whether those of Socrates or of Confucius. We must recgonize such truths as these: that we are creatures of the one God, "in whose hand our breath is, and whose are all our ways;" that we are pensioners on his bounty; that we are sinners dependent on his mercy; and that, nevertheless, we are children entitled to claim our place in his family. We shall then recognize that we are bound to treat all our fellow creatures as members of the same family, sharing with us in the same bounty and mercy of the Father of all, "who willeth that all men should be saved." Jesus Christ, in whom that will is revealed, is the bond of unity, for "the Head of every man is Christ."

II. THERE IS A " COVENANT OF OUR FATHERS " MORE EXTENSIVE THAN THAT WHICH GOD MADE WITH THE JEWS . We can trace it back beyond Moses or Abraham to "our first father;" "for God hath made of one blood all nations of men;" "for we are also his offspring." The terms of this covenant are found in "the law written in our hearts." Hence moral law and Divine retribution are found beyond the limits of an inspired revelation. We see in the Bible illustrations of God's judgments denounced on:

1 . The sins of the Hebrews against their own brethren; e.g. the re-enslavement of the freedmen ( Jeremiah 34:1-22 .).

2 . The crimes of Hebrews towards strangers, though they were heathens; e.g. Saul's massacre of the Gibeonites ( 2 Samuel 21:1-22 .), Zedekiah's perjury against Nebuchadnezzar ( 2 Chronicles 36:13 ).

3 . The outrages of heathens upon their brother heathens, as when the King of Moab "burned the bones of the King of Edom into lime" ( Amos 2:1 ).

III. A SIN AGAINST A BROTHER IS A SIN AGAINST GOD , WHO MADE HIM A BROTHER . The warning of 1 Corinthians 8:12 is applicable beyond the limits of the Christian Church. It was a fearful prediction that "the brother shall betray the brother to death." Give to the term "brother" its Divine significance, and every act of treachery or unfaithfulness is seen to be odious to the Father of all Hence the claims of truth towards our "neighbour, for we are members one of another;" of "all good fidelity" on the part of servants towards masters, "that they may adorn the doctrine of God;" of standing to our word, though it may be to our own hurt, that we may stand in the holy place of the Lord; of loving our enemies, that we may be children of our Father who is in heaven.

IV. THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD IS ONE GREAT MOTIVE FOR THE RIGHT TREATMENT OF HIS CHILDREN . Cruelty, tyranny, slavery, and every form of social wrong would then he banished from the family of God, the brotherhood of men. War would be as intolerable as fighting in the family circle. Punishment of offending brothers would only be inflicted under a grave sense of our responsibility towards their Father and ours. Practical benevolence would be inspired by God s love to us ( 1 John 3:17 ). And as Abraham interceded for the preservation of the heathen Sodomites, so should we, by prayers and labours, seek the salvation of the whole nature ("spirit end soul and body," 1 Thessalonians 5:28 ) of those children of God who are still lost to the Father's home.

Notice, in conclusion, how the fuller revelation of the Fatherhood of God in Jesus Christ, and our adoption in him, gives power and pathos to all the truths we have mentioned and the motives to brotherly kindness we have enforced ( 1 John 4:9-11 ). The knowledge of such a Father should inspire our hearts with the most tender compassion towards our brethren who know him not.