Lamar Howell's Weblog

To me something is conspicuous by its absence. What is absent from the body of Christ today is the understanding and practice of the millenial truth that Christians are in almost every sense a family, and brothers and sisters in particular.

How long has it been since another believer has called me brother? Many moons, sir and ma’am. If anyone else who knows me and is a believer calls me sir, I swear I’m going to let loose with a tacky non-christian word — for shock treatment purposes only, mind you. Once I told a  b-r-o-t-h-e-r  not to call me sir and he looked puzzled. He asked me if he should call me dude. I knew at that moment that the war was lost.

Okay, I’m being picky, right? Hear me out.  Let me give you some statistics:

In the Old Testament, brethren was used to indicate any other Hebrew person. Lev. 25:46 says the children of Israel are all brethren. In Genesis 19:7, Lot even called the men of Sodom brethren. Every time in the OT when the word brethren was used, it was the word “awkh” which means brother and was used in the widest sense of literal relationship, and metaphoricically to show affinity or resemblance. (Strong’s Exhaustive concordance). Curiously, when I met a witch on the streets of San Francisco in 1982, the first word the Holy Spirit prompted me to say to begin ministry to her was to call her sister.

In the NT the word translated brethren or brothers is adelphos, which comes from the word delphos, meaning womb. It is translated brother, literally or figuratively, near or remote. Luke referred to believers as brothers forty-seven times; Stephen in his sermon called his fellow Israelites brothers seven times; Paul invoked the church using the word brothers seventy-four times and referred to them as brothers another twenty-five times; Peter called his readers brother once , but twice he told them to love as fraternal brethren– from which we get the word philadelphia;  James fifteen times, John seven times in his letters. The writer of Hebrews, eight times; an unidentified voice in Revelation called believers brothers two times, an angel in Revelation on two occasions commanded John not to worship him, because he was his brother. Imagine that, a glorified angel willing to call a human his brother. Such a weighty scripture is worth reading: Revelation 22:9 “I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me: “See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.” (also Rev 19:10)

I did the math for you: all told, the NT refers to believers as brothers 190 times. I did not include the singular use of the word – which occurs fifty times outside of the gospels — only the plural.  There is a two-thousand year-old history of brotherhood going on here. What happened to the family ties in our generation?

Jesus himself made it clear that the family of God was expansive, inclusive and dear.  When told his mother and siblings were looking for him, he retorted without a second thought:  Who are my brothers and sisters? Who is my mother? Those who do the will of the Father” Mt. 12:48. I currently have three women in the church family whom I address as mother. I’ve got Mother Lori, Mother Anita, and Mother Joyce. Who knows but I may yet find another one.  My flesh and blood mother died forty years ago, but that’s not going to stop me from feeling what I feel, and that is a fraternal, philadelphic, kindred-heart, womb-love for the saints. Or from continuing to say it in a culture that has lost something central to the Father’s heart. Family.

In a dreaded reference near the end of the Lord’s ministry he tells us to treat “the least of these my brothers” as we would treat him. Mt 24 

I know, it is the 21st century. And yelling out, “Amen, sister” or “Preach it, brother” is hokey, right? Maybe that is, but to look a child of God in the eye and say you are my brother is a choice, valuable, and fulfilling expression of truth and eternal reality. Hebrews 2:11 says the Lord is not ashamed to call us brethren. Are we ashamed to call each other brother and sister? That begs the question: then why don’t we do it?

I can’t read hearts, but I can postulate. From the beginning of creation, God put upon people a responsibility for each other. His question to Cain is most pointed: Where is Abel your brother? And Cain reacted the same way we continue to react today: Is my brother my responsibility? Worse yet, we’ve taken it one step farther: Is Abel my brother? I had gotten so used to calling him Mr. Abel Adamson, or sir. It kept us at a respectable distance, and uninvolved. So far away that I started doubting his motives, then I started blaming him for my own failures, which led to a dislike for him. Finally my hate killed him. Was he my brother? Oh my God!