Perhaps not. But this conclusion is unavoidable, that you are your brother's brother. That involves some care of him. Now when your brother does wrong, don't say: "It is none of my business." And when he does you a wrong, don't say: "I'm above that; I simply consider the source." Don't think about your side of it so much. If he has done these things, he is in danger, and ought you not to lift him up? "Take heed to yourselves: if thy brother sin, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him." (Luke 17:3.) Tell him about it. He may not have done it, and your speaking to him will give him a chance to explain; or of he is guilty, he may repent, and then you have gained your brother. And could you get richer gain? Even under the law it was said: "Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart; thou shalt surely rebuke thy neighbor, and not bear sin because of him. Thou shalt not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people; but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: I am Jehovah." (Lev. 19:17, 18.) And now he says: "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; even as I have loved you." And that is more.

      The man who loves you knows you better than he who hates you; for love gives an insight and tender interest, and interprets every act in its best light. And the man who is congenial and in sympathy with you understands you better than the man whose turn of mind is far different from yours, though the latter be ever so good a linguist and grammarian. If you would understand and know God, seek to do his will; for this is the love of [90] God, that you keep his commandments. The disobedient man who says he knows God speaks falsely. (1 John 2:4.) Would you have a deeper insight into God's word? It will come to you as you become more congenial with its Writer. As you take in and assimilate the truth you have, you are fitted for more; for to him that hath shall be given. It is not so much the learned and scholars that get at God's meaning, though scholarship has its place, but he who is in sympathy with God's views and ways and purposes. A man, for instance, who does not love his brother is not able to rightly understand God's word. He "walketh in the darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because the darkness hath blinded his eyes." (1 John 2:11.) He is out of rapport with the mind of God.

[TAG 90-91]