Discipleship

God’s love initiates salvation, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ delivers it, and the companionship of the Holy Spirit works it out in our lives.

Love is commonly defined as affection, a beautiful emotional feeling that human beings have for one another. For Christians, it is not just any affection: it is that noble type which is deployed in biblical ways to the benefit of the recipient. God, the author of that love, personifies it: “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:8, NKJV).

In Christianity, the most vital proof that God loves us lies in His sending Christ to die for our sins: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

God’s love initiates salvation, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ delivers it, and the companionship of the Holy Spirit works it out in our lives. Scripture teaches that, embedded in God’s love, is the profound part called philadelphia (brotherly love) in the Greek New Testament. It is poured out only in the hearts of those who accept His salvation (Romans 5:5). This unique love stamps Christ’s identity on His followers (John 13:35).

Sadly, philadelphia, Holy Spirit-enabled and vibrant in the apostolic era, has dimmed over the ages. This article advocates its resurgence to unify the church, purify the soul, sustain congregational health, mirror the divine family structure, and prepare believers for heaven.

Tracing the categorization of love, we owe it to the ancient Greeks who specified eight types.^[1]  Examples in our Bible show that four of them, in their holy modes, are generally God-endorsed: eros (erotic love), philia (friendly love), agape (unconditional, sacrificial love) and storge (family love).

The Jewish religion commendably added two other types: Love for God (recommended to permeate the believer’s entire being), and Love for neighbour (a selfless love that extends goodwill to neighbours). 

Christ, the Great Teacher, upheld the two Jewish additions with vigour, while adding yet two other vital ones:

1) Love for the enemy, not expressly required in the Old Testament (Matthew 5:43-44).

2) Philadelphia (brotherly love), found only among believers, being siblings in Christ (John 13:34).

We must note two essential points here:

a) The words “brother” and “brethren” are inclusive terms in New Testament language, describing all regenerated believers without gender connotations (Galatians 3:28).

b) In the English language, the phrase “brotherly love” classifies “brotherly” as an adjective describing how “love,” the noun, is. But in biblical Greek, the two words together form a noun, philadelphia. Thus, brotherly love is not a descriptive two-word phrase in Christianity, but just one word, philadelphia, the name of a divine love ordained by Christ to operate only within the circle of His followers! 

Christ clearly loved them (John 15:12), resolutely proceeding to lay down His life for them (John 15:13), thus loving them to the end (John 13:1). He demonstrated that philadelphia is stronger than earthly family ties (Matthew 12:46-50), even affirming to the Father that He (Christ), the Sanctifier, is one with those He has sanctified (Hebrews 2:9-12).

Following Christ’s example, the Apostles affirmed that philadelphia was indeed operating among early believers and counselled that it should continue: "Let brotherly love continue” (Hebrews 13:1, NKJV). Further urging believers to nurture it (Romans 12:10), they declared it a sublime love, taught to believers by God Himself (1 Thessalonians 4:9). Therefore, not to love fellow believers is to shun God and His personal teaching!

For vital, fruitful Christian growth to occur, the Disciples further held that philadelphia is to be added to other virtues (2 Peter 1:5-7), declaring that where it abounds, believers bond as one, filling them with compassion, respect and tenderheartedness (1 Peter 3:8).

The Apostles maintained that philadelphia, already well received among them, was now ingrained (1 John 3:23), meaning that it was now time-tested and collectively adopted (1 John 3:11). Several times, they admonished greeting one another with a holy kiss—a clean, affectionate peck on the cheek, typical in non-erotic relationships (Romans 16:16; 1 Corinthians 16:20; 2 Corinthians 13:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:26). 

Numerous times also, they addressed themselves with the “brother” appellation (Acts 9:17; Ephesians 6:21; Colossians 4:7; 2 Peter 3:14-15). They would even identify with dead saints by sometimes taking holy communion in the catacombs.[2] Again, at different times, history remembers them risking their lives for one another, demonstrating the depth of early Christian affection.

While we applaud the early believers for living out philadelphia through unity, shared suffering, holy greetings, etc., we are concerned that its deficiency today generates partiality, gossip, harsh corrections, absenteeism, arrogance, individualism, membership attrition, bickering, disharmony, etc., in our congregations. Without philadelphia to summarily obliterate these disorders, congregations drive towards “dry rooting,” a condition where:

Believers lacking Philadelphia, think they are progressing in their Christian walk when, spiritually speaking, they are dried-up trees. As long as they are in their church duty positions, they are unaware that their dry roots, barely covered in the soil, cannot hold up their trunk during rough spiritual times.[3]

By the authoritative testimony of Scripture, to love fellow believers confers three prized certifications which no earthly accomplishment can match:

1. Certificate of life (1 John 3:14)

2. Certificate of purified soul yielding to the truth (1 Peter 1:22)

3. Certificate of membership of Christ’s disciples (1 John 4:7)

Reckoning this love type anemic in the body of Christ today, this article issues a clarion call for its resurgence. May the Lord, in His strength, help revive and boost philadelphia among us. Amen.

This article is a synopsis of the book Philadelphia: A New Love Ordained by Christ by Julius Adagbon, published in April 2026 by WestBow Press, a Division of Thomas Nelson and Zondervan, Bloomington, Indiana, United States.