2 Peter 1:7

Verse 7. And to your godliness, brotherly kindness.

Brotherly kindness is love of the brethren, love of the saints, members of Christ's body the Church. This love is active, showing itself in kind acts continually, without questioning and without hesitation, as to cost or labor.

And to brotherly kindness, charity.

Charity is something more over and beyond brotherly kindness, otherwise addition could not take place, and would here be broken off. We have but to remember that brotherly kindness is love to the brethren, and is thus confined, while the charity or love we are enjoined to add to it extends beyond these limits, and includes all men. The difficulty at once vanishes. The distinction is plain. Love for the brethren is the most natural, and therefore the easier of accomplishment. Love for all men includes our enemies. This is not so easy. Yet Peter only follows the injunction of the Master: "But I say unto you, Love your enemies" (Matthew 5:44). If I were permitted to express an idea of the difference in the love we have for the brethren and for the rest of the world, I would say the one was a love of delight, and the other simply that of good will. I am, however, uncertain as to whether this distinction exists or not. Taken as a whole, all these virtues present with the follower of Christ makes a well-rounded, complete and perfect Christian character. Possessing all these as God intended constitutes holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Of them Macknight observes: "This chain of virtues the apostle begins with faith, because it is the root from which they must all spring, and ends with love, because it is the point to which they all tend. Dr. Wessel, of Groningen, one of the reformers, observed on this passage that the Spirit of God by Peter established this the only bull of indulgence whereby an entrance into the kingdom of God is obtained." The remarks of Meyer may be of service, and are here given: "Although the different virtues here are not arranged according to definite logical order, yet the way in which they here belong to each other is not to be mistaken. Each of the virtues to be shown forth forms the complement of that which precedes, and thus gives rise to a firmly linked chain of thought."