“Let mutual love continue” (Heb. 13:1).
The author of our second reading is taking something obvious for granted: that is, that the Christians he is writing to in fact know what “mutual love” is, and are actually practicing it! “Let mutual love continue” (Heb. 13:1): note the emphasis on “continue.” The Greek for “mutual love” is “philadelphia,” which most of us have heard of, not least of all because of the city in Pennsylvania, founded by William Pitt. What the word means, of course, is “brotherly love,” love in the fellowship that exists between the members of the Church. The author of Hebrews is counting on the fact that the people he is writing to are actually practicing mutual love.
The root of the word has a long pedigree. The ancient Greek philosophers talked quite a bit about the sort of love that characterizes friendship, the “philia” that makes for “philadelphia.” For these philosophers, true friendship was mutual, predicated on simple appreciation of the other and not by selfish motives of self-advancement. Friendship is a two-way street. True friendship was also organized around a common regard for what is good. We rely on our friends to “do the right thing” and to stand by us as we would stand by them.
All of this informs the Christian understanding of mutual love that we’re hearing about in our reading today. Again, it’s taken for granted: as St. Paul writes in the First Letter to the Thessalonians, “Now concerning love of the brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anyone write you…” (1 Thess. 4:9). According to the Apostle, they already know about it and are practicing it. “Love one another with mutual affection” (Rom. 12:10), he writes in Romans. Mutual love had already jumped the rail from the classical world and was now part and parcel of Christian community life. It was something they were to “continue” in.
Our reading has some other things to say about community life, and the mutual love with which our writer began is the organizing principle for the rest of it. “Hospitality for strangers” (Heb. 13:1) actually has the same root word “love” at its heart: love for the stranger, the traveler, the alien in their midst. “Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them” (Heb. 13:3): possibly a reference to Christians who sat at the gates of the prison, “bound together” in service to the incarcerated. The writer then brings us back to the bond of matrimony, “Let marriage be held in honor by all” (Heb. 13:4): a primal commitment in the household of faith. All examples of “mutual love”: of enduring commitment to a common truth, and of faithful friendship in the Body of Christ.
Though Christianity didn’t invent the idea of mutual love, it did revolutionize it. This happened from the top, as Jesus himself claimed the concept. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father” (Jo. 15:12-15). To love one another is the definition of mutual love, which goes both ways. Jesus is changing the basis of mutual love by re-founding it on the love of God.
Here, by calling the disciples his friends, Jesus is laying a different foundation. “Love one another,” or mutual love, hangs on Jesus’ love of the fellowship. Jesus is raising the stakes on friendship. He’s loved us, and so we ought to love one another, as Jesus says earlier in the Gospel. Mutual love is the distinguishing mark of the Christian community. “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jo. 13:34). We are able to be friends because God has befriended us.
Today a member of the Church will promise “to continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in the prayers.” We, like the Christians in our reading, are taking for granted that the Christian life exists, and that it has not only a definite form but also a visible sign, in the fellowship of the Church. We’re grateful to our candidate for being willing to step into the spotlight and to inspire us by the renewal of this vow. We all have the opportunity to join in this recommitment to continue in this life, at St. James’ Church and at Calvary Church. “Let mutual love continue” (Heb. 13:1), as our writer says, as we seek to be friends to each other in Christ.
