What does it mean to be a brother’s keeper
It simply means to feel responsible for the well being of your brethren
The original use that has become famous is Cain’s reply when God asks where his brother Abel is. His answer means that he does not feel responsible for knowing his brother’s whereabouts, or by extension, keeping him safe which is against what God requires of us because God wants us to be our brother’s keeper.
Each of us is responsible for our own actions. Accountable to God and accountable to each other. We are also responsible for the well-being of our neighbour. Too frequently we focus on individual freedom while forgetting that God also created us to live together in mutual support as family, as children of God just as David pointed out in Psalms 133 vs 1 (Look how good and how pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity)
The Bible has affected the course of history for many centuries.
That’s because there are so many truisms and universally accepted “best practices” about the human condition displayed in the characters and tales. For instance, Treat others as you would have them treat you. A man cannot serve two masters. All things work together for good. Thou shalt not kill.
So we can learn a great deal from Scripture about how best to live or what to expect out of life if we try to live the right way.
This leads to an important question asked in the Bible and probably one of the most important questions ever asked. It is found in the Book of Genesis, Chapter 4, verses 8-10.
Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out in the field.” When they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Then the LORD asked Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” He answered, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” God then said: “What have you done? Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground!”
“Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Isn’t that the question upon which all of Scripture is based? Isn’t that a question our parents and, indeed, all of the authorities in society try to pose while trying to teach us how to live civilly and responsibly from the time we are very young?
It’s our job to keep an eye on everyone, not with suspicion but with awareness. If someone is hurt, we should stop and try to figure out how to treat their pain. If someone is hungry or poor or ill or tired or cold, we should ease them.
As a Christian, being my “brother’s keeper” is an edict that goes beyond just helping ease pain or difficulty. We aren’t called simply to be there for the downtrodden but instead have to be present even to those who seem to be doing all right.
It’s not a matter of just lifting someone from the “gutter” to level ground. Being my brother’s keeper – helping him to enter heaven – can have much to do with building someone up from level ground to something even greater.
Being my brother’s keeper is further illustrated in Romans, Chapter 14, verses 12-13 and 17-19:
So each of us shall give an account of himself [to God]. Then let us no longer judge one another, but rather resolve never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of food and drink, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy Spirit; whoever serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by others. Let us then pursue what leads to peace and to building up one another.
Someday we will come face to face with God. And when we do, God will challenge us with, I believe, this question: Did you love my Son, Jesus?
Maybe you don’t think the question will be posed in quite that way. Okay, perhaps the questions will come in different forms, some of those other “best practice” questions from the Bible: Did you feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and imprisoned? Did you ease anyone’s suffering?
Did you put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of other people? Did you pursue peace and build up other people instead of making life more difficult for them? Did you make the world a better place? Did you do what was right?
How would you answer those questions?
And to your answers, God may reply:
But, my child, you were supposed to be your brother’s keeper.
When God asked Cain about his brother Abel’s whereabouts, Cain answered, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” This did not go well for Cain. And we should not expect our refusal to be our brother’s or sister’s keeper to go well for us, either.
Jesus himself said that whatever we do to the needy, the helpless, the oppressed, and the marginalized we do to him. We are our sibling’s keeper.
Our own well-being is bound forever to the well-being of everyone. That’s what it means to love our neighbour as our self.
Each of us is responsible for our own choices and actions. And we are also our brother’s and sister’s keeper.
God calls us to a way of life exemplified by Him and His Son, Jesus of Nazareth. “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man, someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:7-8).
You and I can come to understand and apply the kind of love and sacrifice Jesus made for all humanity. The Bible describes it as being our brother’s keeper, one who unfailingly “keeps” his brother or sister. Such constancy is more than an immediate and unplanned sacrifice for others, commendable as that is. To be your brother’s keeper means to consider your neighbour’s needs at all times, whether he is present or not.
A brother’s keeper is one who understands Godly love as expressed in Christ’s sacrifice (John 3:16-17). That kind of love is embodied in the final words of Jesus as He hung dying on the stake: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34). This is what Jesus asked of the Father for His murderers.
This kind of love for others is not a part-time job but a way of life. It follows the example of the Good Samaritan at all times. Ultimately the way of life God desires for us is to bear one another’s burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ and the bible goes further to tell us in Colossians 3 vs 9 “Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds.
Also the bible tells us in Romans 12 vs 10 to be devoted to one another in brotherly love, giving preference to one another in honour and finally 1st Peter 3 vs 8 says “All of you must live in harmony, be sympathetic, love as brothers and be compassionate and humble.