In defining brotherly love, there is a subtle and dangerous snare which must not be overlooked. Love can be a vice as well as a virtue. This is not so well appreciated today among Christians who think that love is always a virtue. Accordingly they love wrongdoers as though they did no wrong. They love false teachers as though they taught no wrong. Among ecumenists, falsehood is loved as much as truth; the pope as much as the Bible, and ‘works’ as much as ‘grace’! Whether love is a vice or a virtue depends on the quality or morality of the object loved. If we love things which are wrong, then love is a vice.
It would be right to long for the restoration of the offender. It would be right to feel deep concern for that person, and to pray for his deliverance and return to righteousness. But it would be a vice if we continued to love in full, unreserved, joyful and cordial manner, as though nothing had gone wrong, and no sin was being committed. Such love would become a cloak and concealment for sin. Our love for the offender must take a different form. We will love what he was, and what he will be, as the L:ord hears our prayers. We cannot rejoice at what he is at the present, or what he does to God and the Lord’s family. This is, after all, brotherly and family love.