And to godliness brotherly kindness - Love to Christians as such. See the John 13:34 note; Hebrews 13:1 note.

And to brotherly kindness charity - Love to all mankind. There is to be a special affection for Christians as of the same family; there is to be a true and warm love, however, for all the race. See the notes at 1 Corinthians 13.

Brotherly kindness - Φιλαδελφιαν· Love of the brotherhood - the strongest attachment to Christ's flock; feeling each as a member of your own body.

Charity - Αγαπην· Love to the whole human race, even to your persecutors: love to God and the brethren they had; love to all mankind they must also have. True religion is neither selfish nor insulated; where the love of God is, bigotry cannot exist. Narrow, selfish people, and people of a party, who scarcely have any hope of the salvation of those who do not believe as they believe, and who do not follow with them, have scarcely any religion, though in their own apprehension none is so truly orthodox or religious as themselves.

After αγαπην, love, one MS. adds these words, εν δε τη αγαπῃ την παρακλησιν, and to this love consolation; but this is an idle and useless addition.

Without which, godliness, or external worship, or a profession of religion, is a vain show; for this is both the evidence of regeneration, and of the truth and power of real godliness; and also the beauty, comfort, and security of Christian society and worship, and without which they cannot be maintained with peace, profit, and honour:

and to brotherly kindness, charity: or "love"; that is, to all men, enemies, as well as to the household of faith; and to God and Christ, to his house, worship, ordinances, people and truths. Charity is more extensive in its objects and acts than brotherly kindness or love. As faith leads the van, charity brings up the rear, and is the greatest of all.

And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

1:7 And to godliness brotherly kindness. An active good will toward the saints.

And to brotherly kindness charity. The heart element which gives brotherly kindness its power and sweetness.

1:7 And to godliness brotherly kindness - No sullenness, sternness, moroseness: sour godliness, so called, is of the devil. Of Christian godliness it may always be said, Mild, sweet, serene, and tender is her mood, Nor grave with sternness, nor with lightness free: Against example resolutely good, Fervent in zeal, and warm in charity. And to brotherly kindness love - The pure and perfect love of God and of all mankind. The apostle here makes an advance upon the preceding article, brotherly kindness, which seems only to relate to the love of Christians toward one another.

7. "And in your godliness brotherly kindness"; not suffering your godliness to be moroseness, nor a sullen solitary habit of life, but kind, generous, and courteous [Alford]. Your natural affection and brotherly kindness are to be sanctified by godliness. "And in your brotherly kindness love," namely, to all men, even to enemies, in thought, word, and deed. From brotherly kindness we are to go forward to love. Compare 1Th 3:12, "Love one toward another (brotherly kindness), and toward all men (charity)." So charity completes the choir of graces in Col 3:14. In a retrograde order, he who has love will exercise brotherly kindness; he who has brotherly kindness will feel godliness needful; the godly will mix nothing stoical with his patience; to the patient, temperance is easy; the temperate weighs things well, and so has knowledge; knowledge guards against sudden impulse carrying away its virtue [Bengel].

1:1-11 Faith unites the weak believer to Christ, as really as it does the strong one, and purifies the heart of one as truly as of another; and every sincere believer is by his faith justified in the sight of God. Faith worketh godliness, and produces effects which no other grace in the soul can do. In Christ all fulness dwells, and pardon, peace, grace, and knowledge, and new principles, are thus given through the Holy Spirit. The promises to those who are partakers of a Divine nature, will cause us to inquire whether we are really renewed in the spirit of our minds; let us turn all these promises into prayers for the transforming and purifying grace of the Holy Spirit. The believer must add knowledge to his virtue, increasing acquaintance with the whole truth and will of God. We must add temperance to knowledge; moderation about worldly things; and add to temperance, patience, or cheerful submission to the will of God. Tribulation worketh patience, whereby we bear all calamities and crosses with silence and submission. To patience we must add godliness: this includes the holy affections and dispositions found in the true worshipper of God; with tender affection to all fellow Christians, who are children of the same Father, servants of the same Master, members of the same family, travellers to the same country, heirs of the same inheritance. Wherefore let Christians labour to attain assurance of their calling, and of their election, by believing and well-doing; and thus carefully to endeavour, is a firm argument of the grace and mercy of God, upholding them so that they shall not utterly fall. Those who are diligent in the work of religion, shall have a triumphant entrance into that everlasting kingdom where Christ reigns, and they shall reign with him for ever and ever; and it is in the practice of every good work that we are to expect entrance to heaven.