| SEPTEMBER 1, 2026 -- Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he [lied and] said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper? Genesis 4:9
Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. I John 4:20-21
When Cain was asked about the whereabouts of his brother he tried to deny knowledge and asked the now-famous rhetorical question “Am I my brother’s keeper”. Much of the rest of Holy Scripture answers this question with the unequivocal answer: “Yes, you are your brother’s keeper”, and also lays out the fact that each and every one of us is responsible for all of the rest of humanity. We are all, by God’s plan and will, a mutual help society. Remember that we were given two great commandments, and the second one is “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”. Anyone with whom you have contact is in a sense your “neighbor”. The Bible teaches us that every human being is made in the image of God and shares a common ancestry. Thus all men and women are brothers and sisters, as children of God.
If you are uncomfortable with the phrasing “universal brotherhood of man” perhaps the phrase “universal neighborhood of humanity” might be easier to understand and to accept. Our neighbors in this sense include all people regardless of how we classify them, whatever categories we create, for indeed categories of race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, and so forth are only man-made categories. God does not make, nor does he recognize these divisions.
As members of the Patrons of Husbandry, we are instructed in our Grange ritual to look out for the welfare of our grange brothers and sisters. We are told to promote the welfare of our country and of mankind, to feed the hungry, and help the fatherless and the widows. In the third degree we are instructed that we should all be helpers of one another, for we are all brethren. And the final charge in the third degree is “dispense Charity, the flowers of brotherly love, as freely as Nature spreads her flowers carpet over all the earth. And let your Charity extend to all humanity.”
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