The Prodigal Son's Brother

We are all familiar with the story of the Prodigal Son. How about the brother of the Prodigal Son? I recently heard a teaching by Pastor Benny Ho about this.

"Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 'Your brother has come,' he replied, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.'

"The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!'

" 'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' "
Luke 15:25-32

The younger brother did not hesitate to use up all his rights as a son - v12.'Father, give me my share of the estate.' But he did not have the right character and squandered all of it.

The older brother had good character and served his father wholeheartedly. Yet he never quite knew his position as a son. He said, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders.' He behaved like a servant rather than a son. Yet his father had always treated him as his son - 'My son... everything I have is yours.'

Indeed sometimes I find myself to be like the older brother, serving and serving but not from the position of a son, but a servant.

Are you like the older brother sometimes? As Pastor Khong has taught from Ephesians, are we seated with Christ, knowing our position as children of God? Are we living victoriously knowing our blessings and using our giftings as God's children? Are our lives living miracles, or are we living without the powerful reality of God in our lives?

Yearn for more.

"I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you." John 15:15

Hallelujah! We are friends of God.


Haw Ling