There is no need to give you a solution in this article or instruct you on how to resolve the issue. That’s not my aim. You’ll see that soon enough. Rather, I want you to check your spiritual pulse and see where sibling rivalry might exist in your heart. You and I need to come to terms with and recognize sin that might be present.

If we’re honest, there are times where we meet a brother or sister in Christ and don’t feel like being a brother or sister in Christ to them. Sometimes the feeling is subtle and subversive–so subtle that we almost deny the feeling; yet we’ve allowed ourselves to be rubbed the wrong way by that person. It might be that they are more successful, attractive, intelligent, or just flat out better than you at everything they do. It could be that they accomplished all of this while displaying sinful characteristics in the process. We see sin in them more than we see the same in our self (Matthew 7:3) . Maybe they took something that we believed should’ve been ours. Perhaps it was a promotion or award at work. You know that they follow Christ, but boy, you wish they didn’t so that you wouldn’t feel so bad about giving them an earful.

Before you respond to this introduction with, “Moi? No. It could never be!” Think about this. Sibling rivalry is an age-old issue. It began with Cain and Abel, continued with Jacob and Esau, presented itself with Joseph and his brothers, David and his brothers, and is notable in the parable of the two lost sons in Luke 15:11-32. God would not have given us all this narrative about sibling rivalry if we didn’t  face the danger and reality of it in our own lives. I’m not just talking about rivalry between flesh and blood siblings. I’m talking about rivalry between spiritual siblings too. Like every other sin, this sin crouches at our door. Do you see it there?

There is no need to give you a solution in this article or instruct you on how to resolve the issue. That’s not my aim. You’ll see that soon enough. Rather, I want you to check your spiritual pulse and see where sibling rivalry might exist in your heart. You and I need to come to terms with and recognize sin that might be present.

In order to accomplish this, let’s consider four signs of sibling rivalry in Luke 15:25-32. These signs are signaled from the life of the older brother in this parable of two lost sons. I know that many refer to this as the parable of the prodigal son, but as you will discover, herein is the story of two sons who are lost.

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