Many see the difference between neighbourly love and brotherly love in the restricted object of the latter. Consequently, the latter is seen as a deficient form of the former. This view depends upon the classification of both concepts into the same category. However, this classification is wrong. Attitudes are dispositions to act, and they have the mode of possibility. Therefore, attitudes can become the content of commandments. But, love can also be understood as a real relationship constituting the identity of the relata. In this case, love is not a possibility but a fact. Consequently, it cannot be commanded. The effect of God's reconciling work is the constitution of two real relationships: filial love between God and the believers, and brotherly love among the believers. Both are identity-constitutive. Therefore, the believers cannot love the sinful world in the same identity-constitutive way. Love as a real relationship always needs three relata: Lover, beloved and co-loved as a shared project. The shared project of filial love and brotherly love is the believer's attitude of neighbourly love towards the sinful world. Therefore, brotherly love encloses neighbourly love without being a deficient form of it. This whole framework of different kinds of love has the condition of its possibility in the intra-trinitarian love between Father, Son and Spirit. Copyright © 2004 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG.