Answer: We should be devoted to one another in brotherly love, honoring one another above ourselves, (verse 10).
MORE INFORMATION AND/OR OTHER SCRIPTURE REFERENCES:
"Be devoted to one another in brotherly love" is also translated "In love of the brethren be tenderly affectioned one to another" or "Be kindly affectioned one to another in brotherly love."
"Be devoted" ("be tenderly affectioned" and "be kindly affectioned") is a Greek adjective, philostorgos, found only here in the New Testament. The first part, philos, means "beloved." The second is from the noun storge, meaning "family affection," (as in the mutual love of parents and children). One translator writes: "The word here represents Christians as bound by a family tie."
"Brotherly love" is one word in the Greek, philadelphia. It is made up of two Greek words: phileo, meaning "to love," and adelphos, meaning "fond of one's brethren." The inference from the Greek is that we should possess a brotherly relation, and so, we are a community possessed of this relation--a brotherhood.
Psalm 133:1: "How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!"
1 Thessalonians 4:9-10: "Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. And in fact, you do love all the brothers throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers, to do so more and more."
Hebrews 13:1: "Keep on loving each other as brothers."
1 Peter 1:22: "Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the Truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart."
"Honor one another above yourselves." This is also translated, "in honor preferring one another." The Greek verb for "preferring" is proegeomai. It literally means, "go before as a leader" to show the way. The ancient versions (Old Latin, Vulgate, Syriac, Armenian) take this passage as meaning "try to outdo one another in showing respect." The RSV translates this as "outdo one another in showing honor." Another translator put it this way: "leading the way in showing the honor that is due."
Again, from Jim McGuiggan's commentary on The Book of Romans:
When it comes to bestowing honor, we are to take the lead (the meaning of the Greek word for "preferring"). But the meaning is also to encourage us to regard the other as more important than ourselves. Philippians 2:3-4:
"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others."
When you meet someone who lives this way, you remember him. Such people are a rare breed. Self-proclamation is a common thing. Self-importance is an often-seen spectacle. "Pride," said Albert Barnes somewhere, "is shoddy goods priced too high."
