[Intro - punchy drum hit, vocal in mid-thought, bitten]
We say it like a creed,
"We love the brethren,"
But the word keeps shrinking down,
Watch it, watch it narrow.

[Verse 1 - long-line, rapid-fire, hard-bitten]
At first it meant the brethren, every soul that Christ has bought,
A whole and gathered family from every kind of hall,
But we started drawing tighter, and we drew it tight as wire,
And brethren came to mean the ones who held what we held still.

[Pre-Chorus - tension building, organ snarling, the narrowing]
Then it meant the ones who got grace right,
Then the ones who got grace right our way,
Then the ones who used our exact words,
Then the ones who shared our every suspicion,
Then the ones who would not even ask a question.

[Chorus - drums crack, electrics hard, anthem opens]
Loving the brethren! Loving the brethren!
The word has gotten smaller every year.
Loving the brethren! Loving the brethren!
Just loving our reflection in the mirror.
Even publicans love who looks like them,
That's what the Lord said to the men.
Loving the brethren got real small, real small,
Loving the brethren got real small.

[Verse 2 - sharper, harder, the boundary policing]
Let a man drop one wrong word and watch our faces freeze,
Let him hold one thing we don't and feel the air go ice,
He might disturb the little kingdom we have built around our talk,
Where everyone repeats the same and no one breaks the lock.

[Pre-Chorus - the narrowing tightens]
Then it meant the ones who got grace right our way,
Then the ones who matched our every emphasis,
Then the ones who shared our every suspicion,
Then the ones who never disagreed at all,
Then the ones who looked exactly like our wall.

[Chorus]
Loving the brethren! Loving the brethren!
The word has gotten smaller every year.
Loving the brethren! Loving the brethren!
Just loving our reflection in the mirror.
Even publicans love who looks like them,
That's what the Lord said to the men.
Loving the brethren got real small, real small,
Loving the brethren got real small.

[Bridge - sparse, drums dropping, vocal closer, raw self-implication]
And listen, I have done it. Hand to God, I have.
I have shut a brother out because his words weren't mine.
I called it standing on the truth, I called it being faithful.
I was loving my reflection, and I was calling it divine.
What is so heavenly about loving who looks like me?
What is so heavenly about loving who uses my words?
The publicans love who looks like them. The gentiles love their own.
And Christ has loved me wider, wider, wider than my own.

[Final Chorus - drums crash back, snarling stacks]
Loving the brethren! Loving the brethren!
The word was always wider, wider, wider.
Loving the brethren! Loving the brethren!
Wider than the language and the mirror.
Christ loves the brethren wider than the camp,
Christ loves the brethren wider than the camp,
Let our loving be that big, that big, that big,
Let our loving be that big again.

[Outro - snarling stacks, fading]
Loving the brethren,
Loving the brethren,
But who are the brethren?
But who are the brethren?
Wider than the language,
Wider than the mirror,
Wider than the camp,
Loving the brethren.