Love in Action

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER OF JOHN

LOVE IN ACTION

1 John 3:16-20

16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20 whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

NIV

This is something that we may not practice as much as we should. Of course, we give to various causes from time to time, but it is doubtful that we even see someone who has a need such as John is talking about here. Usually, we tend to hang around people of the same social-economic position as our own. Our culture may have tainted us when we see someone standing on the street corner, or at an entrance to someplace with a sign saying they need help. So that question is as to how we can help someone in need unless we go out and look for someone who has a material need that we can meet. As a church, we do bring material items for several ministries who meet the needs of others. Does that count? Is that laying down our lives for our brothers? It would seem doubtful that giving from our abundance counts as laying down our lives. Even as a church it would seem there is a greater need to have a reserve of resources then to meet the needs of our brothers in need. John is telling us that it might be nice to say that we love each other, but the proof of that is in our actions toward our brother. How are we to put our hearts at rest when we know of a need that is not being met and we are not doing anything about it? Again, it might be easy enough as a church to offer a small amount of a gift to those in need, but is that the meaning here that John is declaring? Does this apply to us as a church or is this supposed to apply to us as individuals? Again, bringing a case of water, or rolls of paper towels to support a ministry is not what John is speaking to. This has to be a personal thing, giving to a brother in need. Again, we have to have a brother in need and that would require knowledge of the need. How can we know of the need unless we see it? It looks like that would mean we need to be living a little more of our lives together than we do. Sometimes it seems we live a little more isolated from each other than we should. Maybe we need to be more open if we have a need, so our brothers can have pity on us, or we can have pity on them. Maybe we need to be less critical of those on the street corner and just give anyway, all the time, whenever we see them. Maybe they are really in need, maybe they are scamming, but who are we to decide. They may truly have a need and we have just passed them by, staying safe and secure in our car and our wallet. Maybe it is just time we give whenever we see a brother in need. That would be love in action.