What love is
This week is on 1 John 3:16-18:
These are heavy verses. Think of them as a job description: "Applicant may be required to surrender every possession and every cent they have to the company, if asked." Is that a job you'd apply for? Would you sign a contract that stipulated those things? And yet John is telling us what serious love looks like, the love we are urged to have for our fellow Christians.
Why don't we see this in the modern church? If a poor family needs a car to get to work, are people taking up a collection among themselves to buy them a car and pay its maintenance? Are people taking shifts to drive them to and from work until they can get back on their feet? Is the family with two cars lending them one? How can the love of God be in us if our actions don't show it?
Jesus went even further. He laid down his life. He gave his life up, and all of his possessions, in order to give us what we couldn't afford on our own. If we're still drawing breath, we still haven't matched the level Jesus modeled for us. Even if we give up everything, like some of the famous saints did, we still haven't sacrificed as much as them, as we still can draw welfare, medicare, food stamps, etc. And yet we don't offer up much of anything. Where is our love?
When John is talking about pity, he isn't just talking about the emotion. He's talking about action. What good does it do if you see someone who needs help and feel sorry for them? Can they eat your emotions? Can they pay their rent with your emotions? If they don't result in action, how valuable could they be? Loving someone with words or "thoughts" isn't the same as loving them in practice.
Love is willing to give something up to pay another's bills. That's the cross in a nutshell. Are we willing to feel a bit of pain so that someone who probably doesn't deserve it can have a break from their suffering? I don't think a lot of us are. My experience is that I'm not. At least not yet.
I don't know anyone personally who does this perfectly, but I know people who do a pretty good job of it. If we're not doing as well as we'd like, maybe we just don't love each other as much as we should. Pray for more compassion and pity on others less fortunate than us.
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 and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
These are heavy verses. Think of them as a job description: "Applicant may be required to surrender every possession and every cent they have to the company, if asked." Is that a job you'd apply for? Would you sign a contract that stipulated those things? And yet John is telling us what serious love looks like, the love we are urged to have for our fellow Christians.
Why don't we see this in the modern church? If a poor family needs a car to get to work, are people taking up a collection among themselves to buy them a car and pay its maintenance? Are people taking shifts to drive them to and from work until they can get back on their feet? Is the family with two cars lending them one? How can the love of God be in us if our actions don't show it?
Jesus went even further. He laid down his life. He gave his life up, and all of his possessions, in order to give us what we couldn't afford on our own. If we're still drawing breath, we still haven't matched the level Jesus modeled for us. Even if we give up everything, like some of the famous saints did, we still haven't sacrificed as much as them, as we still can draw welfare, medicare, food stamps, etc. And yet we don't offer up much of anything. Where is our love?
When John is talking about pity, he isn't just talking about the emotion. He's talking about action. What good does it do if you see someone who needs help and feel sorry for them? Can they eat your emotions? Can they pay their rent with your emotions? If they don't result in action, how valuable could they be? Loving someone with words or "thoughts" isn't the same as loving them in practice.
Love is willing to give something up to pay another's bills. That's the cross in a nutshell. Are we willing to feel a bit of pain so that someone who probably doesn't deserve it can have a break from their suffering? I don't think a lot of us are. My experience is that I'm not. At least not yet.
I don't know anyone personally who does this perfectly, but I know people who do a pretty good job of it. If we're not doing as well as we'd like, maybe we just don't love each other as much as we should. Pray for more compassion and pity on others less fortunate than us.
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