Reassured (5)

At least three things have to happen before we can give love away – before we can lay down our lives to seek to walk like Jesus walked.

We have to open our eyes. v. 17a

Do you see the needs around you or do you look the other way?

But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need…
I John 3:17a (ESV)

Are you seeing the needs around you?

One need I see is for clean drinking water in the world. We care about clean water because we love people – our neighbors, our grandkids, our friends in other parts of the world. If people drink bad water they can get dysentery and die. And if they don’t know Christ, an eternity without Him awaits them. Let’s fix that if we can.

What are the needs you see around you? What makes you pound the table? What brings tears to your eyes?

We ha ve to open our hearts. v. 17b

Look at how verse 17 ends.

But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?
I John 3:17 (ESV)

The implication is simple. We can see the need and close our hearts. How many times have you done that? How many times have I?

We have to open our hands. v. 17c

We have to guard ourselves against the temptation to be superficial with our love.

Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
I John 3:18 (ESV)

Don’t just talk about love. Show it!

Love for the needy is so basic to our faith that people who don’t love this way are to be considered as true followers of Jesus. In Matthew 25, Jesus says, “Feed the hungry; satisfy the thirsty; welcome the stranger; cloth the naked; help the sick; and visit the prisoner.” In fact, He says that if we don’t do these things, then we’re turning out backs on Christ Himself.

We can’t say, “I’m not doing anything to hurt the needy.” No. We have to be actively be doing something to help them.

You might be thinking, “Come on. We can’t eliminate poverty! What good can my little bit do?” Jesus did say that the poor would always be with us (Mark 14:7). Should we give up? No. One relief organization poster asked a question, “How can you help a billion hungry people?” The answer? One at a time.

Just because I can’t take care of all the world’s poor doesn’t mean I can’t begin to helping one, then two, then five, ten and so on. Randy Alcorn says, “The logic that says, “I can’t do everything, so I won’t do anything” is from the pit of hell.”

Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
I John 3:18 (ESV)

Every church and follower of Christ has to ask, “What are we doing to feed the hungry and help the poor? What are we doing to secure justice for the poor? What are we doing to uphold the cause of the needy?”

What you do – how you love – isn’t what makes you a child of God. Being a child of God – being born of God – is what makes you love.

Most of us talk better than we walk. We talk about the poor but we haven’t seen a poor person in months. We talk about the homeless but we cross the street to avoid them. We talk about third world countries but we’ve never been. We talk about sacrificial giving but we don’t even give to the church.

We’re good at loving in word or talk. We say the right things we talk about the issues that really matter but when it comes to doing something about it - we don’t love very well. We let those in need continue in need while we keep trying to raise our standard of living instead of our standard of giving.

Our young adult pastor, Andy Sikora asks, "Are you laying down your life? Or does the way you live cost someone else? Has God supplied for your needs? Do you know anyone who could use some of what you have? How can you give some of that away?"

When it comes to love, those who get it give it.

There’s a big part of my heart in Alabama in that hospital with my wife and her sister. We wonder what’s next. But our hearts are reassured because the evidence is strong that Kay, Maryanne's gravely ill sister, got it and has given it. Love.

How about you?