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To celebrate their 25th anniversary in 2010, one church in Chicago is giving sacrificially to meet the needs of people in their community. They are sending 25 adults back to college, rescuing 25 families out of foreclosure, and liberating the needy among them from $2.5 million of oppressive debt. According to today’s reading, these are examples of working out of God’s love.
John first establishes that the supreme revelation of love is Jesus Christ laying down His life for us (v. 16). God’s love in Christ is not simply something to admire. Before verse 16 ends, John says we ought also to imitate Christ by laying down our lives for our brothers and sisters. This month we have learned that we seek to live righteously because God is righteous; we fight for justice because God is just; and most fundamentally, we love because God first loved us, and our love ought to imitate God’s love (cf. 1 John 4:19).
Just as God’s love is revealed to us in the concrete sacrifice of Christ, so too God’s love in us is demonstrated in concrete ways. John offers one such example in verse 17. “Material possessions” refer to the “ordinary things of life,” as one Bible scholar explains. John’s message is not for the wealthy alone, but for any Christian who has enough to live on. The needy “brother” is arguably a fellow Christian, since family imagery is only used to describe the community of God in the New Testament. If you have sufficient provision in life and encounter a disadvantaged brother or sister, and your heart is unmoved by compassion and mercy, John challenges whether the reality of God’s love is in you.
The rhetorical question can be turned into a positive statement: If God’s love is truly in you, then you will be moved with pity when you see a fellow Christian in need. In light of verse 16, this “pity” is God’s love, and it will result in us laying down our lives for the needy brother or sister. Like God’s love in Christ, we will love sacrificially and abundantly.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Today’s passage teaches that God’s love in us ought to be active. One tangible expression is sacrificial giving to serve fellow Christians in need. A beautiful picture of this attitude is the early church described in Acts 2:42-47. Often our lives are too full or isolated to truly know the needs of our brothers and sisters. The application of this Word today begins with knowing people well enough to know their needs. If you already know someone’s need, ask God to guide you in ways to love them sacrificially.
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