How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?” vs. 17
1 John 3:16-19
A couple of weeks ago, on Easter Day, we celebrated the sacrificial love of God with hymns of thanksgiving and praise. For John this is the only true love, and in imitation of God, John teaches that believers will gladly lay down their lives for one another. This is a teaching that comes straight from Jesus, and one that we regularly affirm. But John goes on to ask a troubling question, one that the majority of Christians would rather not answer, “How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?” Our resistance arises out of our deep and abiding love for the world’s goods, and through the years we’ve invented a multitude of excuses to ignore what John pointedly suggests. It isn’t that we’re unaware of people in need! We know perfectly well that starvation and hunger are ravaging populations all over the world, and even in our own communities. We know this, and are still able to rationalize our decision to continue our self-serving mission of accumulation. If John is right, this means that oftentimes our piety is only skin deep, and God’s love is not in us. We may not like it that God’s love is revealed by our deeds, but there really isn’t any other way!
Thought for the Day: Why do I refuse to help the needy?
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