1 John 3:17 --- 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?
Please be praying for Amanda's back and now my mom's back as well. Her back started hurting this week and got bad enough yesterday to take her to urgent care. I promise we aren't powerlifting things here at the Hall household.
After spending time talking with the Lord in prayer, we moved into the next verse of 1 John 3. Keep in mind this is linked to the verse before and the Lord put it on me in an interesting way.
The verse before (v16) says, "By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers." Take note that we're called to lay down our lives for our fellow brothers/sisters in Christ. It's a call to love so much we'd die for them.
Now look at today's verse and first take note of the "BUT" that starts this sentence off.
The word "BUT" is a conjunction and it is defined: used to introduce a phrase or clause contrasting with what has already been mentioned.
"English lessons at 4:43 AM, Phillip???"... Yes, and not sorry as it is quite important here!
So again, the verse right before this is about dying for your brothers/sisters, so the next verse begins the contrast by saying, "But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need…". Many will immediately jump directly to money, which is part of it yes, but here's where God led me into the Greek wording.
In Greek, the word for "goods" is "bios" and it means: Life; present state of existence, by implication, means of livelihood: goods, resources, wealth, life, living.
So, wrapped up in this little verse, where most people (myself included) instantly hear "MONEY" then move along quickly, the Lord showed me this is TO LIVE for your brothers/sisters in Christ. Yes, it's about having things of the world that a brother/sister needs and giving it to them but there are four things needed to accomplish that:
1) You must have the means or goods to do so.
2) You must know about their need.
3) You must be willing to put action behind your professed love.
4) To accomplish 1-3 you must be alive.
I saw a quote the other day and I can't find it now, but I'll do my best to get it right: "It's easy to die for those you love. It's a one-time sacrifice. But are you willing to live for them daily? To lead them daily in God's ways? To confront sin in their lives? To give up yourself to put them first daily? To sacrifice your time daily. To sacrifice your money daily. Are you willing to live every day for them?"
Okay so one final Greek thing to jump into really quick here. So how do we know what a brothers/sister's needs are? Most people don't usually advertise their weaknesses or lacks in the middle of church. You shake their hand and say, "How are you today?" and most auto respond, "I'm doing good.". So how can I know what Brother John Smith that always says "I'm good" needs?
You have to "SEE" the need. Okay, sure our eyes are open. We're looking but Brother John Smith is dressed okay, looks healthy, smells okay, he smiles, he says he's good… so I don't see the need. You'd be correct because most times our eyes see the surface and most times people curate their surface to meet your expectations, so you'll accept them. So, we have to go to the Greek word used here.
God and His word are so awesome! So, the Greek for "SEE" here is theōreō and means: to be a spectator, look at, behold.
Spectator: one who looks on or watches
Look: to make sure or take care; to ascertain by use of one's eyes
Behold: to gaze upon, observe
This means we must go beyond the handshake, hug and "I'm goods" while passing one another into the church building. This means I've got to live my life in a manner to cares and loves enough to go deeper than the "Facebook Christian" veneer that's layered over the outside.
There is so much more that could be dug into here but to summarize it all up. Don't be a Mr. Krabs (good old Spongebob reference!) and think it's all about money because this goes beyond your wallet.
Are you willing to answer God's call in v16 to die for your brothers/sisters in Christ?
Are you willing to live for them as well?
Are you willing to live for them in a manner that goes beyond a handshake and curated social media replies?
Are you willing to look beyond the surface, more like watching a sports game where your favorite team is behind by a few points and the final minutes are counting down?
If you stumble in your answer to these and please hear me when I say this, I have personally stumbled over these myself, but if you stump your toe on these questions, if they cause offense, if you don't know for sure then here is the final question God's word asks in this verse:
"…yet closes his heart against him (brothers/sisters in Christ), how does God's love abide in him?"
Just some longwinded, deep thoughts for a Saturday.
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