THE EVIDENCE OF LOVE
© 2001 Mark Beaird
Text: 1 John 3:16-18
What is your picture of someone who is truly poor?
In Hollywood there is an exclusive school attended by children of movie stars, producers, and directors. Asked to write a composition on the subject of poverty, one little girl started her literary piece: "Once there was a poor little girl. Her father was poor, her mother was poor, her governess was poor, her chauffeur was poor, her butler was poor. In fact, everybody in the house was very, very poor.
--James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988), p. 371.
How prevalent would you say that is poverty in our world?
“If the world had 1,000 people, 600 would live in a shantytown.
--Development Innovations and Networks, Geneva, reported in Chicago Tribune, 1990. "To Verify," Leadership.
500 million children don’t get enough food to fully develop mentally and physically. There are 40,000 hunger-related deaths every day. -- World Bank. Leadership, "To Verify."
And yet the amount of money Americans spend annually on pet food adds up to $300 million. -- The Loose Change Newsletter (Nov.-Dec./95). Leadership, "To Verify."
Note the proposition of verse 17. If a person, who has something to give, sees another in need and does not help that person, it is doubtful, and even appears impossible, that the person who refuses to give has the love of God living in his heart. But let’s not stop there. The other implication is that if a person does have the love of God in his heart he will help. I believe that he will help because the love of God will speak to his heart. Note the reasons that the love of God motivates our hearts to action.
I. THE LOVE OF GOD SPEAKS TO US OF COMPASSION (v. 16).
A banker had just turned a man down for a loan, then made an unusual offer. He said to the man, "I have one good eye and one glass eye. If you can tell me which is which, I’ll approve your loan." The man looked for a moment, then said, "Your left eye is your good eye." The banker was surprised. "That’s right," he said. "How could you tell?" The man said, "I detected a hint of compassion in the other eye." (Streiker CD)
A. Christ set the standard for compassionate response to human need.
“This is how we know what love is….”
B. In every measure, the sacrifice of Christ was for us.
Jesus gained nothing by laying down his life for us.
C. True compassion needs no reward.
II. THE LOVE OF GOD SPEAKS TO US OF MERCY (v. 17).
A. The need of others provokes the love of God.
Some posses the love of God although they posses virtually nothing else.
“I once heard a touching story about a poor woman with two children who had no bed for them to sleep in and scarcely any clothes to cover them. In the depth of winter they were nearly frozen, and the mother took the door of a cellar off the hinges, and set it up before the corner where they crouched to sleep, that some of the draft and cold might be kept from them. One of the children whispered to her, when she complained, "Mother, what do those dear little children do who have no cellar door to put up in front of them?" Even there, you see, the little heart found cause for thankfulness.”
--Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Quotable Spurgeon, (Wheaton: Harold Shaw Publishers, Inc, 1990)
B. The absence of mercy is inconsistent with the love of God.
C. The love of God lives (dwells) in our heart to insure mercy.
III. THE LOVE OF GOD SPEAKS TO US OF RIGHTEOUSNESS (v. 18).
A. Words are not a sufficient substitute for taking action on behalf of others.
John writes, “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue…”
“A man fell into a pit and couldn’t get himself out. A Christian Scientist came along and said: "You only think that you are in a pit". A Pharisee said: "Only bad people fall into a pit." A Fundamentalist said: "You deserve your pit." A Charismatic said: "Just confess that you’re not in a pit." A Methodist came by and said, "We brought you some food and clothing while you’re in the pit." A Presbyterian said, "This was no accident, you know." An Optimist said: "Things could be worse." A pessimist said: "Things will get worse!" Jesus, seeing the man, took him by the hand and lifted him out of the pit.” (Streiker CD)
James asked the question, “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 2:15-16
B. The love of God demands right actions or righteousness from believers.
“…but with actions and in truth.”
“Love requires more than idle talk or exalted theology. It demands simple acts, which anyone can see, that meet the needs of brothers and sisters in distress.” Expositor’s Bible Commentary CD ROM
NOTE: “In the Old Testament the term righteousness is used to define man’s relationship with God (Ps. 50:6; Jer. 9:24) and with other people (Jer. 22:3). In the context of relationships, righteous action is action that promotes the peace and well-being of human beings in their relationships to one another.” (from Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary) (Copyright (C) 1986, Thomas Nelson Publishers)
CONCLUSION
In our prosperous country and neighborhoods we may not always see people who appear to live in true poverty. But as we look at our world, our global community, we can see an endless sea of desperately poor that need, not only food but also Jesus Christ.
It was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who said, “All life is interrelated. We are caught up in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one affects all indirectly. As long as there is poverty in this world, no man can be rich, even if he has a billion dollars. As long as disease is rampant and millions of people cannot expect to live longer than twenty or thirty years, no one can be healthy even if he just got a check up in the finest clinic in the nation.
Strangely enough, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the way the world is made. This is the interrelated structure of reality.
John Donne caught it years ago and put it in graphic terms. ‘No man is an island entire of itself—every man is a piece of the continent a part of the main.’ Then he goes on toward the end to say, ‘Any man’s death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind. Therefore, never send to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.’
This is the meaning of having a world perspective.”
This is also the evidence of true love.
References
Streiker, Lowell D. Stories for preachers and teachers CD. HeavenWord. 1999.
