Focus: Verse 17
King James Bible
But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
New International Version
If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?
New Living Translation
If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person?
Salvation through Good Works
A conflict I have been waging with what I know to be true and what I have been told is true by many is directly addressed in this chapter. I take comfort in assuming the role of one of the little children, because I literally and figuratively am a child, in mind, if not in body. One thing I take from this chapter is that I always will be that child, naive in the eyes of God, as he would want me to be. All of us.
In Luke 18:15-17, when the disciples tried to run interference and shoo the children away from Jesus, they thought they were protecting his time for "important" adult matters. Jesus stopped them cold and invited the children in, delivering a hard truth to every self-important adult in the room: anyone who refuses to receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it. That moment strips away every illusion of spiritual self-sufficiency." In that moment, he is reminding us that we can only truly understand God's love by perceiving it through the innocence of a child's perspective. For a prideful adult man, surrendering our ego to the Lord is a struggle. Arrogance is the human condition.
To speak to my internal battle, though, I return to the lesson here: that we, as children of God, experience His grace through surrender. Some people say that grace is the conclusion of our contract with Him. I see it a little differently. In my mind, that is the conclusion of His contract with us.
Consider three scenarios of childhood:
In the first, the child has a list of chores that he is expected to complete strictly in return for an allowance.
In the second, the child sees his father's labor provide shelter, safety, and sustenance. The child loves his father for doing what is necessary for the family's survival. The child simply understands that love, and thrives in it. He does his chores, not to earn an allowance, but to return his father's love—in service of his own gratitude.
The third, far too often suffered, is the child who pays no attention to his father's efforts, takes no role in helping to keep the household, and expects his allowance despite his own sloth.
Which of these children is likely to grow up to be an honorable man?
I've never had a father until now, and I struggle every day to do enough to return His love—because I want to, and I feel like hell if I fail to reflect what He gives me simply because He loves me. He gave me life. I don't have to give it back to Him, but I want to.
Version Study & Takeaway
The Linguistic Trap
Here we have a linguistic isotope. With each passing generation and each new, "easier-to-read" translation, the message is diluted. In that decay, we find the ultimate irony: as the perceived radiation lessens, the spiritual danger increases.
John wasn't simply talking about liquid wealth or surplus material possessions; he used the word bios—earthly life, livelihood, and the tangible means to sustain a brother. If I find a man who has fallen from his wheelchair lying in the road before me, am I supposed to toss him a tenner and keep walking? Would doing so qualify as loving my brother?
On the other hand, if I offer him my hand, lift him from the road, and set him back into his chair, that action costs no currency. Yet it costs something far harder to surrender: my time, my pride, and my convenience. In that active obedience, the love of God actually lives.
The Takeaway:
If the owner's manual teaches me what pleases my Father, and if I can afford to give Him what pleases Him, and I choose not to, how can I claim to love Him? Addiction is a difficult bone to break for many. If you believe it won't matter to anyone if you break that addiction, there is no incentive to endure the pain of looking yourself in a clean mirror. If you have a Father to suffer the pain of reality for and with, it may become a whole lot easier.
--BSB
Children of God
3 Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.
2 Beloved, we are now children of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when Christ appears, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is.
3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as Christ is pure.
4 Everyone who practices sin practices lawlessness as well. Indeed, sin is lawlessness.
5 But you know that Christ appeared to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin.
6 No one who remains in Him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has seen Him or known Him.
7 Little children, let no one deceive you: The one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as Christ is righteous.
8 The one who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the very start. This is why the Son of God was revealed, to destroy the works of the devil.
9 Anyone born of God refuses to practice sin, because God’s seed abides in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.
10 By this the children of God are distinguished from the children of the devil: Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
11 This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another.
12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did Cain slay him? Because his own deeds were evil, while those of his brother were righteous.
13 So do not be surprised, brothers, if the world hates you.
14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death.
15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that eternal life does not reside in a murderer.
16 By this we know what love is: Jesus laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.
17 If anyone with earthly possessions sees his brother in need, but withholds his compassion from him, how can the love of God abide in him?
18 Little children, let us love not in word and speech, but in action and truth.
19 And by this we will know that we belong to the truth, and will assure our hearts in His presence:
20 Even if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and He knows all things.
21 Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God,
22 and we will receive from Him whatever we ask, because we keep His commandments and do what is pleasing in His sight.
23 And this is His commandment: that we should believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and we should love one another just as He commanded us.
24 Whoever keeps His commandments remains in God, and God in him. And by this we know that He remains in us: by the Spirit He has given us.