1 John 3: 16-18: "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 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? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth."
Since 2019, the Lifespring family has been working through memorizing Bible verses together. Along with the four memory verses we do together every year, the pastoral team memorizes new verses every month. For March, we’ve been memorizing 1 John 3:16-18. This verse is personally one of my favorites because it carries such a simple but important message.
Verse 16 talks about love, and what love is. One of the most simple but profound acts of love is that Jesus laid down his life for us on the cross. This is the perfect example of love, that the Father would give up His own child, and Jesus would give up his own life, for our sake. We know what love is and what love looks like because of what God did.
And the response from us is simple–do the same for others! What Jesus did for us, go and do for others. Of course, this doesn’t mean that all of us should or will literally die for the sake of others. But show that same kind of love, the way Jesus did. What you have received, give. We have received love, so give love.
What does it mean to love others the same way that Jesus loved us? Verse 17 talks about it in a straightforward way. If we have possessions and see others in need but do nothing, then the love of God is not truly in us. Of course, the opposite is true too–if we see someone in need, feel compassion for them and actually do something, this means that the love of God is in us!
So again, the response from us is simple–if we have things we can give and see people in need, we show the love of God by having compassion and giving. Verse 18 repeats the same idea. We are not to simply love with good words or only in talk, but with concrete actions. This means actually giving generously of our material possessions to those who are in need. And we should do this in the right spirit, with the right heart–not to show others how amazing we are, but because the love and blessings that we’ve received from God need to pour out to others.
At Lifespring, we’ve been blessed to be a blessing. We know what love is because we’ve experienced God’s love in many amazing ways. In this season, let’s make every effort to share that love with others. Let us be compassionate and sensitive to those in need, helping as we can by being generous with our material possessions. In that way, the love of God will not only be in us, but will be flowing through us to a world in need.