by Peter Williamson

The most famous verse in the New Testament is John 3:16, and with good reason. It sums up the gospel in a few words.  However, very few Christians are familiar with First John 3:16, which sums up the ethical implications of the gospel for our relationships: “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” In other words, Jesus showed his love by dying on the cross for us.  We are called to “love one another just as [he] has loved [us]” (John 13:34; 15:12), so this means laying down our lives for the brothers and sisters, just as he did.

But what does this mean?  Very few of us will be given the opportunity to literally die for another person, although we must be ready to do so if the circumstances call for it.  What does it mean for the rest of us to lay down our lives for our brothers?  The next verse tell us in very specific terms by critiquing the opposite conduct: “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?” (1 John 3:17).

I recently witnessed an example of love for the brothers and sisters on the part of someone whom Barnabas is trying to help.  An Indian woman named Kala is trying to rebuild her house after a tree fell during a storm and destroyed it. (See photo).

Kala needs about $8000 to complete the project, but Barnabas has only been able to raise $1000 so far.  Two weeks ago she asked permission to redirect the $1000 sent for her house to instead be used to pay the tuition of three children who otherwise would not be able to attend school (see Gift of Education).  Permission was granted, but with the hope that Kala’s house fund can be reimbursed from other donations toward education needs.

If God’s love has come to live in us, we will want to share our material resources with our brothers and sisters in need.  If we don’t share our stuff, it is doubtful whether we have the God’s love in us, whether we are really Christians!  The Letter of James makes a similar point, questioning whether a person who fails to give food or clothing to a needy brother or sister has the kind of faith that can save them (see James 2:14-17).

These verses have profoundly shaped my understanding of what it means to live as a Christian.  Love is not simply being friendly toward people or having good intentions: it must be expressed concretely in acts of sharing money and possessions with those in need, in other words, almsgiving.

That insight immediately raises some hard questions:  Who are the brothers and sisters whose needs I “see” and am obliged to help meet?  Fellow Christians, for sure, but does it stop there?  Also, does this teaching have any limits?  The needs of even my fellow Christians in my home town of Ypsilanti, Michigan, exceed my financial resources, not to mention the needs of those in Sudan or India.  Where should I give, and how much?  Mother Theresa and Francis of Assisi gave everything away that exceeded what the poor who surrounded them possessed.  Were they wrong?  How should my faith and love be expressed in material sharing with the needy?

Those are hard questions and I will reflect on them in the next couple blogs.  One thing is clear: to live as a Christian in faith and love requires that I share material resources generously with those whose needs I know.  The concluding verse of the paragraph that begins with First John 3:16 says it well: “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18).

How can we find the generosity and faith to do this? A little later in his letter John explains: “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). The love of God expressed in Jesus’ voluntary death on the cross for us, and in God’s love poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Rom 5:4), is the entire basis of our ability to share.