“If
among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within
your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart
or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to
him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be” (Deuteronomy 15:7
ESV).
As Christians, we have a tendency at
times to be quite selective in our “Bible
Verse Library.” We often like to keep
verses as books on the shelves of our library as favorites. These are the ones we like and they are the verses that we frequent in memory and
practice. We like verses like John 3:16
and they becomes the favorite book we make reference to, loving to quote them as
well because it makes us feel good knowing that we are loved and saved.
There is another John 3:16 and it is 1
John 3:16. We very seldom quote this
verse and it is probably regulated to back shelf in our “Bible Verse Library.”
Yet this verse tells us what love ultimately looks like. It was Christ’s love in laying down His life
for us that defines the love that saves us and it is our laying down of our
lives for others that declares to the world around us, that we have Christ’s
love is in us. It is not a new concept as it is part of the law in the Old
Covenant. The benevolent love of God
upon His people was to transfer to the poor, indentured and less fortunate
among His people. In fact, God is quite intense in decreeing that His people were to remember the poor because He sees and remembers them (Psalm 12 & 72).
The “1st John 3:16 Verse” is
a book that needs to be dusted off and brought forward to the favorite section
of our “Bible Verse Library.” Not to be quoted in empty redundancy but in lovingly
lived out in daily practice to the poor, indentured and less fortunate. After all, I think there is a verse that reminds us about responding to those in need is how God’s love is proclaimed
as abiding in us. Oh … that is in 1 John
3:17. Maybe that is a “Book Verse” that
needs to be put on the favorite shelf as well.
In the end, it may not matter to the world around us whether we can
quote John 3:16 and even John 3:17 for that matter, but it will matter to many people if we live out 1 John 3:16 & 17.
Being generous in seeing those in need and being full of grace and responding in your living will show that Christ’s
love and salvation is really in us. These “Book Verses” will definitely be the favorites to those around us. They will be the books checked out, read and remembered from the library that will define our lives.
“By this we know love, that he laid down
his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 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 3:16-17 ESV).
Suggested Reading I John 3 & Deuteronomy 15
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