What’s Love Got to Do With It? Part III

1John 3:16-17 (MSG)
“This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.”

It is so interesting to me (and so like God) that 1 John 3:16 is an extension of John 3:16 (how many of you had made that connection?). John 3:16 is the one scripture that comes to mind that exemplifies the love of God for mankind. 1 John 3:16 takes it to the next level – explaining that in fact the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary’s cross is how we both “understand and experience love”. It does not stop there – it goes on to say that this kind of love is what we need to have for one another. The sacrificial kind of love – the love that can see a “brother or sister in need” – and then do something about it. Of course the statement is qualified by saying if we “have the means to do something”, but I contend when we “see it” we have the means to do something about it. This passage does not end without saying if we “turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love?” and then answers it – “you made it disappear.”

Proverbs 18:23-24 (NLT) says:
“There are “friends” who destroy each other,
but a real friend sticks closer than a brother.”

and in the (MSG) says:

“24 Friends come and friends go,
but a true friend sticks by you like family.”

Love is a word that is quickly given – generously passed around – and frugally lived out!

Real love – whether among friends, or among the people of God is spelled out in scripture – lest our self-centered hearts need clarification. Love by its’ very nature lends itself to sacrifice! Friendship by its’ very nature implies family!

In this hardened world that we live in,it is so easy to put a wall around our hearts to keep our emotions at bay – without realizing that if we never hurt – we can never either feel real joy! If we never shed tears of sorrow – our heart also cannot receive happiness.

Psalm 34:18 (KJV) tells us:
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous:”

But read the end of the verse –
“but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.”

We are made for fellowship – what we find in the church world today is what is found in Proverbs 18:19 (NLT)

“An offended friend is harder to win back than a fortified city.
Arguments separate friends like a gate locked with bars.”

and instead of the church made glad by the liberty and love of Jesus, we find that Proverbs 15:13 is true:

“A glad heart makes a happy face;
a broken heart crushes the spirit.”

If real healing is to come to the body of Christ – we as believers have to examine our hearts and our lives and see if we measure up to 1 John 3:16 and we have to:

“Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” John 5:39 KJV

And be ever mindful that:

“But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.”
1 Cor 13:13(MSG)
God Bless You,
Maria