1 John 3:14-23
14We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.
16This 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. 17If 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? 18Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
19This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence:
20If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
21Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. 23And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.
Too many of us do not get what we ask from God because we are unfaithful in how we use the resources God has entrusted to us. We use them for ourselves rather than for ourselves + others. If we do not obey our Lord by properly loving our brothers and sisters who are in material need because they are orphans and widows in distress, are homeless, refugees or work full-time for the gospel and as a result earn little then how can the love of God remain in us.
Old Testament tithing example
Already in the Old Testament tithes were predominantly used for taking care of people in need and of those who served God full-time.
The New Testament
In the New Testament God calls us to go beyond the law and be generous and share.
We are reminded that looking after orphans and widows in distress is the religion God seeks and that our faith should be shown in works of kindness towards the hungry and needy. How can we live in our comfortable houses, drive our nice cars, enjoy expensive holidays and spend more money on personal luxury than we spend on helping people in need? How can Gods love remain in us? No we are not talking about our basic needs and obligations, I am talking about all that money each of us spends on top of our basic needs. God commands us to love your neighbor equally and not just think of our own needs, wants and interests!!!
That includes looking after those who have given up everything to serve Christ. It is not their personal hobby but they work on Gods behalf and they work also on your behalf, that is if we are truly part of the body of Christ and Christ's love in us has not totally died.
The New Testament also decrees that those who work for the gospel may live from the gospel and it is the responsibility of Gods people to look after those who are in full-time ministry.
Our spiritual poverty today
Yet today we find churches with fat bank accounts but missionaries and evangelists go without pay or very little. Some have to scrape a living together both at home and abroad and can hardly do the work they have been called to do. Some need to spend a lot of time otherwise spend for the gospel to make ends meet by doing piecework or other income generating activities.
Are our churches really churches in the Biblical sense of caring communities of faith who together do Gods work, or are we simply religious clubs that worship in a location we call 'church' where we confess Christ loudly with the mouth so that we feel good but we hardly show obedience in deed so that we become Christlike, Gods love remains in us and we can be truly full of His Spirit of Love?
Today’s "church" often spends most of its money for personal comfort in the Sunday services, for buying nice instruments so we have nicer outward worship, nicer materials for our children and on other things that may benefit us but hardly benefit those in need.
How can the love of God remain in such a community of believers if those with whom Christ identifies (I was hungry, thirsty, naked, in prison....) are systematically neglected?
How can Christ give us our much needed revival when His word is willfully disobeyed by us?
Jesus is very clear: If you are not faithful in handling a dirty, unrighteous thing as money, you can certainly not be given more valuable things to handle:
Luke 16:9-11
9"And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings. 10"He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. 11"Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you?
Stop being proud, repent!
So instead of being proud about the crumbs you give from our table to the needy we should weep and mourn. By not having been faithful stewards of the resources God entrusted to us we have failed to store up treasures in heaven and have prevented God from entrusting us with true spiritual riches.
How can the Holy Spirit work in our midst when we grief Him by the way we treat the needy parts of the body in which we are baptized by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13)?
Jesus says to His disciples who worked full-time in His service the following in Matthew 10:40-42
40“Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. 42And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”
It is time we do what 1 John 3:18 says: Start loving the needy with actions and not just with words!!!
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