Holy Wit – Reflections
# 8 — Love in Deed and Truth
Walking in the Light: Studies Through 1 John
Scripture Reference: 1 John 3:11–24
There was a man in the church whom everyone knew was struggling.
He had not announced it from the front. There had been no formal appeal, no notice pinned to a board, and no carefully arranged collection. People simply knew.
His work had become irregular. His wife had been unwell for several months. There were children in the home, school expenses had not stopped, and the cupboards were beginning to show the strain.
On Sunday mornings, people greeted him warmly.
“Brother, we are praying for you.”
“God will provide.”
“Keep trusting the Lord.”
All of these things were true. God does provide. Prayer matters. Trust in the Lord is never misplaced. Still, when the service ended, most people went home.
One man did not.
He had noticed that the struggling brother’s shoes were coming apart. He had noticed the children no longer brought anything to the church meal. He had noticed the way the man’s wife declined invitations, not because she did not want fellowship, but because travelling cost money they did not have.
So he went home, spoke with his own family, and returned later that afternoon. He brought rice, cooking oil, vegetables, soap, medicine, and enough money to cover several urgent expenses. He did not make a speech. He did not take a photograph. He did not describe his generosity to others.
He simply placed the bags inside the house and said, “The Lord has given us enough to share.”
The struggling man began to cry. It was not only the food. It was the fact that somebody had seen him.
There is a kind of love that speaks well and does nothing. It knows the correct words. It offers blessings, promises prayer, and expresses concern. It may even feel sincere sympathy. Yet it never moves beyond the lips.
John refuses to call that sufficient.
“My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.”
John does not despise words. Words can encourage, comfort, instruct, and strengthen. The gospel itself must be proclaimed in words. A silent church is not necessarily a loving church.
But words that never become action are easily exposed as empty.
John places Cain and Christ before us as two completely different pictures of the heart.
Cain saw his righteous brother and killed him. Christ saw guilty sinners and gave Himself for them.
Cain removed another person because that person’s righteousness troubled him. Christ laid down His own life for those who had rebelled against Him.
Cain took life. Christ gave His life.
That contrast gives us John’s definition of love.
Love is not merely liking someone. It is not affection detached from duty. It is not politeness, friendliness, or warm feeling by itself. Love gives. Love bears cost. Love moves towards need rather than away from it.
The cross is the supreme revelation of this kind of love. Christ did not love His people by offering encouraging words from heaven. He came into our condition. He bore our sin. He endured judgment. He laid down His life.
We cannot repeat His saving work. His sacrifice was once for all. Yet those who have received that love are commanded to reflect its shape.
That is why John immediately turns from Christ laying down His life to the ordinary matter of a brother in need. The move is deliberate.
We may speak grandly about being willing to die for another believer while refusing to be inconvenienced by him. We may imagine great acts of courage while ignoring small acts of mercy. We may say, “I would lay down my life for the brethren,” while protecting every hour, every possession, every comfort, and every personal preference.
John brings us back to the cupboard, the wallet, the spare room, the telephone call, the hospital visit, the meal, the journey, the forgiveness, the patient conversation.
That is where love is usually tested. Not in imagined moments of heroism, but in ordinary opportunities to give ourselves away.
This does not mean that every need must be met by one person. No believer has unlimited resources. Wisdom is necessary. Some requests are unwise. Some forms of assistance may encourage irresponsibility rather than relieve genuine need.
Love must be “in deed and in truth”.
Truth matters.
Biblical love does not help someone continue in sin. It does not confuse compassion with approval. It does not call what is harmful good.
Sometimes love gives. Sometimes love warns. Sometimes love provides money. Sometimes love provides counsel instead. Sometimes love comforts the suffering. Sometimes love confronts the wandering.
But love never settles for indifference.
John’s question is not whether we possess enough to solve every problem. His question is what happens in our hearts when we see a real need and have some ability to respond.
Do we open our hearts, or close them?
That question can trouble a sincere Christian. We remember occasions when we did nothing. We see the limits of our love. We recognize selfishness, impatience, resentment, and failure. Then the heart begins to condemn us.
John understands this.
He does not tell us to pretend we have loved perfectly. He directs us to God, who is greater than our heart and knows all things.
God knows our sins more fully than we do. Yet He also knows the difference between a hypocrite who is content without love and a believer who grieves over lovelessness and desires to change.
Our assurance does not rest on having performed enough acts of kindness to earn God’s acceptance. It rests first upon Christ.
The same Christ who commands love is the Christ who laid down His life for sinners.
Still, the presence of practical love gives evidence that His grace is at work within us. Not perfect love, but real love. Not constant victory, but a new direction.
John then joins faith, obedience, love, and prayer together.
We believe in the name of Jesus Christ. We love one another. We keep His commandments. We abide in Him, and He in us by the Holy Spirit.
These are not separate compartments of the Christian life. They belong together.
A heart being shaped by Christ begins to desire what pleases Christ. A believer walking in obedience approaches God with greater confidence, not because obedience has purchased an answer, but because the believer’s desires are being brought into agreement with God’s will.
And so the question remains close to home.
Who has God placed before us? Whose need have we noticed? What do we possess that could be shared?
Perhaps the first act of love will not look impressive. It may be a bag of rice. A paid bill. A ride to a clinic. A meal carried across the road. An hour spent listening. A quiet gift no one else ever hears about.
But heaven does not measure love by how impressive it appears.
Love is measured by the pattern of Christ.
He did not merely tell us that He loved us.
He showed us.
And now He calls His people to do the same.
#HolyWitReflections #GordonMcGinnis #WalkingInTheLight #1John3 Holy Wit – Reflections
# 8 — Love in Deed and Truth
Walking in the Light: Studies Through 1 John
Scripture Reference: 1 John 3:11–24
There was a man in the church whom everyone knew was struggling.
He had not announced it from the front. There had been no formal appeal, no notice pinned to a board, and no carefully arranged collection. People simply knew.
His work had become irregular. His wife had been unwell for several months. There were children in the home, school expenses had not stopped, and the cupboards were beginning to show the strain.
On Sunday mornings, people greeted him warmly.
“Brother, we are praying for you.”
“God will provide.”
“Keep trusting the Lord.”
All of these things were true. God does provide. Prayer matters. Trust in the Lord is never misplaced. Still, when the service ended, most people went home.
One man did not.
He had noticed that the struggling brother’s shoes were coming apart. He had noticed the children no longer brought anything to the church meal. He had noticed the way the man’s wife declined invitations, not because she did not want fellowship, but because travelling cost money they did not have.
So he went home, spoke with his own family, and returned later that afternoon. He brought rice, cooking oil, vegetables, soap, medicine, and enough money to cover several urgent expenses. He did not make a speech. He did not take a photograph. He did not describe his generosity to others.
He simply placed the bags inside the house and said, “The Lord has given us enough to share.”
The struggling man began to cry. It was not only the food. It was the fact that somebody had seen him.
There is a kind of love that speaks well and does nothing. It knows the correct words. It offers blessings, promises prayer, and expresses concern. It may even feel sincere sympathy. Yet it never moves beyond the lips.
John refuses to call that sufficient.
“My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.”
John does not despise words. Words can encourage, comfort, instruct, and strengthen. The gospel itself must be proclaimed in words. A silent church is not necessarily a loving church.
But words that never become action are easily exposed as empty.
John places Cain and Christ before us as two completely different pictures of the heart.
Cain saw his righteous brother and killed him. Christ saw guilty sinners and gave Himself for them.
Cain removed another person because that person’s righteousness troubled him. Christ laid down His own life for those who had rebelled against Him.
Cain took life. Christ gave His life.
That contrast gives us John’s definition of love.
Love is not merely liking someone. It is not affection detached from duty. It is not politeness, friendliness, or warm feeling by itself. Love gives. Love bears cost. Love moves towards need rather than away from it.
The cross is the supreme revelation of this kind of love. Christ did not love His people by offering encouraging words from heaven. He came into our condition. He bore our sin. He endured judgment. He laid down His life.
We cannot repeat His saving work. His sacrifice was once for all. Yet those who have received that love are commanded to reflect its shape.
That is why John immediately turns from Christ laying down His life to the ordinary matter of a brother in need. The move is deliberate.
We may speak grandly about being willing to die for another believer while refusing to be inconvenienced by him. We may imagine great acts of courage while ignoring small acts of mercy. We may say, “I would lay down my life for the brethren,” while protecting every hour, every possession, every comfort, and every personal preference.
John brings us back to the cupboard, the wallet, the spare room, the telephone call, the hospital visit, the meal, the journey, the forgiveness, the patient conversation.
That is where love is usually tested. Not in imagined moments of heroism, but in ordinary opportunities to give ourselves away.
This does not mean that every need must be met by one person. No believer has unlimited resources. Wisdom is necessary. Some requests are unwise. Some forms of assistance may encourage irresponsibility rather than relieve genuine need.
Love must be “in deed and in truth”.
Truth matters.
Biblical love does not help someone continue in sin. It does not confuse compassion with approval. It does not call what is harmful good.
Sometimes love gives. Sometimes love warns. Sometimes love provides money. Sometimes love provides counsel instead. Sometimes love comforts the suffering. Sometimes love confronts the wandering.
But love never settles for indifference.
John’s question is not whether we possess enough to solve every problem. His question is what happens in our hearts when we see a real need and have some ability to respond.
Do we open our hearts, or close them?
That question can trouble a sincere Christian. We remember occasions when we did nothing. We see the limits of our love. We recognize selfishness, impatience, resentment, and failure. Then the heart begins to condemn us.
John understands this.
He does not tell us to pretend we have loved perfectly. He directs us to God, who is greater than our heart and knows all things.
God knows our sins more fully than we do. Yet He also knows the difference between a hypocrite who is content without love and a believer who grieves over lovelessness and desires to change.
Our assurance does not rest on having performed enough acts of kindness to earn God’s acceptance. It rests first upon Christ.
The same Christ who commands love is the Christ who laid down His life for sinners.
Still, the presence of practical love gives evidence that His grace is at work within us. Not perfect love, but real love. Not constant victory, but a new direction.
John then joins faith, obedience, love, and prayer together.
We believe in the name of Jesus Christ. We love one another. We keep His commandments. We abide in Him, and He in us by the Holy Spirit.
These are not separate compartments of the Christian life. They belong together.
A heart being shaped by Christ begins to desire what pleases Christ. A believer walking in obedience approaches God with greater confidence, not because obedience has purchased an answer, but because the believer’s desires are being brought into agreement with God’s will.
And so the question remains close to home.
Who has God placed before us? Whose need have we noticed? What do we possess that could be shared?
Perhaps the first act of love will not look impressive. It may be a bag of rice. A paid bill. A ride to a clinic. A meal carried across the road. An hour spent listening. A quiet gift no one else ever hears about.
But heaven does not measure love by how impressive it appears.
Love is measured by the pattern of Christ.
He did not merely tell us that He loved us.
He showed us.
And now He calls His people to do the same.
#HolyWitReflections #GordonMcGinnis #WalkingInTheLight #1John3
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