on 1 John 3:16-20, 23

"We know what real love is because Christ gave up his life for us. And so we also ought to give up our lives for our Christian brothers and sisters. But if anyone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need and refuses to help--how can God's love be in that person?"

Dear children, let us stop just saying we love each other; let us really show it by our actions. It is by our actions that we know we are living in the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before the Lord, even if our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything." (16-20)

"And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us." (23)

It's interesting--and disheartening--to me to see how little our fellow human beings mean to us most of the time. Even in the church, our focus is not on how we can help each other, but rather on what's in it for us. Sure, we talk about loving one another. We talk alot, actually. But Jesus' command to love one another didn't include anything about saying we loved one another. In contrast to our lips flapping and our arms not moving, He asked us to love each other through our actions.

I'm going through a period of my life right now where I'm beginning to question things I've been taught to this point in church. No, that's not it, really. Maybe I'm just beginning to see that there's a disconnect between what we say in our churches and what we're actually doing through them. I see the effort occasionally; I'm just wondering if it's half-hearted. I guess I'm thinking we (and I definitely mean "me, too" here) can do more...much, much more. We are in a "comfort coma"...and very few us want to be woken up.

For instance, I'm told that, in South Africa, a child can be fed, clothed, educated, and have their medical needs met for somewhere around $30 a month. Connect this with the fact that 30,000 of those same children died last night from starvation and you can see the gap between "talk" and "action". To bring this point emphatically home...think about how callously we throw away $30 on a daily basis. We should be doing more--so much more--with the things (read: money) God's given us.

This stretches to our churches, as well. It's inconceivable to me that we can think nothing of spending literally millions of dollars on a building and resources in light of the fact I posted above. In one of the most egregious examples I've ever heard of, I was watching an interview with a pastor recently who admitted--willingly, and even while smiling--to spending $1.6 million dollars on a lighting system. If you're not great at math, I'll do the calculation for you. That's 53,300 kids who could have their lives impacted forever. But at least the stage looks pretty, right?

Now, I understand completely that many churches--probably more than I'm willing to give credit for--will turn right around and use said resources for reaching many more people for Christ's kingdom. But for every church who is doing a bang-up job of distributing their wealth, there are dozens more who are content to allow their congregation to come for their hour of "worship" each week, sit in air-conditioned comfort, listen to a neat, point-by-point 25-minute sermon, close with prayer, and hit the local buffet before their rival church lets out, lest they have to wait for a table--and call that loving God.

I'm convinced we've got it all (or most of it, anyway) wrong. I could write a book about this--maybe I will one day--but I think this verse sums it up nicely: "But if anyone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need and refuses to help--how can God's love be in that person?"

Challenging words. I know, after writing this blog, I'm definitely going to be looking for everyday opportunities to do the "ordinary" and love my fellow man much more through my actions. I'm also going to be on the lookout to do the extraordinary and make an eternal impact on the lives of everyone I meet. Where will this all lead, and what form might it take, God only knows.