Again, to John's point, we don't see too much need if we fill our lives endlessly with diversions. It can't be. Anybody can talk about how important love is. It was the hallmark of the Summer of Love in San Francisco, with the songs, the posters, the slogans, and the short-lived emotions of the time. What wasn't there was a commitment to truthfully act in sacrificial love for someone.
Truth is a very important modifier here.
John is not telling us to enter into a co-dependent relationship in which we are feeding someone else's problem with our sacrifice. That doesn't do any good. But in action and in truth to give ourselves away, to live sacrificially, to lay down our lives the way Jesus did, to be free of materialism so that we can give to those in need, is the only thing that makes sense if we have apprehended the love of Christ for us. This data file is the sole property of Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible Church. It may be copied only in its entirety for circulation freely without charge.