We were meeting children’s workers in Santiago; Chile and I had been asking about their children’s ministry work.
Listening and writing furiously I was suddenly mesmerized by an elderly man who told me that his church had a Sunday School program.
The church was located near the garbage dump, and they knew there were families living near the dump scavenging for food. They had made shelters out of materials from the dump.
The children began attending the Sunday School to everyone’s delight…. until two or three girls began crying on Sunday mornings for no apparent reason.
The teachers soon discovered it was from malnutrition. The church leaders gathered and decided that you cannot talk about the love of Christ to children who are starving.
Therefore, the church gathered resources, including property, and launched a feeding program. They were providing a cup of soup, glass of milk and piece of bread to children daily. The program had grown to include over 750 children.
This is a beautiful application of biblical teaching found in I John 3:16-18.
I have seen this kind of generosity among God’s people in hundreds of churches around the world and is a testimony to the powerful love of Christ, moving His followers to express that love to others.
It was on John’s mind when he wrote.
"This 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. 17 If 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? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth." (1 John 3:16-18)
This passage is one of the more famous biblical references to money and wealth. We can note that the passage tells us three things about believers receiving John’s letter.
1. Some Have Material Wealth
Within the congregation hearing this letter read aloud there are those who have material wealth.
John does not limit that wealth to money, meaning the wealth could be a combination of money, property, gold, silver, or precious jewels.
As we know from Paul’s writing, there were possibly people in the congregation whose “material wealth” included slaves (cf. Ephesians 6:5-9).
With the growth of Christianity across the Roman Empire, some members of the wealthy class had come to Christ and found themselves part of the church, the family of God.
This is certainly true today. In every church community I have been involved with, there are those within that community who have material wealth.
Thankfully, slavery is increasingly rare around the world, but material wealth continues in modern form from cash, property, stocks, gold, and bitcoin. (I am not exactly sure what bitcoin really is, but I know it exists).
2. They Are Aware of a Fellow Christians In Need
John is also aware of those in the congregation who are in material need.
This awareness may have extended beyond the local community as was the case with churches in Macedonia, Galatia and Corinth being concerned about the needs of the Jerusalem church (cf. 2 Corinthians 8-9).
It has been estimated that the majority of Romans lived at bare sustenance and a significant percentage were enslaved.
The key to escaping poverty was land ownership, without which accumulating wealth was exceedingly difficult. It is therefore no surprise that the community hearing John’s letter included a considerable number of people leaving in material want.
Paul himself describes times in his own life when he experienced plenty and want (cf. Philippians 4:12).
This is certainly true today, where again, every church I have been involved with has had people in material need. Even wealthier churches have experienced times of economic recession causing loss of jobs and income.
This in turn led to people losing nearly everything they owned and reaching levels of economic despair. In some church communities I have seen large numbers of impoverished members wondering where the next meal would come from and lacking basic shelter.
In my younger years as a university student and then attending seminary I struggled financially, while serving an internship in a church, largely made up of upper middle-class congregants.
3. They Close Their Heart and Do Nothing
Coming to the crux of the problem, John notes that those with material wealth close their hearts off to those lacking and do nothing.
In the Corinthian church this manifested itself in the eucharist meal where those with wealth feasted while those lacking had little or nothing to eat (I Corinthians 11:17-22).
John paints the problem in familial terms where a “brother or sister” is in need and ignored. This breeds disunity in the spiritual family and does not reflect well on Christ and the gospel.
While there is always more that can be done, the hundreds of churches that I have worked with have worked to implement this teaching.
Many of the wealthy Christians I have met are not only concerned about those in need within their church family, they take action to express the love of Christ to those members in concrete action.
I met a young family in our church through this kind of concrete action. My future wife and I were both students and went to lunch after church when were dating.
We counted our cash, ordered one meal and water. We had just enough to pay the bill. When the server brought the check, she told us a family at another table had paid for our lunch.
Their two children were in the Sunday School program and that was our introduction to their parents. They have been faithful and generous friends for forty years. I officiated at both kids wedding and to this day, they are generous Christians.
Closing Thoughts
The world we live in today, has expanded our knowledge of God’s family and we cannot but be aware of the needs of our Christian family members around the world.
I John 3:16-17, reminds us that Christ laid His life down for us. This was a material act taken out of love for those in need, namely you and me.
In response we are called to express that same love to our family members in need; both in our own church community and in the Body of Christ around the world.
In so doing we model the love of Christ and reflect that love into the world around us.