Our Brothers in Need

July, 2005

by: Dave Hintz

In all my years of studying the Bible, I have continually found myself drawn to two verses which arrest my attention like a bolt of lighting. For me, 1 John 3:16-17 is one of the most convicting passages in the entire Bible: “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?”

John writes this letter to a church that is being ravaged by false teachers who are attempting to lure the children of God into following their counterfeit religion. In addressing this problem John confronts not only their doctrine, but the very essence of their Christianity. In John’s mind, the core of Christianity is love. Love led Christ to voluntarily lay down His life, enduring betrayal, slander, beatings, and the brutality of the crucifixion. Christ did not regard His own life as so important that He could not sacrifice it for others. In view of Christ’s sacrifice, the Apostle calls upon Christians to emulate this selflessness, to follow in Christ’s footsteps and give up our lives to the Father as He did.

Now many of us would say, without much thought, that we are indeed willing to die for the Lord; we conjecture that if a terrorist held a gun to our head and told us to deny the faith, we would choose martyrdom. Unfortunately, daydreams are not the best test of discipleship.

In this passage John gives us a threefold test to discover whether we have this sacrificial love of God in us. Condition 1: You have been blessed with the world’s goods: time, money, a house, clothing, food, etc. Condition 2: You see another Christian in need: a place to live, money to make ends meet, a shoulder to cry on. Condition 3: You close your heart against him: with full knowledge of his plight, you decide to do nothing. Diagnosis: the love of God does not abide in you. In other words, if you will not sacrifice your excess goods for the benefit of others, neither will you lay down your life for the Lord. This, and not dramatic daydreams, is the true test of discipleship.

We live in a very wealthy country swimming in the world’s goods. Those who find themselves short on funds can work an extra job, and our government even has programs to help certain people make ends meet. At first glance, it may seem hard to find situations in our church in which this verse really applies. But there are members of our own body with needs, though they may not be physically present with us.

Missionaries do not choose their vocation looking to get rich. In fact, many of them live so humbly that we would blush if we truly understood the austerity of their lifestyle. They cannot work another job; they rely completely on the Lord and His provision through the giving of the saints. Yet things happen—whether a medical emergency with its enormous bills, higher-than-anticipated adoption costs, or the falling dollar which drastically cuts their salary—and suddenly they are “brothers in need”.

In recent months, we have noticed a startling trend. When we begin supporting Beth Mack, our monthly commitments to our missionaries on the field will total $14,700. Since the beginning of the year we as a church have given a little over $11,000 a month, leaving a shortage of $3,700 a month. If this trend continues, we will be forced to cut our support to our brothers on the field—brothers who are already making do with far less than most of us.

The Missions Leadership Team humbly submits this need to you, and we pray that you would consider helping your brothers in need by contributing to the Missions Fund.