in need

Matthew 22:34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they met together to question him again.


35 One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question:

        36 "Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?"


  37 Jesus replied, "'You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.'

        38 This is the first and greatest commandment.

39 A second is equally important:

        'Love your neighbor as yourself.'

40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments."


So, there you have it - the whole of what it's all about...

Love God.

Love people.


So... read this...


1 John 3:11 This is the message you have heard from the beginning:

        We should love one another.

12 We must not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and killed his brother.

       And why did he kill him?

       Because Cain had been doing what was evil, and his brother had been doing what was righteous.

13 So don't be surprised, dear brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.


  14 If we love our Christian brothers and sisters, it proves that we have passed from death to life.

        But a person who has no love is still dead.

       15 Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart.

       And you know that murderers don't have eternal life within them.


  16 We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us.

          So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.


17 If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God's love be in that person?


  18 Dear children, let's not merely say that we love each other;

          let us show the truth by our actions.

19 Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God.

20 Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything.


  21 Dear friends, if we don't feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence.

22 And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him.


  23 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.

24 Those who obey God's commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them.

And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us.



"If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion - how can God's love be in that person?"

We seem to be in short supply of that kind of compassion these days for "a brother or sister in need".

When saying to whom we need to extend compassion, John, the disciple who wrote this epistle, doesn't use any other words to qualify or quantify these brothers & sisters except "in need".

I checked other translations - it doesn't say anything about how they got into a position of being "in need".

It doesn't say anything about how much responsibility they bear in getting themselves into a condition of being "in need".

It doesn't mention anything about whether they are choosing to stay in this situation or not.

Nor does it say anything about whether they deserve our compassion or not.

All it says is if we see someone "in need" & don't show them some compassion - iow, help them out - then the love of God is not in us.


Think about that...