Wednesday Bible Study- thoughts for the 49%

This week, we are up to 1 John 3:16.  Now, this is absolutely straightforward of itself:

1Jn 3:16  By this we have known the love of God, because He laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 

Easy peasy, tune in next week, right?  But we learn nothing that way, so let me expand our view out just a bit:

1Jn 3:13  Do not marvel, my brothers, if the world hates you. 

1Jn 3:14  We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brothers. He who does not love his brother abides in death. 

1Jn 3:15  Everyone hating his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has everlasting life abiding in him. 

1Jn 3:16  By this we have known the love of God, because He laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 

1Jn 3:17  But whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother having need, and shuts up his bowels from him, how does the love of God dwell in him? 

1Jn 3:18  My children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. 

1Jn 3:19  And in this we shall know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him, 

1Jn 3:20  that if our heart accuses us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things. 

A lot of quick points I'd like to make from this angle.

First, don't be surprised if the world hates you- but you CANNOT hate back.  Sunday, we talked about the immigrant situation.  If you are in favor of the proposed wall, border security, anything to make the process safe and legal, you have been labelled a racist or a fascist by the media and members of that certain party.  But are you?  There you have to ask yourself, WHY you don't want them in- really.  Like I asked Sunday, is it a logical desire, or a NIMBY thing for you?  If you want to keep repeat offenders and drug cartels OUT, you probably are okay.  If you just don't want YOUR neighborhood to become a barrio, you may have a problem right here.

Second, love requires action-  But whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother having need, and shuts up his bowels from him, how does the love of God dwell in him? ("bowels" here indicative of "pity or sympathy", where we might rather say, the heart). My children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

This is why Sunday I added that "religiously affiliated" households are 16% more likely to give of their goods, and those that give give twice as much.  Take THAT, John Lennon!  But it also means we have to examine our motives on things we take for granted, such as our political leanings.  Too many of us, either side, just "follow the party line" without looking at real consequences.  For example, the 45% of "Christians" who believe abortion should be legal in most circumstances.  They feel a woman may well encounter circumstances that make raising a child difficult, or weren't willing participants, or the latest excuse, "Trauma associated with birth makes her want to terminate at the last extremity."

Real Consequence:  Last time CDC released full stats (2015), 638,000 babies murdered, over 8,000 past time of viability.

Fun fact: Of the nations with a greater abortion rate than the US, according to the UN, 9 of the ten-  Bulgaria, Cuba, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Romania, Russia, China, and Ukraine- are former Communist countries- nations with a past of "official atheism".  (The other?  Sweden.)

Where does all that leave us on how this all applies to the immigrant thing?  Like I said Sunday- what if the guy being deported because his character is suspect, God is leading him to be saved, and he has to come to the US to do so, because we won't get off our butts and come to him, since 51% of adult churchgoers don't even know Jesus COMMANDED them to?

I'm not making a judgment here, I'm not telling you what to think.  I'm telling you TO THINK.  And having thought, to consider where love comes in.