17But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? [simple_tooltip content=’13 Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you.
14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.
15 Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
17 But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?
18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
19 And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.’](1 John 3:13-19)[/simple_tooltip]
We live in an area with one of the richest deposits of gold in the world. It is estimated there is still twice as much gold in the ground as was ever mined. We have huge gold mines operating today. This has caused many people to try their hand at prospecting with the hope of striking it rich.
I remember when one of my Bible school students came running up to me and asked me to hurry out to his pickup. He had the bed of his truck piled high with what he was sure was millions of dollars worth of gold. But it was just pyrite, or what we call “fool’s gold.” I couldn’t help but laugh since I had tons of it on my property. Yet he was convinced he had hit the mother lode. It was weeks before he washed all that dirt out of his truck.
The real and the counterfeit look alike, but there is always a way to discern the precious from the ordinary. Gold is distinguished by the way it reacts to certain chemicals such as acid. The acid test for true love is action. Jesus said, „If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15), and then He gave us a new commandment: „That you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34).
It’s easy to say you love someone, but how do you treat them? That’s the test that distinguishes God’s kind of love from all counterfeits. Make sure you love the Lord and others in Spirit and in truth, and treat them as Jesus would.
