1John 3:24 - The Mother of All Upgrades (Plus The Need for An Other)

"And the [one] keeping the commands of Him in Him is remaining and He in him.  And in this we are knowing that He is remaining in us, out of the Spirit which to us He gave."

-So here is where the rubber meets the road.  Keeping His commands.  Particularly these two, since John ties what he is saying here to the previous verse with an ‘AND’.  You cannot separate them - we know He is thinking about these two: 1) persevering in believing in Jesus, loving Him with all our heart and living in full-on, all-out devotion to Him.  And 2) loving one another, living in oneness and unity as a loving family, committed to one another and building one another up and making Jesus famous together, for better or worse.  It’s about relationship - let’s not miss this.  It’s not about a bunch of do’s and don’ts.  It’s not about obedience, first and foremost.  It’s about a growing love relationship with Jesus, and with His followers.  The one who is continuing and growing in these love-relationships is most assuredly in Christ.  And Christ is in Him.  

-Um, let us not scurry past this truth today.  It is so oft repeated in the church, it has become hackneyed and threadbare.  It’s like the amazing sunset with which God paints the sky every evening which through overexposure we begin to take for granted and no longer take notice of.  But notice this.  Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1.27).  Jesus Christ lives in me.  This changes everything - or should.  And it changes me - or should.  He abides in me, the one believing in Him (and loving the one who also believes in Him).  This is a marvelous mystery.  The infinite God of the universe comes down to this tiny planet and lives in little ol’ far-from-perfect me, makes His home in my heart, takes up residence in my life.  My life, my heart - I am invaded not by some strange alien lifeform but rather by the One Who made the universe and Who made me to be like Him and now He’s coming to finish the job.  New heart, new life, all things are made new.  It’s about a totally brand new identity as a member of His family and the mother of all upgrades - a supernatural high-tech  Power Source which allows me to walk in love with every member of that family.

-Yes, Christ sends His Spirit to live in the heart of each and every person who believes in Him, and it is this Spirit Who assures our heart that we are in Christ, that we truly have come to know Him.  He fills every fiber of our being with the knowledge that God is our Daddy and we are His child, that He truly is our Loving Father, our great Daddy in heaven Who constantly loves us and watches over us and hears us (Romans 8.15).  Tho we were lost and blind, tho we were His enemies, slaves of sin, He sent His Son to buy us back and bring us into His family.  Forever.  His Spirit lives inside us, dwelling there permanently, never ever to leave, helping us, guiding us, teaching us, speaking to our hearts with the indescribable assurance us that we are God’s children (Galatians 4.5-6).  It was a wonderful thing indeed for the first disciples to know Jesus in the flesh and to get to be with Him every day, but believe it or not, this is better.  Way better.  Now He lives inside our hearts, never to leave, not even for a moment.  It’s relationship on heavenly steroids.

-But the gift of God’s Spirit is not merely about guidance and reassurance and reinforcing our relationship with Christ.  It’s about power.  Power for greater works (John 14.12, 16).  Supernatural, limitless power which shows the unbelieving world that something greater than self-effort and ancient wisdom is in play here.  It is Christ living not only in me but through me.  And as much as anything this hyper-nuclear power would be brought to bear on the implementation of this one new-old command, to help us love one another.  He plan is to populate this planet with outposts of heaven, assemblies of worshippers who are loving Him with all their hearts and are loving one another as a tangible expression of this love.  This is how we live in relationship with one another, in community - such that we cannot, must-not go it alone.  But the good news is, you and I ARE not alone.  Isn’t that pretty much what Christ said in the upper room?  Um, guys, I’m giving you a new command - love one another, and this is how others will know you’re following Me, and I’m going away but I’m giving you a Helper Who will actually be in you to help you do this, and let Me pray for you and ask My Father to make this a reality.  Really, is anything too difficult for God?  Do you think that Christ-in-you is not more than able to enable you and me and each of us to love even the most unloveable members of His body?  To forbear with them?  To forgive them?  Just to give them the time of day even?

-But I think the Lord knew we were going to need some help to pull this off.  Cuz again, it takes two to tango.  And in this case, it takes three.  You and I individually can crank up our love-the-Lord-with-all-our-heart thing independently of one another (altho arguably even THAT goes better in tandem).  We could make a case that no one else is needed for that part of the equation.  But as soon as God says ‘one another’, now it all becomes contingent on cooperation.  Reciprocation.  There is no way to fullly ‘love one another’ without another.  God could have just left it at others - encourage others, bear with others, love others (that’s how He first put it, in fact - love your neighbor).  Doing it to others requires nothing of them.  The outcome does not depend on them in the least - just me and Jesus.  We got this.  But not anymore.  Now I have to depend on ‘an other’.  And so do you.  And because of this, we need another Other.  We need His Spirit.  Come, Holy Spirit, and fill us with love - love FOR Christ, and the love OF Christ for one another...

1John 3:23 - The Heavenly Combo Meal

"And this is the command of Him, in order that we should believe in the name of the Son of Him, Jesus Christ, and we may be loving one another, just as He gave command to us."

-In case we hadn’t figured it out already, John clarifies for us once and for all, what God’s command is.  THE command - this is it.  John actually just mentioned keeping His commandS (plural), and he gives us two here.  But really they are just different sides of the same coin.  You won’t find one carried out apart from the other.  This is not an a la carte menu.  It’s a combo meal - you’re gonna have fries with that.

-The first item on the menu is to believe in God’s Son, Jesus Christ, to believe in His Name.  But there is an "AND", which means the second goes with it.  The second is love one another.  Believe AND love.  They are inseparable, like siamese twins, two peas in a pod.  This is John’s whole point.  If you believe in Jesus, you must, you WILL love those others who also believe in Him.  It’s a FAMILY.  That’s the idea.  Which leads us to the place where we must ask ourselves, how’s our love life?  How’s my love life?  How am I doing at loving those who follow Him?  Because, practically speaking, our love for our heavenly Father, Who we can’t see, is demonstrated by loving His children, our brothers and sisters, those we can see (isn’t that the whole point behind the parable of the sheep and the goats? cf Matthew 25.37-40).  Failing here, we fail ultimately.  Catastrophic failure, that’s what we’re talking about.  It’s not merely about me getting my fire insurance.  It’s about the extension of a heavenly family which extends the goodness of God to all the families of the earth.  And what do you wanna bet, if the world could see God’s family really loving one another, they would be lining up out the door to get their own combo meal too.  The line would be longer than the Chick-Fil-A drive thru.  I’ll have me some Jesus, and a super size side of brotherly love.  You know that’s right.

-But here’s the thing, this second part is a doozie, ‘cuz it takes two to tango.  The first part I can carry out all by myself.  I don’t need you in order to believe, to put my trust in Jesus (well, technically that one IS all on me - but you and the rest of my spiritual family can certainly help me do that).  But the second part, the love one another part?  That’s definitely a dance for two (or more).  I need you in order to pull it off, and you need me.  We need each other.  Maybe that’s why John says "may be".  It’s not just up to me.  IF we’re going to fulfill this command, if we’re going to fill out both sides of these commands, we need to do it together.  Together.  In concert.  In unity.  Oneness is a plural state of being, for it takes more than one to create one-ness.  To love ONE ANOTHER.

-THIS, then, is the end goal.  Love.  It is the greatest of these (1Corinthians 13.13), the goal of all our instruction (1Timothy 1.5).  And to that end, the New Testament is replete with enjoinders for God’s people to love one another.  That command itself appears some 16 times, with another 40 mentions of some nuanced way of doing THIS - serve one another, build up one another, encourage one another, give preference to one another - the list is long and quite detailed (see below).  All these are just variations on a theme.  That’s what this letter John wrote is all about.  Christ Himself kicked it off, and He was dead serious about THIS - He repeated the command 5 times as He introduced it in that one discourse, His last significant interaction with His disciples before He died.  These then are our marching orders.  This is our playbook, and it’s profoundly simple.  Only two plays.  It’s like crane technique - if do right, no can defense.  There’s no stopping us if we can do this right.  THIS is our mission (im?)possible, if we choose to accept it.  Strategic Plans and Mission Statements and 5-year Visions are fine, in their place (and are a dime-a-dozen anymore), but THIS is THE Mission, the Master Plan.  Believe in Jesus - AND love one another.  Tell me how WE are going to do THIS.  For all our doing, we must do THIS first and foremost.  We must do THIS together, in concert with one another.  And we should make it our goal to get really, really good at it, at THIS - loving one another.  Just as He commanded us.

Be at peace with one another

Love one another (//////////////// - 16x)

Be devoted to one another

Give preference to one another

Be of the same mind toward one another

Do not judge one another

Build up one another (//)

Accept one another

Admonish one another

Greet one another (////)

Wait for one another

Care for one another

Serve one another (//)

Do not challenge one another

Do not envy one another

Show tolerance for one another

Be kind to one another

Speak in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs to one another

Be subject to one another

Regard as more important one another

Do not lie to one another

Bear with one another

Teach and admonish one another

Comfort one another

Encourage one another (///)

Live in peace with one another

Seek after that which is good for one another

Stimulate to love and good deeds one another

Do not speak against one another

Do not complain against one another

Confess your sins to one another

Pray for one another

Be hospitable to one another

Clothe yourselves with humility towards one another

1John 3:21-22 - Some seriously HUGE spiritual swag

"Beloved, if our heart may not be condemning, we are having boldness toward God...and what if we may be asking we are receiving from Him, because His commands we are keeping and the [things] pleasing in His sight we are doing."

-Boldness.  Boldness is for speaking.  In this case we are talking about the difference between the dog who shrinks away from the Master, tail between his legs, because he knows he did something he wasn’t supposed to do, and the dog who has the confidence to go right up to the Master, waggy tail and all.  Happy Master, happy doggie.  Life is good.  Which is all well and good, but I think we forget about Whom we are speaking.  In this instance, we are talking about the boldness to approach and speak directly to almighty God, the King of the universe.  Boldness to ask something from His hand, the Lion of Judah Who is definitely good but He is by no means safe.  We’re talking about confidence.  Some seriously HUGE spiritual swag.

-With the rise of modern democracies (at least in the west), kings are no longer what they once used to be.  They are more figureheads.  They’ve been effectively neutered, their power having been handed out to the people.  But it used to be a HUGE deal simply to be in the same room as the king, much less to have an audience with him.  One simply did not just go into his presence - you normally needed to be summoned.  If the king did not summon you, and really, if he was not pleased with you in any way, you could forfeit your position and even your head (cf Esther 4.11).  One was loathe to even be sad in his presence (Nehemiah 2.1-2).  How much more of a mind-blowingly HUGE deal is it then, that we should be talking about an audience with the High King of heaven?  The King of Kings?  John is saying that we can have boldness toward Him.  That we can boldly go where no mere mortal ought to be able to go, we can ask HUGE things from Him, and actually receive them, because He is pleased with us!  (Scriptural language re asking tends to be rather limitless - Matthew 7.7-8, 18.19, 21.22; John 14.13, 15.7, 15.16, 16.23-24; Ephesians 3.20; James 1.5, 4.2; 1John 5.14-15 - surely we leave so much meat on the bone by simply not asking...).  Limitless asking, limitless confidence.  IF our heart does not condemn us.

-The way to stand completely free of condemnation with tails a-wagging in the presence of our Master of course is to do everything right.  To keep all His commands and to always do the things which are pleasing in His sight.  That’s what John says.  But that’s the trick, isn’t it?  Good luck with that, ‘cuz nobody can do it.  And when I am holding on to wickedness in my heart, the Lord can’t even hear me (Psalm 66.18).  But first and foremost, this is where Christ comes in.  The only way to be condemnation-free is through Jesus (Romans 8.1).  We take our stand in Him, in the grace and forgiveness which He alone provides, by faith, and His blood washes us clean.  Wickedness gone.  He gives us a clean heart, a new start.  Every day, a new start.  His Spirit gives us a new power source.  And when we blow it, His grace is more than sufficient enough for us to be able to own it, be honest about it, be cleansed from it, turn around from it and let it go, not do it ever again (this is what John has already told us - 1John 1.9).  But wait - there’s more!  This is what John has been talking about - the grace and power of Christ positions us to be able to actually carry out God’s commands, and in fact to fulfill the entirety of God’s law, which we do by simply abiding in Him and carrying out this one overarching principle, which is to love one another.  You manage to pull off this one thing, and you find yourself in the place of not only being free from vulnerability to any fiery arrows of condemnation launched in your direction by the enemy, but you’ll also be on sure footing with the High King of heaven, knowing that with you He is well pleased.  You will have entered into the joy of your Master.  Ask away, you good and faithful servant...!

1John 3:19-20 - The Key To Assurance, and a Heart Gag

"In this we will know that out of the truth we are, and in His sight we will persuade our heart...that if our heart may be condemning us, because God is greater than our heart and He knows all."

-God is greater than our heart.  And He knows all things.  Unlike our heart, which is desperately sick and deceitful above all else (Jeremiah 17.9).  Yes, my very own heart can and will deceive even me, the lord of the manor!  I’m supposed to be the landlord!  Sometimes my heart will (with the aid of accuser, of course) point a finger at me and condemn me, try and persuade me that I am NOT of the truth, that I am not truly saved and in Christ.  “Crummy Christian, crummy Christian” - that’s what it says.  “You did what?  God can’t love you.  He doesn’t love you because you did that.  You’re still doing it, you keep giving in to it.  And you didn’t do the other thing - you struggle with that.  He can’t forgive that.  And you call yourself a Christian?”  Of course, not only can our heart deceive us (who can trust it?), our feelings change all the time - how you slept last night, what you ate for dinner, our relationships, our circumstances and outcomes.  They change with the seasons (not a reliable gauge of truth).  But in season and out of season, the Lord is the same.  Today, yesterday, and tomorrow (Hebrews 13.8).  His love never changes, never fails, never wavers in the least (Lamentations 3.22, cf 1Corinthians 13.8).

-And so John says, nope.  That’s not how it works.  There is a surefire way to tell if you’re in Christ.  We will know, he says.  We listen not to our hearts but to what the all-knowing unchanging God says.  And He says we WILL know (it’s a promise!) that we are out of the Truth - by this, when we are loving our brothers and sisters with real deeds which meet real needs.  When we are practicing and doing what God wants (2Peter 1.10), starting with this above all else.  Loving our neighbor is in fact set forth over and over as THE way to fulfill the entirety of the law (Romans 13.8-9, Galatians 5.14, James 2.8, cf Luke 10.36-37).  It starts right here.  Look for the love.  This is the key to assurance.  This is the way for our heart to be able to trust that we have truly trusted in Jesus, that we are truly in Him.  Inversely, if we are NOT loving our brothers and sisters, we can also know that they are not our brothers and sisters after all, in that we are not actually in the family.  We are NOT saved, we have NOT truly trusted in Christ.  Yet John’s goal here is to assure our hearts.  This is how we plow forward in the face of a condemning heart, knowing for sure that we ARE of the truth.  We can surely be sure and rest assured that we are of the Truth.  In this instance, don’t listen to your heart if it tries to tell you otherwise, if it tries to condemn you and convince you that you are not in Christ after all.  In other words, this is the way to silence a (falsely) condemning heart.  It's a heart gag!  Look at your deeds - do you see demonstrated love for the brethren?  Now if you DON'T see love, then that's another conversation.  But if you do, then you’re good.  Rest.  Assured.

1John 3:18 - Moving to Missouri...!

"Little children, may we not be loving with word nor the tongue, but rather in work and truth."

-Lip-service.  We all need to move to Missouri, the "show-me" state.  Anyone can say "I love you".  Three little syllables which slide over our lips with all-too-relative ease.  But no - show me your love.  Just do it - right?  Don't just say it.  That's what he's saying.  Indeed, loving in deed means we show people we love them, we back up our words and demonstrate our love in real time.  Love is a verb, not a word.  It IS work.  It is a choice, not a feeling.  To that point, we never really “fall” out of (or into) love.  "You've lost that loving feeling" makes for good music, but it rings hollow, just like those feelings which come and go.  No, we stop loving.  Or we (begin to) do it.  Love dwells in the land of deeds and truth, not with pretense and empty sentiment which fluctuates and flutters in the breeze like so much chaff.  Love means I get off my donkey and do deeds which meet needs in the body of Christ.  What am I doing?  What are you doing?

-Loving in truth is the other side of the same coin, in that love-which-is-true is love which backs up words with deeds.  It is one and the same, same song, different verse.  Same verse here, tho... :) Again, love (and faith) which is merely professed is not true love (faith).  It is ultimately false.  The one who speaks words with their tongue which profess a love for their brother, but who does not follow thru with deeds which demonstrate true love is a liar.  A goat.  God demonstrates His love... (Romans 5.8).  He shows it.  God so loved...that He_______.  He DID something, He finished it (John 19.30) - and then He kept on showing it, kept on giving - to this day, to infinity and beyond!  We know this truth by heart.  But do we?

-This is precisely what Jesus is saying in the parable of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25.40, 25.45).  And that is exactly what John is getting at here.  So he's calling out like a caring concerned dad to his readers, these little children - and to us, to all true believers - and saying, hey, little brother, little sister, we all need to take this (new-old) command to love one another seriously.  We need to DO it, really and truly do it, back it up with real deeds which meet real needs, and work at it, get really, really good at it.  I think sometimes with all our church growth and capital campaigns and strategic plans and programs that we can lose sight of what is most important.  It's people.  We can forget about the least of these, move beyond them, fail to see them, hurry right past them, sometimes run right over them!  And we forget the basics - like love.  Basic things like food and drink, shelter, clothing, taking the time to visit and care for one another - it's so simple.  Maybe we need a refresher course!  You know, back to the basics.  Gentlemen, this is a football.  'Cuz so much depends on it, this right here.  Our brothers-in-need need to be able to depend on it.  They should, at least.  And so should the Lord.  Can He depend on me, can He count me in and count on me, to love the least of these...?

1John 3:17 - On opening closed hands...

"But whoever may be having the life of the world and he may be observing the brother of him having need and he should close his bowels from him, how is the love of God abiding in him?"

-Oh no, don't you go there, John!  He is talking about our stuff.  He's gonna touch our stuff!  I know he didn't just do that!  Don't you ever touch a man's radio!  Or any of his stuff... He's also fixin' to be messing with our time, our plans, our schedules.  Not afraid...!

-In this instance, a closed hand = a closed heart.  And it very well might show an unbelieving heart.  Rather than opening my hand, I close it.  Because I have closed my heart.  I am like the Levite who passed by on the other side.  I see the need (perhaps), but I don't wanna be bothered with it.  I wanna hold on to my stuff.  I keep it for myself.  Mine!  Mine!  It is the native instinct of every fallen heart, observable almost from infancy, born of selfishness and fermented in a beaker of scarcity mentality on steroids.  I won't have enough for myself, we think.  Really?  Or maybe I think I am too busy.  I am too busy to help.  I have too many things to do.  I wonder, tho - how many of those are needs, or are some of them simply wants...?  Or maybe I just don't want to be bothered with this person.  Maybe I already know them, and this brother is a bother to me, this brother for whom Jesus died.  Or maybe I miss seeing the need altogether.  I've got my head buried in my stuff - my work, my plans, all that concerns me.  Maybe I simply need to get my head out of the sand, pause, and look around me.  I might need to engage with members of my church family (assuming I even have one), get a closer glimpse of their lives, their stories, their needs.  For those will become apparent if we ever get into real community.  Everyone has a story, we all are journeying through brokenness in varying degrees, and we need each other.  We need to be willing to get a little bit dirty, to swap some of our dirt with one another.  This in fact is the essence of what the Bible calls koinonia (at least that's the Greek word).  Fellowship.  It means sharing.

-Sharing.  A most basic of life lessons, this.  We never outgrow our need to learn and relearn and apply this value in our lives.  What happens as we grow older is that our world expands, and along with it so do our boundaries, all the tiny kingdoms of me.  We enlarge our borders.  We acquire so much more territory.  And stuff - which our flesh is so loathe to share.  The tiny toddler may be reluctant to share their bottle or blankie or their favorite toy, but let's be honest, that's all they own.  It's much easier to spot the spirit of 'Mine!' when we're only talking about a handful of objects.  And at an age when one hasn't yet learned the subtleties of how to mask my selfishness.  But with the larger boundaries of adulthood, self finds a lot more room to maneuver, and my hand is often filled to overflowing.  There's a lot more stuff I can hold on to, which works out in my favor, cuz I have a lot more stuff.  Perhaps I "learned" (was forced) to share when I was little, when I was not allowed to be master of my domain, but the older I get, the more stuff I can begin to hold on to - and nobody blinks an eyelash.  So the question becomes, how open is my hand... (Deuteronomy 15.11)?  How open do you think is the Lord's hand (Psalm 104.28, 145.16)?

-A brother in need.  That's what we're talking about. This brother for whom Jesus (our Brother of brothers) died.  Our brother is more important than our stuff, because He is more important to Jesus than our stuff.  Yes, the Lord opens His hand to us and satisfies our desires, gives us all good things to enjoy, but this does not mean that we are meant to selfishly hold on to all the things He gives us in order that I might enjoy them unto myself.  The Scripture is saying that all things - pretty much any God-given thing - can be enjoyed... when accompanied by a grateful and generous heart.  And the truth is, that generally speaking, there is more joy in sharing.  Life - and stuff - is meant to be shared.  And is not the greatest joy, our highest pleasure, to be found in Him, sharing life with the Life-giver, in His presence, where He is?  Does He not dwell not only in heaven but also with the lowly, the downcast, the brokenhearted (Isaiah 57.15, Psalm 34.18)?  "Beware", says the Lord, "that there is no base thought in your heart, and your eye is hostile toward your poor brother and you give him nothing, and it will be a sin in you" (Deuteronomy 15.9).  "Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to Me?  Or do you begrudge My generosity?" says the Lord (Matthew 20.15).  It all belongs to Him, does it not?  It should, should it not?  Our life, all we have, all our stuff, all our time, all our days - all from Him, our All-generous Heavenly Father.  Surely it all should be for Him as well, all placed at His disposal, in His open hands.  Brethren, let us open our hands to Him, and to one another.  In this is love...

1John 3:16 - Life = Love = Death = Inconvenience

"In this we are having come to know the love, because that One on behalf of us the life of Him He laid down.  And we ourselves are obligated on behalf of the brothers the lives to lay down."

-We know what love is, so we know what life is.  Life = love, and love = death.

-Death.  Not murder, as in life-taking.  Nope.  Life-giving.  Actually it was murder - His enemies did murder Jesus.  They took His life (actually, He let them).  But the sublime irony is that in being put to death Jesus GAVE us life, His life.  It was a murder which showed the way and opened the door for us to escape from the world of murder and hatred.  He laid down His life for us.  Let me say that again, and pause for more than a second to think about it.  Let us linger on this life-giving, life-changing truth.  The Son of God - laid down His life, allowed Himself to be murdered - for His enemies, would-be-brothers.  For us.  To give us life.  That's you and me, brother.  Eternal life, life without end.  Unending.  Immeasurable.  Beyond anything we can imagine.  Infinite life!  He did this - for the sake of family.  Laid it down, gave it up. 

-So, brothers. we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.  And sisters.  We are under every obligation to do so.  That is the word in the Greek.  We're not just talking about a good idea.  A suggestion.  Like, we ought to wash our hands before we eat.  That's not what God is saying here. This is a debt that we owe.  To our family.  But also to Jesus.  We owe it to Him - and to our family - to lay down our lives for Him AND for our family.  We must.  The souls of many depend on it.

-Riddle me this: what is the debt that all men pay?  Death.  Physical death.  But here is the debt that all Christian men (and women) pay - or should.  In fact, what John is saying is that defaulting on this debt would show that God's love is not in us after all, that we are not a true brother after all.  But what is this debt, the price we need to pay, the lengths to which we must go in loving our brothers?  The answer to this is painful.  We don't like this.  Our flesh chafes against it.  Because truly, love = death.  It may not cost us our physical lives (altho that is certainly a possibility, esp if you live in a time or place where following Jesus is literally a matter of life and death).  No, for most of us, at least in the land of (what used to be) Christendom, a life-laid-down looks more like... inconvenience.  It involves going out of my way.  Getting out of my house.  Out of my routine (out of my rut?).  Giving up some of my time or my stuff (as if it were ours to begin with - what do we have which we did not receive from our Heavenly Father?  Did He in fact mean for us to keep all [or most] of it to ourselves?).  Meeting needs with whatever means the Lord has entrusted to me (there were NO "needy persons" in the early days of the church - Act 2.44-45, 4.32, 4.34).  Many of us sacrifice to build our buildings and to run our programs and to pay our pastors.  But how much do we sacrifice for our brothers and sisters in need?  It might involve loving the unlovely, or the uncomely, or the uncool.  Giving, even devoting our time and our resources - and our hearts (caring!) - to those who may very well be unable to pay us back.  This is the debt all Christians must pay. To give generously, hilariously, without keeping a tab, whatever it takes.  And this is what it will take to cause the world to stop and wonder, behold, how they love one another!  What makes them so different?  It is Jesus, our Big Brother, the Firstborn among many brethren, the consummate caring loving Life-giver.  He gave His all for us.  Brethren, we must do the same.  We must...!