1 John 3:17
But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
Nota de estudio
Study Note
'But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?' — the verse applies the abstract theological claim of 1 John 3:16 ('by this we know love: that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers') to the concrete case of material poverty. The phrase 'closes his heart' (kleiē ta splanchna autou, literally 'shuts his bowels') uses the visceral emotional vocabulary of the ancient world — the 'entrails' were the seat of deep compassion — to describe willful emotional disconnection from another's need. The rhetorical question 'how does God's love abide in him?' picks up 1 John's characteristic 'abiding' language, arguing that genuine divine love cannot coexist with its visible opposite in the same person. James 2:14–17 makes a parallel argument about faith without works, suggesting an early Christian tradition linking authentic belief to material solidarity with the poor.
Otras traducciones
But whoso hath the world’s goods, and beholdeth his brother in need, and shutteth up his compassion from him, how doth the love of God abide in him?
and whoever may have the goods of the world, and may view his brother having need, and may shut up his bowels from him--how doth the love of God remain in him?
But if a man has this world's goods, and sees that his brother is in need, and keeps his heart shut against his brother, how is it possible for the love of God to be in him?
Referencias cruzadas
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