<p>3:17 <em>But whosoever has the world's goods and sees his brothers in need, and shuts up his compassion from him, how does the love of God abide in him?</em>- The Lord Jesus personally, His word, His <em>logos</em>, the love of God, the Spirit... are all referring to the same thing. The indwelling of the Spirit of Christ means that we shall love as He loved. If we do not show love in practice, then quite clearly His Spirit, which has love as its essence, is not within us. We cannot claim to have His Spirit in a purely intellectual sense; and our lives not show love. I have argued throughout John's Gospel and epistles that &quot;the world&quot; usually refers to the Jewish world; and on 2:16 that the Judaist movement was wealthy. The false teachers of Rev. 3:17 were increased with goods and had need of nothing. They had the goods of the Jewish world; but refused to help needy Christians. For they were after all just infiltrators into the Christian churches (Gal. 2:4) and wouldn't want to 'waste' any money helping their poor.</p><p>The principles arising from the first century context which John wrote in do of course apply to us in any age. The early church was the parade example of giving to brothers in need (Acts 2:45; 4:35; 6:3 s.w.). The psychology of being mean is well expressed here; we see / notice the need, but close up our hearts lest we make an emotional response from the &quot;bowels&quot; Gk.. Emotion and pity are therefore quite normal motivations for generosity, and we should not close them down lest we be left out of pocket.</p>