Dr. Tan Tek Seng

DAILY REFLECTION

“If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”  1 John 3:17–18

Love, in the biblical sense, is never merely an emotion or an idea—it is a living force that compels sacrificial action.

Toyohiko Kagawa (1888–1960) was a Japanese Christian reformer and labor activist. Born into privilege and trained in the finest institutions, he could easily have embraced a life of comfort, status, and influence. Instead, he chose a radically different path—one that made the love of Christ visible, sacrificial, and undeniable. Kagawa moved into the heart of Kobe’s Shinkawa slum, laying aside comfort and security to live among the poor and serve those in deepest need. His compassion took shape not only in presence, but also in advocacy and daily sacrifice. He pursued justice with humility and gentleness, mirroring the character of Christ. Though this calling pushed him to the brink of exhaustion, illness, and misunderstanding, he never stopped giving. He believed with conviction that faith without love-in-action is no faith at all.

He did not preach from a pulpit, but from a slum hut. Not proclaimed through eloquence, but proven through sacrificial love.Not expressed in sentiment, but in sweat, tears, and truth.

Kagawa’s life stands as one of the clearest demonstrations of Christian love made tangible—a compassion that touches the broken, lifts the weary, and reveals the heart of God.

May the love of Christ likewise compel us toward the wounded places of our world—so that through our lives, compassion becomes visible, and the world may see the living heart of God.

1 John 3:17–18 teaches us that real love mirrors Jesus’ own sacrificial love. It moves beyond talk into committed, compassionate action that reflects the heart of God to an unloving world.

"To be loved by God is the highest relationship, the highest achievement, and the highest position in life." -Henry Blackaby