I John 3

This chapter focuses on being "children of God".

A few things about it:

1.  Jesus lavished his love for because we are his children.

2.  As children of God, we should love other children of God, i.e., love one another

The chapter gives examples of how to do this.

Do not hate your brother.  This is a mental state, but it is akin to murder.  (v. 11-15)

Another example is having material possessions, seeing a person in need, and having no pity.  (v. 17-18).  Note, it does not say that material possessions are wrong or that you should give your possessions away, but it says there should be a pity.  Nor does it say give all your possessions away.

Of course, given the context, there is an implication of a command to give your material possessions to the person in need.

There are verses in the Bible that seem to suggest socialism is appropriate.  I think a fair reading of this would lead to that.  But the emphasis is not giving possessions away, but the pity.  Where is the heart?  We could rephrase this as indifference.

Since this comes right after the discussion of Cain and murder, this leads to another implication - indifference is on par with hate and murder.  God does not call us all to be poverty activists or socialists, but rather to not be indifferent to the plight of the poor.