Are you willing to put your life on the line for someone you love? Our very perception of the love of God toward us is the fact that Jesus laid His life down for us, and so we ought to lay our life down for the brethren. It’s difficult to know for sure what we would do until the situation actually arises, but here is a good test: are you willing to lay down this world’s goods for the need of someone else? If we can’t even give of the stuff we have out of compassion for another, how can we seriously expect to lay down our life for others?

1 John 3:16-19

16. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

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?

18. My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

19. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.