Articles and books on generosity will tell you that giving generously is a good biblical thing to do and we should all do it. This is obviously true, but they don’t tend to address ‘the why?’ of giving. The motivation to give will determine if we will be happy or reluctant givers. Without addressing this issue, givers are robbed of the joy of giving and quite often the church is robbed of precious resources.
"Without addressing this issue, givers are robbed of the joy of giving and quite often the church is robbed of precious resources."
God is generous in Himself
Christians can be generous in many ways. I’m only highlighting a few ways here, but I think that serving, giving money, giving time, energy and talent, hospitality, food, stuff and good works, can all be bundled under the theme of generosity. Generosity that overflows from our life in Christ. It’s a deep heart response because we are recipients of such amazing grace. We didn’t save ourselves; we didn’t contribute to or somehow pay for salvation. We simply said yes to the greatest gift of all time. Christian generosity stands out from that of the ‘normal’ worldly generosity. In this sense, Christians should possess an unnatural and godly generosity. A cheerful, outrageous and extravagant generosity. This kind of happy generosity must be driven by love and not pity or even compassion. It isn’t a reluctant generosity; Christians aren’t to give grudgingly. If our motivation is to make ourselves feel better, then the motivation is self-centred even though it’s meant for someone else. We’re in essence trying to buy cheerfulness!
"This kind of happy generosity must be driven by love and not pity or even compassion."
Christian generosity is to be like that of our God. Yes, the unregenerate know how to give good gifts to their children, but how much more our heavenly Father who gives good gifts to his children! So, we who are his children share this overflowing generosity from our good Father. In fact, the Apostle Paul urges us to outdo each other in doing good to each other. How can any one of us actually live this out? It seems unobtainable to us.
God is generous in the gospel
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: you shall love your neighbour as yourself.”
Mark 12: 30-31
These are the greatest commandments according to Jesus. Our good works flow out of firstly loving God, and because we love God we can love others as ourselves and do good works for them. This is the overflow of gospel generosity. It is the roadmap for how we can possibly achieve the kind of profound generosity. Firstly, we must love the Lord our God with all that we are, then and only then can we love others as ourselves. Not through a transaction; what we can get in return, but because we love God unreservedly. The Psalmist in Psalm 119 v 32 declares:
“I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart!”
We can keep the Lord’s commandments because we have a big heart for him. We no longer have a selfish, self-centred stony heart. God figuratively gives us a heart of flesh that keeps growing in capacity for loving him and others.
The sad conversation Jesus had with the rich young man in Mark chapter 12, shows that he loved his money and possessions more than the God he said he served. If he had loved God as he should, he would love others and the overflow would mean that he would be free to bless others, give all that he had and follow Jesus. Instead, he went away from Jesus sorrowful. This is why truly generous giving is a healthy practice for Christians, because it helps us to keep loving God first before our possessions. It helps keep our love pointing in the right direction to Jesus. Now imagine a whole church congregation living this out, and groups of churches. What impact for the kingdom!
God calls us to be like Him and fulfilled in Him
God wants us to be happy in life because He loves us. His word says that the only way we will be happy is through knowing and loving the God who lovingly made us to love him. The problem is we listen to what the world tells us: “to be happy we need to prioritise security for family and retirement, then perhaps think about maybe giving a little”, somewhat reluctantly. There is a corrosiveness that erodes our hearts in riches held onto and loved. It takes the place of our dear Saviour. There is a happiness in giving money away.
"God loves a cheerful giver because he himself is a cheerful giver"
God loves a cheerful giver because he himself is a cheerful giver. Why? Because God is love. God is a Father eternally loving his Son through the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. The Son loving the father back. It isn’t a self-obsessed love but a giving, outflowing and generous love. Flowing from the Father who sent out his only beloved Son to pour out his all on the cross for us. Generosity is at the core of the Christian life and our experience of God. God doesn’t give sparingly; he gives us abundantly more than we can ask or think. We get cheerful in our giving by giving like God, where his grace has been working in our hearts to abound in generosity to others.
Dr Joel Morris
Executive Director, Union
We’d like to thank Union for enabling us to publish this article, you can read more about Union on their website
You can also read more from Joel’s through his books.
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