Generosity
It’s the beginning of what is surely the best known bible verse: ‘For God so loved the world that He gave’. (John 3:16). God is the most extravagant giver in the universe.
When we are generous, we reflect His beautiful character. In short, we are most like God when we give.
Wonderful generosity enabled the early church to change the world!
Andy Stanley: ’First century Christians weren’t organised, had no buildings, and weren’t recognised by the government. In everyday society, they were basically considered a cult. For nearly three hundred years, they remained utterly powerless - ostracised socially, persecuted politically, and tortured physically. And yet somehow their movement continued to grow. How do you explain that?’
Part of the answer is found in their generosity. In their day, generosity was unusual. Centuries earlier, the philosopher Plato had advocated the idea of generosity, but it was an idea whose time had not come. And then came the Christians, living in a culture where something called liberates was practiced.
Liberates worked well if you were a person of means. Simply put, the code went like this: you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. I’ll give to you, because one day I’ll call in the note, and you’ll owe me. Giving was investment. A tidy arrangement, that is unless you were poor, and have nothing to give.
And so if you had nothing, you weren't of much use. You’d be left outside in the cold. So strong was this in the culture, that even Jewish practice mirrored it. The poor stayed poor. Widows and orphans stayed at the bottom of the pile.
Andy Stanley again:
‘The early Christians were impossible to ignore. They gave. They gave their service, their money, their goods, their time, their safety, their creature comforts, their reputations. They gave, to their own, but not just to their own. Generosity for them was not just a series of isolated, unusual actions, but was their way of life. They scattered good everywhere, freely, indiscriminately. They had no expectation of payback. They loved the unlovely. Crossed over the street, like good Samaritans. They rewrote the textbook on how to be a good neighbour.
They looked for sweaty feet to wash, and even went further. When terrible plagues hit, and huge swatches of the population fled the cities, abandoning the sick, the Christians stayed behind, nursing the ill back to life, which meant that some of the carers died in the process. And this was no holy huddle. When pagan priests fled, the Christians cared for the sick pagans, many of whom converted to Christ, unsurprisingly’.
1 Timothy 6:17-19
‘Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life’.
Highly recommended books:
Andy Stanley, How To Be Rich, Zondervan
The Paradox of Generosity, Giving We Receive, Grasping We Lose, Smith and Davidson, Oxford University Press.