What about Giving?

2 Corinthians 8:16-24

Why was Paul giving commendation to Titus?  It was because he was not a paid volunteer because out of his own heart desire he was willing without being asked to go back to the Corinthian churches and raise money to help the poor and needy in Jerusalem.  He, like Paul, knew a paramount truth that God does not prosper us so that we acquire vast wealth to hoard.  

Do you recall these words of Jesus found in the Gospel of Luke 6:38, “Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”  What about this word from the lips of Paul the apostle to the churches at Corinth; “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”   Your wealth is a gift, you’re the manager not the owner, and many have learned this truth from the Scriptures.  Found in Acts 20:35, “In all things, I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

It may come as a surprise to the men who learned and applied this truth, look at this quote from Winston Churchill, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”  Denzel Washington had this to say, “At the end of the day it’s not about what you have or even what you’ve accomplished . . . it’s about who you’ve lifted up, who you’ve made better.  It’s about what you’ve given back.”

Titus did not go begging, not even close, none of the lines we often hear today that if you do not give to the Lord’s work it will not be done, what a bunch of bull!  As if God was in need, folks we have seen that He can put all the gold required in a fishes mouth, it is not that God needs what He has given us, but how He desires that we get in on the blessing of being a cheerful giver.  The apostle John gives this insight into grace and giving: “By this, we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice