“If, indeed, you heard of the stewardship
of the grace of God given to me for you…”
Ephesians 3:2 (LITV)
Selflessness grows in a heart captured by grace. In God’s economy, every dispensation of His wonder and grace to us is to be for the blessing and development of others. Failure to allow His Life to reach out to those around us will bring stagnation and apathy.
God’s purpose in every attribute given is enlarged by the sharing of it with others.
“Blessed are the merciful:
for they shall obtain mercy.”
Matthew 5:7
To be merciful to others is the grandest way to receive more mercy from Him. There is a secret to His resources.
“Give and it shall be given unto you…”
Luke 6:38
The bounties of God in Christ are infinite, yet, in His wisdom, He has established His Kingdom with an economy governed by the selflessness of love.
“Give, and good measure will be given to you, pressed down and shaken together, and running over, they will give into your bosom. For the same measure which you measure, it will be measured back to you.”
Luke 6:38 (LITV)
Carnal men may turn the beauty of God’s provisions into an opportunity to heap upon themselves the “unrighteous mammon,” but to their own destruction. To the pure in heart, His goodness abounds as they discover the joy of growing into His selflessness.
“But unto every one of us is given grace
according to the measure of the gift of Christ.”
Ephesians 4:7
May we allow the magnitude of His generosity to fill our hearts with the same Spirit of grace. All His children have experienced His munificence. There is no end to His supply. Only our unforgiveness, jealousy, envy, and self-seeking can dry up the springs of His amazing flow.
“For even as we have many members in one body, but all members do not have the same function, so we the many are one body in Christ, and each one members of one another, but having different gifts according to the grace given to us, whether prophecy, according to the proportion of the faith; or ministry, in the ministry; or the one teaching, in the teaching; or the one exhorting, in the encouragement; the one sharing, in simplicity; the one taking the lead, in diligence; the one showing mercy, in cheerfulness.”
Romans 12:4-8
Let us revisit our manner of living, for the measure of our giving IS the measure of our receiving of His richness that is to abound within His Body in the earth. By His design, each of us are to touch His Life flowing through each member unto every other member. Stagnation comes from living outside of the press and the joy of His Love governing our lives.
“But unto every one of us is given grace
according to the measure of the gift of Christ.”
Ephesians 4:7
“Open your hands, ye whose hands are full! The world is waiting for you! The whole machinery of the Divine beneficence is clogged by your hard hearts and rigid fingers. Give and spend, and be sure that God will send; for only in giving and spending do you fulfill the object of His sending.”
— J. G. Holland
“And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you…”
2 Corinthians 12:15
Related Post: Grace For Grace (LINK)
Brian Troxel
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More important than what we have or do not have is what we do with what we have and how much we withhold or keep back for ourselves.
Jesus luminously illustrates this at Mark 12:41, “And He sat down opposite the [temple] treasury, and began watching how the people were putting money into the treasury. And many rich people were putting in large sums. 42 A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a mite. 43 Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, “I assure you and most solemnly say to you, this poor widow put in [proportionally] more than all the contributors to the treasury. 44 For they all contributed from their surplus, but she, from her poverty, put in all she had, all she had to live on.”
None of us, including the “prosperity preachers,” has been called to a materially opulent lifestyle, regardless of how cleverly and convincingly they are wont to tickle with and twist the teaching of the sacred Scriptures.
What of those desperate for and destitute of food, water, shelter, clothing, medical help, protection from violence and persecution? Do the extravagant housing and worldly wealth of the affluent serve the poor that the New Testament teaches we are here to minister to? How can true followers of Jesus in good conscience live in high-end residences and drive luxury cars, ad nausea while multiplied millions are literally starving to death and in such grave anguish and agony? Do you actually believe that the lifestyle of these ministers mired in mammon is pleasing to the Father in heaven? Study that which the New Testament teaches about giving and worldly wealth. The issue is not as much what a person has as what a person keeps of that which he has to squander on self. Make no mistake about it; living above our need is indeed squandering on self, neglecting and rejecting the poor, afflicted, helpless, and traumatized.
How mercifully loving are we personally willing to be as a modus vivendi of thanksgiving to the One Beautiful God with the material and money we have been entrusted with from on high to steward?
Hebrews 13:5
Let your character or moral disposition be free from love of money [including greed, avarice, lust, and craving for earthly possessions] and be satisfied with your present [circumstances and with what you have]; for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down ( relax My hold on you)! [ Assuredly not!]
Matthew 6:24
No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will stand by and be devoted to the one and despise and be against the other. You cannot serve God and mammon ( deceitful riches, money, possessions, or whatever is trusted in).
1 Timothy 6:6-8
6 [And it is, indeed, a source of immense profit, for] godliness accompanied with contentment (that contentment which is a sense of inward sufficiency) is great and abundant gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and obviously we cannot take anything out of the world; 8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we shall be content (satisfied).
Luke 21:1-4
1 Looking up, [Jesus] saw the rich people putting their gifts into the treasury. 2 And He saw also a poor widow putting in two mites (copper coins). 3 And He said, Truly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; 4 For they all gave out of their abundance (their surplus); but she has contributed out of her lack, and her want, putting in all that she had on which to live.
Matthew 31-46
31 When the Son of Man comes in His glory (His majesty and splendor), and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32 All nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them [the people] from one another as a shepherd separates his sheep from the goats; 33 And He will cause the sheep to stand at His right hand, but the goats at His left.
34 Then the King will say to those at His right hand, Come, you blessed of My Father [you favored of God and appointed to eternal salvation], inherit (receive as your own) the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you brought Me together with yourselves and welcomed and entertained and lodged Me, 36 I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you visited Me with help and ministering care, I was in prison and you came to see Me. 37 Then the just and upright will answer Him, Lord, when did we see You hungry and give You food, or thirsty and give You something to drink? 38 And when did we see You a stranger and welcomed and entertained You, or naked and clothed You? 39 And when did we see You sick or in prison and came to visit You? 40 And the King will reply to them, Truly I tell you, in so far as you did it for one of the least [ in the estimation of men] of these My brethren, you did it for Me.
41 Then He will say to those at His left hand, Begone from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels! 42 For I was hungry, and you gave Me no food, I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger, and you did not welcome Me and entertain Me, I was naked, and you did not clothe Me, I was sick and in prison and you did not visit Me with help and ministering care. 44 Then they also [in their turn] will answer, Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You? 45 And He will reply to them, Solemnly I declare to you, in so far as you failed to do it for the least [ in the estimation of men] of these, you failed to do it for Me. 46 Then they will go away into eternal punishment, but those who are just and upright and in right standing with God into eternal life.
Why do you think Jesus commended the widow over and above all the others?
Was it so that people would be encouraged to live in the lap of luxury?
Was it so that people would sow to the flesh or sow to the Spirit?
Are you abiding in Christ under the New Covenant, or are you seeking money and material possessions under the Old, citing David and others, but disfavoring the New Testament teaching of not working and not hoarding to build a temporal kingdom on earth?
Let your character or moral disposition be free from love of money [including greed, avarice, lust, and craving for earthly possessions] and be satisfied with your present [circumstances and with what you have]; for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down ( relax My hold on you)! [ Assuredly not!] Hebrews 13:5
“Giving is the highest expression of potency. In the very act of giving, I experience my strength, my wealth, my power. This experience of heightened vitality and potency fills me with joy. I experience myself as overflowing, spending, alive, hence as joyous. Giving is more joyous than receiving, not because it is a deprivation, but because in the act of giving lies the expression of my aliveness.”
Erich Fromm, 1900-1980, German Philosopher and Social Psychologist