Perspectives to Christian Giving: Giving or Trading?

Perspectives to Christian Giving: Giving or Trading?

Our repercussion mentality conflicts with the principles of God's grace we have in Christ Jesus. Every time we speak of giving, we readily shift from the grace principle to the repercussion mentality.

We love to pay for everything we have to be able to gain the sense of possession. We even often preach paying prices for things offered freely by grace. The sense of possession and ownership is one of the greatest enemies of giving and it is acquired by the sense of personal achievement outside of grace.

That's why we think more of what we may reap when we give and not just the mere goodness of giving.

We want people to earn our gifts, because we believe we have earned all that we have and most people who need what we have don't have the capacity or the opportunity to earn the gifts, if they had, we will actually be useless to them.

Our gifts and giving make us relevant and valuable, being attached to our purposes of existence.

But we don't always think that way. We think of the loss we suffer when we give and we see the hope of reaping as palliative to that suffering and in utmost, we see reaping as the rewards or the restoration of what we lost in giving. Giving is never a loss...what we give aren't ours per se...

[My Offline Bible] 1 Corinthians 4
7 For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?

Many won't even go that far, when they think the good they have done must be paid back somehow by the same person who enjoyed it. An expectation is immediately created as soon as the 'gift' is given that binds the receiver to the giver as a debtor and the receiver loses his freedom to be anything other than what the giver wants or is pleased with...

And we hide all these under a principle we call sowing and reaping.

God recognizes giving and He becomes unjust and unrighteous if He forgets our labor of love that we show to people. Every good act is rewarded. But the reward isn't the reason otherwise it becomes a trade or merchandizing. Giving isn't a trade. It isn't an investment like we invest in the Stock Exchange. Giving is giving. The reaping is of God's goodness and faithfulness not the reason for giving.

When we give because we expect something in return we lose the essence of giving. We lose the goodness of giving. When true giving of grace is done, we find a sense of satisfaction, fulfilment and joy beyond any physical rewards. It's something givers enjoy. The rewards is at the prerogative of the faithful God. But we have the moment to enjoy.

Sowing and reaping is a fundamental principle but isn't same thing with grace.

In grace, others sow while we reap.  God planted a garden East of Eden for Adam to eat after having made all things for him before he was created.

Jesus died so we can live. He became sin so we can have righteousness, He was wounded for our transgressions. He paid the price so we could be free... That's grace. We enjoy what we don't have the capacity to earn as needed.

Giving is grace. It is the grace we share with God in partaking of His divine nature. Giving is being a conduit, a vessel or a channel of grace from God to the needy. We give and we are supplied to give the more.

Two verses of scriptures described this so explicitly.

[My Offline Bible] 2 Corinthians 8
9 For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.

[My Offline Bible] 2 Corinthians 9
8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:

The first tells us that our prosperity isn't based on what we gave but on what Christ did.

The other tells us how God gives us and  we give and God gives us more so that we can give even much more. It tells of us being pipes connecting and transporting God's abundance to those who need it and not a collecting, dead, stagnant, smelling un-flowing lake.

These lessons need be learned first before we engage the seed sowing and reaping principle otherwise we have a greed feeding system of spiritual lottery and God doesn't feed our greed, neither does His grace cover for our covetousness.

Our gift becomes a seed when we operate by the seed of God within us, the New Creature born again in God's image. That's what we see in 1 Corinthians 13.

[My Offline Bible] 1 Corinthians 13
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

We see how possible it is to give without first loving and for ulterior selfish reasons. And how impossible it is to be profited from giving when not so motivated. And love in this context is agape which seeks not her own. This kind of love is a result of the divinity we share with God through Christ.

When we thus give, our gifts become viable seeds that bring eternal blessings.

[My Offline Bible] 1 Timothy 6
17 Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; 18 That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; 19 Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.

[My Offline Bible] Galatians 6
7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. 9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. 10 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

We shouldn't give as if we are trading. Trading isn't wrong but both parties must know and be aware of the transaction, able to negotiate the terms and make decisions without coercion. It's not of Christ to give only to have trading behind the scenes without the receiver knowing what to pay back, how, with what and when... We don't give without total release of the gift, when we attach strings it is yet to be recorded as gifts...

Christian giving is motivated and sustained by the nature of  God's love within us which we share for our New Birth and it must be seen as an end in itself which makes it a seed sown, reaped as we continue without ceasing in doing good.

The seed is a gift given by God and released into the lives of those who need it while creating space for a bigger 'harvest' from God to reach more people as seeds in a romance of faithfulness between man and God in the divine nature. And anything of divine benevolence can be seed and those negative attitudes inspired by the flesh.

When we give, we are only staying true to our divine nature. When we permit selfishness we deny the nature of God within us. When we give outside of that nature we lose purpose, we trade instead of giving and the results can't be the same.

Good morning.