Today, I wrap up this series on generosity. The Bible talks about it continuously, and commands Christians to care for the poor and needy.
In America, the church has, over the past 60-80 years, done a terrible job at this. I contend that is because government has taken over this responsibility from the church. Government created welfare programs to do the job that the churches were originally designed to do. When the churches were in charge of caring for the poor -- and properly doing their job -- there were none with great need. But, government saw an opportunity to open the treasury, and turn welfare into a political machine for the gain of politicians.
In light of that, I think there are at least three things that we can do today to fulfill the biblical commands on generosity.
Love One Another
It is easy to love the people in our lives that we like. I have a special kind of love for my wife and my three boys. I have certain friends that I enjoy being around. It is easy to love those people in my life. But, what about those that are just acquaintances, or that I don’t know at all? How about those people that I don’t really like to be around? What about someone who has hurt me in indescribable ways?
Mark 12:30-31 details the conversation Jesus had with a religious leader about the greatest commandments: love God and love your neighbor. What’s interesting about the command to love your neighbor is that it doesn’t say we should love our family, or love our friends, or the people we get along with. Jesus said we should love our neighbor. That means your neighbor you like, and the one that annoys you to know end.
This teaching was revolutionary when Jesus said it, and it’s still revolutionary today. It totally transformed the world, and still changes people today. Unconditional love is what gets the attention of the world, and reveals Christ to them. It's also what Jesus said would be the identifying characteristic of his followers.
Compassion
The next step to living a generous life has to involve compassion. Compassion helps us to identify the needs of those around us. Compassion causes us to move from simply caring about someone to actually doing something about the issues they face.
Jame 2:14-20, 26 talks a great deal about compassion and charity. Your faith in God is revealed through your works of compassion. 1 John 3:17 adds to the thought. Clearly, God intends for Christians to not only love their neighbor, but to stand ready to help in times of need.
Prepare to be Generous
In light of scripture, it is best if we prepare our hearts to be generous. Every Christian on the face of this world has God’s Holy Spirit living inside of them. The Holy Spirit communicates God’s will to us in several different ways. One of those is probably best described as a “conscious prompting.” In the case of the hurting people in our world, the Spirit will from time to time tell us what we should do to help them. It’s up to us to listen and then do it or ignore it.
Now, most of us would want to be open to God’s prompting, and do what He commands. But, I contend that it is easy to say that, but not so easy to follow up. I’ll give you an example.
If you knew of a single mom who just lost her job, and had a couple of children to feed, it would be easy to be generous, and help her out. But, if you didn’t know this person, and you saw her out on a street corner holding a sign begging for help, would you freely give? Or, would you be skeptical and ignore her plight?
I know that in my heart I struggle with the second scenario. In Springfield, I see beggars at the stop lights all the time. They all carry cardboard signs that ask for help. Those signs all play on our compassion by ending in the words “God bless.” How am I to know if they really need help, or if they plan to blow the cash they collect on drugs or alcohol? Or, worse yet, what if they’re just scamming people, and don’t really need the help?
In one of his books, author and pastor Max Lucado wrote about this one time. When he was an associate pastor, he sat in on a meeting between his pastor and a homeless man who had come into the church for help. The man had a dozen different stories about what caused his desperate situation, and what his needs really were. Max admitted to seeing through the man’s phoniness, and was waiting for his pastor to boot him out the door.
But, instead, the pastor showed compassion toward the man and gave him some food and cash to help him out. After the meeting, the man left and Max asked his pastor if he had not seen through their guest’s ruse. His pastor told him that while most of the man’s story was probably a lie, what if one part was true. That one possible truth warranted compassion.
Compassion and love dictate our actions as Christians toward the people we encounter. They cause us to listen to and act on that voice in our heads that says “That person needs your help.”
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