“Now, in seeking to benefit one’s neighbor, how difficult it is to do one’s duty! … Unless you give up all thought of self and, so to speak, get out of yourself, you will accomplish nothing here…But Scripture, to lead us by the hand to this, warns that whatever benefits we obtain from the Lord have been entrusted to us on this condition: that they be applied to the common good of the church. And therefore the lawful use of all benefits consists in a liberal and kindly sharing of them with others. No surer rule and no more valid exhortation to keep it could be devised than when we are taught that all the gifts we possess have been bestowed to us by God and entrusted to us on condition that they be distributed for our neighbor’s benefit [cf. 1 Peter 4:10].”
John Calvin (1509-1564) in Institutes Book III 3.7.5. ed. Donald K. McKim (Louisville: WJKP, 2001) 83.