Columban: Be gentle in generosity

“Be submissive to good, unbending to evil, gentle in generosity, untiring in love, just in all things.”

Columban (543-615) in a letter dated to the year 610 as recounted in The Quotable Saint ed. by R. E. Guiley (New York, 2002) 152.

Are you so quick to run to the aid people that sometimes you run over them? That’s one of my many vices. God help us be gentle in generosity today and everyday.

“Because God Himself is infinite and eternal, His glory is inexhaustible, and provides the measure of His generosity when He bestows His gifts. Because His resources are inexhaustible, He cannot be impoverished by sharing them with His children.”

F. F. Bruce (1910-1990) in The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians (NICNT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984) 326.

Today’s meditation (and my prayer today for myself, my family, and all my friends who read these meditations) comes from F. F. Bruce’s comments on this sentence from the first chapter of Ephesians.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. Ephesians 1:18-19a

Thank you Lord that your generosity toward us is inexhaustible!

“Most people become miserly in their giving because they worry that they will not have enough for themselves. Paul assures them that God will supply them with plenty for their needs at all times and uses alliterative repetition to carry his point:

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency, in all things at all times you may abound in every good work. 2 Corinthians 9:8.

Reluctance to sow generously, then, reflects a refusal to trust that God is all sufficient and all gracious. It also assumes that we can only give when we are prospering and have something extra that we will not need for ourselves. Paul says that at all times God provides us with all that we need so there is never any time when we cannot be generous.”

David Garland in 2 Corinthians: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture (NAC; Nashville: Holman, 1999) 407-8.

The voice of hesitation we hear linked to God’s ability to make all grace abound to us to have all sufficiency at all times and on all occasions so that we may abound in every good work is reminiscent of the serpent in the garden.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” Genesis 3:1

It comes across like this: “Did God really say that He is able to make all grace abound to you?” or “Did God really say that having all sufficiency, in all things at all times you may abound in every good work?”

All means all. Garland is spot on. Reluctance to sow is refusal to trust. God, help us in our unbelief, forgive us for our distrust, and so that we don’t reap sparingly, move us from being miserly to exhibiting generosity. Do all this so that the blessings you gave us accomplish the all purposes for which You intended.

“We should live more simply and give more generously because Heaven is our home. The single greatest deterrent to giving and to living more simply is the illusion that this world is our home.

Suppose your home were in France and you were visiting the United States for eighty days, living in a hotel. Furthermore, suppose there’s a rule that says you can’t take anything back to France on your flight home, nor can you ship anything or carry back money with you. But while you’re in America, you can earn money and send deposits to your bank in France.

Question: Would you fill your hotel room with expensive furnishings and extravagant wall hangings? Of course not. Why? Because your time in America is so short, and you know you can’t take it with you. It’s just a hotel room! If you’re wise, you’ll send your treasures home, knowing they’ll be waiting for you when you arrive.

We’re here on earth on a short-term visa. It’s about to expire! Don’t spend too much time and money and energy on your hotel room when instead you can send it on ahead.”

Randy Alcorn in “Six Reasons to Live More Simply—and Give More Generously” blog post on September 29, 2014.

I am sitting in a hotel room this morning, so this post is fitting!

So why do we pour the resources God has given us into temporary dwellings? The world wants us to think we are home when we are not, at least not yet. When people look at our lives, let’s model for them what it means to live out the reality that heaven, not earth, is our home.

“Man misunderstands the true nature of the kingdom of God. Salvation is not a reward [in] a Christian view of salvation. Salvation is the generosity of God.”

Martyn Lloyd-Jones in “The Free Gift of God’s Grace” sermon on Matthew 20:1-16. The parable of the workers in the vineyard makes clear that salvation is not a reward for our work but a gift from our generous God.

I am in Charleston today serving the regional director and board of Alpha South Carolina. I thank God for Alpha USA servants across the country whose efforts point people to the free gift of God’s grace.

“If you are dependent on money, you’re never going to have enough. If you’re dependent on God, you will always have enough.”

Ron Blue made this remark on August 26 event at the Acton Institute “Persistent Generosity” event. Presently, I have the privilege of serving on a curriculum development team at Indiana Wesleyan University with Ron. I appreciate his passion for integrating faith and finances.

Ron added that “biblical wisdom is timeless…and it speaks to every financial situation anybody has in their life.” The issue for each of us with regard to timeless biblical wisdom is will we do with it? Will we depend on God or money?

“God could provide everyone’s needs without us, but He chooses to allow us to participate in His generosity. He provides for our needs, and then He “enriches” us for the sake of generosity. And if we remain generous, he will continue to enrich us so that there will be much fruit from our giving.”

Austin Becton is treasurer of City Life Church. This is an excerpt from his message on 2 Corinthians 9:6-15. Click to read “Pinched by Generosity” in its entirety.

For the Apostle Paul, the privilege of giving is not intended to be a burden on us but a blessing. God’s work will continue regardless of our participation. If we don’t give, we are the one’s who miss out. This enrichment must not be understood as the pathway to personal prosperity, but rather enrichment to share God’s generosity.

“God is not merely the bounteous Bestower of my life, the generous Provider for all my needs, the pitiful Consoler of all my sorrows, the wise Guide of my course: but that He is far more than all that. He saves me with an abundant deliverance: He is my eternal Preserver, the portion of my inheritance, my glory.”

Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) excerpt from Chapter Five of his classic work: On Loving God.

The root of Christian generosity is acting daily on the belief that God is our generous Provider and eternal Preserver.

God, thank you that we can trust you to provide our daily bread, and to preserve us in the future, despite the uncertainties of life today and for all eternity. With full confidence in You, may our lives reflect this belief so that You receive all glory.

“God, the wise Creator and just Ordainer of all natures, has made the mortal race of man the loveliest of all lovely things on earth. He has given to men good gifts suited to their existence here below. Among these is temporal peace, according to the poor limits of mortal life, in health, security, and human fellowship; and other gifts, too, needed to preserve this peace or regain it, once lost–for instance, the blessings that lie all around us, so perfectly adapted to our senses: daylight, speech, air to breathe, water to drink, everything that goes to feed, clothe, cure, and beautify the body. These good gifts are granted, however, with the perfectly just understanding that whomever uses the goods which are meant for the mortal peace of mortal men, as these goods should be used, will receive more abundant and better goods–nothing less than immortal peace and all that goes with it, namely, the glory and honor of enjoying God and one’s neighbor in God everlastingly; but that whoever misuses his gifts on earth will both lose what he has and never receive the better gifts of heaven.

Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo, in City of God (New York: Doubleday, 1958) 458.

Preserving the gift of peace or regaining it once lost often comes at a high cost but consider the gain! But how do we steward the gift of peace? Today at the Peacemaker Ministries conference in Colorado Springs, I will I offer a New Testament perspective on peacemaking. My prayer is inspire everyone make every effort to preserve this gift!

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:2-4

In the words of Augustine, when we steward this peace rightly and put to work the goods entrusted to us “as these goods should be used,” we get “more abundant and better goods” in return, including the enjoyment of the fullness of God’s generosity now and in the eternal state with Him and our neighbors.

“Neither wealth, nor honors, nor vanity can make a man happy during his life on earth, but only attachment to the service of God, when we are fortunate enough to realize that and to carry it out.”

John Baptiste Marie Vianney (c. 380-465) excerpt from a sermon recounted in The Quotable Saint, ed. R.E. Guiley (New York: Visionary Living, 2002) 113.

As followers of Christ our greatest joy comes not from profitable ventures or public accolades but rather knowing that our work, whatever it may be, is done for God.

Vianney notes that not everyone is fortunate to make this connection. May our generous service of God, regardless of the occupations in which we find ourselves, bring glory to Him.

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him…Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters. Colossians 3:17, 23