Martin Luther: Do you think God needs your good works?

“God does not need our good works, but our neighbor does.”

Luther on Vocation comp. Gustav Wingren, trans. Carl C. Rasmussen (Evansville: Ballast, 1994) 10.

“Most Christians are not putting God first in the financial area of their lives. Materialism has taken its toll and impacted believers. The world has pressed us into its mold and the majority of evangelical believers in our society are not walking in the will of God in relationship to their material possessions (Rom. 12:1-2).”

Gene A. Getz in A Biblical Theology of Material Possessions (Chicago: Moody Press, 1990) 15-16.

“Come just to please Him. Once you are there, if He chooses to pour out some great blessing, receive it. But if, instead, your mind wanders, receive that. Or if you have a difficult time in prayer, receive that. Joyfully accept whatever He desires to give. Believe that whatever happens is what He wants to give you…When you have come to the Lord this way, you will find that your spirit is at peace no matter what your condition…Why? Because you will have learned to love God just because you love Him, not because of His gifts…”

Jeanne Guyon in Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ (Jacksonville: SeedSowers, 1975) 24.

“When you make renouncement of the goods you possess, be adamant in your resolve, convinced that you are merely dispatching these goods to heaven in advance; for, although you are hiding them in the bosom of the lowly, you will find them again with God, greatly increased.”

Basil the Great (330-379), Bishop of Caesarea, On Renunciation of the World (Fathers of the Church, Vol. 9) 18.

“Do as the Master commands, “Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.” (Luke 14:21)

Bring them starving. Bring them bleeding and broken. Drag them into the banquet, wretched and raggedy as they are. Sit them at the table, though they mourn and weep, necks bent and heads hung low.

Go in love. Go with love. Go because of love. How else will they know our good God? How else will we?

“By this all me will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:35

Claudia Mair Burney, in the epilogue to The Furious Longing of God by Brennan Manning (Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2009) 136.

And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work. 2 Corinthians 9:8

“The challenge for us is not our wealth or lack of it, but belief and obedience. The generous, giving heart will live in this grace—“so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” There will always be enough to be generous.”

R. Kent Hughes in 2 Corinthians: Power in Weakness (Wheaton: Crossway, 2006) 175.

“Whoever would truly be a follower of God must break the bonds of attachment to this life. This is done through complete separation from and forgetfulness of old habits. It is impossible for us to achieve our goal of pleasing God unless we snatch ourselves away from fleshly ties and worldly society. We are then transported to another world in our manner of living. The apostle said, “But our citizenship is in heaven.” (Phil. 3:20) The Lord specifically said, “Likewise, every one of you that does not renounce all that he possesses cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:33)”

Basil the Great (330-379), Bishop of Caesarea in The Long Rules 5. Cf. ACCS.L.242.

We believe that we are called to follow Christ in a life of discipleship and that a significant part of that discipleship is a faithful use of all the resources of which God has made us stewards. We believe that all these resources, as well as our lives, are entrusted to us to use for the glory of God, for the furtherance of His kingdom, and for the benefit of others.

“This Call to Faithful Stewardship recognizes the pressures of our world to influence Christians to conform to its materialistic, accumulative, and consumptive values. Thus, there is a need for the church to call Christians to live by the teachings of Christ and His Word as faithful stewards. This is a call…to give special attention to faithful stewardship in the following ways: a call to receive gratefully…a call to manage faithfully…a call to share generously.”

Mennonite General Conference, statement in Proceedings (August 23-25, 1995), p. 26-28. Cf. Mark Vincent, A Christian View of Money: Celebrating God’s Generosity (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 1997) 16-17.

One of the ways we can cultivate spiritual growth, and subsequently grow in generosity, is to realize that our entire lives belong to the Lord. In my own experience, I have found that this simple prayer helps me to commit all my life to Christ:

I am no longer my own, but Thine. 
Put me to what Thou wilt, rank me with whom Thou wilt. 
Put me to doing, put me to suffering. 
Let me be employed for Thee or laid aside for Thee, 
Exalted for Thee or brought low for Thee. 
Let me be full, let me be empty. 
Let me have all things, let me have nothing. 
I freely and heartily yield all things to Thy pleasure and disposal.

If you will pray this prayer on a regular basis you will realize that your life is not your own. You will find that you are willing to give more generously and to do things that are a bit risky or that require sacrifice because you know your security is not in your savings account or IRA but in God.”

Adam Hamilton in Enough: Discovering Joy Through Simplicity and Generosity (Nashville: Abingdon Press) 78; cf. “A Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition” in The United Methodist Hymnal (1989) 607.

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift. 2 Corinthians 9:15

“The best we can give to each other may be neither a thing (like a diamond ring) nor an act (like an embrace), but our own generosity. With that “indescribable gift” called Christ, God gave us a generous self and a community founded on generosity. Such a self bestows gifts freely. It gives because it delights in the beloved and can’t endure the need of the needy. In giving, it subverts hierarchies and transforms rivalries into mutual exaltations. And in all of this, it forges lasting bonds of reciprocal love. At the most basic level, generosity itself is exchanged in all our gift exchanges: My generosity is reciprocated by your generosity, and the circle of mutual love keeps turning. How should we give? By letting our generosities dance together.”

Miroslav Volf in Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005) 87.