The Second Aspect of Giving

Spiritual

As I come to this section I pray that God has also revealed these truths to you and that the Holy Spirit is working within you concerning them. I also pray that God has shown you the importance of the physical aspect of giving and how it expounds the spiritual. As we continue we are going to look one more time at John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” The spiritual provides the hope of the promise to come. Just as in the Old Testament they looked forward to the coming of the Messiah so we look forward to eternal life, yet it took Christ coming in the form of man to be able to provide this. The spiritual aspect is Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:17; Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a NEW creature, old things pass away; behold all things become new. This is the second part of the second aspect; the first part being Jesus Christ and the second being a new creature, which creates in us new desires. The reason it creates new desires is that it feeds off the example of Christ.

What was the example of Christ? He displayed the love of the Father in actions unlike anything ever seen before. Unlike the religious leader of the time, He gave without drawing attention to Himself, although the news spread quickly, He gave with no expectations of reward, yet the Father still glorified Himself through Him. He gave without expecting thanks and yet one leper returned to give Him thanks. He gave because through His example many would come to Him and understand what love was. He gave even though He would be beaten, denied, spit upon, blasphemed, and ridiculed. He gave because by one mans disobedience many became sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. It is obedience to the first aspect that the second relies upon because without it, it doesn’t work. This does not endorse salvation by works, but what it does promote is evidence of your salvation through the work being done in us, through the gift of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

When we give to the physical needs of someone we are showing the Lord Jesus Christ. If done with a pure heart it is then blessed by God and allows us to share Christ with them. The reason this works is because it is something done for them without having strings attached. It reveals the true love of Christ and draws them to His character and not ours. It will allow them to see past mistakes that we might make because they are not looking at us but what pushes us to meet their needs in such a way and when it’s done regardless of the outcome, God works. All too often we do things expecting a certain response or action from the one we are helping and when it doesn’t turn out the way WE think it should we let everyone know how ungrateful the people were and then wonder why they won’t come to church. Remember what we were told in Deuteronomy 15: 9 Beware lest there be an evil thought in your heart. This is what has pushed many away from the church and God. Because the spiritual aspect of giving is so important it must be accompanied by a pure heart and it has to be able to recognize the needs of the one with whom you are sharing it with. If Christ was selfish or self-centered would His ministry have made such an impact? If He had done the things that He had done for the praise of man would it still be with us today? The answer to these questions is no. The simple fact is that He was God in the form of man and could do nothing more than reveal the love that He had for us from the beginning and to display it in a way that should have encouraged us to do the same. This love is what drew people to Him. It was what aided the Holy Spirit after Pentecost in adding to the church daily. It was the way the people met the physical then exuded the spiritual, so when they told someone that they loved them and that Christ died for their sins and rose again the third day the people could believe it because they were experiencing His love shown through them.

The reason why Christ said there would always be poor with us is because He knew we would not be obedient in providing for them just as He knew the children of Israel would not care for them in the Old Testament. Yet for a brief period in time we saw this obedience being practiced and the results were that thousands were added to the church daily. Did they accept Christ just so their physical needs would be met? No, they came to Him because they wanted what everyone else had. They saw it at work in their everyday lives and when they believed their lives were transformed and they became the examples to others. Is it any wonder why so many hearts are hardened against the gospel when you look at the lack of love among His people who are supposed to reveal His love through their actions? If we don’t truly love them enough to meet their physical needs then how can they believe that trusting Christ is going to make a difference in their lives? It’s not a prosperity gospel. There is no promise of great riches to all those who believe in fact it’s the exact opposite, we are promised trial and turmoil as well as persecution so who in their right mind would want to believe in someone who promised this? The answer is the person who has experienced God’s love through one of His children meeting their physical needs and then insuring that their spiritual needs were met also.

I pray that God has spoken to you through this and that you will allow the Holy Spirit to work within you. I am not sure if I am finished with this because I feel as if there is something more that God wants to show me concerning this so there may be another addition to this.

In Christ: SFT 8/07/08

Tags: Christ Giving Spiritual

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