Journey of Paul
Week 2
Tuesday, February 6
Generosity and Nothing
1 Corinthians 13:3
3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
There was a really nice couple in a church that I served as an associate. They were very loving people who wanted to make a difference in the lives of others. I can’t say that I knew them very well, because they split their time between the town we were in and a winter home down south. When they were in town, they were not very frequent attenders, but they considered our church home as theirs. Every interaction that I had with them was positive and they were always very kind to me as a young pastor.
My biggest struggle was once a year they would come to the front of the church and they would be honored for their generosity and they would challenge others in our congregation to be likely as generous. Those were the Sundays where I just felt awkward. I couldn’t get the following words of Jesus out of my head when I would see them do this.
Matthew 6: 1-4
“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
It isn’t like they were unaware of the following verses. But practically, doing things like this worked for that congregation, and at the end of the year we had a budget to meet and bills to pay. It’s stories like this often where we find people becoming disenfranchised with organized religion because they believe that the church only cares about your money.
The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 seems to be encouraging of generosity though. He wants people to know that generosity and helping the poor is an achievable goal. Sacrifice and surrender are good things, but as you can hopefully see by now, Paul is going to put them into the proper context with love. If we give all that we possess away, or might even give our own bodies over to hardship, if we do it apart from love, we gain nothing. The language of gaining is important here. Previously, Paul would have negated the action in the language of it being nothing. Here, there is no gain. If we expect to get something in return for what we give away with a motive or separation from love, the return on investment will be nothing.
I am not sure what the couple was hoping to get in return for what they were doing. Perhaps it was the feeling of goodness that generosity can bring with it. Or they remembered how blessed they were because they were able to give money away. Or maybe they liked the honor and the recognition from others. These things will have a reward to them, but if you expect for there to be a gain, it will be nothing. The reward given is done. The return on investment will be nothing. Love invites generosity. Love invites a generosity that might encourage you to share in secret so that the greatest reward might be given by our Father and not by the applause of others.
Prayer
Lord, help me to give with love. Amen