Generosity
Generosity ( or Charity or Sacrificial Love) 2nd Mark of the Christian
We are looking at what are the characteristics or marks of the Christian. In Christ's presence we could know what they are all in a second. He is the example of our Christian life. There is not a better role model for what a Christian is than the Lord Himself. Often I have thought about how poorly we reflect that in our circumstances. We stress, we pout, we have people we cannot abide, and our patience is let us say frayed like the wires in an old electrical system. That are about ready to blow up.
The Comfortable Words in the Older versions of the Prayer Book as we are about to receive Holy Communion suggest to us what these qualities of our Saviour are: " Hear what comfortable words our Saviour Christ saith unto all who truly turn to him"
" Come unto me, all ye that travail and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you." Mt 11:28
Last week we mentioned one of the qualities of the Christian and that was freedom---freedom that Christ has bought for us in our faith and in our relationship with others. This week I want to ask in light of the Gospel, how generous are we?
The Gospel is Matthew 13, a familiar account of the sowing of the seeds by the Sower and the different soils it falls in. We have the stony ground, where the seed appears to take root, yet when trials come the person is offended, and the joy at first glance becomes stone. The one who receives among the thorns hears the word but it is choked by the the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches. We are to be good ground , hearing the word, and understanding that brings forth much fruit.
The fruit of the Spirit should be evident in our Christian lives even when the going gets tough. If we have been " branded " or " bear in our bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus" Gal. 6:17 , then we will be loyal to His cause, His truth, and show His generous spirit of love to all we meet, even to the people who frustrate us the most.
Have you ever known a generous kind giving person ? If you have you know that kind of person is the kind of person you too want to be. They are good ground people who bear much fruit. When others treat them badly they are not going to take vengeance, even though it may may feel like the thing to do . They will graciously bear the spirit of Christ's love even when mistreated. These are the kind of people God calls us to be as His ambassadors.
It may be we need a motive to be generous. " Freely ye have receive; freely give." Mt 10:8 Our Lord gives these instructions to His disciples as they are to go out with His Word," And as ye go preach, saying ,The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give...." " Be generous because you have been treated generously. I know of few better motives than this for generosity." Shatford , "Six Marks of a Christian"
I learned that the English word generous comes from the Latin word generosus which means of noble birth. Later on the word changed to mean not of noble birth but a person who was of noble qualities. "gallantry, courage, strength, richness, gentleness, and fairness"-Generosity in Wikipedia....
" What do we mean by generosity? We mean a man's doing a little more than might be expected of him. If he only does his duty he is not generous: he is merely just; but if he does a little more than may be justly demanded of him, if he exceeds justice in the point of duty, then he becomes generous." Shatford
Now that we know that being generous is what we should be , who should we generous to?
---our friends. That may be the easiest to be generous to.
---our enemies " if there is any man who can do it , he is manifesting the true spirit of a Christian." Shatford
" The story is told of Abraham Lincoln, that once one of the bitterest of men toward him in the nation was Edwin M. Stanton. Stanton hated him so much that he said he didn't see any reason for going away down to Africa to get a gorilla, when they had one in Abraham Lincoln. Yet Lincoln was so generous to Stanton, that when he wanted a secretary of war, he appointed Stanton , because he believe that he had the qualifications for the position. And his generosity so won over his enemy that when the great president lay dead, Stanton said of him,' There is the greatest ruler of men that ever lived.' "
Generous to our rivals? Even in the church it can happen. When one pastor succeeds , can other pastors and members say something good instead of questioning the pastor's orthodoxy? It is hard to not be jealous , is it not?
Can we be generous to those who do not believe as we do? Was our Lord generous to all men? Of course He was. Can we be generous to those who hold opposite views to our own even in the area of religion? Do we not live in a country where we have what is called the First Amendment to the Constitution and it allows the " free exercise of religion?" Of course this is so, but how do we practice our charity to others of other persuasions so to speak? Do we hold prejudgmental feelings of hate? In our Bible study last WED we said our lesson from I John 2: 11 showed that, " ..he that hateth his brother/sister is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes..."
" The story is told of Leonardo da Vinci that he had an enemy, and he decided he was going to put that enemy of his life in one of his pictures. So when he painted ' The Last Supper' he painted the face of his enemy on the figure of Judas Iscariot. When he had done that he tried to paint the face of Christ and he could not do it. Every effort that he made failed, until at last he realized why it was---because vindictiveness in his soul was crippling his handicraft. He went and painted out the face of his enemy on the figure of Judas Iscariot, forgave him, and then came back and painted the face of Jesus Christ with great power. It is generosity that will make you and I a finer, a better and a bigger soul."
Conclusion. As Christians we bear in our bodies the marks of the Lord. These marks are who we are, seed that was sown on good ground, and now we are bearing much fruit---love, joy, peace, patience, forbearance, longsuffering, meekness, temperance, goodness, faith....Christians are to be like Christ and He forgave, suffered, and bled on the cross. He is our example. May we live it as we believe it.
We are looking at what are the characteristics or marks of the Christian. In Christ's presence we could know what they are all in a second. He is the example of our Christian life. There is not a better role model for what a Christian is than the Lord Himself. Often I have thought about how poorly we reflect that in our circumstances. We stress, we pout, we have people we cannot abide, and our patience is let us say frayed like the wires in an old electrical system. That are about ready to blow up.
The Comfortable Words in the Older versions of the Prayer Book as we are about to receive Holy Communion suggest to us what these qualities of our Saviour are: " Hear what comfortable words our Saviour Christ saith unto all who truly turn to him"
" Come unto me, all ye that travail and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you." Mt 11:28
Last week we mentioned one of the qualities of the Christian and that was freedom---freedom that Christ has bought for us in our faith and in our relationship with others. This week I want to ask in light of the Gospel, how generous are we?
The Gospel is Matthew 13, a familiar account of the sowing of the seeds by the Sower and the different soils it falls in. We have the stony ground, where the seed appears to take root, yet when trials come the person is offended, and the joy at first glance becomes stone. The one who receives among the thorns hears the word but it is choked by the the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches. We are to be good ground , hearing the word, and understanding that brings forth much fruit.
The fruit of the Spirit should be evident in our Christian lives even when the going gets tough. If we have been " branded " or " bear in our bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus" Gal. 6:17 , then we will be loyal to His cause, His truth, and show His generous spirit of love to all we meet, even to the people who frustrate us the most.
Have you ever known a generous kind giving person ? If you have you know that kind of person is the kind of person you too want to be. They are good ground people who bear much fruit. When others treat them badly they are not going to take vengeance, even though it may may feel like the thing to do . They will graciously bear the spirit of Christ's love even when mistreated. These are the kind of people God calls us to be as His ambassadors.
It may be we need a motive to be generous. " Freely ye have receive; freely give." Mt 10:8 Our Lord gives these instructions to His disciples as they are to go out with His Word," And as ye go preach, saying ,The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give...." " Be generous because you have been treated generously. I know of few better motives than this for generosity." Shatford , "Six Marks of a Christian"
I learned that the English word generous comes from the Latin word generosus which means of noble birth. Later on the word changed to mean not of noble birth but a person who was of noble qualities. "gallantry, courage, strength, richness, gentleness, and fairness"-Generosity in Wikipedia....
" What do we mean by generosity? We mean a man's doing a little more than might be expected of him. If he only does his duty he is not generous: he is merely just; but if he does a little more than may be justly demanded of him, if he exceeds justice in the point of duty, then he becomes generous." Shatford
Now that we know that being generous is what we should be , who should we generous to?
---our friends. That may be the easiest to be generous to.
---our enemies " if there is any man who can do it , he is manifesting the true spirit of a Christian." Shatford
" The story is told of Abraham Lincoln, that once one of the bitterest of men toward him in the nation was Edwin M. Stanton. Stanton hated him so much that he said he didn't see any reason for going away down to Africa to get a gorilla, when they had one in Abraham Lincoln. Yet Lincoln was so generous to Stanton, that when he wanted a secretary of war, he appointed Stanton , because he believe that he had the qualifications for the position. And his generosity so won over his enemy that when the great president lay dead, Stanton said of him,' There is the greatest ruler of men that ever lived.' "
Generous to our rivals? Even in the church it can happen. When one pastor succeeds , can other pastors and members say something good instead of questioning the pastor's orthodoxy? It is hard to not be jealous , is it not?
Can we be generous to those who do not believe as we do? Was our Lord generous to all men? Of course He was. Can we be generous to those who hold opposite views to our own even in the area of religion? Do we not live in a country where we have what is called the First Amendment to the Constitution and it allows the " free exercise of religion?" Of course this is so, but how do we practice our charity to others of other persuasions so to speak? Do we hold prejudgmental feelings of hate? In our Bible study last WED we said our lesson from I John 2: 11 showed that, " ..he that hateth his brother/sister is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes..."
" The story is told of Leonardo da Vinci that he had an enemy, and he decided he was going to put that enemy of his life in one of his pictures. So when he painted ' The Last Supper' he painted the face of his enemy on the figure of Judas Iscariot. When he had done that he tried to paint the face of Christ and he could not do it. Every effort that he made failed, until at last he realized why it was---because vindictiveness in his soul was crippling his handicraft. He went and painted out the face of his enemy on the figure of Judas Iscariot, forgave him, and then came back and painted the face of Jesus Christ with great power. It is generosity that will make you and I a finer, a better and a bigger soul."
Conclusion. As Christians we bear in our bodies the marks of the Lord. These marks are who we are, seed that was sown on good ground, and now we are bearing much fruit---love, joy, peace, patience, forbearance, longsuffering, meekness, temperance, goodness, faith....Christians are to be like Christ and He forgave, suffered, and bled on the cross. He is our example. May we live it as we believe it.
Comments
Post a Comment