2 Corinthians 8:8 states this is one way to prove that your love is real, that it goes beyond mere words.
How do you prove your love for God and His Church?
Many might say by how they feel about God and His Church, after all, God knows what’s in their heart. The Apostle James likened these people to those whose faith was dead, they would say to people in need, ‘I hope things get better’ but would do nothing to alleviate the situation.
Jesus didn’t love the world by feeling good toward it, He loved the world by giving His life to save it. God the Father didn’t love the world by feeling positively about it, He loved the world by bankrupting heaven with the blood of His Son in order to purchase rebels so He could transform them into children.
Love is never described as a feeling in the famous love chapter of the Bible, (1 Corinthians 13) but rather it is described as action.
In today’s reading Paul says giving financially to help others in the Church is one way to prove our faith. As a whole giving is down in the Church. The under 40 crowd gives the least to the work of God while the over 60 crowd gives the most. While few Christians attend a church that doesn’t promote tithing only about 3% of all Christians adhere to this teaching.
Many young Christians wait until they can afford to give which is the opposite of the woman who was commended by the Lord Jesus as the greatest giver of all for she gave everything she had to live on which was only a few pennies.
Where we spend our money is indicative of where our priorities lay. God said it this way, where our treasure is there our hearts will be also. Too many Christians place their comfort and their pleasure above the work of God and the needs of His people. Few indeed are those who sacrifice material benefit in this world in order to accumulate spiritual benefit in the next.
We tend to dislike the Church’s talk about money unless its about how God wants our best material life now because we know in our heart of hearts that we cannot serve God and money but we really love money. The cure to greed and selfishness is generosity.
No doubt you can easily find a place to give to God’s work if you desire, beginning within your own church.
