Philippians 4:15
“You yourselves also know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel, after I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving except you alone”.
This is quite a compliment. No other church gave like the Philippians. It’s safe to say that they had a generosity gift. I’ve heard of wealthy people that gave greatly. However, one can have it and not be rich.
Jesus referred to a widow who was generous. The story is cited in Luke 21:1-4, ‘Now He looked up and saw the wealthy putting their gifts into the temple treasury. And He saw a poor widow putting in two lepta coins. And He said, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all of them; for they all contributed to the offering from their surplus; but she, from her poverty, put in all that she had to live on.'” She gave a massive amount when compared to what she had. It sounds like 100%. The others gave far more, but she beat them when it compares to percentages. That is one aspect of what being gifted in generosity looks like.
A second aspect of the gift of generosity is faith. The widow believed that God would provide. Jesus speaks of God’s provision in Matthew 6:30,31, “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear for clothing?’” God will provide for us. As we walk with Christ, we begin to trust Him. God cares about the grass, flowers and the birds. He says we have far greater value.
God puts a measure of faith in us. We give accordingly. In my mind all christians are to tithe. It’s not a law, but a general principle. We should all grow into that. Some give more, some give less.
Our relationship with God is a living one. So, not everything’s the same. Sometimes God taps us on the shoulder to give a gift. It usually comes as a thought or desire. We pray to see if it’s Him. Sometimes I toss out a fleece. As in, “Lord, if this is of You, make that clear? Thank You.” The one with the generosity gift does this often.
Another aspect of giving is desire. I had trouble with this as a young believer. I grew up in a church that taught many “shoulds” and “ought to’s”. I seemed to have a deep undercurrent of guilt. It wasn’t just me. This church produced this. This began to dissipate as I began to learn about grace. One passage that helped was 2 Corinthians 9:7, “Each one should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not out of regret or compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver.” Wow! Much of my giving as a young christian was guilt laden. I am mainly talking about giving of my time. When I would check my heart, it was rarely cheerful.
It took a few years to correct this. Philippians 2:12 speaks of this, “Therefore my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now even more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” When we are born again God puts a new heart in us. We are perfect in His sight, “Thank You, Jesus”. The rest of our lives we take that which is in us and work that out into our actions. We learn to love, forgive, show mercy and give.
I would inspect my heart. If it wasn’t cheerful I would ask God to make it so. Some of my motivation was wrong, as it was guilty. Sometimes I wouldn’t give as it wasn’t right. Discerning this took some time. I learned that the devil uses condemnation as a tool. He would say, “A good christian would …” I fell for that for years. Reading the bible and hearing good sermons was my pathway to a cheerful heart.
I would imagine someone with the gift of giving doesn’t have all these hang ups. It’s a gift that God gave them. They have the faith to give often with large percentages. Thank You, Lord, for them. The Philippian church was such a church.
God doesn’t call all of us to have this gift. He does want us to be generous. “Help us there, Lord’.