NO FINANCIAL FAVOURITES

Friday 3 January

If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God [Who gives] to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or faultfinding, and it will be given him. James 1:5 AMPC

that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Matthew 5:45 (NKJV)

Did you know that when it comes to material and financial blessings there is no difference between the believer and the unbeliever? Maybe you are surprised by that statement. Neither is there any favouritism by God for his children over those who are not yet saved when it comes to money and physical possessions. God didn’t create the system of money; Man created it. This is why the Bible can never be an effective financial handbook. Stay with me.

What God did in His benevolence and generosity was put all the resources in the earth for all of mankind to use and enjoy without prejudice to anyone in particular. What does this tell us? That He as James 1:5 says, is ‘the giving God who gives to EVERYONE liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or faultfinding’…

What does this mean in real terms? God never gave expecting anything in return: He doesn’t give based on who you are, how you act or what you’ve done. He gave because it is His very nature to give. Giving to get something in return is not reflective of the way God gives. How do we know this?

John 3:16 says ‘For God so loved the world that He GAVE’

Are you seeing a picture here? What about 2 Corinthians 8:9 ‘For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.’

This scripture is not about physical poverty and riches. It is about the Word who was named Jesus, stepping down from His glory to deprive Himself of that rich state to become a man which to deity was becoming poor. Here is the crux of the matter. When it says ‘that YOU through His poverty might become rich’; the riches here are spiritual not material.

Ephesians 1:3 says to the believer God ‘has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.’ What we have in salvation is the ‘good and perfect’ gift that James 1:17 refers to. This is far superior than the physical and material blessings of this world.

Jesus said that God makes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and the rain to fall on the righteous and unrighteous. God is completely impartial in His giving. He does not discriminate between those who are saved and those who are not. If He did then all the saved would be financially wealthy and all the unsaved would be poor and destitute.

There are a lot of people that don’t tithe or give any financial offerings, who don’t even believe in God or maybe even deny His existence and yet are still able to thrive and be financially successful. Why is that? Because financial and material success and prosperity has nothing to do with your giving and everything to do with His generosity towards everyone.

Look at Jesus attitude regarding financial matters in Luke 12:13-15 ‘Someone in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” But He (Jesus) said to him, “Man, who appointed Me a judge or arbitrator over you? Then He said to them, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.’

This passage flies in the face of much of what has been taught in the Body of Christ today. Acts 20:35 says Jesus stated ‘it is more blessed to give than to receive.’

The only giving Jesus praised in the gospels was when the widow gave out of her poverty in a spirit of generosity. Paul said something similar about the church in Macedonia ‘How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.’ They were rich in generosity.

This epitomises giving in the New Testament. Giving to bless others and establish the Kingdom. This kind of giving reflects the heart of God.

‘So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.’ (2 Corinthians 9:7). The original text puts it this way: a cheerful giver loves God. Ask yourself this question; why do you give?

APPLICATION

Read James 1:5,17 and the epistles to see that all forms of giving in the New Testament were out of a spirit of generosity and not under law or compulsion.