He Giveth, And He Giveth, And He Giveth Again
The word for the day is ingrate. When a person is consistently ungrateful, we call him or her an ingrate. You hold a door open for someone and they don’t say “thank-you.” You are driving and you let someone in and they do not wave. You go out of your way to tell a guy that he dropped his wallet, but you find out that he had just stolen it and only wanted the cash, and then you get punched in the face. Then you throw the wallet at him and knock him unconscious because there was like a hundred pennies in the coin pouch section. Ya. What was I talking about before? Oh – ingrates. Ya, that guy wasn’t too grateful for me throwing that wallet at him. I nursed him back to health though.
Kidding aside, we have all run into people (or may BE one) who are not thankful, and are just plain hard to be nice to. You are willing to do someone a good turn, just as long as they are aware of how put out you are to do it. We don’t even mind when no one else notices, just as long as the recipient does. When we think our good deed will go un-thanked, we second guess the whole thing. Don’t we? I don’t think it’s just me. More so, when people are demanding when there is no obligation on your part, it’s even harder. So what do you do? Well, you probably don’t throw the wallet at him.
How is Christ, as a giver, different than everyone else on the planet? There are giving people here that would have no connection to God whatsoever, and yet they still give. I was stranded on the side of the road and a guy helped me for hours to get back on the road. He ended up driving me and my family home. Not a capital “B” believer, but a believer in giving. I sure learned a lesson about the golden rule that day. But Jesus is different. His giving put him on a level so astronomically higher, that our most heroic efforts look like pocket lint in comparison.
You see, he gave not only when it was not received gratefully, but when it was taken from him by such force it killed him. His life was taken. He willingly gave what was murderously exacted from him. The very worst that the world could do was kill God’s Son, and yet it was the very thing he came to allow. Pardon the comparison here, but think of giving your wife to a rapist or your child to a pedophile. What happened to Jesus was worse. He was “altogether lovely”, “full of grace and truth”, and simply perfect. The man that everyone should have been dying to protect, died in the place of his murderers.
We are told in the New Testament to do better than just the golden rule. “Do as you would be done by” was the height of the Old Covenant. The new covenant is higher. Not just “love your neighbour as yourself” but love your neighbour MORE than yourself. The words go: “Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another.” Preference to one another should mark us as believers in Jesus. When we go without rent money to pay another’s rent, or when we offer our vehicle to one who has just crashed theirs, we are living out this kind of love. When we give and there are no thanks in return and even when we are demanded to give something that is not necessary, we are then loving like Christ. Instead of throwing your wallet at someone, open it up.
BJ
Kidding aside, we have all run into people (or may BE one) who are not thankful, and are just plain hard to be nice to. You are willing to do someone a good turn, just as long as they are aware of how put out you are to do it. We don’t even mind when no one else notices, just as long as the recipient does. When we think our good deed will go un-thanked, we second guess the whole thing. Don’t we? I don’t think it’s just me. More so, when people are demanding when there is no obligation on your part, it’s even harder. So what do you do? Well, you probably don’t throw the wallet at him.
How is Christ, as a giver, different than everyone else on the planet? There are giving people here that would have no connection to God whatsoever, and yet they still give. I was stranded on the side of the road and a guy helped me for hours to get back on the road. He ended up driving me and my family home. Not a capital “B” believer, but a believer in giving. I sure learned a lesson about the golden rule that day. But Jesus is different. His giving put him on a level so astronomically higher, that our most heroic efforts look like pocket lint in comparison.
You see, he gave not only when it was not received gratefully, but when it was taken from him by such force it killed him. His life was taken. He willingly gave what was murderously exacted from him. The very worst that the world could do was kill God’s Son, and yet it was the very thing he came to allow. Pardon the comparison here, but think of giving your wife to a rapist or your child to a pedophile. What happened to Jesus was worse. He was “altogether lovely”, “full of grace and truth”, and simply perfect. The man that everyone should have been dying to protect, died in the place of his murderers.
We are told in the New Testament to do better than just the golden rule. “Do as you would be done by” was the height of the Old Covenant. The new covenant is higher. Not just “love your neighbour as yourself” but love your neighbour MORE than yourself. The words go: “Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another.” Preference to one another should mark us as believers in Jesus. When we go without rent money to pay another’s rent, or when we offer our vehicle to one who has just crashed theirs, we are living out this kind of love. When we give and there are no thanks in return and even when we are demanded to give something that is not necessary, we are then loving like Christ. Instead of throwing your wallet at someone, open it up.
BJ
posted by BJ at 2:27 p.m.
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