Episode 55 - Giving is... love

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The basis of the theme “giving is love” comes from 1 John 4:16, where it says, “God is Love.”

We talk about giving because giving is a natural behavior of a Christian. It is rooted in God Himself. He is not just loving – He is love, and in His love, He gives. Giving is often seen as an expression or a response. Ideally, we want to give out of the love of God because we have the gifts of the Holy Spirit. He has poured these into our hearts when we were sealed, so out of that love, we should first turn to God.

  • Giving to God: We want to give something to God. What do we give to Him when He “has everything already”? We can only give back to God what He has given us first. And the only thing that He gave us, which He would not take back for Himself, is our free will. That is something we can give to Him, letting His will be the dominant force in our lives.
  • Giving to our neighbor: By letting God’s will be dominant in our lives, we begin to think and feel like Him. We love our neighbor, and out of this love, we want to give them the one thing that they do not have from us: our time. In Matthew 25, Jesus said, “I was in prison and you came to me.” In other words, we may not change the circumstance, but we can have empathy for what our neighbor is going through by being with them.
  • Giving to the church:  The church is the assembly of believers and was established by Jesus. We belong to this assembly, so we want to share the gifts given to us by the Holy Spirit, and our resources, to sustain it.