Monday, April 23, 2012
284 - Giving, Getting, and God
Spirituality
Column #284
April 24, 2012
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville
Indianapolis North Metro Home Newspapers
And the truth rings clear in Acts 20:35: the blessing is in the giving.
April 24, 2012
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville
Indianapolis North Metro Home Newspapers
Giving, Getting, and God
By Bob
Walters
“It is more blessed to give than to
receive.” – Acts 20:35
The book of Acts in the New
Testament was written by Gospel-writer Luke and, for my money, is the easiest
of the New Testament books to understand.
Also called the “Acts of the
Apostles,” the book is positioned just after the Gospels and before the 13 Pauline letters
(letters of Paul). Acts recounts the
“acts” or activities of the Apostles, believers, and disbelievers in the first weeks
and years after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This includes the Ascension of Jesus, the
arrival of the Holy Spirit (Pentecost), formation of the early church, the
stoning of Stephen (the first martyr and first to pray in the name of Jesus),
the conversion of Paul, Paul’s missionary journeys, arrests, trials, and
escapes, the Bereans, the Sanhedrin, Rome … it’s a busy book of faith, action, adventure,
personalities, some doctrinal basics, and history; not complex theology.
It also includes Paul’s famed
“Farewell to the Ephesian Elders” (Acts 20:18-35), a speech that concludes “remembering the words of our Lord Jesus
himself…” – Paul quoting Christ’s famous truth – ‘…it is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
Just about everybody can quote that one. But … can we, do we, live it?
Jesus was 100 percent about giving:
He gave His life and received nothing but death on the Cross; giving God glory
in Heaven. Our fallen human nature is weighted
heavily toward receiving rather than giving.
We want to receive salvation in exchange for giving praise; we think
“receiving” salvation is the blessing. Jesus
teaches that the blessing is in the giving; in giving all to others, in giving
praise and glory to God, and in taking up – receiving
– nothing but our cross.
Quite obviously, that’s often not
the way the world works. Sure, we all
have inside us the will to do for others.
There is a name for that: our “humanity.” We also have inside of us a fear of death, which
makes us “human” and governs our efforts to “do” for ourselves at the expense
of God and others. There is a name for
that too: sin.
Some argue that because this “blessed to give” line is not in the
Gospels that it is somehow false. The
Apostle John says plainly (John 21:25) that “Jesus did many other things” that are not written in the
Gospels. Looking at what is written everywhere in the Bible, we
clearly see a Jesus who gave.
And the truth rings clear in Acts 20:35: the blessing is in the giving.
Walters
(www.commonchristianity.blogspot.com, rlwcom@aol.com) cringes when “Christian” preachers
preach giving or good behavior in exchange for, e.g., to receive, financial “blessing.” Ick. Just
praise God, and be blessed.
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