Christians commonly wrestle with what it is to be both Christian in genuine faith of acceptance with God and the practical daily living that Scripture defines for faithful followers. It is not easy for us to live in a world motivated as it is by materialism and with the models of success found in wealth/power, without being taken by similar drives. Further, the materialistic motivation does not need great wealth to distract from God’s preference that once we have our own needs addressed (so not to rely on others) and have a residue left over we are wealthy in common world society. Relatively few Christians, having some bounty in material wealth, sense real sacrifice even when they are generous. Christians, in comparison with the general public, do give more than average social giving, but the call of Scripture is for greater involvement so to address effectively the concept of service to creation. Virtue for believers is not found in comparison with the secular practices, but with a model that grows out of God’s perfection. That is indicated in Scripture related to giving, not accumulating. Jesus illustrated it taking almost nothing for himself, and giving generously of what he had for others. We admit that Jesus is an exception in that he had resources that we do not have, but his model carried over to the Apostles. In turn, they modeled to Christians.
We may be convinced that our treatment of material wealth provides information to ourselves and others the depth of the motivation of faith. My faith is partly understood in the way I treat what I have in wealth in relation to others having less than I do. In this I prove to myself my faith. If my faith is genuine, in relationship to Christ, to give to needy persons is to give to God. For the humanist to give altruistically supports the standard of God in common grace. For the Christian the first motivation is not in the need of others, but in fulfilling the word of God so to be obedient to God, and then serve real needs as the secondary worthy motivation. The secondary is a legitimate system motivated by common grace for all peoples. This giving principle ought to begin in giving to the purpose of mission. The mission of Christ, at the time of the ascension, was to command the disciples to go into the world and preach the gospel – the good news of the deliverance from the dead end of nature’s life, and the ultimate conscious relationship with God. That mission has been pressed forward well by faithful persons and groups in the twenty centuries since Christ, but not as fully as it could have been with greater sacrifice of time (prayer and work), and support (financial support from individual Christians and larger percentages of church budgets). To show integrity to the very concept of giving, Christians are expected of God to be motivated in love and obedience to also serve the physical needs of others – no matter the cause of the need. Even though we may only know the immediate cause of a problem we cannot follow back to initial causes in many cases. History is layered, and we can only address that available to us in our generation. God is not the cause of the wrongs in society but in love provides solutions through his people accepting our service as devotion to him. Since he needs nothing from any source we prove our faith and devotion by doing what he would have us do. We have a saying for it in current culture – that is where the rubber meets the road. Here is where mankind meets God, and the result of blessing in the unraveling of the puzzles of the negatives of natural life.
Christianity lives in the affirmatives. It offers no negatives, unless the Christian disciplines are counted as negatives – as some would be so counted by those who live entirely in a humanistic context. The humanistic context might suggest that those who cannot care for themselves should die off – so to the survival of the fittest. In primary interest, God cares for human beings – all of them. He would not abandon anyone to his or her weaknesses. Value is in the person with God’s imprint (image). Even society sometimes contradicts itself in its concern for persons said to be handicapped so to be cared for at great expense on many occasions. Not all handicaps are easily identified, nor are they physical only. The motivation of God is to care for persons, to protect their lives, to seek solutions for the betterment of human life, and so to live in love, peace, and work – in the redemptive spirit of Jesus Christ. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020