“Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only…”
Philippians 4:15 NIV
Giving and receiving…I wonder why Paul wrote about giving and receiving. Learning to give, we understand…but… is there something about receiving that we ought to know?
In our last post, we learned about some of the considerations Paul mentioned about the Philippians’ gifts of money to him…things like… it was not about the money but the message the money carried… about their love, care, and consideration for him when they were the only people who took care of his needs more than once.
Their gifts were about what God thought about them…He saw their gifts as a fragrant offering and a sacrifice…an act of worship to Him.
Why was the way these Philippians received help, if at some time they did, as important as the way they gave help to Paul?
In a previous post, I explained that God’s economic system creates a current. Unlike the world system, which is strictly tit-for-tat…for example I sell, you buy…God teaches us to keep money circulating by giving and receiving. Since He is generous…giving us liberally whatever we need…we must, in turn, be generous towards others. Again, giving and receiving is a faith partnership with Him. When we give, God gives back but…always through people because that’s the way He has chosen to work.
We learned that like everything else we do, no matter how mundane it may seem, we do it first to Jesus and then to one another. In this way, we show our love for Him.
So, He wants us to receive the generosity of others in the same way as we give…not resisting…not reluctant or protesting as some do, thinking that we are being humble or that we really don’t need help when we do.
Receiving is as much an act of grace as giving because…first, we are part of the circulation of resources. If we are reluctant or refuse to receive… we break the cycle.
Second, we dishonour God because He is the one who prompts the giver to be generous.
Third…we rob the giver of the blessing that follows generosity.
Fourth…and this one really matters…we rob God of the glory due to Him because giving and receiving reflect Him when we keep the resources circulating. God desires equality in His family. We can only experience true equality when we co-operate fully with His plan.
“For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God. As a result of your ministry, they will give glory to God. For your generosity to them and to all believers will prove that you are obedient to the Good News of Christ. And they will pray for you with deep affection because of the overflowing grace God has given to you. Thank God for this gift too wonderful for words!”
2 Corinthians 9:10-11, 13-15 NLT
Can you see the outcome of generosity? Both giver and receiver are righteous and blessed, and God receives the praise.
Paul said something at the end of this teaching that is mostly taught and understood out of context.
“Thank God for this gift too wonderful for words!”
What was the gift Paul referred to? Most people immediately think of God’s gift as Jesus but…let’s look at the context. Surely, Paul must have been referring to the grace of giving and receiving as God’s gift to us. Why?
Greed, not generosity, is the characteristic of people in the world. People don’t like parting with their money. They want more, not less. They don’t think of money as seed or “currency”, increasing as they sow it or keeping the cycle going so that everyone has enough. The world’s way doesn’t work like God’s way because God is never in the mix.
Generosity, giving and receiving, is God’s gift to us, marvellous because it involves a change of heart. When we get in on His way, we enter the flow of what the Bible calls “righteousness”. Especially in the Old Testament, righteousness, generosity and mercy are all attributes of God and are interconnected.
“The wicked borrow and do not repay, but the righteous give generously (they are full of mercy and give), …I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread. They are always generous (Hebrew-full of mercy), and lend freely; their children will be a blessing.”
Psalms 37:21, 25-26 NIV
Another interesting point…the word “children” in verse 25, 26 is actually translated from the Hebrew word for “seed”.
Our children are our seed for the next generation. In the same way, our money is our seed for the next harvest. If we don’t have children, there will be no seed for the next generation. Likewise, if we don’t sow our “seed”, our money now, we will not have seed for next year…nothing to eat and nothing to sow.
Paul likened generosity with our money to sowing seed and reaping a harvest of more seed…and righteousness in our hearts and behaviour.
“Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.”
2 Corinthians 9:10 NIV
Consider these verses…
“Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor. Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
Galatians 6:6-9 NIV
Is Paul not issuing this warning in the context of “the law of the harvest”? What is “sowing to the flesh” here? Is he not referring to greed or stinginess if people fail to support their teachers. He has just instructed his readers to be generous to those who teach them. After all, they depend on the generosity of those who are taught for their income since teaching is their “work”.
In this context, if they fail to sow, according to the law of the harvest, they will not reap a harvest because this is the way God works. The way we use our money is one of the clearest ways of revealing what is in our hearts.
Jesus put it like this…
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
Matthew 6:24 NIV
…not “money” but “Mammon”…greed…the attitude behind money.
Now, let’s pull this together.
Giving and receiving are part of the same process…keeping the circulation of God’s resources going… which is the way God distributes His gifts through people, to provide for everyone’s needs.
We are in partnership with God, both by eating what we need and sowing the seed He provides to keep the seed multiplying so that everyone has enough. This “law of the harvest” from the natural world demonstrates God’s “righteousness” at work in us, contributing to our righteousness in response to God, and to God’s glory.
To be continued