Why We Give: Love

Why We Give:
Love
2 Corinthians: 8:8-9, 24; 1 John 3:17-18

Sweetest Day is coming up this next Saturday. You may or may not be aware of Sweetest Day as if we needed another day to buy candy but it evidently is popular in the Detroit area. It has become sort of fall Valentine’s Day.

Giving gifts to people we love has a long history and most of us enjoy the gift giving if not necessarily the gift shopping (I am speaking as a guy). In a sense it is a test of our love for another. Extravagance and expense say one thing but most of the time it is thought and concern behind the gift that speak the loudest.

I. Testing Love
The passage from Paul is rather blunt. The Corinthian gift that they agreed to is a test of their sincerity of love. We talked a few weeks ago about giving as a test of our faith, that is what we believe about God and his promises concerning giving. It is probably easier to think about testing our faith. Usually we think that trials are the test of our faith. How will we respond in a crisis? What will I say if someone attacks what I believe? There are many different ways that our faith is tested.

But I believe testing love is different. For sure love is tested in crisis. Can I forgive when a loved one betrays me? Can I continue to love someone who isn’t very lovable? Those are tests. But I believe love is tested in a more positive way by our desire to do or to give to the object of our love and affection. We smile at the rather sometimes silly and extravagant ways people demonstrate love when they are building a relationship. Giving gifts is part of this. It is not necessarily the cost of the gift but the thought and sentiment behind it that is important.
Love is also tested in our giving of time and attention to the one we love. This is probably one area where couples that have been together for many years slip. It is easy to slip into patterns of only giving partial attention when we really should give total attention to the one we love. I learned, long ago, that I needed to put down the book, turn off the TV, pause the game and really listen to Diane. Multi-tasking may work at work or in some areas of life but it doesn’t work in relationships.

Love is also tested in character. Who and what we love changes us. This is something that people often overlook as they consider friends and even marriage. It is true about hobbies and passions that we love and enjoy. All these things change us for good and bad. If you are around cynical people you will become cynical. This is part of the reason I rarely watch things like the “Daily Show”. If you are around angry and abusive people you will probably become angry and abusive. In the same way if you are around friendly people, loving people, or devoted people that association will change you.

II. Whom Do We Love?
Paul describes giving as a test of love but the question is love of whom? I believe there are two answers. First, it is love of others. For the Corinthians it was love for Christians living in Jerusalem, in other words Jewish Christians. How do you love someone you have never met? After all, in Paul’s day there were no pictures to show of needy Jews. The pictures of suffering weren’t on the TV to be caught as you channel surf.

It sometimes takes people a while to understand what becoming a Christian does to us. We often focus on salvation, forgiveness of sins, and a new relationship to God but becoming a Christian connects us to a body and every other member in that body. How many Christians do you know? We might know a few hundred Christians if we have traveled or lived in other parts of the country. Many of those Christians are probably a lot like you in terms of ethnicity and background. But Christ connects us to millions of Christians of every color and culture imaginable. Of course it is humanly impossible to do this but we are no longer simply human, we are children of God. The result is that we give. John makes this point when he writes, “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” (1 John 3:17-18) The test of our love is our generosity towards people around us and people we will never see. Most of you will never meet people who are reached by the team in Cochabamba, Bolivia. You have never met people you provided food for in Kenya during floods and famine. Generosity was a test of love for the Corinthians; it is a test of love for us too.

There is another aspect of this test. Our giving is a reflection of our character. There is a story about a man who came to his minister with a problem. “When I was young and only making $20,000 a year I committed to giving a tithe which was $2000. But now I’m making $500,000 and my tithe is $50,000. I just can’t afford to give that much.” So the minister prayed, “Lord, help this man make less so he can afford to give his tithe.” Over and over it has been shown that the more people make, the less they give in terms of percentage of their income. As Jesus said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!" (Mark 10:23) This, of course, is possible with God. There are many who are rich and extremely generous but it is because the Spirit of God is working to change their hearts.

We are called to reflect God’s character and God is generous. The psalmist writes, “The LORD is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.” (Psalms 145:9) If you want to grow spiritually then you must learn to be generous like God. We grow this way when we walk with God. It is easy to trust him when you have tested God and found him faithful.

We began this series several weeks ago as we talked about the budget problems facing the church. As a leader in this congregation I want to see our church do more, not less. But I think it is more critical than just doing more. It is about becoming like our Father in heaven. It is about loving others more than I love the convenience and ease that my prosperity can give me. This is the challenge we all face as God tries to form us into a people who reflect his glory.

Livonia Church of Christ: October 15, 2006