When Lydia was gifted £10,000 by anonymous donors, she spent little of it on herself. Instead, she gave generous gifts to co-workers, family, flood victims and charities. Lydia, unbeknownst to her, was part of a study following how two hundred people responded to a no-strings-attached gift of £10,000 through a bank transfer. That study found that more than two-thirds of that gifted money was given away. Sharing this story, the person responsible for the donations, reflected, “It turns out that . . . we human beings are wired to respond to generosity with generosity.”
In Scripture, we find that when people live generously, they reflect the heart of the God who made them. God is generous, merciful and kind, not just to some but to all—even “to the ungrateful and wicked” (Luke 6:35). So Jesus instructed those who desire to reflect God’s character to “love”, “do good to” and “lend to” even enemies “without expecting to get anything back” (vv. 32-35).
When we give without expecting anything back, we’ll find that it’s never a way of life that harms us. Jesus pointed this out too, saying, “Give, and it will be given to you. . . . With the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (v. 38). When we respond to God’s generosity by living generously, we find we’re enriched in countless ways.
By Monica La Rose
REFLECT & PRAY
How have you found joy through giving? How has others’ giving enriched your life?
Gracious God, thank You for the joy of giving.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
The teaching of Luke 6:31-38 is similar to that of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:38-48, which Jesus taught “up on a mountainside” (v. 1). Christ taught the sermon in Luke 6—the Sermon on the Plain—on another occasion: “on a level place” (v. 17 ) or “in the plain” (KJV). Here, Jesus taught about unconditional love for others, including enemies, so that we can be “children of the Most High” (v. 35). God “is kind to the ungrateful and wicked” (v. 35); we’re to be merciful in the same measure that the “Father is merciful” (v. 36). In this sermon, Christ articulated a maxim popularly known as the Golden Rule: “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (v. 31 ), espousing the principle of “a man reaps what he sows” (Galatians 6:7). Christ spoke of reciprocal treatment, “for with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Luke 6:38).
K. T. Sim
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