ZA MAGAZINE // seek truth.

Something is Missing

I have observed something within Christianity lately that is disheartening. It is improper and is not in keeping with God’s Word, so I must say something. I hope to expose it here and perhaps through that exposition bring other Christians to repentance and change in regards to this subject.

The subject on my heart and mind today is what I call Christian kindness. Christian kindness includes many things under its umbrella, some of which are the giving of gifts, the sacrifice of time/energy for a person/group, and the work of showing love to both fellow Christians and also non-Christians alike. Christian kindness is a foundational aspect of following Jesus, proven time and again by Scripture. Allow me to use some verses to support the importance of kindness by Christians:

Matthew 5:42, ALT
Be giving to the one asking of you, and you should not turn away the one wanting to borrow from you.

Mathew 5:44, ALT
Be loving your enemies; be blessing the ones cursing you; be doing good to the ones hating you, and be praying on behalf of the ones mistreating you and persecuting you.

Matthew 10:42, ALT
And whoever gives one of these little ones a cup of cold water to drink only in the name of a disciple, positively, I say to you, by no means shall he lose his reward.

Matthew 10:8, ALT
Freely you received, freely give.

Furthermore, besides Jesus stating that we, as Christians, must give, He also explains that our actions set an example for the world by our love and kindness, shared here:

Matthew 5:16, KJV
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.

John 13:34, KJV (emphasis mine)
A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if you have love one to another.

Jesus states three times in two sentences that we are to “love one another.” He told us that we are known as Christians because of our love. What the heck happened? Where is the love?

Christians are supposed to be the ones exemplifying kindness and love in every way possible. Observe your situation and Christians around you – do you see a beacon of light shown through giving? Or do you see Christian stinginess, where no one wants to give up his or her time/money/other pursuits in order to extend kindness to another? What happened? Were Christians always like this?

The Blessings of Giving

You see, in the church body described in Acts, although there were some problems in ministering with each other (Paul and Mark, for example), they had a much greater communion with each other than we do today! Don’t believe me? The Word says so:

Acts 2:44-47, KJV
And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily as should be saved.

They gave to those that had needs. They gave of their money, possessions, food, and even their time (“breaking bread from house to house” implies that they took the time to be with others) and because of it they were united (“singleness of heart”), they were blessed (“having favor with all the people”), and most importantly, they bore good fruit (“And the Lord added to the church daily”)! So the reward for giving to others is all of these things (unity, favor/blessings, spiritual rewards, etc.), and yet the Church body of the present time struggles to give as they did? This is a tragedy!

Simple Gifts

Giving can be hard for some. Perhaps you feel that you can’t afford to give something away because you barely have enough to make ends meet yourself. Or maybe you don’t feel like there’s anything worth giving to! Maybe. You may think that your heart isn’t in the right place to give, so you shouldn’t (If “God loves a cheerful giver,” then He must dislike an unwilling one, so you might as well not give at all, right?) Or maybe you just never feel the urge to give. Finally, you may have seen the Scripture that says that each of us has a part to play in the body of Christ, and perhaps yours does not include giving (Rom. 12:5-8).

True, but if you are a Christian, you are to give. Bottom line.

But how do you start to give if you haven’t been giving? When you first begin to give you may do so because it is a requirement, and if so, it will feel like a chore. But believe me you will come to a place where giving becomes natural, and you actually want to give. In fact, you find joy and pleasure in giving gifts, truly experiencing that “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35, KJV). You will see things that you know your friend would just love, so you make sure to be the one to give it to them. You see a need that you know you may fill with your money or time, so you give to that, and as a result you feel a great joy!

So, give your friend a CD, buy him a book, surprise her with a concert ticket, treat them to a dinner, or share your financial blessings with that ministry or even just with that guy at the bus-stop, or maybe sacrifice your Saturday for a homeless shelter or a conversation with a struggling Christian; but simply give something. There are so many chances to give and many ways to give. We must not be slack in showing Christian kindness. We must give!

Why is this so hard? Some of the people I know don’t even receive gifts from fellow Christians on their birthday! Their birthday?! Who doesn’t give someone something for a birthday? What is going on? I understand that economic times are tough, but please, this is ridiculous!

To conclude things I believe we should cover even more serious aspects of our departure from giving. Read on.

Hurricane Katrina/Indian Ocean Tsunami

Recall when these two major catastrophic geological events occurred – Hurricane Katrina with its great loss of life and degradation and disrespect of many of the minorities of a wonderful city and the tsunami that started in the Indian Ocean and devastated Indonesia, ultimately leading to more than a 130,000 deaths. The sadness that went with these two events was truly deep and sorrowful around the world. And the response from the nations was tremendous: People donated record amounts of money to aid in the tsunami recovery! It was amazing.

When the damage of Hurricane Katrina was realized this same time of year 3 years ago, gifts from around the United States and the world began to pour in. Furthermore, many traveled to New Orleans to provide humanitarian aid in person, many assisting the Red Cross and other NGOs.

What I remember most in regards to the world response to these events is that neither was lead by Christians. Sure, you had your James Dobsons and Pat Robertsons sending donations and man-power to aid in each respective aid operation, yet they were not the trumpeters of this magnificent showing of humanitarian aid. The leaders were non-Christians. They were businessmen and women, political leaders, people from the private sector and they were leading the charge of giving, kindness, love, and help. I am amazed and thankful that the world stepped-up in both of these circumstances, yet why wasn’t it us? Why weren’t we there? Why didn’t we send money or go ourselves? If we couldn’t do either of those, then did we at least ask God to comfort them and help them? Did we give our prayers and petition the Father to aid them with His Spirit? Did we seek God on their behalf, hoping to help them in their time of need? Where were we?
Did the world really know us by our love, as Jesus said they should? I think not.

Conviction/Change

I hope my opinion convicted you. I hope that you realize that your reluctance to give is detrimental to you and the Christian faith, as God has called us to give, and let us know that giving is a wonderful blessing that we may partake in. I want to see Christians be changed for the better, and I know this will help that to happen. Giving is a joy, one that you will not experience unless you change your heart and actions, but Praise Jesus you can!

Ask the Lord to change your heart and make you into one who seeks to give of yourself in all the ways that you can possibly give: your time, your money, you prayers, your energy, etc.

I know that God can and will change you!

Bless God forever,
Matt Earley