why we give

 Today in the One Year Bible, we read from Ezekiel 45:13-46:24. In this passage, God tells Ezekiel to tell the people of Israel how much of different commodities they should give the prince. And this brings up the subject of generosity.

Why should we be generous? Well, to start off, it's to be obedient. Jesus told us in no uncertain words that we MUST be generous. How we treat hungry people, and the poor... that's how we treat Him. And when our life comes to an end, He makes it very clear that our eternal destination depends very directly on how well we treated the hungry, the sick, the imprisoned, and the poor. So just strictly out of obedience to Jesus, we should be very generous with our stuff.

But let's look at WHY Jesus tells us to be generous. What happens when we're not? The powerful and wealthy take advantage of the poor. The rich get richer and the poorer go hungry. They even starve to death in some places. And to prevent themselves from starving, they resort to crime, many of them. They envy the wealthy, the lie and cheat and steal in order to survive. All of these things are bad, right? Greed, envy, lying, stealing... all of them are horrible. And when we're not generous, it produces this fruit in the world.

Now think about what it's like when people ARE generous. Those who are generous feel better about themselves and they aren't so concerned about feeding their own greedy passions. Instead they're worried about others. And the poor are grateful for the generosity they receive, so they have positive feelings and actions toward the wealthy instead of envy and murderous anger. 

So it seems Jesus really knew what He was talking about when He told us to be generous.

God, thanks for teaching us to be generous. Please help us find ways to help.