"Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods, do not demand them back."
What could this possibly mean in our day and age?
SIMPLE.
When you pass a beggar in NYC, you are obligated by Jesus Christ to give to that person, not out of obligation to the needy, but for the love of the needy.
Is this radical? Is this improper? Yes, it doesn't fit society's norms, but Christians must place the imperatives given by Jesus Christ over society's norms, but despite it, trying their best to live peaceably.
Arguments that fallaciously claim that "not giving" is "giving," are deceitful. Such arguments usually proceed like this, "I choose not to give money to that homeless person because s/he is 1) manipulating my emotions, 2) going to spend it on drugs/booze, or 3) not giving him/her money would provide an incentive for that person to get a job. These are half- and un- truths. True, the gospels say, "Which one of you would give your son a serpent?" There is an element of discernment in this passage, but the great discerner, the great Judge, is God, and not us. Our time to judge will be in heaven, but on this earth, we are not to judge. Jesus says so explicitly, "Do not judge, lest you be judged (and with the same measure that you judge the other!)," but to give meekly, not from our own wealth, but from our poverty. But, our God does not ask us to discern if we are truly "acting in the other person's best interest," but to give so automatically that our left hand won't know what the right hand is doing. We should (I should) examine our hearts earnestly before we choose not to give; are we really in such a position as not to give?
Do not confuse the imperative of God's command to give with your/my own judgments. How humiliating it will be when before Jesus Christ, he asks us, "Did you give when I asked, no, when I commanded you to give?" And stumbling over our words, we would say, "I thought about what you said, but truly, I do not think it was in the best interest of that homeless man that I should give to him." In our own deceit and Satan's cunning, we transform what should be simple verb, to give, into a non-action, all with the stamp of a sense of justified righteousness! We say "no" to Jesus' demand and feel that we are in the right!
I might take this even one step further; Usually, when someone asks me for money, I say, "Sorry, I don't have any cash on me." This is true, I just prefer the credit card. I need to build credit anyways. But, this is not Christianity; Jesus said that the woman who gave out of her poverty was the one who was most blessed, and not those who gave from abundance. The Christian (on a side note, the definition of "Christian" as we know it is still something debased, I think. The word itself is almost like an impossible ideal while we are here in sin, tantalizingly simple but yet. our measures to match up to that term is futile. How can someone be a Christian only part of the time? That's impossible! Every moment of sin is a moment when one ceases to be a Christian, that is how I think of the term "Christian." It is legally rigid, unbending and non-flexible, I suppose. It is an ideal term that only Jesus met and surpassed.) should have ran back to the ATM, withdrew cash, then given it to the person who was asking; even prepared in advance to give when someone asked.
Lives of service to God must be lives of giving.
or maybe I'm just crazy.
Jae Han
9 comments:
Hm. But what about the verse, 'if anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat' found II Thess 3:10b. In further support is the rest of this chapter which warns against idleness.
Zach has a point, but I'm guessing that idleness is a different context than that which Jesus talks about in Luke 6?
I understand Jae's take, and I think I agree with it more or less. We have to be radical givers, but we also have to care enough about people by not throwing money at them and walking away--showing the face of Emmanuel to them in a deeper relational sense is the hard part.
Any other thoughts?
-Rich
jae. i just discovered your blog. i wish i had discovered it earlier! i'm gonna have to include you on my blogroll, if you don't mind. great post - i love seeing religion majors do battle with themselves.
hope pton's not too much of a ghost town
steve
Jae. I mostly disagree.
I agree that we should give more than we are, that we have become greedy pigs who love money. And in that sense, your reference to the verse does help wake us up, to see what is really important. That money is really not important.
On the other hand, we should not give away all our money. We just can't hold money to be an idol.
You have to take these verses in context. Most of these verses are talking about your christian brothers and sisters. What Jesus is horrified at is the fact that we do not give to our brothers and sisters in need, not so much we don't give all our money to strangers. Yes we should be generous, to help those in need. But not to the extreme you're talking about. That's foolishness.
It's good to be good, but it is also possible to be good and foolish.
If a murderer begs you for money to buy a gun so he can kill someone, (and he's really begging), I doubt we should give it to them. Take it in context, not just the text, but also the situation.
To sum it all up, it's the spirit of giving we want (the love, the concern), not the legalism of giving.
And in other books (e.g. james), there is a clear distinction made between giving to your brothers and sisters, and otherwise.
hey jae,
I'm feeling a bit conflicted on this post. I'm one of those suckers that, if I have money that I can spare (like not directly going to use it that night), I can't remember a case in which I didn't give it away.
I remember once walking down broadway, I just felt really foolish. there was this man and his wife sitting next to a cardboard sign that said they had just been evicted. (it was freezing) I looked in my wallet, i was heading to Penn station to go back to jersey. All i had was a $20, and i was like.SIGH ok. fine.
But, that wasn't proper giving and that's sort of the feeling I'm getting from your post. I really don't care if they're manipulating me or going to buy drugs with that money. Well ok, I do care if I know for certain, but since I don't they have the benefit of doubt. What I was most annoyed with is that I never got a chance to tell them WHY I was giving them anything. I never got to tell them about Christ, and how they are loved by someone who loves me, and I am compelled to love them.
And a friend of mine whose dad use to own a chinese restaurant in the Bronx, he'd sometimes get gangbangers with their girl in one arm and 6 beepers come to the restaurant and refuse to pay the bill. And then he'd be totally ok with it, he just told them to sit still and listen to him talk for 10 minutes. He took that opportunity to tell them the gospel.
In the end, I guess I sort of have the same feeling for matt. giving to nonbelievers is really hard for me to do unless I get some kind of gospel utility out of it. or else, who do they credit my goodwill to? I don't want them to give it to me, but to heap it onto God. Then perhaps they can be saved?
"same feeling AS matt" wrong preposition 0_0
Whoa, I didn't realize there were so many comments here. I just checked. Let me get back to both you.
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