Radical Generosity

Radical Generosity

Read: Luke 6:27-36

“If you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you?”

Luke 6:34

“The test of generosity is not how much you give, but how much you have left.”

—Anonymous

IN WORD We give our love and change our behavior much more easily than we let go of our things. Have you noticed that? The least valuable commodity we have— material possessions—is that which we grip the tightest. Our feelings will change as often as the direction of the wind, and our love with it. Our behavior can be adjusted whenever the situation demands. But let go of our things? That’s just asking too much.

God’s call to a radical change of lifestyle includes a radical change of our emotional investment in our money and our things. We are to use the currency of this world— materials and money—to strengthen the currency of the kingdom—faith. This often means that we will have to give away our holdings to those who ask for them or who need them and are afraid to ask. We must hold everything with a loose grip.

“But I have little to give,” we might complain. We probably have little because in the past we have not been generous with what we have. God’s principles cannot be violated; He has promised that those who are good stewards with what they’ve been given will be given more. If we lack, we may lack for a reason: a history of bad stewardship. Even if this is not the case, the “I have little to give” excuse does not hold up. If we have little, we must give little. Jesus commended the woman who dropped two small coins into the coffer. Why did she give all she had? Because it was all she could give.

IN DEED We least want to be radical in the area of our possessions. We don’t mind being noticed for our love and our kindness nearly as much as we mind being noticed for our sacrifice of things. Yes, there are many donors of large amounts in this world, but they usually also retain large amounts. This isn’t bad, but it isn’t radical either. Jesus calls us to be radical. Sacrificially radical and sacrificially generous.