Vessels Of Grace

Vessels of Grace

Read: Matthew 10:5-10

“Freely you have received, freely give.”

Matthew 10:8

“Nothing is really ours until we share it.”

—C. S. Lewis

IN WORD This verse is often used in a financial stewardship situation, and certainly would apply to such contexts. But that is not the context in which Jesus spoke it; the next instruction that He gave the twelve disciples indicates that they will not be applying their finances to the kingdom’s work on this trip (v. 9). No, the command is much more comprehensive than that.

We are first of all to recognize how much we have been given. “Freely you have received,” Jesus reminds the Twelve. They had been given forgiveness, a grace we often take for granted, forgetting not so much the magnitude of our sins but the magnitude of the One against whom we have sinned. They had been given words of wisdom from the universe’s greatest teacher. They had seen His character modeled for them. They had seen healing of incurable diseases and rescues from impossible situations. They had seen, in short, the love and mercy of a God who had humbled Himself and taken on the form of a man.

This—love and mercy with a humble spirit—is what we and the disciples are to freely give, whether it takes the form of time, money, a gospel witness, healing, comfort, or words of encouragement. All of the things God has given us in Christ are given not only for our own enjoyment and edification, but for us to pass on to others. We are often like hungry beggars who hoard the bread we’ve been given, not realizing that it comes from the hand of an unlimited supplier. We fear that His supply has a cap on it; that if we give away what He’s given us, we lose out.

IN DEED Those who freely give have found the opposite to be true. A consistent principle in Jesus’ teaching is that those who give away God’s gifts are given more to replace them. An irony of the kingdom is that hoarders never have enough and generous givers never lack. In giving, we become conduits of God’s grace, vessels of His mercy.