"IT IS MORE BLESSED TO GIVE THAN TO RECEIVE"
“IT IS MORE BLESSED TO GIVE THAN TO RECEIVE”
A condition which no amount of favour can satisfy — one which desires more and is more sensible of its need and deficiency the more it has acquired — can never be happy in giving, or in depriving itself of anything it has. Man in his natural state cannot spare anything, unless with the expectation of requital. He is unsatisfied himself, and though what he possesses does not satisfy him, yet he will not give it away, unless to gain something which he has not. With man it is rather sale and bargain than gift. A real gift supposes a state where one can rest independent of what one gives; and to be a giver instead of a receiver argues a state of satisfaction, and not of discontent, which is man’s state at its best. A giver is the very opposite to a receiver. When I am giving I am not claiming or expecting.
The great effect of the work of Christ was so fully to exonerate us from the burden under which we lay, that God in His love might meet the sinner in a new way. Hence our Lord says to the woman of Samaria, “If thou knewest the gift of God”. That is, if she knew the new character in which God comes forth now, she would have asked of Him and He would have given her living water. God in His love has given His Son,
[p. 291] the Lamb of God, to take away the sin of the world, and thereupon to give a new and perfect condition to the sinner; and therefore it is only one in this new and perfect condition who can understand that “it is more blessed to give than to receive”. An imperfect state is ever in want. A perfect one can always afford to part with whatever it can dispose of. The simple proof that a man has reached a perfect state with God, outside the things of earth, is that he can now be a cheerful giver of the things which suit an imperfect state, and which he can part with because he possesses a higher and better state. When God through His Son, whom He gave for this purpose, has found an answer for every demand, full righteousness having been established in the cross, He gives according to His own heart; and now He tells us that, since everything which attached to us in the imperfect state has been righteously set aside, and as we are recipients to the full, so as to need nothing but find all in Himself, we are now to be givers as we have the ability, for such is His own nature. An imperfect state is necessarily occupied with something or other to amend it, and really getting is before the mind, instead of giving. But as soon as I know that I have received from God a perfect state — one where no sense of deficiency can occur, for “whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst” — I am not thinking of getting, for I have got. I possess that which needs no addition outside itself; and now I can give as I have anything disposable and not necessary for existence on earth. I cannot contribute to my new state from outside it; I can and do augment my enjoyment of my possessions, and Christ possesses me more; but none of the things of this life are necessary to it, and I can dispose of them, save only food and raiment, for therewith I am content.
It is plain that the saint who knows his new condition must regard temporal property in quite a new light. He knows that nothing here can add to his new [p. 292] state. The resources are in itself, that is in Christ, in whom he is by the Spirit; and hence, instead of getting being his aim, or desire, or need, giving becomes a habit and purpose, as the more blessed. If my old condition is passing away, and my new, in which I enjoy life and permanent blessing, is replete, surely I cannot be set on considering for the failing one, but for the eternal one. I rejoice in being a giver of everything that comes to my hand; and this, even though it be at times with suffering and loss. The principle is the same in spiritual gifts. The Spirit is given to every man to profit withal; that is, that every one should profit by it and not exclusively for himself.
There are two ways in which this subject is looked at in Scripture. First, when the temporal property is looked at as a gift, that is, that it is given of God in order that the holder of it may dispense it. In this case the possessor is called rich; and the word is, “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life” or “what is really life”, 1 Timothy 6: 17 - 19. Here the riches, if properly expended, not only serve because of the good works in the present, but they are an investment for the future; and the expender is not only laying up in store a good foundation in the good works which he performs, but in parting with the present he is laying hold on that which is really life. This is the right reading of this passage, and it explains another passage. “Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness”. All temporal property is the Lord’s; and when any falls to the lot of a saint now, he is not debarred from possessing it, because it is not really his. The “mammon of unrighteousness” means riches [p. 293] without divine right. The riches are in the hands of the steward, but the Lord is the owner. However the grace is that if the steward expends them, the gain is his and not the Lord’s, who by right, as owner, would be entitled to claim the gain. That is, if I am served by a rich man, I must own that I am indebted to him, and that the favour is from him, though it comes from money which is really the Lord’s. The rich man makes friends with the Lord’s money, and the friends are properly the good works which he does, and which will greet him hereafter.
Now in keeping with this, Peter calls riches a gift. “As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good [economists or] stewards of the manifold grace of God”, 1 Peter 4: 10. The point is simply that the property is not for one’s own consequence or enjoyment, but for faithful expenditure, resulting in a true and good investment for the donor. The possessors of temporal property would, if they understood these scriptures, receive quite a new idea about their duties. Instead of the riches being a ground of distinction here on earth, or to be expended in ministering to my own gratification, I am to expend them as a good economist of the manifold grace of God; and my investments for the future are in proportion to my godly gifts in the present. Thus it is the reverse with the world and with the saints. With the world it is, if you keep now, you will have by and by; while the saint, if he spends wisely now, lays up for time to come.
But besides riches being a gift, and the person who possesses them distinctly gifted, there is a claim on every saint to be a giver according to his ability. All contributed to the manna heap, in gathering it, though all did not contribute to the same extent, and there was enough for all. Distributing to the necessities of the saints is the first claim on every one, and as we find in 1 John 3: 17, “Whoso hath this world’s good,
[p. 294] and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?” If one does not act out the love of God, his heart condemns him, and “if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God”. If I act according to the love of God, my heart does not condemn me, God is greater than my heart and knoweth all things; if my heart condemn me not, I am happy and confident in appealing to that love for myself; but if I refuse to act to another according to the impulses of His love, I have no heart to appeal to it on my own behalf. If I know what it is in myself, I turn to it confidently as I need anything, and whatsoever I ask, I receive of Him. Many doubtless are hindered in their prayers, because they are not in themselves acting out the love of God, and therefore they shrink from appealing to it; they are self-condemned. They will not act from it in themselves, and then how can they ask it to act for them? If it acts in me, I know its power, raising me over all my selfishness; and then in full confidence I can turn to God, because I know His nature, I know the power and influence which it had on myself. Again, in James 2: 15, 16, in a lower way you prove your faith by your works. What is the good of wishing a person well, saying “Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?” That which is needful must be given, or there is no profit. In 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9, the apostle presses on the saints that they should “abound in this grace also”, and it is “to prove the sincerity of your love. For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor”. It is not the amount given that is the question, but whether the love is of the character that would suffer in order to relieve another. It is not only what we could spare, but how “that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty [p. 295] abounded unto the riches of their liberality”. The grace of the Lord Jesus was not only in giving, but in becoming poor, that we by His poverty might become rich. It is here that this grace shines out, and there is evidence of our professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ. It is quite true that the Lord cares for my comfort; but then the working of His grace in me leads me to suffer in order that another might not suffer. It is His own grace, and though there be present suffering, it is a good investment, and ensures its own reward, not only in having his joy fulfilled in me, but also that it is ‘making friends’ for the future. If this grace were known and acted on, there could be no laying up of money, except for cases of need, as the apostle directs in 1 Corinthians 16: 2. “Let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come”. The calling and hope of the saint now is to give, not to get, and to give unto personal suffering; and this, if practised, would check and prevent the acquisition of money, because as fast as it came in, it would be given away, not only as much as could be spared, after what is required — and this is always in proportion to one’s wealth; what a rich man would consider poor, a man in moderate circumstances would consider rich — but according to “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich”.
The Lord lead us to see His path through this evil world, and that the more simply we walk in it the safer we shall be from the covetousness and consequence of the flesh, and the more we shall enjoy His presence and countenance, whose grace is given to us, for His name’s sake.