The Shaping Virtues - Generosity

The gospel of Jesus Christ is an act of cosmic generosity on God’s part, revealing the riches of his love, grace, and mercy. In the gospel we see the overflow of God’s love: “God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). We also see the overflow of God’s grace: “For we know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).  And, we see the overflow of God’s mercy: “But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:4-5). God didn’t just barely save us. The gospel’s provision is rich and abundant and complete in every way.

All things belong to God, the giver of every good and perfect gift (James 1:17). Thankfully, God is a generous owner. In Christ, he continues to generously and abundantly bless us. Paul, helps us understand the fullness of the gospel’s blessings when he asks, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32) If God gave us what is most precious to Him—“his own Son”—there is nothing, either material or spiritual that we have need of, that he would now withhold. Truly, Jesus came that we “may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).

As beneficiaries of such generosity, we now have every motivation and grace to be generous with our time, money, and talents on behalf of God’s people and for God’s mission. We have been blessed to be a blessing. In fact, we have come to understand that “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). We give joyfully and freely, knowing “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7).

The gospel also creates a heavenly-mindedness in us that frees us from greed and covetousness in this world to invest in the world to come, because there we have “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:4). We can now generously and cheerfully “lay up…treasures in heaven” by using our time, talent, and money for his kingdom (Matthew 6:19).