The Beauty of Giving

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ…

2 Corinthians 8:9

Telescoped into this one marvelous verse is the whole moving story of redemptive love, indissolubly linked to the subject of giving. Paul calls attention to the beauty of giving. He says, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. The word "grace" deserves close attention. Every craft has its medium of expressions. Artists express their abilities and gifts through the medium of paints or sculpture. Mechanics use metals. Doctors employ their abilities through the use of medicine. Preachers rely on words as their medium. Every preacher worth his salt must give himself to the study of the meaning and the use of words, and there is no word that so richly repays study as this word grace. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This word belongs to a very large family. It has a brother named Charity and a sister named Mercy, and a whole houseful of cousins such as Kindness, Favor, Goodwill, Pity, Thanksgiving and Reward. All of these are translations of the word grace as it is used in our Scriptures. But the basic meaning of this little word is beauty, charm, loveliness. We see this in the English word graceful, by which we mean beauty of line or movement, and from this basic meaning, beauty, the word came early to mean also acts of beauty. Kindness and mercy, for instance, are the most beautiful acts possible to human beings. Now Paul seizes this word and writing to his friends at Corinth, he says, You are familiar with the beauty of Jesus Christ. You know that the compelling beauty that drew you to him is nothing else than his self-giving love.

That is what grace is. There is no beauty like giving. There is no charm more attractive than a generous heart.

The only true motive for giving is the grace of God, the goodness of God to you. If God has not done anything for you, then, for goodness sake, do not give him anything in return. But if he has, then pour it out according to the measure you have received. That is always the argument of Scripture. In the New Testament, giving is never legislated upon us. It is not laid on us as a duty that we have to do. It is given to us, rather, as a privilege that we can partake of to express the gratitude of our hearts for the grace that God has already given.

Create in me, Lord, a heart that, like yours, is gracious, kind and full of good will.