Generosity

The practice of generosity is central to the life of an apprentices of Jesus. Our God is a generous God. He freely gives, loves, serves, and draws near to us in love. It’s who he is. It’s his very nature to be generous. In fact, Jesus said that our Father loves to give good gifts to his children (Matt. 7:11). Imagine that! The Father is looking for opportunities to bless you with good things. What does that say about our God and what he is like? James wrote something very similar when he said that “every good gift comes down from the Father” (Jm. 1:17). This is what God is like — generous. Every good thing comes from him. He is abounding in generosity.

We follow a generous God who intends to make us a generous people (Micah 6:8). God not only intends to be generous to us. He intends to make us generous too. God is love and he wants to make us people of love too (1 Jn. 4:8). In other words, to follow a generous God is to become generous yourself.

We see this most clearly displayed in Jesus. He is the generous God personified (Col. 1:15). He is love and generosity in human form. Jesus came to give. He came to give us life to the full (Jn. 10:10). He came to serve (Matt. 10:45). His life was marked by generosity. But Jesus’ radical generosity is most clearly seen in the giving of his life on the cross for us (Jn. 15:13). 

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.”  – 1 John 3:16