THE GREATEST ROLE MODEL FOR GIVING

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.

2 Corinthians 8:8-9

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

We all need role models in life, people we can look up to and be inspired by, people we would want to grow up and be like.

This need for people to emulate applies to life to a lot of very specific circumstances but it also can be applied broadly and perhaps this is the best case scenario for a person, that they would have one go-to person for everything life might bring, a person to imitate so that by following their way they could be assured they are always doing the right thing, at the right time, and in the right way.

As Christians, we have such a universal role model in Jesus, the one and only Son of our God Most High, the only person who has lived an absolutely sinless life while in the flesh. In life, all we need to do is to look to Jesus and we will see how God intends for us to live and this applies to all aspects of life to include giving.

The Apostle Paul was laser-focused in regard to this through the way he lived and ministered to others for the cause of the Gospel. He proclaimed that “to live is Christ” (Philippians 1:21), placing the emphasis on the Savior who said He was the Way and the Truth and the Life (John 14:6).

As we look at our scripture passage for today, we find Paul specifically using Jesus as an example in regard to how a Christian should give.

How much did Jesus give?

Look at His life and you’ll see that He gave it all, even willing to sacrifice His life to give life to others.

Indeed, through grace, a wealthy Jesus, One with the Father and God of all creation, willingly chose to be impoverished so to make the way for sinners to be rich in the salvation God offers. Jesus freely surrendered His life to give life to millions upon millions of people. He was willing to give up everything to improve the welfare of others.

This is how God wants us to give, knowing that just as He took Jesus out of His poverty and promoted Him to sit in power at His right hand, so too will He one day draw us out of the poverty of this world and into the immeasurable treasure that is Heaven, a place where Jesus has prepared a mansion for every people who placed their belief in Him.

Jesus told us to store up treasures in heaven and not on earth (Matthew 6:19-21) and then showed us what that looks like. In Him, we have the greatest role model ever in every walk of life, including giving.

Thanks be to God for the gift of His Son.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com