Give as you have received

From the very beginning, the Bible speaks of being blessed by God and blessing others.

Gen 1:22 Then God blessed them (animals) and said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters of the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”

28 And God blessed them (Adam and Eve). And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 

And God said, “Behold, I have given (a gift, a blessing) you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food (i.e. as nourishment so you can be more fruitful and also for your pleasure as a reminder of God's love and care).” And it was so. - Gen 1:28‭-‬30 

These instructions to be fruitful and multiply at the very outset tell us God wants life to expand and flourish - especially for us, the bearers of His image. He wants to expand (multiply) the blessings He gives. Hinted at in these blessings is our blessing others. This becomes even clearer as we continue further.

Each new day of creation was a new blessing from God being increasingly expanded. After each day, God pronounced all He did and made was good, i.e. a blessing.

Even after He cleansed the earth of rebellious humanity through the flood, God again pronounces His desire to bless us.

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. - Gen 9:1 ESV

He wanted to be sure that after this worldwide "house" cleaning, there was no confusion that his primary desire had not changed and it was still to bless us, not destroy us - even in our state of rebellion. 

God also confirmed and illustrated His desire to bless us when He called Abram and promised to bless him.

1 Then the LORD said to Abram, ²“Leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s household, and go to the land ³I will show you.

2 ³I will make you into a great nation, and ³I will bless you;

³I will make your name great so that you will be a blessing.

3 ³I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you;

and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”

God's ultimate goal with Abram from the beginning of his call was to bless all nations through ¹him; not simply to bless Abram (or only His immediate progeny) so that only he or they could bask in the blessings and forget about everyone else.

The more we dig into scripture, the more we see that whenever God gives us anything - any blessing, i.e. ¹resource, etc - he always asks us to turn around and use it to bless others.

Why?

Because we are in His image - designed and called to be like God. 

Who is God? What is He like? 

God is an ⁴endless and perpetual overflowing fountain of love who calls us to be like Him, to be His children...a "chip off the old block," if you will. 

We are called to love as we are loved - by Him - and to give as we have received - from Him. This, in large part, is what it means to be in his image.

This is also the very essence of the 1st and 2nd commandments on which all other commands are based.

This commandment involves us receiving from God life, love, and all things and then sharing with our neighbor (others) what we receive.

How? It is only through our connection with God, being loved by Him (and recognizing how much he loves us through the many blessings of creation he has given us), and responding to His love by loving Him with all that we are and have, that we can love our neighbors in the same way we desire to be loved (and are being loved through all the beauty and abundance given to us now in and through creation).

Contrary to the common approach to living, life isn't about getting to keep and only indulging ourselves in the blessings of life, but about getting to give. It isn't getting all you can and then sitting on and protecting our individual "can" but "getting" (receiving) all we can so we might give all we can. This is who God is and who He's designed and called us to be as bearers of His image. The more we receive, the more we are to give. To use Christ's words, "to whom much is given, much is required." And the servant who is faithful in little, will be given more.

In short, life is about being like God; living as He does, is, and designed us to be - to receive and give love as the Father and Son do between each other from all eternity past (Jn 17:25b). All this happens in, by, and through the Spirit - the Spirit of infinite and passionate love for another - God first and others that bear His image.

What is the nature and greatness of God's giving and how did he demonstrate it? He gave until it hurt i.e. Sacrificially. He gave the very Son of His infinite and eternal affection so we might enter into that very same community of affection between the Father and Son and partake of God, who is love and life Himself (Jn 17:3); the Creator and giver of all we have and are. 

We are to be holy for He is holy i.e. like God. Holiness isn't about being perfect in conduct, but perfect in our focus and passion for God, in the same way He is for Himself. 

He is most worthy of all our affections, worship, honor, and glory. God ²is glorious and designed and calls us to partake in His glory and be glorious like Him. In so doing we bring Him the greatest honor and experience our greatest joy.

We will never experience true life as God intends until we live as he lives i.e. by receiving His overflowing blessing and sharing it with others.

And we will never be able to live this way until we partake of His life as He experiences it in the giving and receiving of glory between the Father and Son in, by, and through the Spirit.

For a discussion on sewing and reaping click here

For a discussion on socialism versus capitalism click here 

For a discussion on the fallacies of the prosperity gospel click here
_______________________________

Footnotes:

¹What comprise our resources? Any and all blessing we receive or possess, be it time, good health, money, things, talents, abilities, skills, experiences unique to us, etc.

²“Leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you..."

All the things we normally look to and depend on for our sense of identity and meaning - e.g. our national origin and heritage, wealth (our own land) our extended family (kindred), and even our immediate family, Abraham was called upon by God to walk *away from and look to Him alone as the source of all he is and has...i.e. go to the land I will show you..."

*He also called him to walk towards all he previously sought and had by promising to make him a great family and nation of his own... again, so he might know that God alone is the source of all blessings and in turn us them to bless others.

GOD was calling Abraham to shift his dependence away from those things that we all naturally seek and instead place his dependence solely on God for those things.  This tells us that these things are good and right to desire 

This tells us that these things are good and right to desire but not outside of God but in and through him. God is not opposed to us having these things but He's opposed to our trying to obtain them on our own without looking to and acknowledging Him as the Giver.

³Which also involves recognizing everything we are and already have comes from him.

⁴God was rebuilding Abrams ⁶identity from the ground up. He was telling him every good thing you desire - your own land, your very own nation through your children, a great reputation - I will provide for you and that so you might honor me by being a blessing to others.

Our receiving what we need and value most is not by pursuing these directly but by being like God and blessing others, i.e. seeking first the kingdom of God. God loves to give us all these things (Rom 8:31-32; Matt 7:9-11) as long as we don't forget it is He who gives them. And He does so that we might bless others, becoming the means by which others find, see, and experience God through us.

⁵A God of overflowing abundance, beauty, love, majesty, glory, blessing, and joy.

⁶Abram eventually became Abraham (Gen 17:5). He went from being not just a father of Issac (and ultimately Israel) - as Abram - but a father of many nations - as Abraham.  

God is a God of overflowing abundance and desires we partake of that abundance and in turn, share it with others. This is a primary part of what it means to be like God - in His image.