by James A. Fowler
There is a privilege of being available to all that God wants to do in us. Paul indicates in II Cor. 8:4 that the Macedonian Christians were "begging us with much entreaty for the favor," the privilege of grace, "in order to participate in the support (service) of the saints."
It is a common privilege of Christians, not only to satisfy their "reason for being" by giving, but to be engaged together in the functional inter-action of the Body of Christ, the Church. We are in it together! Jew and Gentile, male and female, slave and master, rich and poor. When one part of the Body is in need, we all have a need until that part is supplied by the grace of God through the others.
The privilege of Christian giving is not just a tax write-off with the Internal Revenue Service. That is really rather irrelevant for the Christian. In fact, there might be more genuine Christian giving if there were no tax deductions for charitable giving! The privilege of Christian giving is the privilege of being properly used of God, both individually and collectively in the Church.
©1999 by James A. Fowler
This is a sequence of articles. Though they were intended to be read in order, each article also stands alone. We've numbered them below so that you may choose to read them in sequential order.
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