Originally posted by @ogb
OK so organized religions say it's better to give than to receive. So if some homeless person is on a streetcorner and you give him 2 dollars. then the next street there's another one, then another ..pretty soon , now you don't have any money and you're homeless !! What are the rules, as to helping other people?
OK so organized religions say it's better to give than to receive. So if some homeless person is on a streetcorner and you give him 2 dollars. then the next street there's another one, then another ..pretty soon , now you don't have any money and you're homeless !! What are the rules, as to helping other people?
I think before you go off and concoct scenarios imaginatively you should have some sober minded logical consideration about the passage.
What is the blessedness that Jesus spoke of ?
Is it strictly material?
Does it only mean the "blessedness" of getting a material return on your liberality.
ie. " I gave this person 10 dollars. There is no blessedness unless I at least break even with another 10 dollars. Or better yet, I make a profit. The excess is the blessing."
I say that in this universe the real ultimate blessing is to be made like Jesus Christ. For it is the Son with Whom the Father is well pleased.
So to give 10 dollars and get to get 10 dollars in return, may be a happiness, but not the ultimate happiness.
So to give 10 dollars and gain a profit of excess over 10, also may be a happiness, but not the deep and ultimate happiness.
Suppose you give 10 dollars and you are simply out of the 10 dollars you gave? If you did it in the name of Christ a deeper happiness can be secured knowing that you are like the Son of God.
He is the One to whom God wills that all the saved by conformed to His image in eternity.
"Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers." (Rom. 8:29)
[quote] "Lord Jesus, I just gave this needy one something, And my commercial sense about it was not fulfilled. I neither gained back the money nor had the happiness of a financial profit.
But Lord Jesus I know that what I did I did in You. And the peace, the joy, the satisfaction of knowing God is well pleased with my living is the greater happiness. It is the blessing of being more conformed to the image of the One with Whom You alone are well pleased - the Son of God.
Thankyou Lord for the blessing of making me more like You. For I know that eternally, Your will is that forever I would be another son of God like the Firstborn Son of God, conformed to His image." [quote]
If you gain thirty dollars for giving up ten and do not have harmony with the Father, I don't know how much of a "blessing" or happiness that will be to you.
This is how I think it usually works. When you are a young believer, God will bless you by showing you that you cannot outgive Him materially. When you expend, He will more than compensate you for. That is with His timing and in His way.
It may not always be financial. It may be indirectly financial, like maybe giving back to you something that would have otherwise incurred an expense.
Then latter as you grow and become less commercial minded, God will lead you to realize just to be like Christ is the deeper happiness. To be conformed to the image of the Son of God is the deeper blessedness. That is something that the world cannot give you. That is something that become you - organically. It can never be taken away because it IS you now.
Latly, suppose you are not a theist. Suppose you are a generous Atheist and are a giving person, a sacrificing person. Will you then also have this blessedness from God ?
Personally, I would not be surprised if God honors that generosity anyway, and you are blessed in some way. He is much broader in heart than I am.
Some would say "Well that's good ole Karma. No God needed."
Maybe they are right that it appears to them just as karma.
Oh, "No God needed" does not equal "No God exists".