Why do we give?

Personal Standing

English Standard Version Chapter 3

7 He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

It sounds as though John was upset about these people coming to be baptized. It seems as though these people coming to repent and be baptized were not good people. John asks us to bear fruit worthy of repentance. 8 Bear fruits in keeping with repentance.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Lk 3:8). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Perhaps we could replace the word church for Israel. Israel was the Old Testament word for chosen people. John goes on to remind these people of what not to say. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Lk 3:8). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles. What the church today wants to believe, at times, is that God needs us. John reminds us that God is able to raise up a new people from the very ground he created us. John’s teaching was rejected by the Jewish leaders. Ask yourself why? Why would the chosen people not listen? Because they were the chosen people. Perhaps! ‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,

who will prepare your way before you.’

I tell you, among those born of women no one is greater than John; yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” (And all the people who heard this, including the tax collectors, acknowledged the justice of God, because they had been baptized with John’s baptism. But by refusing to be baptized by him, the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God’s purpose for themselves.)

“To what then will I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another,

‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;

we wailed, and you did not weep.’

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Lk 7:27–32). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

This world gives out of their wealth rather than from God’s wealth. Just like the tax collectors who came to be baptized. They were the high bidders before Rome. The ones who claimed to gather the most from the least became the tax collector. John told them before they got baptized that they must only collect what was fair. 12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” 13 And he said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Lk 3:12–13). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

John does not tell the tax collector to stop collecting taxes but he does tell them to be fair. Why then do we give? Because He gave it first to us. The tax collector bid to win the job to steal from the poor. The soldier padded his pocket by helping the tax collector collect. This attitude towards the world is quite similar to the world today in that the people at the top of the food chain work together to keep the poor poor.

If we added up the money that the ten richest people in the world have accumulated. 1,515,800,000 dollars and divided by the number of people in the world 7.753 Billion people-every person in the world could have 195,511,414.00. So ask yourself why is there poverty, homelessness, nakedness, despair?

John preach the good news to these people and what did it get him? Imprisonment.