Christianity has no monopoly on generosity

In one of the circles willing to include me, an old question has arisen once again. How do we distinguish what Christians give from the giving of all the other organizations that help people? One assumption behind this question is that there should be something uniquely revelatory of God in the giving Christians do; one motive behind the question is that if we do it right, giving can become an effective recruiting tool, a type of evangelism. For two reasons I think this is the wrong sort of question to ask; in fact it is a question that defeats itself. First, it is important to note that you don’t have to be a Christian to be loving, kind and generous. Lots of people from all walks of life, and all religions, and even no religion at all, give very generously at this and other times of the year. Christianity has no monopoly on generosity, and it has been demonstrated over and over again that Christians are not inherently more generous than anyone else, nor is Christianity as a religion more inherently demanding of generosity than other major religions. Giving, most simply put, is not what distinguishes Christians from anyone else, nor has it ever. Nor does it need to. And this brings me to the second reason I think the question is all wrong.

For at the heart of the Gospel is the proclamation that in Christ God has shown that all the ways we divide ourselves from each other, all the ways we make distinctions in order to exclude, or privilege one group over another do not exist in the economy of God, and never have. In Ephesians we read that the “mystery of Christ” which is only now in Jesus revealed is that “the Gentiles have become fellow heirs (with the Jews) members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel.” Elsewhere Paul gives a partial list of the divisions that have been shown to be of no effect; Jew/Greek, Male/Female, Slave/Free. Other divisions have been shown to be of no effect since then. The Christian proclamation is not that we reveal God by giving. That proclamation is that God has destroyed the ways we divide ourselves. Thus, to attempt to divide ourselves from others by the way we give, is, ironically enough, to miss this essence of the Gospel.

The most we can do when it comes to giving is to notice that when God gives it is done entirely in love, completely unconditionally, and only for the good of the receiver. Giving that self-consciously identifies itself as Christian does none of those things. Its motive is not entirely love, for part of the motive is to be noticed as something specific. It isn’t unconditional because behind it is the desire to recruit others to the cause, and it isn’t done only for the good of the receiver because the self-interest of the giver and the cause the giver represents is very much at stake. To give the way God gives is therefore to abandon altogether the question of how to make it “Christian” and to give entirely and only because someone needs what you have. The paradox of “Christian giving” is thus that although you can give like a Christian, or a Jew or a Muslim, you can’t give like Jesus unless you abandon any thought of giving like Jesus.  You can’t give in a manner that reveals God unless such a motive is banished altogether from your heart.

So give, and give as generously as you are able.  And when you give simply because you love you will in time discover that you have done enough, indeed you will have done all that can be done.