Giving

In Matthew 25 Jesus is talking to the people, he says "I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me." The people responded by saying they never saw Christ in any of these positions. Jesus responded "I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me."

Jesus is telling us that we need to think of every person we come in contact to as Him. The two greatest commands he gave us where to love Him with all our heart, soul, and mind and love our neighbor as ourselves. So by loving others we are ultimately loving God. When you think about it this really hits hard. You never consider the people that annoy you or make you mad as Jesus himself. But as Jesus says in this verse whatever you did not do for them, you did not do for Him. It really makes you think about the way you treat other people.

In the same chapter of Matthew Jesus is talking to the people who did the right thing, they ask him when they saw him hungry and fed him, thirsty and gave him something to drink. He replies "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." In this verse he is saying that we can show love for God by caring for those who are poor or those who are suffering. We should be treating these people as if they are Christ himself. True love requires sacrifice, Jesus layed down his life for us on the cross and our love for him is shown by how we live our lives. One of my favorite verses is from James chapter 2, it says "Faith without action is dead."

Francis Chan tells several stories of people that gave to the poor and were blessed beyond compare. People that sold their home to buy a smaller one and people that gave more when the economy was terrible. All of them trusted God to come through for them even though they were sacrificing themselves. All of them were blessed more then they could have ever been with keeping it for themselves.