GROWTH IN GENEROSITY
In the fruits of the Spirit six out of the nine are related to our attitudes towards others – love, good temper, kindliness, generosity, fidelity, gentleness. Only three can be said to refer to oneself alone – joy, peace, self-control. Does this mean that there should be twice as much interest in our outside relationships as we have in our own self? Jesus said that we are to love our neighbor “as” ourselves – the self interest and other-interest are to exactly balance.
And Paul said that each of us should have “an eye to the interest of others as well as to his own” – as well as. Here they exactly balance again.
But in this surrendering to the Spirit and letting the Spirit have sway over us, does it turn out that we find ourselves twice as interested in others as ourselves? Is this the second mile attitude of human virtues? And if we do go the second mile, do we become lopsided personalities? One would think so. But strangely enough, No. The more we love others, the more beautiful we become in ourselves. The loving are the living – in themselves!
So Paul turns the many-sided Christian character to the facet of generosity. This leads us to look at a verse from Jesus, previously quoted,
If your eye is generous, the whole of your body will be illumined.
(Matt.6:22, Moffatt)
If your Eve – your outlook on life, your whole way of looking at things and people – is generous, then your whole personality is illumined, is lighted up.
Jesus was generous toward all – the poor, the meek, the sinful, the unlovely. And His whole personality was full of light. And Jesus generates that generosity within us. We begin to see everything and everybody with the generous Eye.
O Jesus, Thy generous Eye saw in me what wasn’t there, and lo, it was there! Help me to thus create what I see. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: My generous Eye will generate generosity in others; if not, I’m more generous for giving unmerited generosity.
In the fruits of the Spirit six out of the nine are related to our attitudes towards others – love, good temper, kindliness, generosity, fidelity, gentleness. Only three can be said to refer to oneself alone – joy, peace, self-control. Does this mean that there should be twice as much interest in our outside relationships as we have in our own self? Jesus said that we are to love our neighbor “as” ourselves – the self interest and other-interest are to exactly balance.
And Paul said that each of us should have “an eye to the interest of others as well as to his own” – as well as. Here they exactly balance again.
But in this surrendering to the Spirit and letting the Spirit have sway over us, does it turn out that we find ourselves twice as interested in others as ourselves? Is this the second mile attitude of human virtues? And if we do go the second mile, do we become lopsided personalities? One would think so. But strangely enough, No. The more we love others, the more beautiful we become in ourselves. The loving are the living – in themselves!
So Paul turns the many-sided Christian character to the facet of generosity. This leads us to look at a verse from Jesus, previously quoted,
If your eye is generous, the whole of your body will be illumined.
(Matt.6:22, Moffatt)
If your Eve – your outlook on life, your whole way of looking at things and people – is generous, then your whole personality is illumined, is lighted up.
Jesus was generous toward all – the poor, the meek, the sinful, the unlovely. And His whole personality was full of light. And Jesus generates that generosity within us. We begin to see everything and everybody with the generous Eye.
O Jesus, Thy generous Eye saw in me what wasn’t there, and lo, it was there! Help me to thus create what I see. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: My generous Eye will generate generosity in others; if not, I’m more generous for giving unmerited generosity.
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