It is clear that bragging about your charitable giving is a bad idea yet last week we read in Matthew 5:16 that we are to "let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works..." Our group felt that the key to understand this possible conflict was motive; why are you showing others what you are doing?
Charitable giving is a very interesting Christian duty and, unlike other Christian activities, it is the only one about which God said to put him to the test and that if you did it you would be rewarded now - Malachi 3:10 "...And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need" So give and you will receive.
We also discussed why bad things happen to good people and essentially determined that if you are a believer, you know better and just as it is said in Like 12:47 "...and that servant who knows his master's will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes." More stripes than the non-believer who didn't know what he was supposed to do. As Christians, more is expected of us.
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