Giving Is Living

`He [God] has ordained that giving should become a habit, that it may counteract the dangerous and deceitful sin of covetousness. Continual giving starves covetousness to death. Systematic benevolence is designed in the order of God to tear away treasures from the covetous as fast as they are gained and to consecrate them to the Lord, to whom they belong.' (3T548)

Testimony Of The Cross

`The cross of Christ appeals to the benevolence of every follower of the blessed Saviour. The principle there illustrated is to give, give. This carried out in actual benevolence and good works, is the true fruit of the Christian life.' (4T80)

Why Does God Give?

`It is the glory of God to give.' (DA25)

`God imparts His gifts to us that we also may give, and thus make known His character to the world.' (COL300)

Why Do We Give?

`God requires an appropriation of means for benevolent objects every week, that in the frequent exercise of this good quality the heart may be kept open like a flowing stream and not allowed to close up. By exercise, benevolence constantly enlarges and strengthens, until it becomes a principle and reigns in the soul.' (3T548/9)

God's Promises To The Giver

`He who humbly uses what God has given for the honour of the Giver, freely giving as he has received, may feel the peace and assurance in all his business that God's hand is over him for good, and he himself will bear the impress of God, having the Father's smile.' (3T546)

`A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.' (Proverbs 11:25)

`What we give does, in time of need, often come back to us in fourfold measure in the coin of the realm. But, besides this, all gifts are repaid, even in this life, in the fuller inflowing of His love, which is the sum of all heaven's glory and its treasure.' (MB136)

`Give, and it will be given to you.' (Luke 6:38)

`To sow beside all waters means a continual imparting of God's gifts. It means giving wherever the cause of God or the needs of humanity demand our aid. This will not tend to poverty. "He which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully." The sower multiplies his seed by casting it away.' (COL85,86)

The Principles

`The capacity for receiving is preserved only by imparting.' (COL142/3)

`When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.' (James 4:3)

Our Attitude

`Christ teaches that our attitude should not be, how much are we to receive? but, How much can we give?' (MB134)

`If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you [who is asking you], and if anyone takes what belongs to you do not demand it back.' (Luke 6:29,30)

Our Obligation

`So also with the gifts and blessings of this life, whatever you may possess above your fellows places you in debt, to that degree, to all who are less favoured. Have we wealth, or even the comforts of life, then we are under the most solemn obligation to care for the suffering sick, the widow, and the fatherless exactly as we would desire them to care for us were our condition and theirs reversed.' (MB136)

Satan's Plan

`[Satan bade his angel's] Hold up every plausible excuse to those who have means, lest they hand it out. And those who shall attempt to give, put within them a grudging disposition, that it may be sparingly.' (1SG180)