By Codie Brenner

In college I was given the assignment to write a paper on the topic of generosity. I was stumped at first. Did I really understand what generosity was? And was I generous…of my time, my resources, myself?

The course was Screen Writing and my professor was a homosexual Jew. As a Christian, I did not know how to answer this man’s question. What did he want me to say? How could our differing value systems measure generosity in the same way? What I viewed as holy and absolute, he viewed as intolerance. Not only did I have to do the assignment to pass the course, I had to do it well enough to impress this man.

When I finally stopped staring at the blank computer screen and picked up my Bible, I found the answer to the assignment. Though I had been a Christian since I could remember, my college days were less than holy and were littered with legalistic views that I somehow escaped from living up to myself.

Excerpt from Generosity, 1994
“I hold strong spiritual beliefs and so I turned to the Bible for a stronger sense of what generosity means. Generosity is described in 2 Corinthians 8:3 (NIV). ‘For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability.’ In the same chapter, verse 11, the definition is explored further. ‘Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched at your completion of it, according to your means.’ In these passages, generosity is not only to complete the act of giving beyond what one is able, but to do so with eager willingness. The final verses I explored, 2 Cor. 9:6-7, speak of the interactive nature of generosity. ‘Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion.’
Expressions of generosity go beyond the act of giving something to someone. There is a sense of self given and a sense of spirit which eagerly and willingly wants to give. Generosity is expressed in the sharing of experience through identity.”

This is exactly what God did for His creation when He sent Jesus in the form of human flesh. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) Above the actual gift itself comes the reality that He did this for us “while we were sinners,” (Romans 5:8) which means we did not earn it or deserve it. This is true generosity, a free gift that expresses love without an expected return. This is the God I serve. A God who expresses His character by sharing everything He is with His creation.

Even a man whose lifestyle of sin was abhorrent to God could recognize the truth of what I had written. I received the highest grade possible for the paper with the comment, “Impressive job!” It is funny the things I learned in that class, and it is ironic the vessels God uses to cause us to reflect upon who He is that we might desire to know Him more.

Today I can say that I am learning to recognize true generosity. God pours it upon my life “abundantly above all I can ask or think.” Generosity is God giving of Himself in every way, not withholding any good thing from His children. (He often does this through His body, the church.) It is a shower of unmerited favor and “new mercy every morning. Great is His faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22, 23) It’s the “unconditional” part of His agape love.

This truly generous relationship, afforded to all who believe, elicits the only response acceptable – a life lovingly devoted to the Savior of the world.

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