“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
-matthew 6:19-24 (ESV)
The discipline of generosity is, at its heart, the act of giving as a means of worship. Yes, giving in terms of financial resources, but also giving of one’s time, talents, and possessions. As John Mark Comer puts it, it’s not about owning less, it’s about wanting less. Generosity as a discipline is a means to freedom from our slavery to the desire for more, it is a tool that chisels away our attachments to material things. And what takes the place of those attachments once they are wrenched from us? The presence of the Spirit and our love for Jesus. In short, generosity is a discipline that drives us ever more towards Jesus and ever away from the world.
