What are we to give?

Colonel Sydney Long Jacob

We wholly belong to the Lord; we are bought with a price; we have been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, and set free, so that it is but natural that the apostle should say, ‘I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God’ (Rom. 12:1–2).

We cannot, as it were, ransom ourselves by giving up our property. Ourselves, our lives, our souls — our all is His, and this is not a hardship or bondage, but freedom and an unspeakable privilege, transforming what would otherwise be worthless into that which is extremely precious and valuable in the eyes of the Lord of glory, thus giving invaluable opportunities of being, doing and suffering that which shall be found to honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Let no Christian make the great mistake of thinking that money is the chief thing to give. Far from this, it is the least: we are not our own, nevertheless it is our privilege to yield ourselves to God as those that are alive from the dead and our members as instruments of righteousness unto God. How blessed! God does not want our things, unless we own the Lord’s rights over us, but when we have done this He allows us to use our all in His happy service. Even in doing good to men, kindness, sympathy, thoughtful, tender service and, most of all, love will go much further than money; how much rather, then, does God look for the moral beyond the material. With Him the motive is everything, the material thing nothing, so that one may give all one’s goods to feed the poor and yet give nothing, and a poor widow may give two mites and the value thereof be unspeakably great.

We are the Lord’s, therefore let it be a privilege to own His blessed rights over us, and count it all honour not to live for ourselves, but to Him who died for us and rose again. Thus it will be our happy service to hold ourselves and our families, our gifts, our talents, our opportunities, our positions, our time and our money at His disposal for Him to do as He will with them, and it will then be a joy to us when we are able to serve Him in any way He pleases. Thus Caleb received Hebron for an inheritance, because he wholly followed Jehovah, God of Israel, and he drove out the giants therefrom (Josh. 14:12–14; 15:14), yet very soon after this same city is taken from him and given to the priests (21:11). What a privilege for Caleb!

Colonel Sydney Long Jacob[1]

[1] From Faithful Sayings.

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Appeared in: Truth and Testimony, 2021