Contemplative Bible Reading

2 Corinthians 8:5 (New Living Translation)

5 They even did more than we had hoped, for their first action was to give themselves to the Lord and to us, just as God wanted them to do.

This is from a letter that Paul wrote to Christians in Corinth. He is relaying what some Christians in Macedonia had done. This chapter is often used to exhort Christians today to give money to further the work of Christians in the world.

Their first gift, however, was not money. They first gave themselves to God. Next, they gave themselves to Paul and his fellow missionaries.

The first gift a follower of Christ gives is themselves. We give our lives to God. Then we do all that other stuff. Too bad we seem to focus on all that other stuff. We forget what the first and greatest gift the person gave. We lose the appreciation of that gift. Someone walks into a church building Sunday after Sunday as evidence of that first gift, and we don’t see that for what it is.

Sure, I want other Christians to “do a lot more.” There is a time and place to discuss “a lot more.” First, however, recognize that first gift. Then we move to other stuff.