Take
heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise
ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore
when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the
hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have
glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly (Matthew 6:1-4).
Giving out of one's riches is diametrically opposed to giving all of oneself, which is true giving. To give out of one's riches is to be not only a miser, but a hypocrite. Proverbs 23:6-8 warns of the miser who:
Do not eat the bread of a miser, Nor desire his delicacies;
Giving out of one's riches is diametrically opposed to giving all of oneself, which is true giving. To give out of one's riches is to be not only a miser, but a hypocrite. Proverbs 23:6-8 warns of the miser who:
Do not eat the bread of a miser, Nor desire his delicacies;
For as he thinks in his heart, so is
he. "Eat and drink!" he says to you, But his heart is not with you.
The morsel you have eaten, you will vomit up, And waste your pleasant words.
To truly give is to give not out of one's wealth, but to totally disregard what one has thereby giving to others, and acknowledging that one deserves nothing by eternal damnation in Hell. It makes to truly and wholeheartedly acknowledge one's possessions are not one's own, but God's.
A person cannot truly give if he does not acknowledge that what he has is not his at all, but God, and that he deserves absolutely nothing at all but eternal damnation in Hell. Those who do not acknowledge this wholeheartedly will give out of their wealth. Such is hypocritical giving which is vile and abominable. It is to give out of pride, giving to others in thinking one is superior, or else, expecting others to give oneself things, so one gives with such vile expectation.
Indeed, "the sacrifice of the wicked is abomination: how much more, when he bringeth it with a wicked mind?" (Proverbs 21:27).
The whole idea of giving to poorer people out of humanistic sympathy, is a manifestation of pride and an example of giving one's wealth. The spirit who works through such people is the spirit of mammon who thrives on the pride of life, which manifests in the smug comfort that one expects, accompanied by an insincere sympathy for the 'less fortunate' on the grounds that they have less material things.
This is precisely one manifestation of the spirit of mammon in many people of the west who feel that insincere sympathy for people of "Third World" nations for having less material things. Such a smug comfort which is based on that false humanistic sympathy is subtle to detect. It is of vile pride, and exactly what the problem is with many in the west, including many western Christians.
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