We have been looking at the book of Acts at church for the last couple months and we are at the part just after Peter and John get out of jail for healing a man that has been paralyzed for 40 years. The whole church is so excited about the miraculous things that are happening.  Then we get the following section of verses that seems so ‘unspiritual’.

Acts 4:32 says “All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had”  and later on in verse 37 we find that, “Barnabas sold a field he owned and brought the money to the apostles.

This is a great story of sacrificial giving and the body of Christ coming together to help those in need. There was of course no mandate from the leaders for everyone to sell there stuff and bring the proceeds to the church. From time to time some were prompted by the Spirit to give of what they had. This was a very spiritual undertaking.

The thought that was most intriguing to me was that Barnabas just gave the money to the apostles. We would think that he would give it to those that were in direct need of his assistance.  This made me think, ‘you haven’t really given until you have given up the control’. So many times in our American culture we give with strings attached. But is it giving if we tell the recipient what we want them to do with the money?

Some times people have given me $100 and said, “Now go have some fun with this, don’t spend it on your bills”. I received something, but has that person truly given it away? Maybe the most fun thing would be to have my bills paid! Or if you give your kids an allowance and then proceed to tell them all the things they need to spend that money on.

This is why special offerings or when specific disaster strikes we awaken and start giving generously, because we want to know specifially where those funds are going. General giving is not as glamorous to us.

How about we just give and give liberally to organizations or people that have proven themselves to be good stewards of resources and then step away.  Don’t tell them what you want them to do with it. Don’t have strings attached to your giving. 

Because, have you really given if you still want to have control?