People in our era often give gifts in a calculated way,  to organizations that promise not to deepen human solidarity, or to grow in our relationship with God, but to remake the world according to a certain ideology. People often give, in other words, to exert control. And paradoxically, their giving is actually not a gift at all because it always has strings attached. 

By contrast, in the Old Testament, giving is a means to build solidarity in the human community and to honor the Lord, who loves his whole creation. 

In similar fashion, if you look at Jesus’ instructions and the early church practices on giving away wealth, it’s all about putting one’s whole trust in the Lord. We give as a way of declaring our ultimate trust in God, and our desire to deepen our relationships with one another.

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