Rich Toward Others: Generous and Ready to Share

“As for the rich in this present age, charge them... to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share.” ~1 Timothy 6:17-19

I see a lot of homeless people around where I live. I drive by them every day, praying for their earthly and eternal well-being. Are my prayers enough for them though? Paul’s words to Timothy suggest that prayer isn’t where my part ends.

Paul wrote to Timothy about people who had more than they needed. “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God... to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share” (1 Timothy 6:17-19). He wasn’t writing to the desperately poor. He was writing to people comfortable enough to start trusting their comfort instead of God, and his instruction wasn’t to feel guilty about what they had. It was to use it.

Generous and Ready to Share: What Paul Told Timothy About Wealth

Notice the phrase “rich in good works.” Paul doesn’t measure wealth the way my bank app does. He measures it by what moves through your hands, not what sits in them.

Jesus made a similar trade explicit when He told His disciples to “sell your possessions, and give to the needy... for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Luke 12:33-34). He wasn’t describing a loss. He was describing where a heart ends up when its money has already gone ahead of it. Generosity isn’t the price of following Jesus. It’s one of the ways a heart learns to follow Him.

So as I got onto the highway to drive out east to meet my family, there stood a homeless man holding a sign that read, “This is the sign you were looking for.” At first, I averted my eyes to the pavement in front of me. Eventually I said a short prayer for him. Then I remembered an unused McDonald’s gift card sitting in my wallet. I rolled down my window and gave him the gift card. He said, “Thank you. God bless you.” And I told him the same.

That sign stayed with me for the rest of the drive. I had been praying for people like him every day, and I meant every word of it. But the prayer led me to action; to reach into my wallet. Paul isn’t telling Timothy to stop praying. He’s saying that anyone who has been given something is expected to use it to help someone else.

What are you holding right now that someone else needs more than you do?

Daily Practice: Give something away today that costs you an actual decision — not the loose change you’d lose anyway, but a specific amount to a specific person or need.

Always improve the present moment.

~Corbin Riley