FREELY YE HAVE RECEIVED, FREELY GIVE

Matthew 10:5-10

In today’s key passage, Jesus is getting ready to send His disciples out into the world for the first time on their own. He has spent time with them and He has trained them, and now He is sending them to reach others. He tells them to go to the “lost sheep of Israel” and preach the message that the Kingdom of Heaven is near. He gives them the power they will need to heal the sick, raise the dead, and drive out demons. Just before they leave, Jesus gives the disciples a principle that they should use to guide their actions as they go from town to town preaching His message to others. He tells them, “Freely you have received, freely give.” (Vs. When I first read this verse, my first reaction was that Jesus was talking about generous giving. God gives us so much in this life and blesses us in so many ways, that the very least we can do is share that wealth with others by freely giving of our time, money, and possessions to help others. While this is obviously sound advice and something that we should all practice in our lives, the more I read this passage today the more I started to believe that Jesus was talking about a lot more than just material goods.

As I sat quietly today talking with God and thinking about this passage, I tried to focus on all the different things we have received from Him. The more I meditated on it, the longer the list became, so I began to write down some of the things we freely receive from God that we can freely give. Below are some of the items on my list:

Freely we have received His grace and mercy, and freely we should extend that grace and mercy to others.
Freely we have received His forgiveness of our sins, and freely we should forgive others of their transgressions.
Freely we have received His encouragement, and freely we should encourage others.
Freely we have received His wisdom, and freely we should share that wisdom with others.
Freely we have received His love, and freely we should show that love to others.

Perhaps the most important thing on my list that we have received from God is the Good News about Jesus Christ. Each of us has been saved by His grace through faith in Jesus, and the fact is that at some point in our lives we learned about our Savior because someone somewhere cared enough about us to share the Gospel with us. God freely gives us salvation, but in order for people to receive His gift, they have to first hear the Good News. That is where we come in. Freely we have received salvation through His Good News, and freely we should share that Good News with others. I encourage you today to make a list of all the things you have freely received from God that you can freely give to others.