1 Corinthians 13:1-13

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.  It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.  it bears all things, believes al things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends.  But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.  For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.  When I was a child, i spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, i put an end to childish ways.  For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face.  now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.  And now faith, hope and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

Christians will recognize this as the famous love chapter. The chapter most often read at weddings and found on wedding invitations - “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or clanging cymbal...” it starts. It goes on to say that all the spiritual gifts in the world are no good without love. And that they are but a means to an end. The purpose of spiritual gifts is to bring us into God's love – agape love.  That is, love for our fellow man...not romantic love.

Interestingly, every spiritual gifts passage in the Bible is either preceded or followed by a love verse or chapter. The emphasis is decidedly on love over spiritual gifts. Without love, gifts are meaningless. In fact, without agape love, our lives are meaningless.

What does this mean about stewardship? Stewardship is not the goal – love is. Good stewardship is a natural result of our love.  As a Christian, if stewardship is not done with love for our fellow man and God, it is like “a noisy gong or clanging cymbal”. We need to do it, not because it's a 'spiritual law' or 'should' in our life, but because we sincerely want our stewardship to bring others into the circle of God's love and embrace. Either by passive example, or active evangelism.

The truth is, most people only come to good stewardship practices if they love God or their fellow man. Often the impetus for the environmentalist movement – the idea that we're all going to die if we don't become good environmental stewards - is prompted by love of life, fear, and is self-serving. This can cause some interesting reactions to certain situations, which is why it's always important, as Christians, to infuse God's love into our actions.  It gives everyone a bigger picture to consider and a broader purpose for being good stewards.

It shouldn't come as a surprise then that I view some forms of frugality as counter-productive and unhealthy. Being cheap and using other people for our own financial gain is never acceptable. I define 'cheap' as going beyond the bounds of frugality into an area of questionable ethics and self-centredness. Where we negatively affect others with our attitude and behaviour. We need to be thinking about how the people in our circle of acquaintance see God through our lives. Not that we need to please others (heaven forbid!), but that we see they get an accurate picture of our Saviour, Father and friend.

It means not being so cheap as to give all our money to charity while not feeding and clothing our own family properly. While our children do not need the latest designer clothes, they should at least be in something modest that fits them! Healthy food does not have to be organic. It can be as simple as growing our own garden, or buying more fruits and vegetables at the grocery store. It does not include sending our child to the school breakfast program hungry, when we have enough money to feed them, but chose not to. This is abusing the system.

What does this mean to me? It means I view my time, money and resources in how they will bring others to Christ. I will pay a struggling family to do yard work I could do myself. It gives them a feeling of self-worth and encourages them to do something constructive to improve their future. It provides them with hope. It also frees up time for me to do other frugal activities to support that family.

I will share my stuff with others, giving them my excess, rather than selling it all at garage sales to make a buck (though I have been known to have the odd garage sale too!). It saves time again, and it encourages others around me. I will use my time to do other frugal activities. After all, I don't really need the money a garage sale would provide to live. Others might.

I have a friend who's daughter is not talking to her at the moment. My friend tried to make contact, several times, with no reply. Her daughter is upset and angry because Mom and Dad cut her off from the family pot of gold. The reason? The daughter and her husband were not being wise with their finances. By giving them money the parents allowed them to continue to be unwise with money. The parents chose to stop the flow until they became more mature. Allowing them that funding was not maturing them spiritually – it was making them financially dependent and turning them into users. That is not what God intends for any of us. He wants us to be realistic about wants and needs, to put our trust in Him (not Mom and Dad), and to be good stewards of what we do have. Most importantly, He wants us to grow to love Him and others.

The goal of spiritual gifts...or gifts of any kind, in my view...is to bring people into the circle of God's love, so they understand what love is. And providing hope is the first step to opening minds and hearts to the wonder and majesty of God.

So as I write this blog on frugality and finances, I have to ask all of my readers to please be conscious that good stewardship is not the goal...love is. As a Christian, good stewardship is a means of expressing our love and thanks to God, and our love towards our fellow man. It is the least we can do considering how he expressed his love to us.  And through our expression of love, God continues to bless us daily.