Charity vs Sacrifice

Charity:
1. Generous actions or donations to aid the poor, ill, or helpless
2. Something given to a person or persons in need
3. A charitable act or work.

Sacrifice:
noun. the surrender or destruction of something prized or desirable for the sake of something considered as having a higher or more pressing claim.
verb. to surrender or give up, or permit injury or disadvantage to, for the sake of something else.


I think most Americans (including myself) are very bad at sacrifice. Some may disagree with this statement or even be offended by it because they think Americans are very giving people. This is true. Generally speaking, we are giving. We are good at charity, but not at sacrifice. The distinction is an important one.

Sacrifice can be a form of charity, but charity does not necessarily involve sacrifice. Charity is simply giving to those in need or those less fortunate. Sacrifice, however, requires hurt. A sacrifice by definition means giving up what is not easy to give up--"the surrender or destruction of something prized or desirable."

America is a land of surplus. We may not feel this way when we look around and see that all of our friends and neighbors have more than we do, but to truly understand what a ridiculous bounty of wealth and possessions we have its necessary to compare ourselves to the rest of the world. Nearly half the world lives on less than $2 a day. I've personally been places where families of five live in one room huts with no electricity or running water and the only shoes each child has is one pair flip flops with holes worn in the bottom. Americans are rich.

And when you're rich it’s easy to give from the leftovers. It doesn't really cost us anything and it makes us feel good. We're good at cleaning out our closets and dropping off a trash bag of old clothes at the thrift store. We love donating those cans of corn that have lived in the back of our pantry for months to the food drive. We don't think twice about dropping a dollar or two in the bin at the checkout line. Seriously, we have this part down.

But when is the last time you or I truly sacrificed? How often do we willing offer up "something prized or desirable," something we can't easily do without, something that actually hurts?

I point out this distinction between charity and sacrifice because I believe Christ calls us to the later, not just the former. Moreover, I believe we are called to sacrifice as a lifestyle, not just as isolated incidents. When Christ spoke to his followers he often said things like, "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor...then come, follow me," "If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also," "The Son of Man has no place to lay his head," "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God," and "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes even his own life--he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple."

Jesus also said, "You are my friends if you obey my commands," and 1 John tells us that "Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did." So if we are not experiencing sacrifice involving our family, our money, our possessions, and our social status, perhaps we should examine if we are truly following Jesus.

These are questions I'm asking of myself. Of course, I don't think you necessarily have to sell all you own and move to a remote jungle just to follow Christ, but the goal is to be more like him and less like the world around us. Reaching that goal requires routine sacrifice, not just charity, as well as new attitudes towards our money, possessions, time, plans, rights, and so on.

Of course, sacrifice is not giving til it hurts just to see if we can or to make life more difficult. It is always "for the sake of something considered as having a higher or more pressing claim." Jesus told people to make sacrifices so that they could follow him and go proclaim the kingdom of God. In this case, the higher and more pressing claim is to know him and make him known. There is no more worthy cause in life than this one. Of course, if we don't believe that, we will always find it difficult to sacrifice.

I recently finished a great book called Radical that further explores these ideas through a close look at the Scriptures and amazing stories from the lives of believers around the world. I highly recommend this book to any American Christian who is serious about following Christ. It will also give you a clear idea of how I'm trying to live my life and why I moved to France. Follow the link below for more:

Radical by David Platt.