The Marks of a True Believer

I was listening to a sermon today that said generous giving was a mark of a true believer. Without it, your salvation could be in question. It was one of those statements that I agreed with to some extent, but couldn't agree in the fullest. I had to pick apart why that was. And here's where I got with my thinking...

While generous giving is certainly a mark of a believer, it is really just one of many, many signs. The real and true mark of a believer is regeneration, which is the bigger, wider picture of what is going on in a believers life. Giving, in this sense, is like one particular branch of a much bigger tree. You would certainly hope that it was there, but it doesn't, in itself, make the tree.

The trouble with gradual sanctification is it takes someone time to grow. Just like a tree, the more it grows, the stronger it gets and the more branches, shoots and fruit it produces. But in the beginning, there's hardly anything to see. It's barely a twig. It might only have one leaf.

So really, generous giving is just one of many marks that you are likely to see in a mature believer. It's a single mark of a much greater evidence: regeneration.