Teaching Resources International

The Generosity of God … (January 2025 Update) 

There is one attribute of God that is rarely discussed. Yet it is foundational to understanding what kind of God we serve.  This is the generosity of God. While it is sometimes discussed under the kindness of God or the love of God in most theological textbooks, rarely much attention is given to it. But the generosity of God is one aspect of God’s character that that is crucial to understanding what an amazing God we serve! 

What a person thinks about God affects the way he serves God. In Matthew 25, Jesus tells a parable that we have come to call the “Parable of the Talents.” He tells about a master who gives 3 servants “talents” (a monetary value equal to about 20 years wages) before he goes away. He gives 5 to one, 2 to another and 1 to the last. When the master returns, the first two joyfully give back to the master double the amount he had given to them. The last one returns his one talent says, “Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.” He condemned the servant saying that he should have at least invested the money so he could have gotten some interest from it. But the third servant’s problem was that he viewed his master as stingy instead of generous.  Our service of God will never exceed our view of God!