Monday Morning Music Ministry

7-13-26

“Paying It Forward” is not a new concept, despite its newish-sounding nickname. Have you seen acts of charity when someone pays for another’s groceries at the check-out counter? Have you heard of a driver covering the next car’s toll at the highway booth? Did you ever see a customer pay for a stranger’s tab at a restaurant? Perhaps you have done these things… or been a recipient. Paying forward.

Charity it is, in one of its purest forms. Paying forward, as it has come to be called, is – or should be – a basic human impulse. In fact it has been a staple of works of fiction (more than fact?), movies, and drama in many forms as far back as the ancient Greeks. Benjamin Franklin, the wisest of our wise Founding Fathers, described his motivation for the practice: I do not pretend to give such a deed [responding to a request for money]; I only lend it to you. When you meet with another honest man in similar distress, you must pay me by lending this sum to him; enjoining him to discharge the debt by a like operation, when he shall be able, and shall meet with another opportunity. I hope it may thus go through many hands…. This is a trick of mine for doing a deal of good with a little money.

In attempts to institutionalize if not codify the concept of Paying Forward, there are several foundations that encourage and assist the practice. Some charities publish instructions for enabling donors to pay forward in various ways. We can assume that donations – for instance, contributing food and clothing at “pantries” – are motivated in part by a feeling that such acts will be multiplied in ways down the chain… or a subconscious possibility that such “bread cast upon the water” will return in kind or increase. Truly, a major purpose of tithing and church offerings, in addition to supporting the local church, is to “pay forward” the work of the church in ways we can only trust. St Augustine dwelt upon the necessity of cultivating charitable impulses.

Great contemporary examples of Paying Forward are Christian health-related alternatives to insurance, or relief from crushing medical bills – organizations like Medi-Share, Christian Healthcare Ministries, and WeShare Health.

That famous phrase from Ecclesiastes, Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days, is – let us parse and let us pray – not only a kindly admonition, but a promise of God. The Lord is good at such things, is He not? Kindly admonitions and powerful promises. Which means that we can have our hearts “right,” and at the same time – with our motivations in proper, godly priorities – we may rely on God’s providence in “return.”

As I say, God is good at such things. In fact He is the author, among so many other blessings, of “Pay It Forward.” How has He done that? Let us visit life’s greatest example of the principle: For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly…. God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. (Romans 5: 6, 8-9)

In these ways we know the love of God. We can know the love of God. Yes, we can pay for a stranger’s cup of coffee, and wave to another driver after paying a toll on the highway as a favor. But the Lord of the universe is willing to withhold judgment on rebels and sinners as we are, and “pay forward” forgiveness and salvation to those who believe in Jesus, His sacrificial death and resurrection.

Paying it forward… for eternity. How He must trust us. How He must love us!

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Click: Jesus Paid It All – Kim Walker-Smith | Worship Circle Hymns