If You Gave Away a Peach

Imagine you manage a peach orchard. Many trees, each producing dozens of fuzzy orbs of juicy deliciousness. Peach pie, peach ice cream, peach preserves, peach chutney, peach peaches.

Now imagine that you give one of these delectable fruits to a friend. How many peaches would you have? One less, right? Yes, that’s the way things work in the natural world. Something minus one is one less of something. Give away enough and you have none.

However, the fruit of the Spirit the Apostle Paul lists in Galatians 5 is not subject to the laws of the natural world. In fact, after listing 9 manifestations of the fruit of God’s Spirit he says, “Against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:23)

If you have love and you give some away, are you left with less love? If you give away kindness, do you have less kindness? If you give away patience, joy, peace, forbearance, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, or self-control, are you left with less?

Growing in the giving lifestyle means growing in generosity toward others. One can be generous with money or other things such as fruit. But can we ever run out of the fruit of God’s Spirit because we give too much away?

According to Paul, the clear answer is that you do not diminish the quantity of the fruit of the Spirit by giving it away. So go ahead, spread a little fruit around.

May We Help?

To help you explore specific year-end giving opportunities in addition to cash, we have prepared A Guide to Year-end Giving. In this guide, we review the benefits of giving various types of assets in addition to cash. You can download your free copy using the link below.

If you have questions when planning your gift of a specific asset, we are available to help you review your options and opportunities. Call or email today.

© 2021 CDF Capital Foundation from the Lifestyle Giving Legacy files