Discerning When Giving Is Fleshly/Carnal & Not Spiritual: Giving For Social Ego & Benefits.

People can become extraordinarily generous when generosity enhances their visibility, proximity to influence, or sense of importance, yet become remarkably stingy when generosity requires them to see and respond to suffering that offers them no social reward.

The core thing in giving is not how much a person gives but the motive, the heart, it is a question of why people give, to whom they give, and what kind of reward they are seeking from it.

There is a form of giving that looks like generosity but is, at its deepest level, an investment in the giver's public identity. That's ego running self-investment in the garb of generosity.

A person may give lavishly to a celebrity, prominent minister, politician, influencer, popular organization, or prestigious platform because that giving purchases something intangible: recognition, proximity, favour, access, status, association, or public validation.

The gift becomes a transaction:

“I give to you because you are important, and your importance can reflect back upon me.”

That is fundamentally different from seeing someone in genuine need and saying: “You have a need, and I have the capacity to alleviate it. Therefore, I will help.”

In the first case, the recipient's social significance is what activates generosity. In the second, the recipient's human need is what activates compassion.

That distinction is morally enormous.

The Obscurity Of The Needy Exposes The Sincerity Of Our Compassion.

There is something deeply revealing about whom we are willing to help when nobody is watching.

A needy person in an obscure place cannot increase our social capital. They cannot introduce us to influential people. They cannot publicly celebrate us. They cannot put our name on a banner or photograph our generosity. They cannot give us access to another level of society

And precisely for that reason, helping them becomes a purer test of whether we actually care about you'll p people or merely care about being perceived as a person who cares.

This is one reason Christ's teaching about charity/alms giving is so penetrating. 

In Matthew 6:1-4 He warns against doing charitable deeds “before men, to be seen of them and to have glory or praise from men". He says to his disciples not to be like the religious hypocrites who when they do alms, sound a trumpet in the synagogues and on the streets to get the attention and accolades of men.

He clearly warned that as disciples we should take heed against this because it has an eternal consequence if we fail to take heed against it & that consequence is captured in the words: "otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven."

Just imagine losing what should be an eternal reward of the Father in heaven.

If it's something we are warned to take heed against, then it's something that can easily catch up with us as disciples. Alas we have failed to take heed against this religious hypocrisy, especially in a day in christendom when in the synagogues and religious places called churches, trumpets are blown for giving, and earthly awards given to the highest giver in a lavish award ceremony.

Once public recognition becomes the principal reward, generosity has been subtly redirected from meeting real needs of poor saints to serving/ministering to the ego of a man.

In conclusion, when you give or sow to be seen of men, to be awarded or applauded you're sowing to the flesh, to your ego. And scripture says "Be not deceived: God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that also shall he reap. For he that sows to his own flesh, shall reap corruption from the flesh; but he that sows to the Spirit, from the Spirit shall reap eternal life". Galatians 6:7-8.