Luke 11:41
What He is saying is that God does not expect us to give out of our own poverty, to put our family at risk to help other people, or to give in any way things that we do not have. The best gifts that we can give are things that we already have to give—things from inside us, as it literally says. The margin reads, "Give alms of what is inside."
Give alms—give help to others from what is produced by the character we have already built. That way, we know it will be a pure offering and acceptable, not only to the person who receives it, but also to God. We are to be living sacrifices, sweet savors in our dedication to both God and to man. It comes out in our good works.
If we give of what we have already built within us, it will be an acceptable and a pure offering before God. Remember the widow's mite? It was not the amount she gave but the relative value of it that impressed Jesus. She gave of what she had.
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
"If I Have Not Charity"
