I never tire of reading Charles Spurgeon. Virtually everything I read of his I agree with and enjoy and find profitable.
How about this encouragement I came across this morning in his little book, Counsel to Christian Workers: Don’t be a Mrs. Splitplum!
Who, you may be wondering, is Mrs. Splitplum?
She was the wife of a grocer who always cut the plums in two for fear that there would be an ounce more plum than the buyer had paid for. She didn’t want to give a fraction more than was bought.
“Ah,” says Spurgeon, drawing a lesson from this quaint anecdote, “there are many Splitplums in religion. They do not want to do more for Jesus than may be absolutely necessary.” Just so much, but no more. Just what is fair and equitable in their service to the Lord.
Don’t be a Mrs. Splitplum is Spurgeon’s point. Instead, be like the woman with the alabaster jar of perfume who spent it not miserly or calculatingly or cautiously, but lavishly, extravagantly, indeed even wastefully in the service of her Lord (Matthew 26:6-13).
“Christ’s servants delight to give so much as to be thought wasteful, for they feel that when they have in the judgment of others done extravagantly for Christ, they have but begun to show their hearts’ love for his dear name.”
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I thought the application was going to be, be generous with other people. Don’t live your life based on a fear you’re going to be ripped off. But I suppose that follows anyway from “Love God AND love your neighbor.”
I don’t know how anyone with the attitude “I’ll only give part of my life to God” would even decide what that part is. Is there anything at all in the Bible they could use to figure that out? I can’t think of anything.
Thanks for this, Helen. Do you think the “only give a part of my life to God” approach is implied in Jesus’ critique of the Pharisees at certain points: tithing, for example, mint, dill and cumin, but neglecting the weightier matters of the law? Indeed, according to Jesus and the other NT writers, for some in the first-century, the law itself appears to have been used as a justification to not fully obey the law. Hence, as seems to be implied in the critique of the Pharisees, one could use the commandment about the Sabbath to give a part of one’s life to God, but not the whole of one’s life, in particular, one’s heart.
Thanks for your reply, Todd.
I see what you mean – whenever there’s a command a person could say to themself “As long as I’m not breaking that command, I’m doing enough for God.”
As well as the critique you mentioned, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus perhaps is implicitly critical of that approach when he says, in effect, such things as “It’s not enough not to commit adultery – even dwelling on the idea of committing adultery is sin.”
Turning it around a little, that approach ends up being “As long as it’s not explicitly banned by a command, I am free to do it!”
It’s interesting that people use that justification with laws because it really wouldn’t fly in a relational context. Imagine a person doing something to violate the relationship with their spouse and then trying to justify themselves with “But you never actually said I couldn’t do that!”
Mrs Splitplum was probably quite pleased with her idea of halving the plums and thought – “Why not? We never actually promised anyone whole plums!”
Thanks for this, Helen! Yes, I suspect you’re right about Mrs Splitplum’s approach!
And, as you point out, what flies in the face of a law never would in the context of a living relationship. This itself is a powerful insight, I think, into the nature of true faith and what it means to follow Jesus.
I’ve been meditating on Psalm 103 lately. This reminds me of verse 10: “he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.”
It is literally impossible to out-give God. The Christian life is not about score-keeping – it is about lavish giving and generosity.
I’m convinced that if and when we internalize these truths, it will set us free to give and serve God with the same joy and freedom He demonstrated by loving hopelessly indebted sinners like me.
[...] to Todd Wilson for this great [...]
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