The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum Etiquette In Friendship

I prefer to approach such things from a biblical perspective rather than from examples from life's perspective, i.e., coming FIRST from the teachings of Scripture and then apply them to life rather than taking things from life and trying to formulate "lessons" for life.

In the example given above, Scripture teaches us that we as children of God and who are the recipients of His unmerited grace are the only ones who know that all things are from God and are to be used as such. In short, believers are to be good stewards with God's earthly blessings.

Secondly, Sarah wasn't wrong in principle in offering to cater her friend's wedding at no cost. If one concludes this to be true then this would prohibit doing anything free gratis, which is hardly in accord with biblical teaching, e.g., being a cheerful giver (2Cor 9:7). We can see this clearly illustrated by the communal giving of earthly goods to others (Acts 2:44,45; cf. Ps 112:9; Prov 11:24; 19:17; Isa 58:7-12; Matt 25:34-40; 1Tim 6:18,19; Jam 2:14-16).

Thirdly, Sarah sinned in a couple of areas: 1) Setbacks are part of life for the LORD directs all our steps. But Sarah forgot why she offered to do the catering in the first place, out of the goodness of her heart for her friend. Her spirit of generosity waned and she began to regret what she had done. Was her original reason for making the offer truly genuine? 2) She failed to 'count the cost' of her generosity. Was she really able to pay for the service offered; food, equipment, employees' wages, etc.? Perhaps she should have offered to do part for free or to offer to cater the wedding for a discounted price. Bottom line, perhaps she was not a good steward. Her friend was not naked or poor and thus her offer need not have been so sacrificial. There are times when such sacrifice is warranted and a true sign of grace (cf. Matt 12:41-44; 19:21,22).