Offerings and Sacrifices

“And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” Mark 12:32-33

The Bible has a lot to say about offerings and sacrifices. When someone is willing to give to the Lord, it tells us a lot about their values and their character. If we take money or possessions that we could use to buy or trade for things that we want and give them to God, we are making a sacrifice. When we see this kind of sacrifice in others, we tend to equate it with spirituality, but the scribe in the passage above understood that there is more to evaluating our spiritual condition than what we can see on the surface. Sacrifice can certainly be an indicator of our spirituality, as we can see with the widow who gave her last two mites; but it is also something that we can do for an outward show or as a way to bargain with God. When King Saul gave the excuse for sparing the best of the animals that had belonged to the Amalekites instead of destroying them as God had commanded, the prophet Samuel answered, “To obey is better than sacrifice,” (I Samuel 15:22). It is true that the Lord loves a cheerful giver (II Corinthians 9:7), but what He wants most is our love and obedience. Do you love God with all your heart? Are you obeying His Word? These are the most important tests of our relationship with Him.