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1. He is so, first, because He is pleased with the spirit of faith. Such charity arises out of that faith which the apostle describes as "the evidence of things not seen"; for you observe that when our Lord counsels His disciples not to lay up treasure on earth, but in heaven, He makes an appeal to their faith. When He says — "If thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the halt, and the blind, for they cannot recompense thee, for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just," He requires us to believe that we shall appear before the judgment-seat of God, to receive according to the things done in the body. When, then, in expectation of these things — these things not seen but believed, not possessed but hoped for — we expend what we do possess and see; when we resign the means of present gratification; when we part with what might please the natural inclination — satisfy "the lust of the flesh, or the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life" — we give a proof of faith of the same sort as that of Abraham, when at the call of God he gave up what is dear to every man — his country, and his kindred.

2. God approves the man who distributes and does good, because He sees in him a spirit of obedience. It is part of the arrangement by which the world is governed, that there should be a connection between the several classes of mankind — such mutual dependence as of servants on their employers, of children on their parents, of a people on their spiritual pastor, of the poor on those who are better endowed; and it is only while the links of the chain, constructed by God Himself, are sound and uninterrupted, that the balance of the whole is preserved, and the machine proceeds in conformity with its Maker's design. "The end of the commandment is charity." This is the purpose of God's revelation of Himself by His beloved Son — that when, through unfeigned faith in the atonement made for sin, the conscience is set at ease, and the heart sincerely converted to God, the result should be charity — love of man towards his fellow-men, springing from the love of God towards himself, and nourished by a constant sense of His mercy. When, therefore His Spirit has established this principle in this heart, then and not before the gospel has dominion there.

(Abp. Sumner.)The sacrifice of Christian beneficence: — We are not to offer on the altar of Christian charity the halt, blind, lame, the mere offal of our comforts which we deem below our notice; nor are we content with yielding up the surplus of our possessions which we do not want and cannot use. We must be prepared to make "sacrifices" Did the Son of God exhibit a species of compassion which cost Him nothing? Did He, without effort and humiliation merely give us, if I may so speak, the surplus of His riches, the redundance of His glory? Altogether the opposite: "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we, through His poverty, might become rich."

(J. A. James.)

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KJV: But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

WEB: But don't forget to be doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.