There’s a kind of giving that doesn’t look like charity. It doesn’t solve a problem. It doesn’t meet a visible need. And yet Jesus called it “a beautiful thing.”
This study came from wrestling with that difference.
Remembering your father’s house
When we speak about giving, this is not just a moment to clang your ears into submission. Rather we wish to give you a kingdom principle — not from the template of how it has worked for anyone — but not to gatekeep a covenant tool by which we reach the heart of God. We call it many names. I’ll call it remembering your father’s house.
James 1:27 — The Horizontal Frame
Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
The Perpendicular Plane
Last week we spoke of inertia, momentum, velocity — in physics all the motion of man is a journey in moving forward. However in the spirit, the spiritual man has another journey: it’s in moving upward.
He lives in a perpendicular plane — a natural plane where he dwells as man and a vertical plane where he swells as a spirit. Some of the measures we see in this plane are worship, praise, war. Recall the word says we wrestle not against flesh and blood, and he talks of powers in high places — another version says heavenly places. The concept here is not of height but of dimension.
The Vertical Demonstration
The woman poured oil at the feet of Jesus. The issue is not in the fact that she spilled it or the spilling being the sacrifice. It is essentially giving and an act towards ascension.
Jesus said: “The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have Me.”
The act is not horizontal and not earthly. But it also infers just like James that acts to the poor is also a form of virtue — but does not compare to what this woman has done.
The Invitation
This is the class of giving that is not defined by reception. When it’s done you probably do not feel to indulge at that point and no one will see it. Remember: do not let your left hand know what your right is doing.
We are inviting you into this class of having the Father’s heartbeat in your own heart.
Giving as Direction
Most teaching on giving frames it as a transaction with a need: the poor need food, the church needs funds, the ministry needs support. That’s not wrong — Scripture commands it. But there’s a class of giving that isn’t moving toward a gap. It’s moving toward God.
The question isn’t what you’re giving. It’s where you’re sending it.
The Horizontal Frame — James 1:27
James uses the Greek word θρησκεία (threskeia) — the outward, ceremonial expression of religion. Temple ritual. Liturgy. And he redefines it entirely in horizontal terms: care for the vulnerable, personal holiness.
This is the floor of pure religion — what God requires of our earthly conduct. It’s duty toward man and duty toward self. It’s available perpetually: “the poor you will always have with you.” It is good. It is commanded. Cornelius practiced this kind of giving and it reached God’s throne (Acts 10:4). But it’s not the whole picture.
The Perpendicular Dimension
There’s a second dimension of spiritual motion that most of our religious vocabulary doesn’t capture. We talk about “growing” and “going” — forward, outward. But the Bible also describes motion that is upward — not in altitude but in dimension.
Worship isn’t horizontal communication. Spiritual war isn’t fought on earth. The sacrifice of Christ wasn’t a horizontal transaction between men — it was a vertical one, reaching into a dimension the princes of this world didn’t understand (1 Corinthians 2:8). This is the dimension where giving takes on a different character.
The Vertical Demonstration — Mary of Bethany
In John 12, Mary takes 300 denarii worth of oil — roughly a year’s wages — and pours it on Jesus’ feet. Judas immediately objects from the horizontal framework: “Why wasn’t this sold and given to the poor?” It’s a reasonable objection. It’s the James 1:27 objection. It’s threskeia talking.
Jesus overrules it: “Let her alone.”
Why? Because the value of her gift wasn’t determined by what it could purchase on earth. It was determined by its direction. She gave to Him — a singular, vertical act that the poor (who are always available) could not receive.
James describes the shape of religion that God requires. Mary shows the height that love can reach. Both are true. But one is the floor of duty; the other is the ceiling of worship.
Summary
The horizontal gift is measured by its impact on earth. The vertical gift is measured by its reach toward God. One is a duty we can always perform. The other is an ascent we must choose. Neither invalidates the other — but they operate in different dimensions.
Horizontal giving says: I see a need and I meet it.
Vertical giving says: I see the Father's heart and I share it.
The first is charity. The second is worship. And the second changes the direction of your whole life.
This post is presented in a dialogue format — raw thoughts on one side, reflection on the other — to show not just the conclusion but the wrestling. Some of the thoughts here came from personal study, others from conversation. They’re still sharpening.
Discussion