This verse contains two principal thoughts. Observe, in the first place, the giving of God. This verse identifies such gifts as are wilfully sent down to us from the God of heaven. These are not, therefore, the common mercies that all mankind enjoy, but specific blessings that comprise all we have, all we know, all we own, and all we are, as individual souls.
These gifts are “good” and “perfect”. A good gift is never an evil one. A perfect gift is never an unfitting one. In other words, our Lord only gives “what blesses us” and “what is best for us”. Thomas Manton once said that ‘in every giving there is a forgiving.’ How true this must be!
As sinners, it is a sure evidence of God’s love that He should give anything to us at all. It is yet more marvellous to know that the Lord has never withheld anything or bestowed anything that is not both good and perfect for us.
Observe, secondly, the God of giving. He is “the Father of lights”. Light in Scripture is symbolic of God’s glory and majesty, and of His revelation to men. God’s giving is one part of God’s revelation of Himself to us. He gives as a Father – both tender and compassionate toward us as children – and, as when Moses saw the back parts of His glory, so we know Him by His giving to be “The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.”
Learn also that there “is no variableness, nor shadow of turning” with Him. Whilst it may not always feel like it, our God will not give mercifully at one time and not at another. He cannot, because of His nature, repent of His gifts or calling. He who knows the end from the beginning is the same in mercy to you now as He has ever been before.