Giving

Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only.
Philippians 4 vv 15

Giving in the New Testament

A Cheerful Giver

Jesus said, in Matthew 10 v 8, "Freely you have received, freely give." We cannot emphasise the 'give' without the 'freely'.

In 2 Corinthians 9 v 7 Paul instructs us that giving should not be done 'grudgingly, or of necessity.' It should not be done because someone points the finger at you and says, "Now you are a Christian, you must give 10%." It says, 'not of necessity.' What it does say, in 2 Corinthians 8 v 12, is that you ought to give, willingly, according to what you have. That is what the Lord expects. "For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not." It is according to what you have, not according to what you can spare. Jesus pointed out the widow that gave her two mites and then He pointed to those who were giving much gold out of the abundance of their riches. The gifts of the very rich were nothing to them. It was something they could easily spare. But the widow gave everything she had; it was all her living. She had given everything - 100%. It is not according to what you can spare but according to what you have.

Now let me give you an example from the Old Testament. In I Kings 17, Elijah arrived at Zarephath and met a widow woman who had a bit of meal in a barrel and a cruse of oil. When Elijah asked her for something to eat, she replied that she had only sufficient meal and oil left for a final meal for herself and her son. After that there was nothing but death to look forward to. Elijah's response was to ask that first she make him a cake. You could imagine the thoughts going through the widow's mind. "What? I can't spare you a cake. I can't afford to make you a cake. That is all I have got." That is just the principle upon which the Lord works in the matter of giving - it is according to what you have. What do you have? A little meal in a barrel and a little oil. That is fine. I will have that. Give according to what you have. It is accepted according to what a man has, not of what he can spare, nor according to what he can afford. When you get on those lines, then you develop the attitude "that's mine (90%) and that's yours (10%)."

To emphasise this, 2 Corinthians 8 v 3 says: "For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves..." Willing to do what? They were willing to give, if it were possible, beyond what they could afford. Then in 2 Corinthians 9 v 7 the full text of a phrase I have already used: "Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver."

All the time the New Testament reinforces the idea that giving is a free-will act; it is as one purposes in one's heart; it is to be done cheerfully, not of burdensome necessity.

Then in Romans 12 v 8, where Paul is explaining how things must be done in the right way, he says that if you are giving, do it with simplicity (or liberally).

How Much?

Have you ever been to a church where they do not take up a collection? If you have, you will have met people who are astounded that no collection has been taken up. We have grown so used to church collections and yet Paul said he wanted none. I have to confess that I do not like collections, with people rummaging through their bags, purses and pockets to find something to sling in the offering bag. I do not like it because it does not encourage giving to be done in the right way. Some people will but many will not. Giving should be done in a proper way, from a full heart to the Lord, not grudgingly because a bag has been stuck under one's nose. It does not matter how much it is announced from the pulpit, "Please do not feel obliged to give; please let the bag or plate pass along the row." If you have sat in a meeting where they have passed a big bucket along, you feel embarrassed if you do not put something into it. People do feel embarrassed and they feel they have got to find a few coins to put in. That cannot be right... and as for passing the bucket around again because there was not enough in it the first time round - which happened in one large meeting attended by people from this church - well, words fail me. That is why Paul asked for no collections.

In spite of all that I have said about tithing so far, I do believe that in the principle of tithing, in the principle of giving 10%, there is a good measure of giving. I will not argue about pre-tax or post-tax - it is between you and the Lord, but there is a measure of your willingness to give, according to what you have... not according to what you can afford or spare when all other bills have been paid, but of giving and giving beyond that - giving all. In such giving there is blessing. Be sure of that. A giving people are a people who are blessed. People who give when, humanly speaking, they cannot afford to give, will be a people who are blessed and people who, in the Lord, are prosperous.

For Whom?

In 2 Corinthians 9 v 1 Paul said that that it was for the saints... "as touching the ministry of saints.." What ministry is he talking about? He is talking about the ministry of substance. He is talking about giving to them according to their needs.

Have you tried to get money out of churches for needy saints. They will direct you to Social Security and the Benefits Office. They will use the tithes and offerings for building and repair work, for this project and the other, but it is for the saints. Some reaches needy mission work. But the blessing is seeing that the saints are provided for. There is a sowing and reaping principle at work here. It tells us in 2 Corinthians 9 v 6: "But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully." There is blessing in giving.

Luke chapter 6 reinforces the idea: "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again." There is blessing in giving.

Blessing from the Lord

In Luke 12, Jesus speaks about laying up 'treasures in heaven', but it is in the context of giving. Paul tells us some words of Jesus in Acts 20 v 35, that it is "more blessed to give than to receive." Humanly speaking we do not see it that way, do we?

I ask again, what is the tithe for? It is for the saints and the ministry and therein is the real blessing. Personally, I do not feel it is to support a salaried minister, but it is for the support of ministry. It is for the support of those who minister the Word, but I have reservations about the idea of a regular, salaried position for 'the minister' of a church. It is to provide for those who minister spiritual things - the workman is worthy of his hire. It is for the poor and needy and so on. It is to assist outreach and evangelism. It is to aid the spreading of the Good News, the Gospel - but I see no indication of salaried positions in the New Testament. You see, in I Samuel 8, Samuel told the people of Israel that they were out of line asking God to give them a king like the other nations. He told them, "The king will take the tenth." Now a tenth was for the Levites and the needy. The tenth was for their blessing, "But," he said, "the king will take the tenth."

In a way, this is what has happened in churches. They say, "We want someone to rule over us. We want someone to conduct all the services, to preach, to visit, to manage the buildings. We want someone to do it all, and he can have the tenth." I believe that the tithe is certainly for support of the ministry of the word and for the proclamation of the Gospel, for the needy and for the blessing of the people. I do not believe that the tithes are for ambitious, fantastic schemes, to be sent to Joe Bloggs Evangelistic Ministries Incorporated. Some try to entice people to give their money for some gimmick - a luxury Christian leisure holiday centre or something. That is why, in the New Testament, you find that the money was given to Apostles or given to deacons or to those seven men that were full of the Holy Spirit - to share out and to minister and to make sure gifts were not used on some hare-brained scheme. Neither, even though I have mentioned the blessing of the Lord and being prosperous and so on, do I believe in the so-called prosperity teaching in the way many today teach it. The idea, it seems to me, is to tempt people into giving their money by appealing to their greed. A book I have at home, by an American evangelist, shows you the way to get rich by giving - especially by giving to the Evangelist's Organisation. Giving is presented as making an investment. You give a hundred pounds and God will return you a hundred-fold. Before long you will have ten thousand pounds. These prosperity teachers tell us that believers should have a mansion to live in, a Rolls Royce on the drive and wear Armani suits as a testimony. They may well do so.. on the tithes and offerings of ordinary people, on the widow's mites. God certainly blesses those that give, but not in this worldly, 'what-can-I-get-out-of-it' way.

Jacob did that in Genesis 28. He said, in effect, "Lord, if you will be my God and if you will bring me where you said you would bring me, and if you bless me, then I will give you a tenth of everything." He bargained with God and that is not moving in God's grace. It is not right. Yet, this is what the 'prosperity' teaching does. Yes, God does promise blessing; yes, God does say, 'Give and it will be given unto you,' but not so that you can get rich quickly. God's promises are there so that you can move out in faith to do all God's will, confident that God will provide. So, when you have got only 'two mites' you can give, confident that the Lord will provide all your need, because He has promised to do so: "But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4 v 19) Why does Paul give us God's promise to provide all our need here in Philippians? It is because he had been talking about their giving. He said that they could give, even beyond what they could afford, beyond what they could spare, according to what they had, and they would have the assurance that they would not suffer want. God would supply all their need. He was not suggesting that it was a way to get rich quickly.

God knows that if you have got a giving heart, a heart that will give everything, from whatever He blesses you with, you will give and give again. It is not prosperity in the worldly, financial sense, but rather, prosperity in the Lord. Trust Him always, moving in faith and giving in faith.

Prove Me Now!

Please do not take what I am saying wrongly. I am not saying that we should avoid giving or giving only what we can spare. We should give all - everything. We should regard all that we have as the Lord's. In that we will find blessing. You often find that the Christians who are stingy in giving are also the Christians who cannot make ends meet. They are always in debt, always struggling, always wanting and never satisfied. They say, "But I can't afford to give." If you cannot afford to give then you will never know the fulness of blessing. You will be poor if you do not give, but those who give know what it is to be rich spiritually.

AND FINALLY...

"The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself." And so it is with the faithful believer, who, though he never seems to have much, is always giving, and yet never seems to be in want.

Let us give of a free will, with free hearts. Let us give first, not last. Let us just give and give and give. Praise the Lord!