The question of finance is, admittedly, a delicate one and, for this reason, few seem free to speak about it. Yet the Scriptures have much to say on the subject and no trace of embarrassment can be detected in the writers who handle it.
The Teaching of Christ
All that Moses taught about giving was confirmed by the Lord Jesus, as indeed it would be, for Moses was but the spokesman of God. “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill” (Mt. 5:17).
In the particular matter of tithing, however, He seeks to bring back to a sense of proportion some who were very punctilious in this thing, but completely lacking in “weightier matters.” “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone” (Mt. 23:23). “These” refers to the “weightier matters” but “the other” to tithing which, says the Lord Jesus, must not be left undone. Here then is Christ’s authority for saying that tithing is obligatory. He does not specifically refer to the fact that the firstborn and the firstfruits are the Lord’s, but rather points to the true response of the redeemed heart: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness” (Mt. 6:33).
He also has pertinent things to say about giving, stressing not so much the fact and privilege of giving as the conditions under which it is acceptable to God.
1. The life must be right if the gift is to be acceptable. “Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift” (Mt. 5:23-24).
2. The motive must be right. “Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do…that they may have glory of men…But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly” (Mt. 6:2-4).
3. There must be due recognition and discharge of family obligations: “Moses said, Honor thy father and thy mother…But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or his mother, That wherewith thou mightest have been profited by me is Corban, that is to say, Given to God; ye no longer suffer him to do aught for his father or his mother; making void the word of God by your tradition….” (Mk. 7:10-13, rv).
4. The gift must be impelled by love. An example of this is found in the offering of the penitent sinner in Simon’s house. “She loved much,” is our Lord’s testimony (Lk. 7:47).
5. The measure of the gift will be the degree of its acceptability. But the gift will be measured, not by its own intrinsic value but by what is left when it is given. “And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And He called unto Him His disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: for all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living” (Mk. 12:41-44).
Jesus still sits “over against the treasury.” In this poor widow’s gift we have an example of the kind of giving God loves to accept; giving to the point of extreme self-sacrifice. But the supreme example of all is found in the Lord Jesus Christ Himself: “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth His life for the sheep” (Jn. 10:11).
As I pass on to the teaching of the apostles, let me do so by quoting His words of exhortation and encouragement: “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” (Lk. 6:38).
The Teaching of The Apostles
Every matter of vital importance for the child of God is dealt with exhaustively at least once in the Scriptures, often more than once. The subject of Christian giving is thoroughly treated by the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. We commend those chapters to the careful and prayerful study of the reader, but let us notice certain obvious principles.
The essential and primary thing in all Christian giving is the recognition that we are not our own (1 Cor. 6:19). Hence the exhortation to the Romans: “Present your bodies a living sacrifice” (12:1), and the practice of this by the Macedonian churches who “first gave their own selves to the Lord” (2 Cor. 8:5). If there is a clear understanding of that at the beginning, it will become equally clear that what we call our own is actually the Lord’s and the most scrupulous care must be taken in the use of it. We will weigh up before Him the matter of our stewardship and settle in our minds what He would have us expend on ourselves and what should be done with the rest.
Let us notice the principles in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 which regulate Christian giving. I take the principles in the order in which they appear in these chapters, and the first of these is the principle of the open hand (8:2), where we read of “their liberality.”
The apostle comes back to this again before he closes the subject of giving, and as he begins, so he ends on the note of open-handedness in Christian giving: “He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully” (2 Cor. 9:6); “Being enriched in everything to all bountifulness…” (9:11); and “your liberal distribution” (v. 13).
The supreme example of liberal giving, the unanswerable argument for it, and the incentive to it, is in the Lord Jesus Christ Himself: “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich” (8:9). “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift” (9:15).
Let us also note carefully that liberality is not a grace limited to the rich who can afford to be liberal; the very soil in which it flourishes here is “deep poverty.” “Moreover, brethren, we [want you to know] of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia; how that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality” (8:1-2). How often in Christian experience do we see this very thing.
The second is the principle of the willing mind. “For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing…” (v. 3); “…a readiness to will…” (v. 11); “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” (v. 12); “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver” (9:7).
This brings us to the third, the principle of the cheerful heart. Those who give liberally and willingly will discover the joy of giving and the truth of the word, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). Then, as we give, let us do it cheerfully.
In 1 Corinthians 16:1-3, three other principles are introduced. Giving should be with regularity: “Upon the first day of the week…” It should be done comprehensively: “…let every one of you lay by him in store…” And it should be done proportionately: “…as God hath prospered him…” (1 Cor. 16:2).
Here, then, is a brief outline of some scriptures that address the very important subject of the grace of giving, for, said the Saviour, “He that is faithful in that which is least (speaking of money) is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much” (Lk. 16:10).
Written by D. W. Brealey