We make a living by what we get.
We make a life by what we give.
(Duane Hulse)
God’s greatest desire is to give. When man
follows God’s example, he receives a divine blessing because he demonstrates
that he is one of God’s children.
(Simon Kistemaker)
In PART 1 (Click HERE) we
saw that Paul told the Corinthians God loves 'hilarious' givers.
In PART 2 (Click HERE) we
saw the FIRST REASON from 2 Corinthians 8-9 why God loves cheerful givers:
because joyful generosity is a mark of God's grace
In PART 3 (Click HERE) we
saw the SECOND REASON God loves cheerful givers: because this sort of giving is
a prelude to his blessing.
In PART 3 we see a THIRD
reason God loves cheerful givers...
3. Joyful Generosity... is a Reflection of God’s Heart
Paul challenged the Corinthians to model their giving on God’s giving:
For
you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your
sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. (2 Cor
8:9)
Thanks
be to God for his indescribable gift! (2 Cor 9:15)
How much should
a Christian give?
As New Testament believers, should we give a 10th of our
income like Old Testament believers were required to do? And if so, is it 10%
of our gross income or our net income or our disposable income?
What’s the benchmark for New Covenant Christians?
For many Christians the 10% tithe has been a helpful rule of thumb and
if you’re not in the habit of giving this is a good starting point. However there is no specific command in the
New Testament that Christians should give 10%. Jesus didn’t restate it in his
teaching and neither did the Apostles.
In fact, the 10% figure can sometimes
be unhelpful:
·
For
those who have higher incomes and fewer outgoings, the 10% rule can be an
excuse for giving too little;
·
Whereas
for those who are on the breadline and struggling to make ends meet, the 10% rule
can become a legalistic burden.
So what New Testament rule
of thumb should we use as a guide for our giving as Christians?
The answer is in 2 Corinthians 8:9 and the example Jesus set us:
For
you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for
your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
(2 Cor 8:9)
Jesus didn’t need to teach on sacrificial giving, because his whole life
was an illustration of sacrificial giving. The New Testament benchmark for
giving is much higher than 10%. If we are to imitate Jesus then we are to give
100%: we are to regard everything we have as belonging to God.
Which turns the giving-equation completely on it’s head:
·
The
question is not: ‘How much of MY money should
I GIVE to God?’
·
But
rather: ‘How much of GOD’S money should I
KEEP for myself?’
The issue is how much I need to keep, not how much I’m required to
give.
When we begin to think in that way, it completely changes the way we
think about money and how we should use it. The money gathering interest in our
savings account, the money we get each month from a pension or salary, the
money tied-up in our house or investments is not OUR money to do with as we
please. As Christians we are stewards looking after GOD’s money, and we are to invest
it in ways that advance his kingdom.
One Christian writer outlined the implications of this way of thinking
by using the example of John Wesley:
‘For
some of us, that will mean that we can’t give 10%. A tithe may push some
Christians below the poverty line. But for others with substantial incomes, we
can afford to give much more than a tithe. John Wesley followed a sensible
policy. Out of his yearly stipend, he
lived on £28 and gave the remaining £2 to the Lord. The following year his salary doubled, but he
found that he could still live comfortably on the £28, and so instead of
raising his standard of living, he resolved to give away the greater part of
his increase the Lord. Wesley had the mind of Christ.’
Paul reminded the Corinthian Christians to be Christ-like in the way they
gave, and the same challenge comes to us today.
Jesus once commended a widow at the temple who put two coins in the
offering box, a pittance compared to what others were throwing in, but she
caught Jesus eye because she put in everything she owned. She was a woman after
God’s own heart, she gave as God gave, she gave as Jesus was going to give just
a few days later on the cross.
Jesus has given us a far higher benchmark for giving. It’s not 10% anymore.
In the light of the cross, it’s 100% of all we have. The radical principle of
giving we see in the New Testament is this: we
are to decide what we need to live on and then give the rest away to support
God’s work.
Oliver Cromwell was once faced with a financial crisis. His government
had run out of silver, and could no longer mint coins. A man of great
resourcefulness, he sent his Treasurer on a mission to see if he could find
more silver from somewhere. When the Treasurer returned, he reported that the
only silver he could find was in the statues of Saints kept in cathedrals
around the country.
‘Good,’ Cromwell said, ‘Then we’ll melt down the Saints and put them into circulation!’
And that's just what they did!
While Cromwell's approach to a monetary crisis would probably raise
the eyebrows of most economists today, he stated a vital principle which would
solve most of the funding problems churches face today.
For Cromwell the difficulty was not a lack of silver - there was
plenty of that around - the difficulty was that it was contained in the Saints and
was not easily accessible.
And the same is often true today.
What we need above all else is for God to melt our hearts so we are
prompted to follow the example of our Saviour who:
‘though
he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, so that we through his poverty
might become rich.’
NEXT WEEK: Some questions to ask as you consider how much to give.
Read the previous posts in
this series:
