Burt Reynolds starred in an old film entitled The End. In the film he decides to commit suicide by swimming out as far as he can until he is exhausted and then just go under. But after going under he is looking at the surface from the underside and decides not to go through with it. As he breaks the surface of the water he screams: “I want to live! I want to live!” He then begins to try to swim to shore, but it is a very long way off. As he begins to swim he talks to God. He promises to obey all of the Ten Commandments, and then realizes he doesn’t know what all of them are so he promises to learn them. Then, in his panic, he says, “Lord, if you get me out of this, I will give you 80% of everything I have.” But time passes and he is still going strong, and besides he can just begin to see the shoreline. But as he continues to swim he feels his strength holding out and says, “Lord, if you help me to get to shore alive I will give you 10% of all my earnings.” And, finally, he struggles to the place where he sees that he is just going to be able to make it to land and says, “Well, Lord, let’s just forget about what I said before. I think I can make it from here on my own.”
Reynold’s attitude is reflective of the attitude of many people today. Giving to God or living for God are sometimes thought of as “paying our dues,” or fulfilling an obligation. What should our attitude toward giving be? What is the proper way to give and think about giving? The first point we need to understand is: Giving is an act of worship. It is an expression of gratitude to a faithful God for all his goodness to me. Giving is not just a response to a need in the church, it is a response of gratitude. It is giving as though we were placing it in God’s hands. Worship is a word that comes from the word “worthy.” We give to God because he is Lord of the universe and he is worthy of our praise. We worship him with our lips, with our gifts and with our lives. The question often arises: How much should I give? To answer that question we have to look to the Scripture.
First of all let’s examine the Old Testament. Leviticus 27:30 says, “A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD.” The Old Testament standard of giving was the tithe, and this principle is found many places throughout the Old Testament. It was among the earliest laws of the Israelites. The idea was that 10% of what they owned belonged to God, therefore it was holy. It was to be set aside for him and not used for common purposes. It was sacred. God was claiming ownership of 10% of everything the Israelites owned. They had worked for their food and money, but it was God who blessed them with crops and herds, and the ability to work. Out of gratefulness to him they were to return a tenth of everything to him. And when they acknowledged God’s ownership of 10% of their belongings God made a promise. Malachi 3:10 says, “‘Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,’ says the LORD Almighty, ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.’”
You may say, “Yes, that is all very well and good, but that is the Old Testament. What about the New Testament? Tithing is not even mentioned in the New Testament.” You are correct. The New Testament standard for giving is not the tithe. The New Testament has a totally different pattern for stewardship than the Old Testament. To understand the New Testament concept of giving we have to look at the story of the Rich Young Ruler. This young man came to Jesus in search of heaven, and asked Jesus what he had to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus’ response was to explain that he must first follow the basic laws of God — the ten commandments. The young man replied that he had kept all of the commandments from his youth. And then Jesus completely astounded him by saying, “Go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (Matthew 19:21). The Bible sadly reports, “When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.”
What was Jesus saying to this young man? He was giving the New Testament principle of stewardship, and that principle is this: Whereas the Old Testament taught us that 10% of everything we own belongs to God, the New Testament, and in particular Jesus, is teaching us that all we have belongs to God. The Old Testament was a partial picture of a greater truth. The Old Testament showed us that God had certain claims on our lives, but the New Testament shows us the full extent of those claims. God does not just own a part of me; he owns all of me. To acknowledge this and live this way is an act of worship.
Let’s look at another New Testament example of this principle. The Bible tells the story of the widow’s mite in this way, “Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, ‘I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything — all she had to live on’” (Mark 12:41-44). When we read this story we usually emphasize the smallness of her gift — that it was only a fraction of a penny. But the point is not how small her gift was, but how BIG it was. The gift of the wealthy was small by comparison, because they did not give all they had, as she did. That is the New Testament principle of giving. When we come into contact with God we dare not be stingy for we serve a great and awesome God. As an act of worship we acknowledge that he owns all that we have.
Jesus said, “Freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8). The point is not whether you will literally give away all you have, but whether or not you recognize God’s complete and unconditional ownership of all you possess. We are talking about an entirely new attitude toward life. This is true worship.
The second point is this: Giving tells me where my heart is. Jesus always demanded everything from his followers, and there were many who were not willing to pay the price. Do you remember those who said they were willing to follow Jesus wherever he would go? He turned them back knowing that they were not willing to pay the cost. He said things like, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” When they heard this they no longer followed him. But what about the true disciples, the twelve? Peter said to Jesus, “We have left all we had to follow you!” And Jesus said to him, “I tell you the truth, no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life” (Luke 18:28-30).
Unreserved commitment results in unrestrained blessing. When you hold nothing back from God he holds nothing back from you. If we do not withhold from God our material blessings, he will not withhold from us his spiritual blessings. The danger for us who live in a materialistic society is that we will value material things more than spiritual things.
I was watching the News Hour with Jim Lehrer the other evening, and he was discussing how the candidates ran their campaigns with Mark Shields and Paul Gigot and two other analysts on the Roundtable segment. Sheilds and Gigot are antagonists, with Sheilds being the liberal and Gigot the conservative. During the discussion Mark Shields made a profound and eloquent observation which seemed to be lost with the other pundits. He said, “It was a campaign devoid of any poetry. It was a campaign where sacrifice was never whispered. There was no mention of duty — of what any of us owes to each other, to our country. ...It was a campaign about interests. It was basically about, ‘This is your interest. You want it, you got it.’ In that sense both of them missed a marvelous opportunity, in a time of great prosperity, to touch what is good in the American people and summon us to a higher level.” In other words, it was all about us: our social security, our taxes, our prosperity, our surplus. There was no call to do something wonderful like revitalize the Peace Corps and flood the world with an army of compassion. But sacrifice is not a message that seems to fit in a time of prosperity. David Broder observed during the same discussion, “These are not times which call for great emotion or even great idealism.” How sad! Why shouldn’t peace and prosperity be the times of highest idealism? Because prosperity turns our focus on ourselves and dulls our higher senses. The challenge should be that since we have so much, in the words of John Kennedy, we should not be asking what our country can do for us, but what we can do for our country. We should be asking what we can do for those who live in abject poverty in other places and how we can make the world a better place with the tremendous resources at our disposal.
I have been thinking a lot lately about why the people of the United States have so little time for spiritual things. Generally speaking, there is not much evidence of a widespread passion for God and the things of his kingdom. People in Korea and other places in the world spend hours in prayer on a daily basis. The churches of China, Africa and South America are growing exponentially because of the enormous spiritual hunger of the people. Their worship is enthusiastic and even electric. Why is that not more the case here in the United States where we have experienced so much of God’s blessing? We who have been so blessed by God should be more full of worship than anyone else. The answer to this question, I believe, lies in the fact that the sin of materialism has blunted our spiritual desires. When we do feel a spiritual longing, we have so much with which we can artificially soothe the deep needs of our lives. We buy something new, or indulge in some pleasure or interest. We keep ourselves so busy that we could not possibly get in touch with the deep spiritual longings of our lives. Isn’t it interesting that the more we have the more we want, and the less grateful we are? The more we have the more likely we are to keep it to ourselves.
We all believe that we can handle the temptations that accompany material wealth, but the truth is that for every ten people who can handle poverty only one can handle prosperity. Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money” (Matthew 6:24).
Jesus told the story of the rich fool who stored up his material goods and said to himself: “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” But then God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” God forbid that those words be spoken to us, for Jesus closed the story with these words: “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:19-21). What is your attitude toward money and possessions? The Bible says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17). Giving pries our fingers from our money and possessions and begins to free us from the slavery of greed and materialism.
The third point we need to understand is: Giving is an indicator of how much I trust God. If I think I have to do it all myself, and that God is not a rewarder of those who trust him, then I am not living as God wants me to live. The Bible says, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). As Christians we are assured that God is aware of our needs and will take care of us. Jesus said, “If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:30). If I don’t believe that down deep in my heart I will never be able to give at any meaningful level. The Bible says, “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously” (2 Corinthians 9:6). We can be generous in our giving because we have a God who cares for us and provides for us. The more we seek the things of the Spirit, the less material things mean to us. We still use them and enjoy them, but we recognize Who has given them to us. We understand that we do not own them. We are merely stewards of these things, and we keep a loose grip on them.
Almost all the Bible has to say about money is negative, unless it is talking about giving it away. The Bible is positive when it says, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). And it is also positive when it says, “Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7). But the Bible constantly warns about the spiritual danger that is caused by having money. It says, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (1 Timothy 6:10). Hebrews 13:5 says, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’” No one ever ruined their character by being too generous, but many people have ruined their character because of the love of money.
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, said, “Get all you can, save all you can, give all you can.” We say “Get all you can, can all you get, and sit on the lid.” We do not trust God to provide our needs. Do you remember the people of Israel in the Sinai desert? They needed food and God gave them manna. Each day they were to go out and collect as much manna as they needed for one day — no more, no less. Those who collected little found it to be enough, but there were those who collected more than they needed and tried to store it in jars. But when they went to the jars the next day to eat the manna they found it to be rotten and full of maggots. What was the lesson the Israelites were to learn through all of this? It was that the Lord was their supply. They were to put their trust in God for their provision on a daily basis, and not allow their provisions to be their security and their god. They were to look to him for their security and not their stored supplies. There are many people today who are trusting their bank accounts rather than God. They have placed their security and trust in something other than the Lord. We even call them “securities” and “trusts.”
Jesus said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:17).
Where is your treasure? Is it invested in yourself, in possessions or pleasures? Is it hidden away in banks and securities, or is it invested in the kingdom of God where it will be used for his work? When we give to God, it reminds us from where the things we have come. Where you spend your money is an accurate gauge of what you value in life and where the things of real importance are to you. Have you invested in the material or spiritual? How we give demonstrates whether we are trusting God, or whether our security lies elsewhere. The things on which you spend your money and where your treasure is invested is very important, because Jesus said, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Rodney J. Buchanan
November 12, 2000
WHERE YOUR TREASURE IS . . .
2 Corinthians 9:6-15
“Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously” (2 Corinthians 9:6).
1. Giving is _________________________________________ .
Jesus said, ‘I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything — all she had to live on’” (Matthew 12:41-44).
2. Giving tells me __________________________________ .
“But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:17).
3. Giving is an indicator of __________________________ .
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION (Nov. 12, 2000)
1. *If someone who did not know you looked at your check book and charge card account, what would they assume about what was important in your life?
2. Read Leviticus 27:30. What was the Old Testament Standard of giving? How were the Israelites told to think of this part of their possessions?
3. *Read Malachi 3:10. What was God’s promise? Can we put God to the test like this today?
4. *Read Matthew 19:21. What is the New Testament standard of stewardship? What implications does this have for your life?
5. *Read Mark 12:41-44. Studies tell us that the less a person has the more they give proportionally. Why is this so? What other lessons are there in this story?
6. Read Matthew 6:19-21. Where do most people in our country spend their treasure? What does this say about our values?
7. *Read Luke 18:28-30. Like the Old Testament, the New Testament gives promises based on how we give. What is the promise here? Why are we not placing more of what we value on these things?
8. *What is the danger of materialism? After discussing it, read Matthew 6:24.
9. Read 1 Timothy 6:9-10. The love of money displays itself in two ways: overspending and hoarding. Which is worse?
