Consecration Sunday, the day we come to consecrate ourselves and our lives to God. That one day of the year when we have to endure the preacher’s sermon on the joys and benefits of giving. We sit and squirm while the preacher drones on about being a cheerful giver, all the while knowing we are more like the little girl whose mother wanted to give her a lesson in stewardship. The mother said to her little daughter, “Here is a dollar and a dime. When we get to church I want you to decide which one to give in the offering.” The mother could hardly wait until the service was over to ask the little girl which she had given. “Well,” the little girl said, “I was all ready with the dollar in my hand to give it, but just before the offering came by, the man in the pulpit said we should be cheerful givers, so I knew I would be much more cheerful if I gave the dime, so I did.”
What is it about stewardship Sunday that makes us wince? Is it because we talk about money? It shouldn’t be because one out of every six verses in the four gospels is devoted to money. Do we realize that of the twenty-nine parables Jesus told, sixteen of them related to money? What would happen if every sixth Sunday you came to church the pastor preached a sermon on money? It wouldn’t be very long before you would be calling the District Superintendent asking for something to be done. What if half the times the pastor told a story it had to do with money? The P. P. R. would be meeting for sure, and a plan would be laid for meeting with pastor to discuss her means for communicating the gospel. But that is exactly what Jesus did in the gospels. In fact, Jesus spoke more about money than he did heaven, or hell, or salvation, or repentance. Now that is a sobering thought. Perhaps Jesus knew what he was talking about when he said, “Where your treasure is, there will be your heart also” (Matthew 6:21).
Giving doesn’t have to be painful, and talking about money in church doesn’t have to be painful. We recognize its importance because Jesus recognized its importance, so I just want us to take a few moments of pain-free reflection to consider some biblical Guidelines for Giving that the Apostle Paul gave to the church at Corinth. We find these guidelines in 2 Corinthians 8: 1-15. Let me read the passage, and then come back and note three important principles that should guide our lives as we seek to glorify God in all that we do.
Read 2 Corinthians 8:1-15 here.
The Apostle Paul was writing to this church at Corinth as an encouragement for them to give to the offering that was being collected for the Christians at Jerusalem. I know you can hear the encouragement in Paul’s words. When Paul had last visited, there evidently had been great discussion about the possibility of a gift for the Jerusalem Christians, and I don’t know if Paul doubted the Corinthian commitment to the cause, or if he just wanted to ensure that he had not labored in vain in that field. Either way, Paul reminded the Corinthians that:
Guideline # 1—Giving should be guided by grace.
Paul sees our giving as a way we participate with God in his Kingdom. God gives us the means to give so that in our giving we might share his abundance with others. The most amazing thing to me is to think that the God who created the universe, who holds the stars in place, and commands the waters of the oceans, has chosen in his infinite wisdom, to use us in his redemptive plan for creation. It is for us as it was for Abraham. You remember what God told Abraham? “I am blessing you to be a blessing to others.”
Notice that Paul nowhere mentions tithing. In the interest of time, I am going to operate off the assumption that tithing is the biblical standard that we should seek to meet as we contemplate our giving. Tithing is explicit in the Old Testament, and it is implicit in the teaching of Jesus in the New Testament. To argue otherwise is to argue against the plain meaning of Scripture. The tithe literally means giving to God 10% of our income.
But preacher, you say, isn’t that getting into Old Testament legalism, and don’t we live under the law of grace? Yes, we do, and that is why we look to Paul, who has been called the apostle of grace, to find some help in putting it all together. That we live under grace is actually the foundation of this first guideline. It is grace that led the Macedonians to give beyond even what they could afford. That means beyond the tithe.
I am reminded of the man who told his pastor, “Pastor, I just don’t see how I can give as much as a tenth. Would it be all right if I just gave a fourth?” God will not condemn us for not tithing. But to offer as a reason for not tithing because we are under grace is to miss the plain implication of grace, and we, in essence, make the grace of God minister to our stinginess.
So here is the method of grace in giving. First, we give because we have experienced God’s grace in receiving. Being moved by the abundance of blessing (no matter how small) causes us to give in response to the grace shown to us. If we are not giving much, it is because we have failed to acknowledge all that God has given for us. Our giving then blesses others, and they receive a measure of God’s grace, and we experience more of God’s grace as we see what God is able to do for others through our generosity.
You see, the hand that is open to give is also open to receive. The opposite is also true. The hand that is closed cannot receive the infinite treasure that God longs to give. It is the law of sowing and reaping at work. Paul mentions that law to these Corinthians in chapter 9 if we were to read ahead. Whatever we sow, that is what we reap.
God has chosen us to participate with him in his redemptive work. The grace of giving is one way we do that. Paul commended the Corinthians for their faith, their gifted speakers, their deep knowledge, the wonderful enthusiasm, and their great love. He said now, “Excel in this grace of giving as well” (2 Cor. 8:7). Giving should flow out of grace because giving is a means of grace. That is the first guideline for giving.
Now see the second guide for giving:
Guideline #2—Giving should flow out of what we have, not what we don’t. That’s exactly what Paul told the Corinthians. Look at verse 12: “If you area really eager to give, it isn’t important how much you are able to give. God wants you to give what you have, not what you don’t have.”
I am always a little amused by folks who have said to me, “Pastor, if I win the lottery, I’m gonna’ give a tithe to the church.” I am amused because most of the people who say that are not tithing now, and the simple truth is that if we don’t tithe with the little we have, we are not going to tithe if we ever have much. Our faithfulness is never measured by the size of the gift, but rather by the size of the sacrifice.
Remember the time when Jesus and his disciples were sitting outside the Temple watching the folks passing by to drop their collections in the collection box. As the evangelist Mark tells the story, many rich people placed in large sums of money. Then a poor widow came by and dropped in what would be the modern equivalent of a couple of pennies. Jesus said to his disciples, “This poor woman has put in more than all the rest have given. They gave out of their abundance, but she has given everything she had.”
The poor are much greater givers than the rich. Did you know that? According to U.S. News and World Report, the poorest households in America gave 5.5% of their income to charity last year. The wealthiest households gave only 2.9%. According to the magazine Confident Living, nearly half of all contributions to charity come from households with less than $30,000 annual income. I wonder why that is?
I wonder if there is something inherently self-defeating in being a self-made person. It seems the more self-made we are, the less we depend on God, and the more we shut ourselves off from God’s magnificent grace. The sacrifice we make in our giving becomes an exercise in trust whether we give out of our abundance or out of our poverty. Giving grows our trust for God. It is an exercise in spiritual growth, and our giving should flow out of what we have, not what we don’t. That is the second guideline for giving.
Now see the third guideline I note in Paul’s letter:
Guideline #3—Giving should be an act of worship. Paul tells the Corinthians in verse 5 that the Macedonians “first action was to dedicate themselves to the Lord.” Our giving will never be what it should be until we have first given ourselves completely to God. I am reminded of the words of the old hymn I Am Thine, O Lord as I contemplate the idea of dedication to the Lord:
I am thine, O Lord, I have heard thy voice
And it told thy love to me
For I long to rise in the arms of faith,
And be closer drawn to Thee.
Draw me nearer, nearer blessed Lord, to the cross where thou hast died.
Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer blessed Lord, to thy precious bleeding side.
Appropriate worship is to bring the best that we are and can be, and offer it in praise and sacrifice to God. Let me say that another way: To worship is to bring the best to God, not the rest to God. But too often, we bring the rest.
Leftovers are such humble things,
We would not serve to a guest,
And yet we serve them to our Lord
Who deserve the very best.
We give to Him leftover time,
Stray minutes here and there.
Leftover cash we give to Him,
Such few coins as we can spare.
We give our youth unto the world,
To hatred, lust and strife;
Then in declining years we give
To him the remnant of our life.
Stewardship never begins with money. Stewardship always begins with God, and with the question “What would God have me do?” Lifestyle stewardship acknowledges God’s ownership of everything. God, as the Psalmist says, “owns the cattle on a thousand hills” (Psalm 50:10). We come now to make a dedication of ourselves to God, acknowledging God as owner of all that we have, and as J. Oswald Sanders states: “The basic question is not how much of our money should we give to God, but how much of God’s money should we keep for ourselves.” Giving should be an act of worship is the third guideline that directs our giving.
Giving guided by grace, giving that flows out of what we have not what we don’t, and giving as an act of worship. Three guidelines to follow that ensure for us, as it did for the Macedonians, and I’m certain for the Corinthians, that God will be honored and glorified by our generosity.
