Giving — Amount and Motives

June, 2003

by: Jack Hughes

• Giving

In this Calvary Review series we are examining what the Bible says about giving. There is much confusion in this area and many Christians are not really certain what the Bible teaches is their financial responsibility to the local church. In the last Calvary Review we discovered that the Old Testament saints were required to give between 40 to 70 percent of their income under the Law of Moses! But the New Testament teaches that we are not under the law of Moses. So the question remains, “How much should Christians give?” A closely related issue is what the New Testament motives are for giving? In this Calvary Review we will examine what “amount” the New Testament tells Christians to give.

If a Christian is not required to give ten percent to the church, then how much is he required to give? Well, let's look at what the Scriptures teach us especially the letters to the churches. A key text is II Cor. 9:7 where Paul is addressing the topic of giving and says, “Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart.” Here we have the amount the New Testament requires for each believer to give. The “required amount” is “Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart.” This text is clear and simple. You can give whatever you purpose to give in your heart. Let's look at this in a bit more detail.

In the preceding context of vss. 1-5, Paul reminds the Corinthians of how they have been an example in their giving and how he is going to come to them believing they will have given generously, and saved up an abundant offering for the poor church in Jerusalem. In vs. 6 Paul reminds them of a principle taught both in the Old Testament and the New Testament — God blesses those who are generous towards His work here on earth. Paul says this in vs. 6, “Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.”

Of course, Paul is not talking about seed here; he is talking about our financial resources. If you give little to the Lord, you will reap a small amount of blessing from the Lord, but if you give much to the Lord's work, you will reap an abundance of the Lord's blessing. Jesus taught the same thing in Lk. 6:38 where he said, “Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure — pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.” Here, Jesus gives us the same spiritual principle. If you give to the Lord, the Lord will give to you. God will bless you in proportion to how much you give to Him i.e., “by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.” God blesses us in proportion to our faithfulness to give.

This is taught in the Old Testament as well. Consider Mal. 3:8-10, a text that has been plucked out of context and mishandled by many. God, through Malachi, is speaking to the people of Israel who have fallen into grievous sin. They keep feigning ignorance saying, “What did we do?” but God keeps reminding them what they did. In this section he addresses their unwillingness to obey the Law of Moses and give their required tithes and offerings. The Lord says, “‘Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, “How have we robbed You?” In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you! Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.’”

Notice that God confronts them and like before, they have feigned ignorance by saying, “How have we robbed you?” And the Lord says, “In tithes and offerings.” Notice he does not say, “your tithe” (singular), for they were required to give three different “tithes” (plural), and he also includes “offerings,” for they were required to give many offerings as we have learned already. They thought that they could grow rich by rebelling against the Word of God and withholding from the Lord what He required of them, but instead of growing wealthy, they were “cursed with a curse.” God asks them to bring the entirety of every tithe to the temple and to test Him in their giving. God says, “see if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and poor out for you a blessing until it overflows.” God wanted the Israelites to put Him to the test in the area of their giving so He could prove to them that He was the Lord who gave them all they had.

The principle driving these verses is the principle of “you reap what you sow.” Solomon teaches this principle in Prov. 11:24-25 when he says, “There is one who scatters, and yet increases all the more, And there is one who withholds what is justly due, and yet it results only in want. The generous man will be prosperous, and he who waters will himself be watered.” You see, a person who is unwilling to live by faith in God's ability to provide for him, will often withhold what is due to God as a way to maintain financial security. Yet, Solomon says that a philosophy of selfishness backfires. God blesses the generous, which live by faith, not the selfish that trust in themselves. The selfish man doesn't acknowledge that all he has is given to him by the Lord. His faith is so small that he is unwilling to give generously to the Lord to see if he will be blessed. So he keeps for himself what he should give to the Lord. This, according to Solomon, leads only to want. As Christians we cannot think and act like mathematicians when it comes to our finances. We can't think, “If I give more, I will have less for myself.” Instead, he should think like a Christian, “Since all I have is the Lord's, I will give generously to the Lord from what He has already given me, and I will trust in and believe the Word of God which tells me that God will bless me abundantly for being generous.”

The principle of “reaping what you sow” is also taught in the near preceding context of Paul's statement in I Cor. 9:7, “Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart.” Now when you read that statement you may think to yourself, “that statement sounds like we can give whatever we want.” And that is exactly what the text is telling you. Give whatever you purpose to do in your own heart. What is this called? It is called a “free will offering.” This is what the New Testament teaches Christians to do.

Do you remember when we were discussing giving in the Old Testament under the Law of Moses and we discovered that many of the required offerings were required but self–initiated? The farmer had to leave the corners of his field for the poor but the Law of Moses didn't specify how big the corners should be. The farmer was “free” to make up his own mind about how big they should be. Old Testament saints were also required to make self–initiated sacrifices. You had to determine when you wanted to offer a peace, guilt, burnt, sin or wave offering. The offerings themselves were required but the frequency of the offerings was not specified. You can imagine how often an honest person would be offering up sacrifices.

The New Testament teaches the same thing. It commands Christians to give, but then leaves it to their discretion as to how much to give. This principle is not new either. It is taught throughout the Old Testament. When Moses was raising funds to build the tabernacle the Lord told him, “Tell the sons of Israel to raise a contribution for me; from every man whose heart moves him you shall raise my contribution.” Notice that there is a command to raise a contribution but the amount is determined by the heart of those who are moved to give. We see the same thing in Ex. 35:5, where Moses is to take a contribution to the Lord from “whoever is of a willing heart.” In Deut. 15:14, the Israelites are instructed by God to take care of the poor with a joyful heart and to give to them, “as the Lord God has blessed you.” After the Babylonian captivity, when the Israelites returned to the land, Ezra encouraged the people to offer up “freewill offerings” for the house of God (see Ezra 1:4, 6; 2:68; 3:5; 7:16; 8:28).

So now you know how much you are to give to the Lord — “whatever you purpose to give in your own heart.” Give freely, give generously, and trust God to bless you when you do. In the next Calvary Review we will look at motives for giving.