What the Bible Says About
Tithing
and Christian Giving part 4
Peter Ditzel
Before going on, I want to address a common misunderstanding of what the
Bible means when it says that God will meet our needs. Jesus said, "No
man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the
other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot
serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your
life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body,
what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than
raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they
reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are
ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one
cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider
the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they
spin: And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not
arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the
field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he
not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no
thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or,
Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the
Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of
all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his
righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew
6:24-33).
Some people take the last part of this passage out of context and use it
to support the false idea that Jesus has promised us wealth if we seek
the kingdom of God first (usually defined by these people as generously
supporting their ministry). But the context reveals that Jesus was
saying something quite different. He tells us that we cannot serve two
masters: God and mammon (material wealth or possessions). We will love
the one and hate (disregard) or despise (think slightly of) the other.
Obviously, we should love God. Therefore, we should disregard or think
slightly of material possessions. And Jesus goes on to say just that. We
should take no thought for the things of this life—food and clothing
(and, obviously, the money that buys these things). God will provide
these necessities for those who are seeking His kingdom first. But this
is where most of us in our affluent society misunderstand. Jesus is not
saying God will provide a large house, nice car, extensive wardrobe, and
home theater. What Jesus is saying is that God will provide what we need
to sustain our lives—necessities (some food in our bellies and clothes
on our backs)—while we dedicate our lives to the priority of all
Christians of seeking the kingdom. And what is seeking the kingdom of
God? It is doing what Christ tells us as Christians to do: believe, love
one another, and spread the Gospel. Jesus is not calling us to a life of
health and wealth, but to a life of self-sacrifice.
The apostle Paul wrote, "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 [spiritually] rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9).
Jesus gave up the riches of heaven to be born in a stable as a human. He
dedicated His life to teach the poor and ignorant masses, and eventually
He gave His life to pay for their sins and your sins. And He left "us an
example, that ye should follow his steps" (1 Peter 2:21). Are we
following those steps?
Now please do not think that by saying these things, I am trying to
create feelings of guilt in you. Quite the reverse, I want you to
remember the depth of God's grace and desire that others should know it
too. I am just trying to stir some thought and, perhaps, remind some of
you of your first love and get you back onto the "strait" and "narrow"
(Matthew 7:14). Those who try to manipulate by laying guilt on people
are doing something quite different.
3) Giving to get rid of sins or pay for grace: Have you ever been made
to feel that you can pay for your sins or buy your way into God's favor
by giving to a certain ministry? In the early 16th century, Martin
Luther fought against the Roman Catholic church's practice of selling
indulgences to spring people out of purgatory. Yet variations on this
practice continue in ministries that call themselves Protestant,
Baptist, Evangelical, or Fundamentalist. Apparently, it is easy for many
ministries to succumb to the temptation to imply to their donors that a
person's giving reflects his standing before God. If we give, we gain
favor with God. If we don't, we may fall from grace. But anyone who
knows the definition of grace—that it is something freely given—knows
that this cannot be. We cannot earn what is freely given.
It can be amazing how carelessly people in responsible positions in
Christian organizations can treat grace. I have heard ministers speak of
coming late to church as if it were the next thing to the unpardonable
sin. One minister cited in a book on spiritual abuse clearly stated from
the pulpit that a drop in weekly church attendance meant the church had
fallen from grace! (The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse, David Johnson
and Jeff VanVonderen [Minneapolis: Bethany, 1991] 65). In reality, the
minister had fallen from grace in his mind; he had forgotten that grace
does not depend on our performance. But it is perhaps in the area of
asking for money that the temptation becomes greatest. For example: The
organization needs money. The leadership needs to motivate people to
give. Guilt is a powerful motivator. The leadership makes people feel
their sins for not contributing enough. So they say things like, "I
don't know how anyone who is saved can give so little," or "Surely, if
the Holy Spirit were living in you, you would be giving more." Or, and
perhaps this is the king of all money manipulators among Christian
groups, "God did so much for you. Won't you pay Him back even a little
by sending your contribution today?" Yikes! Run when you hear that one.
You can never repay God. How can you repay what is freely given? While
God may want you to do good works, He does not want you to do them
thinking you are paying Him back. By trying to put a burden of repayment
or trying to lay our sins back on us for not giving, manipulators are
trying to pull your strings and make you dance to their tune. This is
how cults operate, and, unfortunately, it is also a trait in too many
Christian churches and parachurch organizations. But Jesus came to
freely remove our guilt. God's motivator is love, not guilt or repayment
of debt.
This is not to say that our conscience cannot play a role in our
deciding to give. Jesus uses the word "compassion" to describe the
difference between the Samaritan and the others who passed by when they
saw the man lying half dead in the road (Luke 10:30-35). But words such
as guilt, conscience, and compassion are abstract, and we can have
trouble getting a handle on them. The Greek word translated "compassion"
that Jesus uses in Luke 10:33 literally means to be moved in one's
inwards. In other words, the Samaritan's inner most being was moved with
pity when he saw the man lying in the road.
Now suppose the Samaritan had an urgent appointment and had convinced
himself that he should pass by without helping. I think we can safely
say that his conscience would have bothered him. And this would have
been right. His conscience should have bothered him. James says,
"Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it
is sin" (James 4:17). If the Samaritan had passed by the man in need, he
would have been guilty of violating what he knew to be right; he would
have been guilty of violating his conscience. So our compassion is our
desire to do what is right, and our conscience tells us that this action
is right. But what about guilt? Guilt is outside of us. If we do
something wrong—such as not doing what we know to be right—we are
guilty. It is a verdict that God brings against us. If the Samaritan had
passed the man by despite his knowing that he should have stopped, he
would have been guilty of not doing what he knew was right. If he then
turned back to help the man, he would have been doing the right thing.
But this would not get rid of his guilt before God.
For example, if I rob a bank, I am guilty before the law of robbing the
bank. If I then have such pangs of conscience that I bring the money
back, I have done what is right, but that does not get rid of my guilt.
I am still guilty of having robbed the bank. I can now confess my guilt
before the judge and beg for mercy. And the judge may pardon me or give
me a shorter sentence. But I don't deserve it. I am still guilty of
having robbed the bank.
So, if the Samaritan had first violated what he knew to be right and
passed by the man in need, then turned back and helped him, what could
he do about his guilt of first passing the man by? He could call upon
the Judge of us all and plead the blood of Jesus Christ his Savior as
the payment for his sin. No amount of good works will make up for his
sin. He would need grace alone, by faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone.
What has all this to do with the way people try to get us to donate?
There is nothing wrong with appealing to our compassion and conscience.
The Bible is full of appeals of this sort. It is not wrong for a
ministry to tell us of their need. It is not wrong for a ministry to
tell us that if they had more money they could do more good. It is not
wrong for a ministry to say that lack of funds is keeping the Gospel
from reaching more people. It is not wrong for a ministry to remind us
what our priorities are as Christians. What is wrong is when a ministry
implies that we are guilty for not having given before, and we can
alleviate our guilt by giving now. Or that we can gain remission for any
sins by works such as giving. Or that continued giving will keep us in
right standing before God. Or that we can pay God back for His grace.
Only the blood that Jesus Christ freely shed for our sins can remove our
guilt, and that free gift can never be repaid.
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