Giving From The Heart

Talking about giving money to a church is not easy. We live in a materialistic society, the ideology of which has often seeped into the church. The cultural stereotype of a greedy and manipulative televangelist is perhaps the worst manifestation of this.

With this cultural stink hanging in the air I don’t enjoy talking about money in church. I would hate for anyone to interpret anything I say as an effort to manipulative money out of their pocket. But there’s no avoiding that running a church costs money, doing outreach costs money and effective compassion costs money. Our giving is an opportunity to partner in God’s work as his co-worker and the best we can do is to ask God what he is calling us to do and then pray for the strength to do it, in our finances and in our whole life. No matter what teaching you may have heard that suggests otherwise, I am convinced that God blesses obedience, not financial contributions.

It seems to me our confusion in this issue often comes from our perception of what the Bible thinks about money. There are two extreme interpretations of the Bible and in my experience it seems that people are often polarised to one or the other (unless they take the third way, which is not thinking about this issue at all!)

The first glorifies poverty as the peak of the spiritual life. It exalts the ideas of suffering for the gospel and looks on our possessions as a sign of weakness. Anything that might distract us from God or reduce our dependence on him means we are hovering on the edge of idolatry! Of course, living a life free of materialistic concerns gives us a great moral pedestal from which we can self-righteously look down at everyone else!

The second is the opposite; where we see prosperity as a gift of God, a way of God blessing the faithful whom he loves. It says as children of the creator God we should not want for anything and have only the best. If the world drives BMWs, then the Christians should drive Mercedes! Living this way might not necessarily lead to self-righteous snobbery, but then it’s very easy to be laid back when you’re relaxing in your heated pool!

The vast majority of Christians want to please God. They want to do the best they can to follow him and live a life worthy of him. I think this is why people end up gravitating to these extremes – we want to do what is right and we hear these powerful arguments advocated from the front of church, backed up with Bible verses galore!

But I’d suggest it’s not so simple. Much as we’d like a set of rules to follow, the Bible constantly points us towards a relationship with God first and foremost. Jesus never neatly fits into our boxes and these polarised views don’t comfortably fit all situations.

Thinking quickly of off the top of my head, check out these contradictory ideas: Jesus talked a number of times about giving our money away to gain riches in heaven (Luke 12:33). Yet his disciples and him were supported by a number of wealthy women, who thankfully hadn’t given all their money away (Luke 8:3). Jesus may have had no place to lay his head (Luke 9:58), but when he was crucified his seamless garment was too good to tear into four pieces (John 19:23-24).

I’m the first to admit it’s not the most thorough examination of the theology of wealth, but the point I want to make is it’s not as easy as we’d like. There are no simple rules, we need to hear God’s voice and do what he leads – give away all our possessions to the poor or accumulate wealth so we can support God’s work. Free ourselves from dependence on our ‘stuff’ or enjoy good things with a thankful heart.

All of this is a relationship issue – will we allow God into our heart and then do what he says? This is the lesson we can learn from Exodus. By building the Tabernacle the Israelites have the opportunity to have the living God dwell right in their mist. They give to this work because their heart leads them to give, not because they were required to give a particular percentage.

Then the whole Israelite community withdrew from Moses' presence, and everyone who was willing and whose heart moved him came and brought an offering to the LORD for the work on the Tent of Meeting, for all its service, and for the sacred garments. – Exodus 35:20-21