Who should I give to, and how much?
A thread that we have returned to reflexively throughout these articles is the Christian desire to give to the poor. This is not a surprise. When we come to know the Lord Jesus, his Spirit changes us profoundly. One of the practical changes is a new or reshaped concern for those around us and a desire to be generous in all kinds of ways. It is not surprising then that we start to shift (however slowly) from using money for ourselves to seeking to use the money God gives us for the growth of the kingdom and the good of others. Christian giving is profoundly different from any other religious or non-religious giving. It is an outworking of who we are in Christ Jesus because of his death and resurrection for us.[1]
Basic Principles
We find the basic principle for generosity throughout Scripture, but nowhere more starkly than in 2 Corinthians 8:9. Paul reflects on Jesus and his willingness to carry the full load of our poverty for our sakes. Therefore, we, who benefit from his poverty, should be generous with our physical wealth. We are not doing this to pay God back, because God is never our debtor. Rather, we are demonstrating the priority of grace in our lives in the way that we imitate God’s generosity.[2] We have experienced the impact of Jesus’ generosity in ways we could not have imagined, and so his Spirit moves us to compassion and prompts us to give with an open hand.
Who?
One of the principles God calls us to in Scripture is the priority of personal investment in the lives of others. So, as we have seen, the famous story of the Good Samaritan which Jesus uses to demonstrate what ‘love your neighbour’ concretely means, highlights not just the charity shown by the Samaritan, but his personal care of the injured man (Luke 10:30-37). The Samaritan personally oversees the injured man’s recovery, using his own donkey to transport him and his own money for the man’s care. His concern for the man’s welfare extends to him returning to pay any excess and to ensure his full recovery. The Lord uses the example of the Samaritan to show us the particular shape of Christian generosity. It goes beyond random acts of kindness to specific, thoughtful acts that meet real needs, ideally in some kind of relational context, which may well call us to suffer inconvenience or worse, without immediate reward or acknowledgement. It is a call to care for people to the point of cost. It is precisely the kind of care we have received from God himself.[3]
Of course, we can give to whomever we please.[4] But God’s Word challenges us to give generously to those we know.[5] Indeed, God makes it clear that he is not impressed by giving that does not consider the welfare of those we are responsible for in his eyes.[6]
How?
Acting specifically within a relational context enables us to weigh our opportunities. God has unlimited resources. We are hemmed in by our physical and temporal capacities, even if we had unlimited finances, which we do not. Each decision we make to give away our time or money curtails further opportunities. Accepting this aspect of our humanity calls on us to think carefully about how we will do this. Claar and Klay helpfully point to several principles they recommend, which include: being able to financially respond, being close to the situation or person and drawn to it or them.[7] This prioritises the relational. When we invest in the people around us we are more likely to be able to know them well enough to help them usefully.[8] This is not essential, as the donors in 2 Corinthians 8-9 demonstrate, not knowing the Jerusalem Christians personally in their generosity. However, the relational connection was still there for them: their union in Christ was genuine, and their confidence in Paul and expectation of his wise administration of their gift was rooted in their relationship with him. It is clearly obvious in the Good Samaritan: the injured fellow is in front of him and he can see what he needs.
As Christians, one of the hidden spiritual benefits we receive in giving to those we know (or know of) is that we are moved to pray for them more deeply. This aspect of loving others – prayer – is of course open to us all, regardless of our financial status. Yet, when we financially contribute towards the welfare of others, our prayers often accompany this. Similarly, if we receive from others, knowing them enables us to pray intelligently for them as we thank God for his kindness towards us through their generosity. This is a uniquely Christian style of living out our unity in Christ in a very concrete way.
At what cost?
Inflation and rising housing prices, shrinkflation and the need to do more with less are pressures we feel increasingly in our context. It is difficult to think clearly about anything when we fear the future. All of these pressures, and more, invite us to ruminate and catastrophise which makes it very difficult to be carefully generous with what we do have. The Bible does not force us to give, but instead calls on us to reshape our expectations of this life by seeking God’s kingdom above all else.[9] As we consider that, we are urged to learn contentment and to actively trust God with all the cares of life.[10] Knowing God’s deep concern for us in Christ shown in his death and resurrection for us, his enemies, we develop confidence that he can meet all our needs. This robust trust enables us to think about ourselves and our context with clarity and confidence, and can enable us to develop a sense of what is ‘enough’ for us in our circumstances.[11] Part of the discipline involved in this thinking is accepting that we cannot have everything. In order to give, we will need to make sacrifices. We will lose good things and we will not gain good things if we are to move towards others in generosity. Being level-headed about this is part of what Jesus means when he calls us to lay aside our own selves and follow him.[12]
One of the dangers of this is that we come to see our giving as transactional. God may not make up for what we lose or do not gain because of our generosity to others in this lifetime.[13] Part of the discipline that we employ is to give things or money away with an open hand, not expecting anything in return from God or other people. For some of us, this will require managing the anxiety we experience from the sense that we have missed out or that we will not have enough. Giving will encourage us to grow in our prayerful trust of God.
There is no easy measuring rod for this, as what this means for each person will be different, depending on many factors. This freedom to give as our trust and generosity is grown and our fears allayed by God’s Spirit, out of a disciplined sense of who we are in Christ, is itself cause for our gratitude and praise to God. Our giving is not a task or a ‘law’, but an outworking of our growth in our knowledge and love of the Lord Jesus.
Practical Ideas
Having determined what it is we need to preserve for ourselves, or determined in our heart what to give, we can start to look for those that the Lord Jesus calls us to care for.
[1] The Gospel in Society Today committee is grateful for the time and expertise of Dr Andrew Bain. Andrew is QTC Vice Principal, Ethics lecturer, and former economist. Although any errors remain the responsibility of the writer, the wisdom he provided will be reflected throughout these articles and from time to time will be directly referenced.
[2] Rather than becoming God’s children by reaching his standards, we demonstrate our adoption in Christ by this ongoing transformation in our behaviour. (E.g. Matthew 5:48)
[3] 1 John 3:16-18
[4] Acts 5:1-11, in which it is clear that Anaias and Sapphira were not obliged to give any or all of their money to their fellow Christians. (see verse 4)
[5] Galatians 6:10 encourages us to give to the household of faith, which may be people we don’t have a direct relational connection with, but do in Christ and will also usually have some indirect connect with (some reason to trust this or that mission agency, for example).
[6] 1 Timothy 5:8, 16 are direct instructions to provide for the needs of those who could normally expect to be dependent on us. Mark 9:9-13 implies a similar attitude.
[7] Chapter 4 is full of thought provoking observations and examples, such as those found on page 71. (Economics in Christian Perspective: Theory, Policy and Life Choices by Victor V. Claar and Robin J. Klay; IVP: Downers Grove, Illinois 2007)
[8] Claar and Kay, ibid., p228.
[9] Matthew 6:33-34
[10] For example: 1 Peter 5:6-11, Phil 4:4-7
[11] Conversation with Dr Andrew Bain
[12] Mark 8:34-38
[13] Though in Mark 10:28-31, Jesus is clear that following him is not without its rewards in this life.
Study Questions
Read 2 Corinthians 8:1-15
- How does Paul describe the Macedonian churches and their giving? What is remarkable about this? (8:1-5)
- What expectations does Paul have of the Corinthian church and its giving? (8:6-7)
- What connection does their giving have to their relationship with Jesus? Why might Paul stop short of instructing them to give? (8:8-12)
- What relationship do giving and wanting to give have with each other? (verse 12)
- What is Paul’s overall goal for the churches? How does he see this being achieved? (8:13-15)
- Paul is speaking here about churches giving. Which principles can draw on for how you give as an individual?
- How do you want to grow as a giver? Think about areas like: being motivated, knowing what you want to give, knowing who has unmet needs, knowing why you are giving. Choose one of these and think about what it would like in your life to grow in this way. Ask God to give you wisdom and persistence as you seek to follow Jesus in all of your life.