Meditation for Preparation – Oct. 26th

5 Ways Christians are Different in Generosity

If you’re a parent, you probably have the goal of leaving something to your kids. Recent research at the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) shows that about 70% of wealth transfers — such as donating a sum of money to a charity, or passing on money to descendants — leads to some kind of major problem. Often those problems created are major issues with family harmony. How much sorrow is created when giving goes wrong!

The world’s way of handling money is primarily about the good it brings to the person with the money. Wealthy people can give out of a love for others or to create a name for themselves. They can give to bring good to others or to assuage their own guilt. But our natural tendency is always going to be to use our free time and our wealth to help ourselves in some way.

What about Christians? Is there a distinctively Christian way that we handle and give away our money? Let’s look at some Bible texts to see five distinctively Christian ways we can bring honor to Jesus.

1. Christians believe God is generous to evil people, so they should be too.

But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5:44-48 (ESV)

Jesus teaches us that our Father in heaven is kind to people who hate both him and others. He provides good for them. And Jesus calls Christians to be like him in generosity. This means Christians don’t only give to help those they like, but they also give generously to genuinely help people who would call them enemies. 

This means giving in a crazy way to people who do not like us, but it does not mean giving indiscriminately. Look at God our Heavenly Father as an example: if we were to ask him for unlimited sunshine, God wouldn’t banish nighttime because he knows what we need. We work and give to help others live: living for God now and living for eternity in God’s kingdom.

2. Christians believe God came to earth and talked about money.

No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.  Matthew 6:24 (ESV)

Jesus, who is fully God, came to earth. We believe God cares deeply about the world he made, including how we manage our resources in it.  By one estimate, 15% of Jesus’s teaching focused on money and how we use it – or worship it. The passage quoted above is just one example. 

So, we don’t think money is only a base, evil subject to avoid. Money, our work to produce it, and our willingness to give our work and money away are all part of the way we live like Jesus. It also shows that we care deeply about the words and warnings of Jesus.

3. Christians believe we earn income to give it away. 

Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Ephesians 4:28 (ESV)

You might have expected the thief to be instructed, “Earn enough money to pay back what you owe.” But instead, the thief in Ephesus is taught to organize his life and to do work that serves others. He is also instructed not to spend all of his earned income, but rather to set something aside to give away to someone in need. 

There might be a purpose for every dollar earned, and some of that purpose is simply to help those in need.

4. Christians work hard for those in need.

You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. 35 In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” Acts 20:34-35 (ESV)

In this passage in Acts, Paul was explaining to the elders of Ephesus how he had funded his ministry work while there. He had worked to earn his own income and to take care of the “weak” (those who had needs). Did they have financial needs or spiritual needs? Yes! 

Pastor John Piper has said, “Christians care for all suffering, and especially eternal suffering.” We believe Jesus is the resurrection, and he will raise us all – some to life with him and some to eternal judgment. When Paul worked hard to provide for his needs as well as the needs of those with him, he was providing food, shelter, and the gospel of Jesus.

5. Christians aren’t fully efficient with their work or money

And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the LORD your God. Leviticus 23:22 (ESV)

We read in the law that God ordered the Israelites to leave something behind to allow others to have some. The context is that farmers are not to get every last ear of corn or every last potato. Instead, they are to be purposefully inefficient, leaving some margin. We modern American Christians look at this call to radical generosity and see our own need for a savior — a rescue from the way we economize every minute of productive time and carefully manage our money just for our own needs. Living in Christ, who perfectly followed every precept of the law, we can see in the law a deeper, more beautiful goal of being a person who generously cares for the needs of others like our heavenly father cares for us.