Word of Salvation – Vol. 23 No. 03 – October 1976

 

Giving

 

Sermon by Rev. S Voorwinde on 2Corinthians 9:6,7

Scripture Reading: 2Corinthians 9:1-15

 

"It is more blessed to give than to receive".  Surely this is one of the greatest secrets of happiness.  As a modern translation has it: "Happiness lies more in giving than in receiving.”

Jesus could not have put it more simply, nor shown the way to happiness more clearly.  Yet today most people have missed His directions and lost the secret to a happy life.  In fact, day after day we are bombarded by the very opposite philosophy that happiness lies in getting, having – and even hoarding!

Strikes are held so that people will get more money.  Advertisements often try to convince you to get what you don't really need.

And then there are politicians who promise to give, but do they?

In a world of getting and grabbing, how different and how refreshing is the message of the Bible!   There we read of a God who gave His only Son, of a Saviour who laid down His life, and a Church that truly practised the divine motto that "it is more blessed to give than to receive."

Soon after the Church was founded there were opportunities for giving and sharing.  On the day of Pentecost itself we find believers selling their property and giving to those who were in need.  In the Church at Jerusalem there were always needy members:

The Seven were appointed to serve the Greek-speaking widows.

The Church of Antioch sent money by the hand of Paul at a time of famine.

On his missionary journeys Paul started a collection of the saints at Jerusalem.  He began this in Galatia, then in Corinth (southern Greece) and then in Macedonia (northern Greece).

The Macedonians had responded well to Paul's appeal, but the Corinthians, after an enthusiastic start, had left something to be desired.  In 2Corinthians 8 and 9 Paul tells them tactfully and carefully, yet convincingly, to renew their earlier zeal.  In these chapters we get a statement on Christian giving that is valid for all time.

What, then, is the Christian philosophy of giving?  In the passage we read, we find the RESULTS, the MANNER and the MOTIVE of Christian giving.  The order may seem illogical, but that's Paul's arrangement here and there are advantages in sticking to it.

Let us therefore begin with the RESULTS of Christian giving.  In verse 6 we read:

"Now this I say, he who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully.”

The basic point here is that giving is sowing.  Just as the sower expects a harvest from the seeds he throws on the ground, so the Christian can expect a harvest from the money he gives away.  Notice that it's not the money he keeps or saves or invests, but the money he gives away that yields the harvest.

"What we spend, we lose; what we keep will be left to others; what we give away will remain forever ours." (Stephen Olford, The Grace of Giving, p.93).  But how are we to understand this harvest ― spiritually or materially?  Both.  In verse 8 Paul is definitely speaking about reaping material blessings:

"And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always have all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed."

In other words, if you are generous the Lord will see to it that you always have the means to express your generosity.  And this is really true in the lives of generous Christians.  Charlie Shedd, in his book Letters to Philip gives his son some sound advice about money.  Philip is about to get married.  This is the father's advice:

            "Outgo affects income!"

Sounds crazy doesn't it, to say that one way to have more is to give more?  But this is how we've found it in our marriage.  With no exception, every time we increased our giving to help others beyond our own doors, some blessing followed that we hadn't expected.  It happened so often that we have come to this conclusion: The secret to family finance is to quit worrying so much about the intake and open up the outlets until they are what they ought to be.

Of course it isn't true that everybody who tithes gets rich, and it isn't so that all who get rich are good givers.  But it is a fact that “life for us is only what it ought to be when giving is what it ought to be."

And there are many other Christians who can endorse every word of this.  There are some who have begun to tithe and seen a change in their financial situation.  There are others who have given generously and who have received surprising blessings.

Stephen Olford in his book The Grace of Giving has put it like this: "--when God can trust His people with money, He sees to it that they always have plenty for themselves and more for others."

Proverbs 11: 24,25 has this to say about the generous man:

"There is one who scatters yet increases all the more,
  And there is one who withholds what is justly due,
  But it results only in want.
  The generous man will be prosperous,
  And he who waters will himself be watered."

Generosity is a Christian virtue and this virtue is rewarded by the Lord Himself.

So there are definitely material blessings that attend generosity and of course there are also spiritual blessings.  "He will increase the harvest of your righteousness."

There is thanksgiving to God on the part of those who receive the gift.  Isn't this what we would hope for – that those whom we help give thanks to our God?

They will glorify God for your obedience, they will praise God for your faith and for this practical expression of it.  All that we do must glorify God, and here we see God glorified in a very specific way.

And they will also pray for you.  At this point the recipients may not be able to return in kind, but you enjoy the benefit of their prayers for you.  Surely only those who are spiritually callous will not be happy with such spiritual blessings.

Again these spiritual blessings are experienced today as much as they were in Paul's time.  The spiritual life of entire Churches has been transformed when their members began to give.  Let me read to you what happened to an Anglican Church in Bristol, England:

"In 1964 this church just about reached rock bottom.  In fact, due to poor finances, it faced the threat of closure.
In this situation they started to look outwards instead of inwards.  And they started to give to missions in the wider world.  A rather crazy policy, by worldly reckoning, but a Biblical one.  They revived the Biblical principle of tithing.
In 1965 the Church gave away 187 pounds.
The giving increased each year.
In 1969 1,138 pounds was given away.
In 1972 the figure reached 6,000 pounds.
Today the average congregation is about 250 at the evening service, three young people are entirely supported as missionaries overseas, and substantial grants are made to other societies."
      (Taken from ACT, British Christian Newspaper).

Do you want our church to grow and prosper?  Well, it won't happen if we refuse to be generous.

Do you want to be a happy Christian?  Remember, the miserly Christian is usually also a miserable Christian.

What, then, are the results of Christian giving?  "He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully" a plentiful harvest both materially and spiritually.

But now what is to be the MANNER of Christian giving?  How are Christians to give?

The answer is in verse 7: "Let each of you do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion; for God loves the cheerful giver."

Positively, the Christian is to give purposefully and cheerfully.  On the negative side, he is to avoid giving that is done grudgingly or under compulsion.  First of all, Christian giving is to be done purposefully.  It cannot be on impulse or casual.  A Christian must deliberately work out what he is able to give and he must give systematically.  In his first letter to the Corinthians (16:2) Paul had given this advice; "On the first day of every week let each one of you put aside and save, as he may prosper that no collections be made when I come."

They were to set a proportion of their earnings aside each week.  It was a regular procedure and it involved discipline.  Christian giving is not a matter of the emotions, but of the will.  We should not wait till we are moved to give.  We must discipline ourselves to give.

Secondly, giving is not to be done grudgingly or under compulsion.  You can't give with the attitude of "if I have to" or be reluctant that you have to part with so much.  In the original the word "grudgingly" really means "with sorrow".  You're sad that you've lost what you gave.

If you are giving "under compulsion" you are perhaps giving because you wonder what others might think if you didn't give, or because in one way or another someone forces you to give.  Paul has taken pains not to imply this to the Corinthians.  In verse 8 of the previous chapter he pointed out:

"I am not speaking this as a command but as proving through the earnestness of others the sincerity of your love also.”

He is not commanding them, but rather is making an appeal to their love.

If you don't give grudgingly or under compulsion there is only one way you can give – cheerfully.  The original Greek word is the one from which we get the term "hilarity".  Giving is to be an exhilarating experience.  There is real pleasure in giving.

Sometimes people wonder what the hymn writer meant with the words we sing so often:

"Take my silver and my gold,
 Not a mite would I withhold.”

The writer of this hymn, Frances Havergal, did exactly what she said.  Here are her own words:

"Take my silver and my gold" – now that means shipping off all my ornaments including a jewel cabinet which is really fit for a countess to the Church Missionary Society..... I don't think I need tell you I never packed a box with such pleasure."

God loves the cheerful giver!

Finally what is the MOTIVE of Christian giving to be?

In view of what we discovered earlier it is tempting to make the results of giving the motive for giving.  Even though God gives material blessings to those who are generous this can never be the motive for giving.  You can't say: "My accounts are low, so I'll give to the Lord."  Paul has warned that our giving is not to be affected by covetousness.  Our motive should never be what we can get out of it materially, nor what people will think of us.  This is what was so ugly in the giving of the Pharisees and of Ananias and Sapphira.  Covetousness for material gain or a good reputation is no motive for giving.  Then what is?  In chapter 8 Paul had appealed to the sincerity of the Corinthians love.  Then he says this:

"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich."

And at the end of chapter 9 Paul concludes with the words: "Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!"

There is only one motive – love and thankfulness to Jesus Christ for what He has done.  Love to Jesus who became poor to the point of death on the cross.  That's the only reason for Christian giving.

And if that's not your reason, forget it!   If you're not thankful to Christ and don't love Him, then please don't give.  The Pharisees and Ananias and Sapphira didn't have this motive and their giving didn't do them one bit of good.

How tragic it is when Churches resort to all kinds of gimmicks to raise money, even from unbelievers!   How sad it is when people don't give from the right motives!   May our Church never have to resort to fetes, raffles and bingo to support the Lord's work and may we always have people who are motivated by a sincere love for the Lord and a deep thankfulness for what He has done.  And if you are giving for the right reasons, if you do love the Lord and are truly thankful, then you must also ask yourself some questions: -

Is your giving really an adequate expression of your love and your thankfulness?

If the love of Christ is an active force in your heart, do you really need to be told to give?

And what is your response as you consider the cross?

"When I survey the wondrous cross,
 On which the Prince of glory died,
 My richest gain I count but loss,
 And pour contempt on all my pride.

 Were the whole realm of nature mine,
 That were a present far too small;
 Love so amazing, so divine,
 Demands my soul, my life, my all."