Giving is an integral aspect of the Christian life. When God calls us to salvation, He likewise calls us to a life of generous giving. The Lord, Jesus Christ declares that since believers have been recipients of God’s abundant grace, they ought to liberally share His blessings with others—“Freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8).

The primary responsibility of pastors is to make sure that God’s people are operating according to His precepts. God’s shepherds are tasked with guiding His flock towards the path of righteousness and obedience. It behooves them therefore, to equip and exhort the flock to live a lifestyle of generous giving. This is a non-negotiable aspect of pastoral ministry and a major thrust of pulpit preaching.

However, many pastors tend to shy away from this sensitive issue. The inclination is understandable. A prominent preacher, Dr. Joseph Stowell, describes his dilemma during his early ministry days:

...in no way did I want to give the impression to those who were seekers that all the church was interested in was their money. Nor did I wish to seem manipulative in seeking financial income for the plans and programs we had drawn up for the ministry of the church. It seemed a very touchy thing to talk to people about their money. Perhaps my feeling was that messages of this sort would create a great amount of discomfort in many people’s hearts, and, after all, shouldn’t the gospel bring peace and comfort instead?¹

This aversion to teaching about giving is even aggravated by the proliferation of preachers who have gone to the opposite extreme of resorting to insidious means to force people to give. Their coercive tactics have turned off many people. Certainly, this should cause us to teach the subject with much discernment and caution.

Nevertheless, this should never prevent pastors from preaching on this matter. The biblical fact is that God wills His people to be marked with excessive generosity—“But just as you excel in everything… see that you also excel in this grace of giving” (2 Cor. 8:7).

All throughout Scripture, one cannot escape the stress it makes on the virtue of generosity. This unmistakable emphasis is seen in both Old and New Testaments. Notice the keen observation of a biblical scholar:

...sixteen of Christ’s thirty-eight parables speak about how people should handle earthly treasure. In fact, our Lord taught more about such stewardship (one out of every ten verses in the Gospels) than about heaven and hell combined. The entire Bible contains more than two thousand references to wealth and property, twice as many as the references to faith and prayer. What we do with the things God has given us is very important to Him.²

If pastors are to be faithful to this biblical emphasis, then they must regularly exhort their respective local flocks to give financially and materially. This, pastors must do without apology!

The Generosity of God

Any teaching on giving must begin with God. Everything about Christian charity revolves around the nature of our Heavenly Father.

God’s generosity is the reason for our giving. Moreover, His generous character is our example of giving. If we must spur Christians to give, our starting point then, must be God!

God’s generosity is the Explanation for our giving. The Bible reveals God to be extremely gracious. It is, in fact, an outstanding attribute the entire Scripture highlights. For instance, that most famous and well-loved passage, John 3:16, speaks of His greatest Gift to mankind—Jesus Christ. Out of the abundance of His love for us, God freely gave His beloved Son to die on our stead. Jesus Christ is the greatest expression of His generosity.

Since we are beings meant to give glory to God and manifest His wonderful nature, the best way we accomplish this is through our liberal giving. Our generous giving glorifies God!

God’s generosity is our Example of giving. The book of Ephesians describes in detail God’s awesome generosity. In the first three chapters of this letter, the Apostle Paul deals with it extensively. In two instances he describes God’s grace as “incomparably rich” (1:7-8; 2:7). This grace the Lord “lavished” (1:8) upon all believers. To lavish speaks of excessive bestowal of grace. With an overflowing joy in His heart, God profusely bestowed His children with “all spiritual blessings” (1:3). Peter in his letter reiterates this truth when he wrote, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3).

Furthermore, not only is His grace abundant in quantity, but marvelous in quality. Our heavenly Father never gives cheap grace. At least two kinds of grace are taught in the Bible. There is the grace God bestows to all mankind regardless of whether they are believers or not. This is termed as Universal or Common Grace. Matthew 5:45 explains that God “causes His sun to shine on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Good health, material wealth, the beauty of creation, and human existence are some of the examples of God’s blessings common to all men.

In addition to Common Grace, however, there is that which God particularly bestows to the elect. This is called Particular Grace. An example of this is God’s salvation grace to believers. Paul exclaims several times in his letters that Christians are saved by God’s grace and not by human effort (Rom. 11:6; Eph. 2:5, 8-9; 2 Thess. 2:16; 2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 3:5)! Together with the gift of salvation, believers have also been blessed with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13), divine inheritance (Eph. 1:8; 1 Pet. 1:4-5), spiritual endowments or gifts (Rom. 12:3-8), the power to accomplish God’s will (Phil. 4:12-13), among other various blessings.

Understand that all of these blessings came at a high price on God’s part. His grace is not at all cheap!

Finally, our appreciation of God’s infinite graciousness grows leaps and bounds when we realize that we do not deserve a drop of grace. Here lies the beauty of His charity—God gives, not because of who we are nor what we have done, but because He chooses to.

When God’s people are gripped with the wonder of His grace, they cannot help but respond in unbounded generosity. Consequently, the pastor must help bring the people to understand and fully appreciate this attribute of God.

Biblical Guidelines on Giving

Giving goes deeper than just putting money on the offering plate. There is a proper way of giving that brings glory and pleasure to God. On the other hand, there is an unrighteous manner of giving that God intensely abhors. The Lord is not only concerned that we give, but more so, with the manner by which we give.

Consider the religious people of Jesus’ time. They consistently gave the required tithes and offerings, but the way they did this act irritated God. Their act of giving was not spurred by the right motive, was not accompanied by the right attitude, and was certainly not performed righteously.

If our giving is to please God, we must do it in the proper way. In view of this, the pastor’s job is to teach his congregation the biblical guidelines of giving.

Biblical giving is spurred by the right motive (Matthew 6:1-4). Unless our financial or material giving is spurred by noble intentions, it will not please God. This is the clear teaching of the Lord in Matthew 6:1-4. We are urged in the passage, not to be like the hypocrites whose motive in giving is to be noticed and applauded by other people. Giving must be motivated by passion to give glory to God.

One practical implication for pastors is that they must lead their flocks to periodically check their motives to see if they are giving to glorify God or to glorify themselves.³ There is a great tendency for us to perform this activity out of route or religious obligation. Regular introspection saves us from hypocritical giving.

In addition, pastors must watch out that they do not manipulate their congregations to give by laying on them unnecessary “guilt trips”. There is a fine line between biblical exhortation and selfish manipulation. Such tricks may spur people to give, but chances are they would be doing it for the wrong reasons. Important as giving is to the Lord, bear in mind that a greater issue to Him is the driving force for giving!

Biblical giving is accompanied by the right spiritual attitudes. Another issue that God is concerned about is that of attitude. The giving that God desires from His people is that which is done in the following attitude:

1. An Attitude of Love and Thankfulness (2 Cor. 8:8-9). The giving that God accepts and is pleased with is that which is done in a spirit of love and gratitude towards Him. Our giving ought to be an expression of thanksgiving to His overwhelming generosity to us. “God does not want us to respond to a command to share their material possessions but, rather, to respond out of hearts of love that reflect sincere appreciation for His gift of salvation.⁴

2. An Attitude of Faith-fullness. This speaks of trusting in God as the One who will always provide us of our material and financial needs. Biblical giving is a manifestation of our absolute faith in His promises. We are, in effect, saying, “Lord, I am resting in Your promise to me that You will supply me of all my needs.” It is not the Lord’s will that His children live in fear of the future but in complete trust in His provision (Matthew 6:34). This attitude produces at least two results:

a. We learn to give consistently. We avoid making excuses not to give.

b. We learn to give sacrificially. God commends those who give over and beyond the ordinary. Many biblical examples support this principle—The widow who gave her all (Luke 21:4), Barnabas whose generosity became an example to others (Acts 4:36-37), and the Macedonian believers whose extreme circumstances did not deter them from giving “beyond their ability” (2 Cor. 8:2).

3. An Attitude of Willingness and Eagerness. Paul states in 2 Corinthians 9:7, “Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” This attitude was beautifully modeled by the Macedonian Christians. They needed no external prodding to give. In fact, they showed their willingness by “urgently pleading” with Paul to grant them an opportunity to share their finances (2 Cor. 8:2-3).

Biblical giving is done using the right procedure. The Bible does not fail to provide believers guiding principles on giving. Pastors must regularly remind their local congregations of these policies.

1. Plan your giving. Believers must be extra-careful not to allow their feelings to dictate their giving. The Bible teaches that our giving should be planned and systematic (1 Cor. 16:2). Both Old and New Testaments teach this principle.

In the Old Testament, the Jews were taught to systematically apportion 10% of their income in support of the priests (Lev. 27:30; Num. 18:25-30; Mal. 3:8). Another 10% was to be apportioned from their income in support of their religious feasts (Deut. 12:10-18). Finally, every third year, they were to apportion another 10% in support of the poor (Deut. 14:28-29).

These mandatory contributions were a form of taxation that went to the support of the nation’s theocratic system. Besides these, the Jews gave freewill offerings and voluntary contributions to different causes (Examples of these voluntary offerings are seen in Exodus 35:4-5, 21-29; Deut. 16:10; 1 Chron. 29:9). The Israelites practiced a systematic plan for giving.

Similarly, the New Testament encourages planned giving. For instance, Paul commands the Corinthian believers, “On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made” (1 Cor. 16:2). Believers were exhorted to follow a system of apportioning a sum of money from their income for the work of ministry.

This leads us to ask, How much should I give to my local church? Am I supposed to follow the tithing principle as some are insisting?”

The New Testament does not specify a percentage. Christians are never commanded in the New Testament to observe the same three-fold tithing system that was practiced by the Jews. R.C. Sproul, proponent of the tithing principle admits, “Nowhere does the New Testament specifically require tithing for Christians.... The New Testament does not give us a specific instruction about tithing... we have no specific guideline in the New Testament of percentages.⁵

Another tithing advocate, John Mitchell in his book, Tithing, Yes!” had to concede, “…Paul does not require any fixed percentage. It is to be proportioned in accord with the degree of prosperity God has given.⁶ Pastors must not be too hasty to impose something that is not clearly commanded in Scripture.

Having said this, however, we must also state that it is most likely that the first Christians, who were predominantly Jewish, brought their tithing system with them to the newly born church. This Jewish practice then heavily influenced the Church throughout the ages. Dr. Gene Getz writes, “No one who understands habit patterns in a religious system would deny that the three-tithe plan in Israel became an influential factor in helping these Jewish Christians determine their giving patterns in the church of Jesus Christ.” Concerning the tithing-system, we can say at most that, “…it provides believers with a strong pragmatic model for evaluating their own giving patterns.⁷

Suffice to say at this point that believers must have a systematic plan for their giving. If we do not plan our giving, this will lead us into at least one of these two extremes. First, we can easily be swayed by charlatans. Many fall pray to religious con men because they allow their feelings to dictate their giving. Understand that our emotions can be easily manipulated. And second, we can also use our feelings as an excuse not to give. Some people who refuse to give conveniently rationalize, “Well, I don’t feel led by the Spirit to give.”

2. Prioritize your giving. We must learn to apportion specific amounts of money to priority recipients. Obviously, the bulk of our money goes to supporting our immediate family. We are commanded in Scripture to provide for our personal and family’s needs. Other than this, however, there are other recipients we need to prioritize.

a. Government. The Bible mentions paying our taxes. Our giving to the government is mandated both by God and our law. Further, it is specified and many times apportioned by the civil authorities themselves.

b. Parents. We are also commanded to provide for the needs of our parents. “Honor your father and your mother…” (Ex. 20:12). To honor means both respect and material support, especially when the parents are unable to fend for themselves.

c. The Needy. Further, we are told to give to charity— to support the needy, with a particular emphasis on those who are members of our local church. “So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith” (Gal. 6:10).

d. The Local Church. As far as supporting the Kingdom work is concerned, the local church should be the primary recipient of our giving. Dr. Gene Getz draws out a “supracultural principle” based on Scripture: “It is by divine design that local churches provide the primary context in which Christians are to use their material possessions to further the work of God’s kingdom.” He adds, “This is what we see in the Bible. To bypass this important concept in Scripture is, in essence, to ignore what is recorded by gifted men inspired by the Holy Spirit.⁸

3. Give prayerfully. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give…” Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 9:7. The statement implies that we ought to carefully and prayerfully think through what we should give. When we give, we are worshipping God, and therefore, it should not be done haphazardly or casually, but with the sincere desire to give our best.

4. Give consistently. The early disciples were exhorted to practice regular giving. Regardless of their circumstances—whether they were in lack or abundance, in comfort or difficulty, Paul commands, “On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, (1 Cor. 16:2).

The text states that giving is the responsibility of every believer—“each one of you”—and is to be done regularly, as regular as we receive our wages. Whether we receive our wages daily, weekly or monthly, notice that the apportioning of our offering should be done as soon as we have them (“saving it up”) and not during the offertory.

5. Give proportionately. The text further mentions that our giving must be “in keeping with (our) income.” As mentioned, no absolute percentage was imposed in the Bible. This is left to the discretion of each individual. This does not mean, however, that we can give God leftovers.

God wants our hearty giving, not because He needs our financial resources, but because He wants us to prove our faith in Him by giving to Him the fruits of our labor. By giving, we prove that we live and work to worship and declare praises to Him, who is the Source of our sustenance.

The author of this material is Nicky Joya, CBS-Asia Training Mobilizer.

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