9—Giving (Part One: Why Give)
Giving is important, but why you give matters more than how much
Giving breaks the power of money over us and releases it to use for God’s Kingdom. We should honor God from our wealth as the “first act” of stewardship, including compassion for the poor.
God is a generous Heavenly Father, and as Christians, we have received many good gifts from him. Those gifts are our time, talents, and treasures, the latter being “wealth,” as we’ve been discussing.
These are meant for our enjoyment, but they should also be used generously for the good of others and to fund God’s kingdom-building mission here on earth.
As faithful stewards of our financial resources, we are to give in grace through faith and in proportion to how God has blessed us. We are also to be concerned for the deserving poor among us, especially our earthly and spiritual families.
At this point, you may be thinking, “Hey, so far, you’ve talked about wealth-building, and margin, etc., etc., but now you’re telling me that I should be (generously) giving away my hard-earned wealth—what gives?”
Well, first of all, giving fits neatly into our “financial life equation” (FLE) but is not included as part of living expenses:
Future wealth = Starting wealth + Sum of all income – Sum of all taxes – Sum of all giving – Sum of all living expenses + Sum of interest earned – Sum of interest paid, or symbolically,
However, as I wrote earlier, although saving is, in essence, what’s “leftover” after all the outgoing cash flows, I think God wants us to think of giving as something else altogether.
We have to come at this from a stewardship mindset, which means that all of it belongs to God, to begin with, and we have been given the privilege of managing it on His behalf (even though he could do it better himself; it’s a wonder than he gives his gifts to weak and flawed vessels like us).
You might think of it as “withholding for God,” similar to what you do in cooperation with your employer’s withholding, except in this case, it’s voluntary and done with different motives. And it’s done intentionally, in our hearts and minds, before we do anything else with our income.
This is only helpful in emphasizing that giving occurs before anything else. However, as a practical matter, that’s not always the case; your taxes will be withheld before you can give or spend anything from your paycheck. This is more of a heart-and-mind thing than a simple formulaic.
So the best answer to your question is found in Matthew 6:19-21: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (ESV)
These verses don’t suggest that we should not build any wealth at all. In fact, it doesn’t address “wealth” specially; it talks more broadly about “treasure,” and Matthew 6:21 says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (ESV)
That means that if we have wealth that we love, it has become our treasure; it has our hearts and affections, and we will guard and protect it with all our might. In doing so, we become hoarders who love our treasure more than we love God and others; this is what God, in His love and wisdom, is warning us against.
This verse also speaks to another “net worth” that no equation can solve for: treasures in heaven. The treasures being spoken of here are not an “account”; it’s not treasure we have on deposit in heaven that’s earning us brownie points with God.
Put succinctly, it’s the ultimate treasure of knowing and experiencing God’s kingdom and more and more of Christ himself for eternity. There seems to be some incredible connection between our generosity with our time, talents, and treasure and the richness and fullness of our experience of Jesus in eternity.
I certainly can’t explain it, but I believe it’s true.
With these things in mind, it may be helpful to discuss the three money mindsets/heart attitudes that each of us tends typically toward:
Spender: characterizes almost everyone in the Western world, even if they don’t have earned income. The spender pursues the greatest possible present consumption, even if mindful of the need to give and save some for the future.
Saver: strives to limit consumption (and perhaps giving) to some extent, focusing instead on increased wealth accumulation. This characterizes the early retirement or extreme-early-retirement groups, but not exclusively.
Servant: the rarest mindset of all, orients their life around limiting both consumption and wealth building, focusing instead on giving the most they can toward blessing other people and for God’s Kingdom-building work.
Since this article is about giving, you probably think I will say we should all have a “Giver” mindset, end of discussion. I would because the Bible teaches that we should, but more must be said about it.
We need all three mindsets to help us practice stewardship with a healthy balance between enjoying the present and the future and giving in light of our eternal purpose. All three are God’s will for us when enjoying his good gifts.
Question: At this stage, would you say you’re a spender, saver, or servant? These are not mutually exclusive, but we can identify our core mindset (or should I also say “heartset”?) by looking at where we focus the most and what we think is the highest purpose of our money.
Most Christians are some of all three, but I also think younger people tend to be spenders, middle-aged folks tend toward saving, and older people start to think more about eternity and, therefore, focus more on giving.
I don’t think that’s how it should be.
If you read most modern books on personal finance, you’ll see that they are mainly focused on spending and saving (with lots of emphasis on saving for retirement). And people who are controlled spenders and good savers tend to view themselves as “mature” and “responsible” when it comes to money, and they may be in that sense.
But I suspect many of you may be primarily spenders who want to save more and be givers. We want to show you how you can do that, and increasingly so as you get older.
If we aim to increase our net worth for all the reasons I listed, then why give our money away? I think it all boils down to this: “We love because Jesus first loved us” (1 John 4:19); “we give because he gave himself as a sacrifice for many” (1 Timothy 2:5-6). It’s really that simple. Love for God and others and gratitude for all he’s done for us should be the primary motivating and inspiring forces in our lives.
Of course, other things should also motivate us to give: love for others (Matthew 22:37b-39), especially concern for the poor (Proverbs 19:17), missions, and the spread of the gospel. Our money can help take the Good News of The Gospel to our neighbors, community, and the world. Together, these all expand God’s Kingdom (Matthew 6:33).
But there’s one more reason that often gets overlooked (or made too much of). If we hold back in giving, we can forfeit the blessings and benefits the Bible promises us.
I know they are often misconstrued by the prosperity gospel crowd, but consider these verses: Proverbs 11:24-25, 22:9, 28:27; Malachi 3:10; and Luke 6:38. After reading you may be thinking, “Some of these verses sound like a prosperity gospel to me!” Yes, they may, but they are not. These are general principles—not absolute promises or cause and effect that God has put in motion that are always assured in all cases. There’s a BIG difference.
Although we’re not talking about the prosperity gospel here, we still can’t ignore verses like those in Proverbs that tell us that giving freely will cause some things to go well with you. The Bible says it, and we can’t pretend it doesn’t, even if we don’t buy into prosperity theology.
Here’s another question: How many unhappy generous people do you know? Probably not many.
How about unhappy miserly people? You may know some. And we hear about unhappy rich people all the time. Why are they so unhappy? It’s probably not because they’re rich per se’; it is more likely because they’re not generous with their riches; they keep it all for themselves (Luke 12:21).
The bottom line is that giving is good and good for you IF it’s done out of a heart oriented toward God and his Kingdom, not giving so we can get.
Once you understand the “why” of giving, you need to answer the other questions: " What” (how much) should we give?” and “Where do we give?” We’ll address those in the following article.
For reflection: Giving seems to be a complex and confusing topic for many Christians, mainly due to the differences between law and grace. Which of those two most influence your motivations for giving? What would grace-filled giving look like in your life?
Verse: “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each one should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not out of regret or compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” (2 Corinthians 9:6-8, ESV)