Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary by Greear J.D

Author:Greear, J.D. [Greear, J.D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: B&H Publishing Group
Published: 2011-09-12T17:00:00+00:00

For type A people like me, such ambiguity drives us crazy. “Well, which is it, Jesus? Is it 100 percent? Or 10 percent? Or 50 percent? Jesus, I need a box to check off. What’s the exact amount I have to give to get ‘the gold star’?”

The point is, there is no one answer . . . a spirit of generosity is simply not something you can produce by establishing a standard.

Fourth, this position is out of sync with a number of other things the Bible teaches about God’s purpose in giving us possessions. God did not give us money simply for us to give it away. Please don’t misinterpret that. God does provide us with a lot of money that He does indeed want us to leverage for others—to give it away freely. But God has other purposes in giving us money beyond giving it away. According to Paul, God gives us some material things to enjoy and He is glorified as we enjoy them. Any good father loves to delight his children with gifts; our Heavenly Father is no different. Wise King Solomon taught us that saving money can be prudent, and that godly men often leave money even to their children’s children. So let’s delve more into what those purposes are.

The Generosity Matrix

We like rules, formulas, and black-and-white prescriptions. With money, however, the Bible gives us complementary values a gospel-centered heart holds in balance.

I find at least six biblical principles about money that we should hold in reverent tension. Any one of these principles, taken alone, will knock you out of balance. Holding all six principles in tension, however, leads you to extravagant generosity and humble appreciation of God’s good gifts. Here they are!

1. God gives excess to some so that they can share with those who have less.

In 2 Corinthians 8:13–15, Paul uses the story of the manna given to the Israelites in the wilderness to explain God gives excess to some so we can share it with others. If my wife packs my little girl’s lunch, and she put two sandwiches in it because she knew there was a kid at school who had nothing, we would want her to give it away when she was given the chance. We don’t need her to squirrel it away in case tomorrow we forget to give her lunch. We won’t forget. God does the same with us. He gives excess to some of us today so we can share today with those in need today. He won’t forget about us tomorrow.

The Old Testament talks in numerous places about believers’ responsibility to the poor. James says that if we see a brother suffering and withhold our resources from him, then we are not really people of faith. Acts says in that early church “there was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need” (Acts 4:34–35).

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