A Biblical Model for Giving, Part 4
2 Corinthians 8:4-8
Well this morning we return to our study of 2 Corinthians chapter 8. With some apology to those of you who are visiting with us who haven't been a part of this series, knowing you're going to come in on the tail end, really, of our series on a model for Christian giving, but I think you'll be able to hear what the Spirit of the Lord says to us in this great passage.
We're studying 2 Corinthians. We find ourselves in chapter 8, the first eight verses address the subject of Christian giving, how we give to the Lord. Certainly that is a fitting subject, isn't it, at this time of year when we are probably more conscious of giving than at any other time, giving is on everybody's mind. We're spending our time, aren't we, foraging around in all the stores to try to find just the right gift to give to someone. Or we're spending our time dropping hints to folks of what we'd like to have given to us knowing that they're probably going to do that. Giving is both a privilege born out of love and a duty born out of expectation and perhaps even some reciprocation. But nonetheless, we're all about giving and thinking about giving at this time of the year.
But the One's whose birthday is celebrated should be the most gifted One, namely the Lord Jesus Christ. So giving to Him should be for Christians the all-consuming preoccupation even at this time of year. And in view of that it's fitting that we find ourselves in a study of how we are to give. As Christians, how we are to give to the Lord and to his purpose, very, very pertinent.
Now Paul is going to cover this subject in two chapters...chapter 8 and chapter 9. So we're going to go through a lot of material before we're done. But he begins with the first eight verses of chapter 8 with the first principle that he wants to get across. And the first principle is simply this, giving is the behavior of devout Christians. Where you have devout Christians you have givers. All they need to have is an opportunity and they will respond. Christian devotion, Christian dedication, Christian commitment results in Christian giving and generosity.
So Paul is calling on the Corinthians in this chapter to give, particularly the issue is the saints in the church at Jerusalem are very, very poor, they are without resources and their needs are vast. Paul wants the Corinthians to give to the saints in Jerusalem. Now remember, it's not a one-time offering, it's a systematic weekly offering. In chapter 16 and verse 2 he says that these offerings are to be collected every week. He says every one of you is to give every week. Over a period of at least a year they have known about this offering and Paul wanted them systematically and weekly to be giving so that there would be accumulated a large amount of money that when he came he could then take back to the needy saints in Jerusalem.
He is instructing them here in chapter 8 regarding this matter of the collection, regarding the matter of their regular weekly giving. And to begin with he uses this main principle that giving is the behavior of devout Christians to sort of launch his motivation. And to make his point he uses an example and the example is the Macedonian churches mentioned there at the end of verse 1. The churches of Macedonia were basically three churches, the church at Philippi, the church at Thessalonica, and the church at Berea. They were givers. They were devout Christians and they behaved in a very generous way in the matter of their giving. And so they serve as the illustration or the example. He wants to instruct both the Corinthians and all Christians through all time to give following the pattern of the Macedonians.
And so as we look at these eight verses we've been very careful to see the elements of their giving. What was it that made them exemplary? How did they give? With what spirit did they give? In what manner did they give? And all of that is delineated down through verse 8.
Let me remind you of what we have already discussed. First of all, we said that giving was initiated by God's grace. Verse 1 reminded us that it was the grace of God given to the Macedonians that so totally transformed their lives that turned them into givers. It's not just a human act, it's not just what noble humans do, we're talking about a level of giving and a level of sacrifice that is unique to those who have been transformed by God's grace, who have been saved and sanctified by the power of God and His gracious work.
Secondly we said their giving transcended difficult circumstances. You wouldn't think it would be a time or an occasion when they would be able to give because of the tremendous difficulty of their circumstances, namely persecution and economic deprivation and yet in verse 2 it says they gave in a great ordeal of affliction.
Thirdly we said their giving was joyous. Verse 2 again he talks about their abundance of joy.
Fourthly it was not hindered by poverty. He mentions in verse 2 their deep poverty.
Fifthly we said their giving was generous, it overflowed in the wealth of their liberality or generosity.
So we looked at the fact that this giving was initiated by grace, transcended difficult circumstances, was joyous, not hindered by poverty and was generous.
Then we came to verse 3, you'll remember, and in verse 3 we saw three other elements of their giving. Their giving was proportionate, that is they gave according to their ability, according to what they were capable of giving in proportion to what they had. Secondly in this little list their giving was sacrificial. He says it was beyond their ability. That means they gave more than they were really capable of giving. And then he says it was voluntary, they gave of their own accord.
So that gives us eight principles of the giving of the Macedonians. And the last three, it was proportionate, sacrificial and voluntary are so important that we digressed a little bit to talk about those. They really sum up the concept of free-will giving. You give what you can proportionate to what you have, you give sacrificially and you give voluntarily or willingly, you give in a manner of exercising your own freedom in response to God. Those three elements then really are very important...proportionate, sacrificial, voluntary giving sum up the concept of free-will giving, or giving from the heart.
And you remember I told you that there is no prescription in the Bible for what percentage we are to give. There is no prescription in the Bible for what amount we are to give. We are to give proportionate to what we have, we are to give with a measure of sacrifice, and we are to give voluntarily. That's what we call free-will giving.
Now once we had established that we digressed into the Old Testament last time because the Old Testament established two kinds of giving. One is required giving and the second is free-will giving. Required giving and free-will giving. Now required giving basically boils down to taxation. Prior to Moses required giving was prescribed in Egypt to fund the national government for a time of famine and the amount of that was set at twenty percent. During the time of Moses God ordained tithes. The first tithe went to support the Levites who ran the nation, it was a theocracy and they were basically the government workers. They were the people who led the nation. There was a first ten percent and that went to support the Levites, to pay their salaries and provide their livelihood. Secondly there was another ten percent every year that every Jew had to pay and that was the festival tithe, that ten percent went for the national festivals, the national holidays, the great religious conclaves and occasions and convocations. And then every third year there was a third tenth which was for the welfare tithe to give to the poor and the orphans and the widows and so forth. So if you break that third one into three parts, it's three and a third per year or so...ten percent, ten percent, three a third percent, there at twenty-three percent. You throw in the corners of the field and the gleanings which they couldn't harvest, a kind of a profit-sharing plan, throw in the temple tax which they paid every year and you have about twenty-five percent of a Jew's income went to fund the national government. That's what the tithes related to.
No Jew gave ten percent. He gave ten percent, ten percent, and ten percent every third year plus. So if you're talking about tithing, you're talking about that amount and you're talking about the funding for the national government. You're talking about supporting the theocracy, that was taxation.
Now when you get into the Old Testament and you talk about free-will giving, that's a completely different issue. Free-will giving was from the heart, voluntarily, willingly, sacrificially, whatever you wanted to give whenever you wanted to give it with generosity motivated by gratitude and love for God. You always gave the best, the firstfruits, and you gave it with all your heart. That's what the Old Testament calls free-will giving.
So we saw then in the Old Testament required giving had to do with funding the national government. Government being ordained by God for the preservation of society, the well being of those who do good and the punishment of those who do evil. God wants government supported, it's supported by the people. We still have that system in terms of taxation today.
The second kind of giving was free will and that was to God. Giving to God then was free-will giving. That was the Old Testament pattern, we went into detail last time on that.
Now let's ask the question for this morning initially, is the New Testament pattern of giving the same? Answer...yes. In the New Testament again you have reiterated two kinds of giving, two ways in which we give our wealth. The first is to pay our taxes and the second is to give to God. In fact, the New Testament is explicit and exact in comparison with the Old Testament. There is no difference at all. Teaching on both of these kinds of giving...required and free will is clear in the New Testament.
Now let me say at this point just by way of a footnote. I know that this is new to some of you who perhaps were raised in a church or been in a church where they hammered on tithing and they said that the way Christians are to give is to give ten percent because that's the way the Jews give. I know that that is something that is taught commonly. That is not what the Bible teaches. The Bible does not teach the Jews gave ten percent. As I pointed out it teaches that they gave about 25 percent. It was not their giving to God, it was their payment to the theocracy, to the government. It had to be brought into the temple treasury and not to bring it was to rob God, according to Malachi 3:8, of His due tithes and offerings. That was taxation. I know that that is perhaps new to some of you but that is clearly what the Scripture teaches. It's what I've taught for many, many, many years, we just haven't been able to cover it recently. But it is clearly what the Scripture teaches as you saw last time. If you didn't get to come last time, pick up the tape and it will be of help to you.
So let's continue to see if this stands up in the New Testament. As we come to the New Testament we find two kinds of giving, again just two. There is required giving and free-will giving. What does the New Testament say, let's say, about required giving first of all? What does it say in the New Testament about paying taxes? Is that a New Testament issue?
The answer, it is absolutely an issue. And when you come into the New Testament and you come into the gospels and you come into the life of Christ, you realize that the Jews are still living in a theocracy. They have the temple. The Levites basically run the operation of the nation. Those people who have all the political power are religious people. They are Pharisees, they are Sadducees. They are the people who lead in all areas of life and so they are funded by the typical taxation system that's still is in place given by Moses which we have delineated to you. They had to pay their taxes to run their nation. The temple ground itself had a courtyard and on the wall of that courtyard were thirteen trumpet-shaped receptacles into which the people dropped their taxes. They were careful to do that as their duty and responsibility to the government. And so they were paying taxes. The taxation system as ordained in Moses was still in place.
Now in addition to that they had been burdened with even greater taxation because they were under Roman occupation. The Romans came in, as you know, and occupied the land of Israel and exacted further taxes from the Jews...exorbitant taxes which they despised and hated. And, of course, that was one reason why they had such animosity toward Rome. That gave rise to a group called the Zealots who went around stabbing Romans clandestinely, some sort of terrorists. Taxation was what they hated and despised as much as anything.
The Romans also conscripted Jews to be their tax collectors. And they would collect whatever Rome required and anything else they could collect went into their own pockets and so they became corrupt and took from the people what was not even rightly theirs. So the people were under a heavy burden of taxation in the land of Israel and it well could have been that some would expect Jesus would come in and say...Hey, you guys need to have a tax revolt, you need to go stab all of the tax collectors and you need to throw off this yoke of Roman taxation...etc., etc. But Jesus never ever said anything even remotely close to that, never even commented on whether taxation was fair or unfair. Never involved Himself in that at all. What He did teach was pay your taxes. He upheld the Old Testament requirement.
For example, listen to these words. "And when they had come to Capernaum, those who collected the two drachma tax came to Peter and said, `Does your teacher not pay the two drachma tax?'" Being a reference to Jesus he asks Peter...Does Jesus pay His tax? And he said yes. That's very important. Jesus paid His taxes.
Well later on when they came into a house, Jesus starts up a conversation with Peter. And He says to him, "From whom do the kings of the earth collect customs, or taxes? From their sons or from strangers?" Well, of course, Peter answered from strangers, because everybody knew that no king taxed his own kids. You got around that some way. No king took tax from his own children. He taxed somebody outside his own family.
And what Jesus was saying was in a measure from one perspective I shouldn't have to pay taxes since the King who ordained this is My Father. Since I'm a child of the King, and frankly, Peter, you're a child of the King and all of these disciples are children of the King, we really shouldn't have to pay taxes that have been ordained by the King. It's a good reminder that God ordained the taxation system. That is exactly what Jesus is implying here. And He's saying theoretically, on the human standard, you wouldn't expect that we would have to pay taxes to our own Father who is behind all human government. Romans 13 says government is ordained by God. But, Jesus said, "Lest we give them offense, lest we offend them, we must pay our taxes." And then I love how He did it, He says, "Go to the sea and throw in a hook and the first fish that comes up, when you open its mouth you'll find the tax payment." That's Matthew 17 verses 24 to 27, "Take that and give it to them for you and Me." That will cover us, Peter.
Jesus said we have to pay our taxes. But He certainly had a novel way of getting what He needed. If that was the way we were still doing it, around April 1 the coasts of California would be fairly occupied. It doesn't happen that way anymore, but the point being Jesus paid His taxes and had Peter pay his as well.
Now the point of the passage is simply to say that. Jesus paid His taxes. We have another passage in Matthew chapter 22 which I find interesting as well. Verses 15 to 22 of Matthew 22 says, "Then the Pharisees went and counseled together how they might trap Him in what He said." They were always trying to do this, to trap Jesus in His words, always trying to do it in a public place so that somehow He would incriminate Himself publicly and people would hear it and it would start some kind of a reaction that would bring Him down. They spent...well they spent endless hours trying to figure up the questions that would do this and they never succeeded at it. So they come and they're going to try to trap Him.
They send their disciples to Him, along with the Herodians, so you've got the Pharisees and the Herodians, you've got the people who are the religious leaders, you've got the political leaders there. And they say to Him, and this is very condescending, "Teacher, we know that You are truthful and teach the way of God in truth and defer to no one." You know, this is just...just sort of saccharine flattery that is not from the heart at all. They say, "We know that You have all the answers, tell us therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to give a tax to Caesar or not?" Should we pay our Roman taxes or not?
Now, if Jesus says, "Pay your Roman taxes," the Jews immediately would be down on him as a pro-Roman traitor. If He said, "Don't pay your taxes," the Romans would be after Him for being an insurrectionist and breaking the law. So the Jews were sure that they had Him between a rock and a hard place. The text of Matthew 22 says Jesus perceived their malice or their evil. And He said, "Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites? Show Me the coin used for the tax." And they brought Him a denarius which is what the Romans required as the coinage of the poll tax, which was a tax that every individual had to pay ever year. "And He said to them...Whose likeness and inscription is this?...And they said to Him... Caesar's." Caesar's face was pressed on the coins. And then He said to them, "Then give Caesar the things that are Caesar's and God the things that are God's." That is an absolutely crucial statement. What Jesus was saying was pay your taxes and give to God. He was upholding the same two things. Required giving, you give Caesar what Caesar demands, and you give God what God asks for. Give Caesar what is his, give God what is His. "And after hearing this they marveled and leaving Him they went away."
Now in Matthew 23 we have another reference to this matter of taxation, this required giving. Jesus called the Pharisees hypocrites, by the way, for the fifth time in Matthew 23:23 and He still had three more to go. But in verse 23 He says to them, "You pay tithe and you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin." What he's talking about here are little things, seeds. And you remember in the Mosaic Law they were required to give a tenth of all their seed, remember that? And He's saying you do that, you pay your tithe of all your seed, you're to give one out of ten to the Levites, to the priests, and you've done that. And then He says, "But you have omitted the weightier matters of the Law like judgment, mercy and faith." Now mark it, Jesus did not criticize them for paying that tithe. In fact, He simply stated that they did it and in a sense it is a commendation. You're doing that right, but what you're not doing right is far more weighty. Jesus acknowledged that it was right for them to pay the tax on their seeds. But they ignored the things that really mattered, that's why He calls them hypocrites.
There's only one other mention of tithing in the gospels, only one and it's in Luke 18. And there the hypocritical Pharisee is boasting, you remember the publican is beating on his chest saying, "God be merciful to me, a sinner." But the hypocritical Pharisee is boasting and he says, "I fast twice every week and I give tithes of all that I possess."
Now paying your taxes isn't anything to boast about, it's only what you're supposed to do. But he was affirming that he was still paying his tithes, paying his taxes. That wasn't wrong. There wasn't anything wrong with that. There really isn't anything wrong with fasting. Fasting is a right thing as well. Praying is a right thing. What was wrong with that man was that he assumed that in the doing of these things he had gained salvation.
Now listen, after the gospels which referred to the taxation in Israel and under the Romans, there is no further mention of tithing except one reference in Hebrews chapter 7...and you don't need to turn to it. In Hebrews 7 the statement is made that Abraham gave a tithe to Melchizedek. You remember that story, how that Abraham meeting Melchizedek who is a priest of the Most High God, Abraham coming back from having defeated five kings and having all this booty and all this loot that he had gained in that battle and God had given him the victory, wanted to express his thanks to God and so he gave a tenth of the top of the heap, a tenth of the best to Melchizedek. In Hebrews 7 there is merely a reference to that historical event. It is not a directive. It is not a command. It is not instruction for the church. It is simply a recollection of an Old Testament event and the writer uses it to make a very important point with regard to the priesthood of Jesus Christ. It has nothing to do with tithing. The point he's making relates to the priesthood of Christ who is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. So between the gospel mentioning of tithes which were related to the Jews giving their seeds and all those things, and the mention of a tithe in the book of Hebrews which is merely a recollection of a historical event, there is no instruction about tithing. The church is never told to tithe. Christians are never told to tithe. Why? Because tithing has never been giving to God, it has always been...what?...taxation.
You say, "Well does the New Testament say anything then about taxation?" Yes, Romans 13, "Let every soul be subject to the higher powers for there is no power but of God, the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever resists the power resists the ordinance of God...that's government...for this cause pay you tribute also, for they are God's ministers." Or put it this way in the New American Standard, "Pay taxes for rulers are servants of God." God-ordained government. Pay your taxes to support God-ordained government. "Render therefore to all their dues, tribute to whom tribute is due, tax to whom tax is due, custom to whom custom is due, honor to whom honor is due...pay your taxes." Pay your taxes. That is required giving, the New Testament demands that. Submit yourselves, 1 Peter 2:13, for the Lord's sake to every human institution, to the king as one in authority, to governors as sent by Him for the punishment for evil doers and the praise of those who do right. Pay your taxes. State tax, federal tax, sales tax, inheritance tax, capital gains tax, whatever tax...you pay your taxes, that's required giving. And we as Christians should be the most cooperative of all in this because we are not just under government mandate, we are under divine mandate. That is required giving, pay your taxes.
Now what about free-will giving? What does the New Testament say about free-will giving? It says given amounts are personally determined. Give whatever you want. Look at chapter 9 verse 6 of 2 Corinthians, here's how to give, "He who sows sparingly will reap sparingly, he who sows bountifully will reap bountifully. Let each one do just as he has purposed in his heart." You give whatever you want realizing that whatever you sow is what you're going to harvest. Give and it shall be given unto you. You can't out give God. All of those principles that we have given.
Luke 19 has got to be one of the most humorous stories in the Bible. It's the story about Zaccheus the short little guy who was the regional head of the tax collectors. He wasn't just a local Jericho tax collector, he was the chief among the tax collectors. And being a tax collector was the kiss of death. Being a publican meant you were an outcast from your own people, a traitor of the worst ilk, hated by your own countrymen, exacting taxation for the Romans and beyond that and using all the Roman force and the Roman sword, as it were, to rob your own people. Zaccheus had gotten rich by overtaxing his people.
He was curious about Jesus. Heard that Jesus was coming through town one day. And he wanted to see him so he was down there to see him but there was a huge crowd and he was a little short guy and so he climbed up a tree...as sort of a turn of a sacrifice of dignity, I imagine, to be hanging out of a tree when you're the regional tax collector and you really would rather be inconspicuous, than conspicuous, so he was probably hiding behind some leaves if he could. And as Jesus came along He looks up at Zaccheus and says, "Zaccheus, hurry up and get down out of that tree, I'm coming to your house." Oh, what a shock. All he wanted to do out of curiosity was see Jesus.
He went to Zaccheus' house, you remember, they had a great time. And Zaccheus put his trust in Jesus Christ as his Lord and his Savior and immediately after that, here's what he said, "Behold, half of my goods I give to the poor." Now immediately this converted man became a fifty-percent giver. Now that's my kind of giver, a fifty-percent giver that fast, the same day. I suppose Jesus could have said, "I don't think you understand, we only require ten percent." Jesus didn't say that. Jesus never gave him any prescription at all, never restricted him, didn't say...Hey, hang on to the forty, Zaccheus, not necessary. Zaccheus gave fifty percent of everything he had. And Jesus could have stopped him but He didn't. He would have robbed Zaccheus of the sowing bountifully principle and therefore reaping bountifully.
And then he went further, he said, "If I have taken anything from any man falsely, I'll pay it back four fold, four hundred percent. I'll pay it back four times." The point is giving is spontaneous, it is whatever you want to do in your heart, it is out of love and gratitude, not out of law. It has nothing to do with the tithe and the taxation system. In fact, Jesus Himself becomes the example of New Testament giving in verse 9 of our text which we'll look at in our next study, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that He was rich yet for your sakes He became poor." Now I'll tell you, if you're rich and you become poor, you're giving more than ten percent. He gave everything, that you through His poverty might become rich. He was rich, He became poor that you might become rich and then the Father gave Him all of everything. So He became rich again as well. That's how God works. That's the pattern, we'll get into that when we look at that verse.
So the amount is up to you. Whatever you purpose in your heart, whatever you desire to give, whatever you want to give voluntarily, generously, sacrificially, proportionately, that's the way you give. Now let's sum it up. The giving of the Macedonians was initiated by grace, transcended difficult circumstances, was with joy, not hindered by poverty, generous, proportionate, sacrificial and voluntary...that is the way we are to give.
Now I'm not done. Quickly we're going to finish this, listen carefully. We come to a ninth point, giving was viewed as privilege not obligation...giving was viewed as privilege not obligation. Look at verse 4. This is a wonderful reality. He says of the Macedonians, they were begging us with much entreaty for the favor of participation in the support of the saints. Now there's some wonderful words in that verse, giving us the main point...begging, a very strong word, a very pleading word, it's used in Luke 8:28 of the words of the demoniac who was pleading with Jesus, twice it's used of him. It's used elsewhere in the New Testament to speak of strong pleading. So the Macedonians are pleading and begging. As if that's not enough he adds, "With much entreaty," that's the word for exhortation, with much exhortation, with much importunity, with much aggressiveness. Literally it's the word "coming alongside earnestly, begging for the opportunity." And what are they begging for? For the favor, that's the word charis, the word grace, for the favor of participation, that's the word koinonia, the word fellowship. So these people are pleading with much exhortation to the Apostle for the special grace of being able to have fellowship by supporting the saints.
You know what they're doing? They're begging for the privilege of giving, for the charis, for the blessing, the grace, the benediction of being partners sharing in the support of the saints. The word support, diakonia, the ministry of the saints. They viewed giving as a privilege, not an obligation. They viewed giving as a way to express their generosity on behalf of the fellowship, their love of the brotherhood that they'd never even met. They viewed giving as a way to be partners in a shared life. They viewed giving as a way to express grace and blessing and to receive it in return from God. Giving was a way to support the ministry. So they were literally begging for the personal blessing of sharing in the needs of the saints they had never met, not because of any other thing than their generous hearts. That's just the way they were. They were devout Christians and giving is the behavior of devout Christians...no reluctance, no resistance, no lack of joy. They were willing to give, eager to give, they gave hilariously, as they are defined in chapter 7 verse...or chapter 9 verse 7, God loves a cheerful or a hilarious giver.
Now you know your heart is r