The Abundance of Giving

by John MacArthur

When you think about coming to church, what aspect do you look forward to the most?

For the sake of this discussion, let’s assume your answer is something spiritually noble—nothing vain or selfish like wanting people to see you dressed in your finest clothes, showing off a new car, or trying to sell goods or services to friends at church. Instead, let’s assume the best—that whatever it is you look forward to most is somehow related to ministry.

Some people might say the teaching keeps them coming back each week. Others would say the music. For some believers, it might be the deep relationships with other Christians they find through their churches—relationships that they can’t cultivate elsewhere. Others might just appreciate the temporary relief from the pressures of life, work, and the world.

But let me suggest something to you: If we really understand Scripture—particularly some specific promises from Jesus—the thing you should look forward to the most is the offering.

God’s Word clearly teaches that our giving is actually a direct pipeline to His blessings. In fact, two simple statements from the Lord ought to make every Christian eager and thrilled for opportunities to give. If Scripture had nothing else to say about giving—if it was only these two promises from Christ—it should still be enough to compel us to line up and give generously, abundantly, and sacrificially.   Continue at John F. MacArthur
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The New Testament Standard of Giving

Is a Christian required in the New Testament era to tithe – to give 10% of his or her income to the Lord’s work? Do the Old Testament commandments on tithing apply to New Testament Christians?

Blogging is a fascinating thing. Topics seem to run in cycles. A few years ago there were few topics more controversial and common among Baptist bloggers than tithing, but I can’t remember the last post I’ve seen on the subject. I guess we have been more focused on how churches are giving to the convention than how people are giving to their churches. We’ve hashed and rehashed soteriological issues ad infinitum. But the New Testament standard of giving has not been at the top of the hot topic list.

But, as a pastor, it is always at the top of my list. Sioux City does not exactly have a thriving economy and it has been several years since my church had to wonder what to do with the extra money we had left over after all our bills were paid. Every Sunday, just before I go home for lunch, I sneak a peak at our offering report to see if we get to keep the ship sailing another week. God has been good and has provided faithfully for us, but money is always a concern. Would that it were not so, but considerations of money and giving are never far from the front of my mind in this ministry.

So, I’d like to weigh in on this topic:

What is the New Testament standard for giving?   Continue at Dave Miller

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A Theology of Gift Giving

On Christmas day people all over the world will be exchanging presents.

There are two reasons for this:

It’s a cultural tradition within the human family.

It’s a symbolic picture of the Gospel within the Christian family.

Christmas is part of cultural tradition

It is not unusual for “cultural tradition” to be devoid of intentional, sustaining, and maybe even joy-filled relationships.

That’s not necessarily bad. There are a lot of things that I do culturally that are not motivated by or sustained by the idea or hope that I’m going to have a genuine relationship with someone.

You can’t build deeply with everyone, even though you can be nice to everyone. Sometimes traditional gift-giving is a way to honor one’s cultural tradition, even though the extent of your relationship with that person may only be wrapped up in the gift you give.

For example, it could be a formal carryover from their childhood experience. “It’s Christmas. We buy gifts. That’s what we do.”

Who knows? Maybe God will open a greater door in the future by your obedience to their cultural tradition. Paul certainly saw some wisdom in this kind of thinking:

Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble. – 1 Corinthians 8:13 (ESV)

Cultural gift-giving is not all bad. I want my children to enjoy their cultural Christmas experience with family and friends. However, I also want them to understand and enjoy the deeper and richer meaning of Christmas too.

It can be a challenge to communicate the deeper and richer meaning of Christmas when their little hearts are wrapped up in the idea of presents. I was the same way when I was a child.  Keep Reading >>>

Pastors and Tithing

I was recently asked by a church if Grace Church requires their pastors to practice tithing. This is my response to that email:

The word tithing means giving ten-percent of income to the church. I do not teach or practice that approach to money. I think that is based on a faulty understanding of the Old Testament practice, and creates and propagates a wrong understanding of God’s relationship to our money.

In the OT, the Israelites were living in a theocracy, and everything they owned really belonged to God. God drove that point home by making them revert their land sales and free their slaves every 50 years. Tithing in this system served as a form of taxation. While God owned everything, he required his people to fund the Levitical system (Levites were priests, and thus generally were not farmers, merchants, or shepherds) with a tithe collected annually (Deut 12:2-19; 14:22-29). Leviticus 27:30-32 reiterates this tithe, and applies to livestock as well.

In the NT, the tithe goes the way of the Levites and the temple curtain. As the Baker Bible Encyclopedia says, “Tithing is mentioned in the New Testament only critically.” The fact was, Pharisees loved the tithe, because it was easy to enforce, said nothing of the heart, and had little to do with actual love for God. Not only that, but religious leaders were the recipients of it, and in exchange all they paid was ten-percent (to themselves!).   Keep Reading >>>

Stewardship and Giving