This post is part 3 of 3 in our introduction series.
Part 1: Greed
Part 2: Learning Christian Contentment
Most people in our society tend to regard giving as a purely private business and approach it with the utmost care and the strictest calculation. Giving is an ideal opportunity to exercise self-control and constraint. It’s called “What’s mine is mine!”
Giving and contentment are two sides of the same coin. Together, they represent the positive alternative to greed. Like contentment, giving turns out to be far more central and significant to Christian living and identity and in the fight against greed. The greedy in the early church, were those who refused to “do good …. to those who are the household of faith” Galations 6:10. They were identified as those who refused to share their possessions. On the other hand, Christians became known for the way they shared their possessions with one another in the community. Acts 20:35b says “It is more blessed to give than to receive (or to keep)”. When we think of giving, it is usually in terms of money or charity or donations. In the early church, giving more often took in not just money, but possessions generally and was characterised more as hospitality. Hospitality consisted of personal expressions of Christian love to fellow believers – it included meeting the pressing physical needs of the local poor, strangers and travelling Christians and also providing somewhere for believers to meet and worship. The Greek word for “hospitality” literally means “love for the stranger”. Charitable giving as the proper response to God’s mercy was considered a mark of true spirituality. Generosity is a fruit of the spirit (Galatians 5:22 sometimes translated “kindness”) and liberal giving is a gift of the spirit (Romans 12:8). Paul’s appeal to the Corinthians shows a number of principles for giving emerging from his appeal. Christians ought to share their possessions generously, enthusiastically, deliberately and sensibly. (2 Corinthians 8 and 9) and “compete” in being generous. The earliest Christians regarded themselves in the first place as members of the body of Christ, and took for granted their obligations to support one another materially when necessary. Have we as Christians today drifted from this point of view? A rich Christian may not be a contradiction in terms, but a mean & greedy Christian certainly is.
Paul’s view of fundraising is that he describes our donations as a “grace or gift” which God has given to us. It’s impossible to have the “grace of giving” without reflecting the love of God. How much do we give? The answer is simple: Imitate Christ. Paul said: “ you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich”. (2 Corinthians 8:9) Paul come up with a helpful rule of thumb. In seeking to imitate Christ, it’s not the acts of Jesus so much as the spirit of Jesus that is all important. When Paul pleaded with the Corinthians to be generous with their money, he reminded them of the generosity of Christ who forsook his glory and became poor for us. It’s the mind of Christ that is crucial in this matter of giving. The challenge for us is to think like Jesus and as we meditate on the grace of Christ, we’ll give our lives to him.
Here are some practical ways to imitate Christ in our giving.
- Share our homes, hospitality, food, clothing and money with those in real need, whom God’s providence brings within our lives.
- Why not be generous to others as we are luxurious with ourselves? Don’t feel guilty about buying a nice bottle of wine or going out to dinner. Just match it with a gift to Australian Lutheran World Service or another Christian welfare charity.
- Whether we are conducting a business or developing a property or investing in shares, our primary aim and motive must never be to simply generate money, but rather to see how we can serve other people with the money God has put in our control.
- If we are landlords, in conducting our business with our tenants, we must not primarily aim to generate money out of them, but rather to serve them.
- If we are business owners or employers, our business must be conducted to confer benefit to our customers and employees.
- If we are directors of companies, we must not be primarily interested in the size of the profit for bonuses, but should be primarily concerned with the people that come into contact through the business.
The money under our control, or the property which we own, is simply that part of God’s creation that we have the responsibility for using. And we use it in accordance with the character of God, its creator. When we use money, it will bring us into contact with people. Our aim when we use money is to have the true concern and service for our neighbour, as Jesus did.
Prepared by Mel Zerner and adapted from the book “Beyond Greed” written by Brian Rossner who teaches New Testament and ethics at Moore Theological College.
Christian Money Management 