Welcome back again to the third and final part of our series on the topic of money, tithing and giving; specifically the New Covenant perspective on these topics, because it is so very important to actually have the proper spiritual perspective in all things – including money, that it was time to look at them honestly with fresh lenses and firmly on the solid foundation of Grace in Christ Jesus and the freedom which He has given to us.
In the previous two parts of this series, we first saw that money in-and-of-itself is not evil – and we also saw that our Heavenly Father is a generous giver who actually enjoys blessing us in every area, including our finances. He wants us to be healthy and wealthy; not only so that we can have pleasure enjoying the life that He has given to us (which He does want us to enjoy) but also so that we will have health and wealth to be generous with and share the love and blessings of Christ with others as well, as His ambassadors.
Then in the second part, we examined tithing, and saw that the old customs and Old Covenant system have been done away with in Christ, as He is the ultimate sacrifice, payment and tithe.
Now today we will complete this series by looking at true New Covenant giving, founded on the finished work of Christ. Giving freely, based on His love, and your new identity in Him.
The Foundation of Giving
As we begin today, it’s important to keep in-mind the foundational truths that we have learned previously in this series – namely that money is not evil, and that financial prosperity is a blessing and gift from God your Father. If we do not understand this, than giving will never truly be possible, because it will proceed from the wrong foundation (such as giving to get, or as some kind of sacrifice or payment, or to prove your love for God, etc.)
Put simply, God simply blesses us financially (as with every other blessing) purely because of His love for us, with no strings or conditions attached, other than to be in Christ (Matthew 6:33, Romans 8:32); in other words, receive His sacrifice, and your new identity in Him, and everything else comes with it.
The reason why this truth is so fundamental, is because this is the truth that truly enables us to be freely generous just as God Himself is.
The idea here is that you cannot be truly and honestly generous if you are conscious of and focused on your own lack and need, rather than the provision of our Heavenly Father in Christ Jesus.
The enemy will always try to tell us that we do not have enough; we need more; we simply cannot afford to give, and there are a lot of false doctrines in the world today that actually take advantage of this fear and consciousness of lack that many people have – telling people that if they give, they will get more in return… and that actually twists true generosity into a tool for gain.
This is one of the reasons why we are looking at the New Covenant perspective on giving today, because the actual spirit of giving in Christ is far too often being replaced by a fear and needs-based works system that ends up not being giving at all… and it’s all based on wrong beliefs and a failure to perceive the actual generosity and provision of God.
A very good example of this principle is found in 2nd Corinthians chapters 8 and 9.
So let’s begin by first reading 2nd Corinthians 8:1-5:
“Moreover, brothers, we do tell you of the grace of God bestowed on the assemblies of Macedonia;
How that in a great experience of pressure, the abundance of their joy even during deep poverty, abounded to the riches of their generosity.
For to their power, I bear record, yes, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves;
Praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift, and take on us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.
And this they did, not as we expected, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and to us by the will of God.”
What we can see here is that Paul is writing to the believers in Corinth, to tell them about what is going on in the assemblies of Macedonia, and notice what he mentions in verse 2: that they were currently experiencing a lot of worldly pressure – negative experiences (some translations say “trials or tests of affliction; but a more accurate rendering is experience of pressure).
Yet even though they were experiencing all of that pressure, they the abundance of their joy even during their deep poverty, abounded (or overflowed) to the riches of their generosity!
Stop and consider exactly what is being described here. At that time, they were very poor; in deep poverty, yet they still had an abundance of joy! Why? Because they were not focused on the outward appearance of their circumstances, but they were in-fact focused on Christ and His finished work.
It may seem overly simplistic, and if things are especially tough, it may seem outright stupid or foolish – but it works! It is vitally important for us to understand the principle that is being conveyed here.
The idea of New Covenant giving is not to be a bad steward or manager of your finances. Not at all. But New Covenant giving begins by recognizing the finished work of Christ.
How do I know this? Look at verse 5:
And this they did, not as we expected, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and to us by the will of God.
The focus here is not primarily on the amount that they gave, or even the type and nature of the gifts, but of the foundation from which the gifts came. We see that they first gave themselves to the Lord – as in, primarily; this was the primary thing, and then they gave to Paul and Timothy by the will of God.
This doesn’t mean that God ordered them to give, or that they were obeying some divine command, but rather that the action of their giving, and even their desire to give was in itself empowered by the will of God (Philippians 2:13). That is why it is credited as “the Grace of God” in verse 1, because that is exactly where such power comes from.
So we can see that yes, God does want us to give and be generous – and the key word there is give… true new covenant giving is not a payment, order, obligation, law, or command… it is a gift and it is enabled and empowered by Him, through the power of His Spirit, founded on the finished work of Jesus Christ and the blessings and provision that He gives.
You see, before we can give, we must first receive – that is, receive His gifts and blessings for us, personally, then we can give freely. (Matthew 10:8)
And again, this is all rooted on the blessing and abundance of Jesus Christ. Consider verses 8 through 10:
“I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the eagerness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love.
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty may be rich.
And herein I give my advice: for this is beneficial for you, who have begun before, not only to do, but also your desire a year ago.”
Notice what is being said here. Paul is saying in verse 8 that he is not speaking by commandment. Giving is not a command… again, this can not be overemphasized; it is so vital that we understand this point because it is essential to understanding the nature of giving.
But by the occasion of the eagerness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love. Now this is very important… Paul is not saying that we prove ourselves to God by giving – in-fact that would nullify the free-nature of giving again and turn it back into a work. Besides, we don’t need to prove anything to God anyway, He already knows our true nature; He knows the hidden motives and desires of our heart without any need of confirmation from us. (Psalms 44:21). So we are not proving anything to God by our giving.
Rather, what this is saying is that the Corinthian believers have an opportunity (especially considering what happened with the assembly of believers in Macedonia) to prove the love of Christ in the sight of men by their giving.
So we can see that it is not about proving something to God, but instead it is proving (or we could say “demonstrating”) the love of God to men.
Then, he immediately continues by focusing their attention back onto Christ and His finished work in verse 9, because this is where all true giving flows from.
Jesus’ Provision for Finances
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty may be rich.
Take a few moments here to meditate on what verse 9 is saying. Many people do not actually know this aspect of the grace of Jesus Christ – or worse, they have been indoctrinated against it by certain pastors and leaders.
Jesus was (and is now) rich in every way including material possessions (He literally owns everything, as we saw in part 1 of this study series). However, He became poor for your sake, with a specific purpose in mind: that you, through His poverty, may be rich.
Now there are a few things here for us to see… and again this is an aspect of the Grace of Jesus in the New Covenant that many people do not know or see: Who is the recipient in these statements? It is you.
What happened? Jesus gave up His riches and became poor for you.
What is the intended result? That you through His poverty, may be rich.
And notice that this happens though His poverty. The entire reason that you can be rich today, is specifically because of this provision of His sacrifice. Always remember that everything that happened to Jesus during His suffering and death on the cross, contains a specific blessing and provision for you. It is either providing you with something good, or removing something evil from you (and sometimes both) – and finances and money have not been forgotten by Jesus either.
And please don’t get tripped-up by the phrasing at the end of the verse either: (may be / might be rich), because it is not casting a shade of doubt on your provision – not at all. The wording is instead pointing to the fact that because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you being rich is now allowed and possible; it now may be so – whereas without His sacrifice, it would not be.
Now some try to say that this is referring to spiritual riches exclusively, and physical wealth is not included here, however that is simply not the case, because the Greek for the phrase “may be rich” is one single Greek word πλουτέω (plouteō), which carries the meaning of “outwardly rich with physical wealth and possessions” – and while it is sometimes used as a metaphor, that is clearly not the context of its usage here, because the entire context of these verses (and indeed the entire chapter and the next) is about physical material wealth and finances in relation to giving and receiving. So the only way that someone could spiritualize this verse and strip it of its physical-meaning would be to completely rip it out of its proper context.
So the entire foundation of New Covenant giving is rooted in the sacrifice of Christ (obviously) and is solidified by our understanding that Jesus has made provision for us (including financially) and thereby we can indeed give generously and honestly without fear. This makes even more sense if we consider that it is impossible to honestly give if you owe a debt. Think of it. If you owe a debt to someone, and you refuse to repay them, but you are constantly giving money to others or using it for other purposes, you aren’t really “giving” money at all because that money never belonged to you, you just gave away money that was owed to someone else; and the scripture says behaving that way is evil (Psalms 37:21, Proverbs 3:27-28, Ecclesiastes 5:5, Romans 13:7-8).
Likewise, we are completely bankrupt apart from Christ Jesus, and the only way we even have the capacity to give at all, and demonstrate any kind of genuine love, is to first receive from God through the sacrifice of Christ; then we are free and able to give.
The Order and Recipients of our Giving
Who then should we give to? If you listen to the many pastors and leaders out there today, they will direct all giving (as well as their mandatory pseudo-tithes) to their own “churches” (and by that, they mean themselves and their organizations) – and they say that this is “giving to God”. However it may indeed surprise you that the recipients of giving in the scriptures are somewhat different.
In the scriptures, there is a certain order to the recipients of our giving, and first and foremost in that order is: your own household / family.
Before we can even give to anyone in any fashion, we are first charged with providing for our own household and family according to 1st Timothy 5:8:
“But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.”
So the first group for us to give and provide for is actually our own family – I’m willing to bet that at least some of you were just surprised by this.
After this, guess who is next on our giving list… if you said everyone else, then you are correct!
This includes:
- The poor in general (Proverbs 21:13, 28:27, et al.)
- Other fellow believers (Romans 15:26-27, 1st Corinthians 16:1-3)
- Teachers and leaders who teach correctly (the Gospel) (1st Timothy 5:17-18)
- Anyone else you are led to give to (Acts 2:45, 4:34, Luke 6:30)
If I could’ve found something that starts with the letter L, I could’ve made it spell out TOTAL in an acronym… but oh well! The key point here is that all of these things are empowered by the Spirit of God and the New Covenant of Grace, and they are all free-will gifts. If someone is pressuring you to give, or demanding something, then that is a major red-flag right there! If a pastor or leader ever tells you that you will be cursed for not tithing, or not giving, or that you cannot serve unless you pay a certain amount, run from that place!
The New Covenant Giving Principle
Quite simply the general principle for New Covenant free-will giving is 2nd Corinthians 9:6-12:
“But this I say, He which sows sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which sows bountifully shall reap also bountifully.
Every man according as he purposes in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loves a cheerful giver.
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:
(As it is written, He has dispersed abroad; he has given to the poor: his righteousness remains for ever.
Now he that ministers seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness;)
Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causes through us thanksgiving to God.
For the administration of this service not only supplies the want of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings to God.”
Now verse 6 here is often used by certain preachers to promote the “give to receive” doctrine. These are the ones who say things like “you sow your seed money, and God will cause you to reap a harvest of financial blessing!”, and so a bunch of people desperately in need to financial help, buy into that teaching and drop their last few coins into the collection plate of those pastors. But again, that teaching totally ignores the surrounding verses, so let’s look at it all now.
We have already seen, both earlier in this study today and in the previous parts of this series, that God blesses us financially without any preconditions other than our acceptance of His free gift; it is part of the finished work of Christ for all those who receive it.
And one of the first principles of scripture interpretation is to not let a confusing or difficult verse obscure an obvious truth that you have already seen in scripture. Paul is not contradicting himself or any other scripture here – He is not saying that your financial blessing is dependent on you sowing financial seeds – that would make the entire thing dependent upon your works, instead of the work and provision of Christ.
Instead what He is saying is that just as with the previous chapter, this is all in the context of men. Actions and demonstrations of Christ’s love and Grace that people can see… and verse 6 here is no different, as we will read in a moment.
What verse 6 is NOT saying: If you don’t give very much, God won’t give you very much.
Again, that is what most people think it is saying, and that is a merit-based idea that just doesn’t stand up to the truth of Grace in Christ Jesus.
What verse 6 IS saying: If you don’t plant many seeds with people, you won’t see much return on that investment with them.
As always, you do not need to take my word for any of this, it is made plainly clear further down in the chapter. Let’s continue reading…
In verse 7, it is repeated again just so there is no misunderstanding that every man should give as he decides in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity. Why? Because God loves a cheerful giver. If you are forced to give, then it is not even really a gift. And if you give because you are trying to “sow seeds” to “reap a big harvest” then you are really doing it of necessity, and it is equally dead. To really give cheerfully, it must be completely free-will and based on the blessings of Jesus Christ, as mentioned in verses 8-10:
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:
(As it is written, He hath dispersed abroad; He has given to the poor: His righteousness remains forever.
Now He that ministers seed to the sower, both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness;)
Paul is again reminding them (and us)of where their supply of all things (including finances) comes from… it is God; not their own efforts to sow and reap.
And the original Greek, the word “is” is not actually there, it is simply written as a statement of fact that God is constantly supplying us Grace for every single area of our life, and that His Grace is sufficient for us to be able to accomplish and be well-equipped in any good deed that the Spirit leads us to. – whether that is giving financially, or giving time or manual labor, or encouraging someone… whatever it may be.
Let that truth sink in, because it’s an amazing one!
Then, once again being reminded where our supply comes from, verses 11 and 12 explain what this sowing and reaping is really talking about:
“Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causes through us thanksgiving to God.
For the administration of this service not only supplies the want of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings to God.”
The focus here is not sowing money to reap money. As we can now plainly see, we sow Christ into the hearts and minds of people… we sow His Gospel, the truth of His Grace; and when led to, we demonstrate that with gifts of money, time, lending a helping hand or an open ear – however the Spirit of God directs, and what do we reap in return? We get to rejoice as we see those seeds sprout in the people, resulting in pure, genuine thanks to God!
Conclusion
So as we close this study today, and bring an end to our series on the New Covenant perspective on money, tithing and giving, let’s briefly summarize what we have learned:
Money is not evil, in-fact prosperity of every kind (including financial prosperity) is a blessing from God. The kind of financial prosperity that does not have a side-effect of pressure and stress and strife, and His blessings are durable, meaning that they do not wear out. We saw all of this in part one.
Then in part two, we examined tithing, what it is, what it’s true purpose was, and how the modern idea and practice of tithing really has no scriptural leg to stand on. We saw how tithing was never a free-will gift, and how it was never even money. And We saw how Abram did not really tithe in the biblical sense of the word, but only from his war bounty, and how Jesus brought an end to the tithing law along with the rest of the Old Covenant, by being the final payment, offering and sacrifice once and for all.
And finally today we learned what true New Covenant giving is about. How unlike tithing, new covenant giving is entirely voluntary, and rooted in the finished work of Jesus Christ. We looked at a few examples of this from the scriptures, and how it was more than sufficient to supply for the poor, the ministers and teachers, and indeed everyone else. And it’s all because of God’s generosity.
Friend, I sincerely hope that this series has encouraged you in the finished work of Christ, and allowed you to receive more of His Grace and Truth regarding money, and giving in the New Covenant. And now free from the bondage of financial legalism, you can receive and then by extension demonstrate, the generosity of Jesus Christ, as the Spirit empowers you, freely, and honestly.
Be blessed.