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What the Bible says about Christian Giving

We are speaking about Christian Giving rather than Stewardship as a whole. The terms Christian Giving and Stewardship of Money mean the same thing.

“Everything in heaven and on earth is yours. All things come from you, and of your own do we give you.”(1 Chronicles 29:11 and Common Worship)

From this well-known extract from the offertory prayer in the Common Worship Communion service, we gain the notion of giving back to God, a part of what was His in the first place. It is thus a very special Giving process we are describing.

Two principles apply to this special form of Giving:

The Creationist principle

God our Father created us, gives us infinite love and everything to enjoy our life on earth. (1 Corinthians 8:6, Psalm 24:1). We are giving back to God in recognition of his creation of everything on this earth for us.

The Redemptionist principle

His greatest gift is Jesus Christ who in turn gave himself for us, fully and completely. (John 3:16, Galatians 2:20). Our Giving should reflect Jesus’ giving of himself for us.

God's generosity and infinite love are the two major motivating factors which should be uppermost in our minds at all times in our prayers about giving. St Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 8 that the Macedonians gave themselves first to the Lord in their collection for the church in Jerusalem. By committing themselves to Christ they showed their generosity to the full.

We respond to Christ's gospel in worship, mission and Christian service, with love for our Father. What we give is given with joy and generosity in return for the infinite love he gives us. As money is such an important part of our lives, Jesus should reign as much in our pockets as in our hearts, in our financial planning as well as in the rest of our daily lives.

His love demands our all. Remember the hymn When I survey the wondrous cross by Isaac Watts, last verse Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. Clearly this is a theoretical ideal. What we give is a token which represents our all. This token will differ according to our means: it isn't however a percentage like a tax. God is not a taxman.

The Old Testament teaching is based on the tithe, or 10% of our gross income. The General Synod of the Church of England recommends that we give 5% of our income. While these are both good guidelines, they are useful as a means of measuring our giving.

In summary

  • we are giving back to God money which he gave us in the first place to steward:
  • we are giving an amount worthy of our income and possessions:
  • we are giving for very good theological reasons, to build Christ’s Kingdom on earth;
  • Giving of money back to God has a very definite priority in the calls on our purse;
  • Prayer is an absolutely essential part of the giving process. God understands all our financial worries, and he is there to straighten us out in this as much as any other aspect of our Christian lives;
  • The tithe is a good check to see that we have got it about right;
  • God through his grace has been generous to us in his infinite and continuing love: we have to learn to be generous to him in return. Grace and generosity are two words for the same thing.

Giving joyfully

St Paul said “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7). When you give a nice present to someone it is refreshing to sit back and see him or her enjoy it. When you give God a present how much more pleasant a task, to express our gratitude to our Creator and Redeemer. There is a certain sense that you can be free of the worries of money if you are generous, and who better to be generous to than our maker? For it is our maker who is the most cheerful and generous giver of all, and we as His disciples should always be trying to emulate Him.

Further biblical help can be found in

"If you are eager to give, God will accept your gift on the basis of what you have, not on what you haven't."

2 Corinthians 8: 12

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