Americans consider themselves to be the most generous people in the world. Look at the amount we give annually to a wide variety of charities (churches, ministries, hospitals, colleges, libraries, etc). In 2007, that amount exceeded $300 billion US, including our response to disasters such as earthquakes, fires, floods, and other calamities. But how do we measure our generosity?
As followers of Jesus, the appropriate measurement is to apply the biblical standard. The long accepted standard of giving among Christians has been the tithe. There is certainly much debate over this issue, citing law vs. grace arguments, legalism and salvation by works, and more angles than we can discuss here. If we start our discussion by considering Genesis 14:20, we find Abram gives a tithe (the word clearly means a tenth) of the spoils of his conquest to Melchizedek, the priest of the Most High God. Abram gave his offering freely with no demand made on him by Melchizedek or others. So we see the tithe as an appropriate gift to God even before the law was given to Moses. Later, the law was very specific about what was to be given to God and how property, possessions, and money were to be handled by the Israelites.
If we fast-forward to the Gospels, Jesus criticizes a Pharisee for his prayer that boasts of his attention to the tithe, while commending the tax collector who simply said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” (Luke 18:10-14) While we find no commendation of tithing in the New Testament, we continue to see one principle at work: generosity. Jesus commended the widow who gave all her money into the treasury at the Temple (Mark 12:41-44) and Paul uses the generosity of the Macedonians to challenge the Corinthians to fulfill their pledge to help the church in Jerusalem. (2 Corinthians 8:1-5) The rich fool loses his life because he refused to be “rich toward God” in Jesus’ parable (Luke 12:15-22).
For the purpose of this conversation, let’s agree that Christians are to give ten per cent of our income, Americans in general give 1.67% of their income to charity. Church members give 2.6%, primarily to their church as well as mission and para-church organizations. Emptytomb.org reports that $5.2 billion was given to overseas ministries in 2005 (see Mission Expenditures). According to the same report, $168 billion would have been added to the amount of money available for ministry at home and abroad. Why is there such a disparity between what we are called to do and our actions?
In future posts of Living Generously, I’ll talk about what I see as some of the causes of this shortfall and, hopefully, some sound steps to improve our lives by putting our trust in God to meet our needs, rather in the things we see around us.
Thanks for reading. Please give me your comments, since I know that I’m not the final authority on this topic at all. Let’s learn together as we will develop meaningful ministry approaches to help people fulfill their calling as stewards in God’s Kingdom.
