Jesus talked a lot about money (see Matt 6:1-4, Luke 18:18-30, Luke 12:13-21). Money is not evil in itself, but a love of money can easily breed greed, which causes people to act in their own self-interest and distracts Christians from helping others. We have to examine our attitudes to money carefully and be prepared to put our money where our mouth is!
Paul urged the Corinthians to give regularly, systematically and generously to help God’s people in need. Giving should be thought about before the bills (the Corinthians were urged to give on the first day of the week, not the last, a principle reinforced in the Old Testament teaching on ‘firstfruits’ – see Ex 23:14-16, Prov 3:9-10, Mal 3:9-12) and should be proportionate to one’s income (1 Cor 16:2, 2 Cor 8:12). Those who debate furiously about tithes (giving 10% of one’s income to God) often seem to want to give less than 10%, but the tithe is usually seen as the first step in giving, not the last! Our giving should not be motivated by pressure from others, but must be willing, given freely as part of our everyday worship (2 Cor 9:7). Manipulation and psychological pressure can often be used to ‘persuade’ people to give to charitable causes, but such things are no part of Biblical giving.
For those of us with responsibility in handling money, we need to do so with openness and integrity (1 Cor 16:3, 2 Cor 8:20-21). We are blessed at Goldthorpe in having a treasurer who is generous, scrupulous, capable and careful, and our thanks go to him for all the work he tirelessly puts in to this role. As a church, we seek to help those in need, supporting the local Salvation Army food bank each month and missionaries abroad. People’s generosity in giving towards the support of our Compassion child, Bedline, above and beyond their regular giving is phenomenal. We know that God is ‘no man’s debtor’ (see Job 41:11, Heb 6:10) and that we can never out-give God! (Mal 3:7-12) Let’s be prepared to give and thus reflect God’s heart of love for the poor, the hopeless, the homeless and the vulnerable.