INTRODUCTION:
For many Christians, the practical issues surrounding money are a real headache. There are questions about acquiring it, about managing it, and about giving it away. But we are not left without instruction—we are to tithe, give, manage, provide, and enjoy.
THE TEXT:
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matt. 6: 19-24).
OVERVIEW:
Jesus teaches us that His followers must not be graspers. They are not to be all about acquisition. Do not lay up earthly treasures (v.19). You are putting your treasure in an insecure place. Rather, lay up treasure in heaven—the most secure investment possible (v. 20). Jesus tells us that our heart will be wherever our treasure is (v. 21). From this we can tell where our treasure is—where the heart is. The next expression “if your eye is single” is a Hebrew idiom for “if you are generous.” If you are generous, your whole life is blessed (v. 22). Having an evil eye meant that you were miserly. If you are a miser and a tightwad—how great is the darkness (v. 23). The issue is mastery, possession. God must be your master, and your money must be a fellow servant, along with you
THE FIRST MEASURE:
Begin with the tithe, God’s tax. The tithe is not extortion money paid to God, so that you get to keep ninety percent. Rather, it is tribute money, demonstrating that you understand that He really is the possessor of all of it. The tithe is rendered as your way of saying that you understand yourself to be simply a steward of the remainder.
Some wonder about the tithe in the times of the New Covenant. First, we believe that the Old Testament is binding unless the New Testament says that it isn’t—as we see, for example, with animal sacrifices. But if a biblical principle is not fulfilled in the New, then our operating assumption is that it continues. But for those who find this insufficient, demanding that a practice must be explicitly taught in the New for Christians to be bound to it, let us consider 1 Corinthians 9:13-14. The Old Testament priests lived off the tithe, and St. Paul requires that those who preach the gospel should live in the same way.
But to conclude this point, let me commend you, the saints of Christ Church, as a tithing congregation. If you take our church’s annual budget, multiply it by ten, that should give you the total amount earned by our families. Divide that number by the number of our households, and that should give you the average annual salary—which, if it came out as 6K a year, would indicate a big spiritual problem. But the budget of our church indicates very clearly a tithing church. The only exhortation here is to “do so more and more” (1 Thess. 4:10).
A SECOND MEASURE:
The Bible links the first table of the law to the second. How can we say we love God, whom we have not seen, if we don’t love our neighbor, whom we have seen (1 Jn. 4:20)? In our text, Jesus mentions the need for personal generosity. That would include donations of time, work, money, gifts, advice. All of these are ways of giving yourself away. As God has given to us (freely), and we have returned it to Him (freely), let us also be generous to those assigned by God to us in that noble office of “neighbor.” Is the first instinct to hoard? Is the first instinct to say no? Is the first instinct
The second and third must go together, and they must go together in this order—generous and then shrewd. Not shrewd and then stingy. The right kind of shrewdness is demonstrated in an understanding of the source of God’s blessing, and wisdom in the management of it. You give to get, in order to be able to give again. A foolish man can be “generous” if he drives down the road, throwing money out the window. But that is not true generosity. “Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds” (Prov. 27:23). Put this another way—know the value and importance of what you are giving away, and give it away anyway. As John Wesley put it once, “Earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can.”
A FOURTH MEASURE:
We want to provide for our own, and then be generous with whatever is left over. This is backwards. You are to be generous in such a way that you are more than able to provide for those that God has given you responsibility for. Yes, you must provide, and to not do so is to be worse than an infidel (1 Tim. 5:8). But what do I mean—in such a way? Seek first the kingdom and all these things will be added to you (Matt. 6:33). And you should prayerfuly consider that this encompasses more than just next month’s rent. “A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just” (Prov. 13:22).
AND LAST . . .
Enjoy
yourself. God gave you this wealth so that you would enjoy it (1 Tim. 6:17). The idolater has enough food but no taste buds. “But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day” (Dt. 8:17). “And there ye shall eat before the LORD your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the LORD thy God hath blessed thee” (Dt. 12:7). “Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee (Dt. 28:47-48).