A Guide to Biblical Giving

In the Gospels, an amazing one out of ten verses (288 in all) deal directly with the subject of money. People can give for many reasons – salving their conscience, making themselves look good, religious legalism and so on. But true Biblical giving can only come out of an understanding of the kingdom of God.

In this lesson David outlines three major points about giving:

First, if we do not have an understanding of God's purposes on earth and how we fit into them, we will never have a motivation for giving. And without giving, we will never be able to access God's provision.

Second, all of God's purposes on earth are based on the concept of giving. It is through the giving of our time and resources that his kingdom is extended.

Third, Every time of revival or renewal in the Old Testament was accompanied by an increase of giving or restoration of tithing.

Christians, like Jesus, are to be givers, not takers, but without a revelation of this in our hearts, our giving will be grudging and joyless, leaving us feeling we are being forced to give up what we need and what rightfully belongs to us.
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God established the tithe for two main reasons:

• First, to enable us to acknowledge that he is the rightful owner of everything we have, and
• Second, that all our wealth and prosperity comes from him.

If we acknowledge that God owns all we have, it is no longer a big issue to tithe.

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In this lesson, David outlines Three powerful truths about tithing:

The tithe is permanent, not temporary

One of the most common misconceptions about the tithe is that it originated in the Mosaic law, and is therefore now abolished along with that law (though in truth the law is not abolished but fulfilled in Christ. Nevertheless, the tithe did not originate with the Mosaic law at all. There is no evidence in the Bible that the tithe has been abolished for New Testament believers. (Even if we did take the position that the tithe was no longer applicable, we would have to acknowledge that the new covenant requirements on our finances, if anything, must be more profoundly all-encompassing than under the old covenant.)

The tithe originated with Christ, not Moses.

One could argue that the tithe originated with Christ himself. It was Melchizedek to whom Abraham, the father of believers in Christ. Melchizedek, then, the king of righteousness and of peace, is surely Christ himself. The application or use may be somewhat different under the new covenant (in that literal priests and Levites do not exist), in the same way its use was different in the days before Moses. But whatever the precise application may be, the tithe cannot be considered abolished under the new covenant, because it was not instituted under the old.

The tithe is thus linked with the power of an endless life.

If Melchizedek is indeed Christ, then from the beginning the tithe was meant to be presented to One who held within him the power of endless life.

Under the new covenant, though our tithe is presented literally to the leaders or deacons of the church, in reality it is presented to Christ, and is only stewarded by the church leadership. If we present our tithe to Christ, then Christ, as our High Priest, in turn presents it to the Father, and the Father will respond with blessing.

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In this lesson, David discusses Part 3: Breaking the Poverty Spirit

In 2 Corinthians 8-9, Paul deals with the crucial impact our attitude or mentality toward money has upon our giving. In this discussion, he gives some keys as to how not just our giving, but our finances in general, can be set free from the curse and come under the lordship of Christ. He sets the stage by reminding the Corinthians of the attitude of Christ, who “though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich”

This establishes the first significant point: God is a giver. God is a giver because he has no needs. We became rich because of what Christ gave to us. We are here as managers of wealth God has entrusted to us for a season, and we will at some point have to give account to him for our management of his property.

When God brings people into his kingdom, his desire is that they become like him.

Good managers will handle their master's finances the same way the master would - not by hoarding, but by giving, not by selfishness, but by generosity, not by accumulating, but by investing, not by focussing on enriching themselves, but on how they can use resource to further the kingdom.

Fallen human nature, on the other hand, operates out of a mentality of need. Even though God clearly told Adam and Eve that they had all they needed, they did not believe it. The serpent then suggested to Eve that she needed to take action to make up for this lack. At that moment, the poverty spirit entered the human race. No matter how much we have, it is never enough.

This establishes a second point: whereas God is a giver, fallen men and women are takers. No matter how much we have, rarely are we content with our present situation. A poverty spirit or mentality of need is never satisfied.

The difference between the person with a kingdom attitude and the person with a poverty spirit is summed up in this verse: “One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want” (Prov.

God wants a people who have moved from a mentality of need to an assurance of supply.

We can never learn to steward our finances the way God wants us to unless we have crossed this great divide between the poverty mentality and the assurance of God's supply.

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