Giving - Stewardship

The comments below accompany Chapter 19 of Batsell Barrett Baxter's book, The Family of God.  Although the chapter title varies from the previous four, the discussion is about giving as one of the five acts of Christian worship in which we participate on the first day of every week.

The church needs to teach the right attitude toward material things.  People who come to Christ from the world outside all too often have the wrong attitude.  Also, church members either drift in their thinking or have not seriously looked at where they stand--or where they should stand in Christ Jesus--regarding material posessions.  Matthew 6:19-33 is a great place to start on the study of stewardship.

In this chapter, Baxter shows that there are two basic attitudes.  The wrong one says my things are mine, bought and paid for with my effort, and I will see about giving some part back to God.  The right one says all things belong to God, and how I use them makes up a big part of my spiritual life.  Therefore I wll use a necessary portion while giving as I have prospered, as I am able, and as I joyfully make my plans to do (Psalm 24:1).

For just a moment, take stock of your image of a person who was faithful to God in the time when Jesus lived, or perhaps before that.  There are quite a few circumstances we tend to take in stride.  Yes, they gave one-tenth of everything they produced and everything they earned.  Yes, they made purchases for animal sacrifices to God.  Yes, they also made material sacrifices to join in the pilgrimages and observances of special days on the Jewish calendar.  Yes, they left their land idle one year out of seven.  Yes, they forgave debts.

If this is part of being faithful to God, where is its counterpart in Christianity?  If we look for an example in the early church, we see that what people had gathered or accumulated for themselves was no longer important to them, but the welfare of the church and those who were being helped by the church was important.  When I review those passages, the term esprit de corps comes to mind.  Followers of Christ were laying their trophies down, because of their excitement, joy, and convction that God had come in the flesh to guide them into all truth, and they were going there together, sharing all things, bearing one another's burdens, and providing for those in need.

This image is a far cry from begrudging a small amount for the contribution each week.  That in itself should teach us a lot about giving.  God loves a cheerful giver, as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 9:7.  In our spiritual growth, we need to understand the cheer in giving.  That is the path to the right attitude in stewardship.

So, we find that giving had its place in the activity of the early church, and as it compares to the material sacrifices made by God's people under the old covenant, it is worship to the Christian.  Even though much of what we read about giving in the church is in response to specific needs that arose, we can put together from scripture that giving should be periodic, personal, proportional, preventative, and purposeful.  That is a good framework that will keep our stewardship healthy.

Jesus made two statements that ring in our ears when we discuss stewardship and giving.  One is from His instructions to the disciples in Matthew 10:8, "Freely you received; freely give."  The other is from Luke 6:38 following the beatitudes, "Give and it will be given to you.  They will pour into your lap a good measure--pressed down, shaken together, and running over.  For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return."  The tone of these directive statements gives us the confidence that Jesus is looking for joyful generosity in His followers.

Baxter includes a few paragraphs carrying this spirit on through life and into the death and estate management of a Christian.  As we grow spiritually into the right attitude toward stewardship, this aspect of it will become clear to us.  Many people die having accumulated more than is needed for the care of themselves and their loved ones.  We must not forget the work of the church in this last aspect of our lives.

The discussion of stewardship can be expanded into many lessons.  Paul M. Tucker has done just that with a study book called Christian Stewardship.  It would be wonderful if Christians would submit to this instruction, and if young people in the church could understand its principles.  Yet, as with any number of problems the church faces, problems with attitudes toward material things can only be changed by teaching the truth and demonstrating that we care.  If we teach and learn these things, we will certainly be blessed in "good measure."