Joshua 13-15 | Luke 1:57-80

“Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” 2 Corinthians 9:7

When we consider our giving to the church, some may contend that we are no longer under the Old Testament Law that dictates to us how much we should give; rather, we are under the covenant of grace, where God is looking at the heart of the giver. Yet, when we study Jesus’s teachings and the early church, the covenant of grace goes beyond what is mandated under the Torah.

In the Gospels, Jesus visited the home of Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector who was very wealthy. When Zacchaeus experienced the covenant of grace, he declared, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount” (Luke 19:8). According to the Old Testament Law, Zacchaeus was only required to pay an additional 20% to those that he wronged and double those he robbed or stolen from. For Zacchaeus to say he will pay back four times the amount, that was twice as much as required. Seeing this, Jesus said, “Today salvation has come to this house…” (Luke 19:9). Jesus was not saying, “Today salvation has come to this house because this man is being generous.” Why? Because we cannot buy our way to heaven. Rather, Jesus was saying that Zacchaeus, who loved money, now had a new Master. Zacchaeus experienced the covenant of grace and all of a sudden, money became displaced by God. Zacchaeus trusted God so much that his relationship with money had changed. 

In the early church, when people experience the covenant of grace, they go way beyond what the law required. Acts 4:33-35 tells us, “And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there was no needy person among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.” What we see is that the early church put into practice what God was shaping in His people all along—their generosity.

This idea that we are under grace, not the law, and therefore, it somehow leads to less generosity than what we see in the Old Testament is flawed theology when we study the arc of Scripture. The real journey into becoming a reflection of God’s generosity in the world is one of trust.

Do we trust Him? Does our credit card statement say we trust and obey His teachings? Are we rich towards His desires and give freely as He leads us? Or are we rich towards our desires and tight-fisted towards His?

PRAYER

Lord God, I want to be rich towards Your desires. Open my heart to be generous with what You have already poured into my life. Thank You, Lord.