MONEY IS AN IMPORTANT SCRIPTURAL CONCERN. It shapes life in America as much as or more than any other single item. An amazing amount of wealth is coming out of today’s stock market and booming economy. The best-selling book The Millionaire Next Door is not a fable, it represents fact. More and more people are asking financial advice, but are they getting the necessary spiritual advice they need?
It is the spiritual leader’s responsibility to get involved in the financial lives of those for whom he is responsible. That does not solely mean speaking about the amount they give to the budget but helping them develop a philosophy of getting, keeping, and giving. For too long pastors have been self-conscious, trying to avoid the “money-grubbing syndrome.”
Here are several principles to consider when helping the people you lead to handle their money with integrity:
1. Giving may be harder than earning. I cannot imagine a more difficult or dangerous way of life than to spend the bulk of my time giving away my money to worthy causes, especially Christian causes. I say difficult, for profitable stewardship requires a new and more strenuous discipline than making the money. I say dangerous because of the temptations confronting those with money to give.
2. Giving must move from duty to joy. The sheer administrative monotony can turn the joy of giving into dull duty. A. T. Cushman, the past chairman of Sears, told me years ago, “Fred, the art of administration is constant checking.” But when done right, giving moves people from duty to joy.
A psychiatrist specializing in alcohol abuse reported, “We now know why some individuals after staying sober for years return to drink while others never go back. Those who labor every day, vowing not to drink today, may become overwhelmed with the onerous burden and start drinking again. On the other hand, those who move from the vow of sobriety to the joy of sobriety never go back.”
Freedom comes in crossing the line from duty to joy. Theologically, freedom comes in moving from works to grace.
3. Generous giving is a lifestyle. That involves more than money or appreciated assets or techniques and programs. It involves our spiritual maturity. How often am I willing to pray, “Lord, prosper me financially in proportion to my spiritual maturity”? What a snare it is if we try to bribe God with financial gifts to rationalize our failure to offer him our spiritual gifts.
4. Motive is imperative. Biblical wisdom tells us, “Out of the heart are the issues of life.” In the New Testament, Ananias and Sapphira wanted the full credit for giving while only giving partially. Their greed for reputation cost them their lives. In praising the widow’s gift of a mite, Christ showed he is more interested in motive than amount.
Here are several common motives for giving:
Tax deductions. Many prefer to give to the church rather than to the government. Charitable organizations are anxious to protect the tax deduction, believing it produces gifts.
Peer pressure. A ceo of a large corporation had a reputation as a great fund-raiser. In actuality, he “suggested” that those doing business with him contribute specified amounts. He was a fund-raiser, but not a giver.
Many charitable and religious institutions send me lists of their donors by classification. That is peer pressure. Some fund-raisers urge ministries to create annual, even semi-annual, emergencies, knowing that people give to emergencies. I have been chairman of several national ministries and know from experience that a great many of the emergencies are contrived or exist due to poor management.
Again, pressure is often put on wealthy people to create human immortality by grants and buildings that perpetuate their name.
Obedience. Obedience is an excellent motivation if done out of respect, not fear. A successful businessman without deep religious convictions was told by his relatives chat unless he contributed liberally to the church, God would take away his wealth. That is just as wrong as telling people that if they will give. God will increase their wealth. I know many devoted Christians, cithers and also givers, who are and will remain perpetually poor.
I was leading a retreat for wealthy entrepreneurs when the subject of giving came up. I told them that I thought the New Testament taught proportional giving, certainly not less than the tithe. Suddenly I heard myself say, “Tithing is an Old Testament scheme to help the rich get out of giving.” One of the men who had just given $4 million with great publicity laughed out loud. He recognized that he could spill more than he had given and not miss it, yet he had been given such high praise for his gift.
Obedient giving is not to obligate God but to obey him.
Gratitude and love. Christian giving should reflect our gratitude and love for the Lord. Hans Selye, the Nobel Prize winner and authority on emotional stress, said that gratitude is the most healthy of all emotions. I also find it the most fragile, with the shortest shelf life. Christian gratitude, beginning at Calvary, should show itself in our love, and love is extravagant.
God’s glory. What promotes God’s glory? Do our gifts make others think of him and not us? Is it a witness to our belief in his grace and immortality? When we give for his glory, we must be careful not to try to share the glory, because God says he will not share his glory with us.
Three types of gifts
Giving is more than turning over ownership of an asset. Let’s consider three situations, which may all be termed “gifts.” They may not vary by the amount, but they vary greatly by the motive, effect, and reward:
1. The gift. The purest is the anonymous gift. The gift becomes known but not the giver—or at least the giver does not let it be advertised to his glory. The widow’s mite was known but not because she rang the bell with the gift. She quietly demonstrated her faith with her sacrifice not knowing anyone would notice. For us, it may be easy to be an anonymous small giver but far more difficult to be an anonymous large giver. Maxey Jarman told me a funny story of a New York fund-raising dinner with people standing up identifying themselves and making pledges to the charitable cause. One man rose, gave his name, his wife’s name, his business, its location and merchandise, and then loudly announced that they wanted to give $5,000 anonymously!
When people give anonymously only to keep from being known as a giver and to keep their name off the many lists of givers, they are not giving anonymously for the right reason. Maybe it is difficult to truly give anonymously because in our heart of hearts we do not yet believe we are giving to God and that he sees and is pleased and will reward us as he sees fit.
2. A purchase posing as a gift. Here the giver buys a reward, which is generally recognition or social position. One of the most effective fund-raisers in Dallas is a wonderful lady who has a club, and in order to belong you must give at least $10,000 each year. It is well publicized. Your “gift” purchases you a reputation. It would be more accurate to classify this “giving” as an expense. It is the price of admission. When we give for any reason other than as a gift to God, we receive our reward here. As Scripture says of the Pharisees, “They have their reward.” It does not say the reward is wrong or inappropriate, it simply says when you give for human reasons you get human rewards. If you want the reward here you get it here … but there is no reward in heaven. You can enjoy the reputation as a great philanthropist, but you cannot earn sainthood. We all know we can purchase a position in an organization with the right-sized gift. Sometimes, we are purchasing power.
I have a wealthy friend who is very generous, yet he admits that he is involved in the spending of the money to the point of total control of the ministry. The control is the benefit he buys with the money. Yet Scripture warns repeatedly not to treat the rich any better (or worse) than the poor. I’ve seen people who have discovered the power of being a potential major donor and receive all the benefits and privileges of those who give without actually giving themselves. The ministry does not want to discourage their implied future gifts.
Another friend promised a ministry $20 million in stock but kept the stock in order to retain the voting power it gave him with the corporation. He believed he knew what was best for the ministry. In the end, the value of the stock went from above $50 per share to $1.
3. Giving as investment. Giving as investment is particularly attractive to those who are acquisitive and concerned more with leverage and return than with gratitude and love. They believe they are protecting God from others’ misuse of money. I once asked a friend with this profile to give to a struggling minister doing an excellent (but small) work in the inner city. He quickly informed me that he did not give to small things. He gave only to those who had the capacity to change the whole system.
An example of another type of investment giving is the young man who was a significant contributor to hospitals. His friends told me he gave in order to get preferential treatment should he ever need it. Investors give for returns and, ideally for them, the return will be greater than the gift. A highly successful Christian entrepreneur recently sold his business for an enormous sum. In the paper he reported, “I am going to give a lot of it away. My parents told us we could not outgive God and that whatever we gave away would come back multiplied.”
That is not giving but investing. It is not just a reward but a return on investment that is expected. It is less gratitude than greed.
Ultimate reward
The ultimate reward for the profitable servant is to hear the Master say, “Well done, enter into my joy.” To desire to be a profitable servant requires a great deal more humility than most people possess. Money makes it more attractive and tempting to play the master. In the parable, the Master did not ask the servant how well-known he was, what his standing was in the community, how he enjoyed himself, or what his future plans were. He simply asked, “How were you profitable to me?” In the humblest terms, a profitable servant is like the ox who grinds out the corn. He doesn’t own the corn. Nor does he get much of it to eat. But he does fulfill his purpose in life.
When we help others to fulfill their purpose completely, they can expect the joy of the Lord. Profitability to the Master out of love and gratitude is a great and proper calling.
Copyright © 1998 Fred Smith, Sr.
