Tithing: The Training Wheels of Giving
2 Corinthians 9:1-10
For
most of us, this scene is a familiar one—a little girl or little boy riding a
bike with training wheels. But I can bet you have never seen a scene like this
one. Training wheels are meant for bikes, not for cars! But what is the purpose
of training wheels? Do they help a young person learn to ride a bike? Contrary
to popular opinion, training wheels do not help a young child to learn to ride a
bike—on the contrary—training wheels actually hinder kids from learning to ride
a 2-wheeler. If a child using training wheels begins to fall, their natural
reaction is to lean in the opposite direction, away from the fall. Training
wheels stop them from falling over and reinforce the habit of leaning the other
way. But this is exactly the wrong skill for a child to learn. When you start to
fall, the right thing to do is to lean in the same direction as you are falling,
not away from it. A child learns to do this, without even thinking about, merely
by slight movements of their front wheel. If I am falling to the left, I turn my
front wheel to the left. If I am falling to the right, I turn my front wheel to
the right. Therefore, training wheels do not help a child to learn to ride a
bike, but actually slows down the process.
Why am I giving you this science lesson on training wheels? Randy Alcorn, who I have mentioned several times, is quoted as saying that “tithing is the training wheels of giving”. What Alcorn means is that if a Christian is tithing—and by that I mean 10% of your income—then you are just beginning to learn to give. Most Christians think that giving 10% of your income is the holy grail of giving. The super-Christians give that much. Once I hit 10% that is all I will ever need to give. But Alcorn believes that 10% is merely the starting point. And like real training wheels, a tithe can actually train us to hold back our giving. Do you think a child who is riding a bike with training wheels thinks he or she is really riding a bike? Sure, they enjoy the freedom and speed that this gives them, but when they see the “big kids” who don’t have training wheels flying past them, they know they have a ways to go before they are really riding a 2-wheeled bike. This is precisely the impression Alcorn wants to leave us with. If you are giving 10% of your income to the Lord, like a small child riding with training wheels, we should feel like we are being left behind—like there is a way to really soar and go fast with our giving, but we are stuck at about half speed. Is Alcorn right about this, or is he just being legalistic and heaping guilt on all Christians? As always, we should let the Bible answer all such questions, and for that we turn to 2 Corinthians 9.
There is no need for me to write to you about this service to the saints. 2 For I know your eagerness to help, and I have been boasting about it to the Macedonians, telling them that since last year you in Achaia were ready to give; and your enthusiasm has stirred most of them to action. 3 But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you in this matter should not prove hollow, but that you may be ready, as I said you would be. 4 For if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we—not to say anything about you—would be ashamed of having been so confident. 5 So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to visit you in advance and finish the arrangements for the generous gift you had promised. Then it will be ready as a generous gift, not as one grudgingly given.
6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9 As it is written: “He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.” 10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.
Irritating one another to action
Why
did Paul mean in v. 1,
There is no need for me to write to you
about this service to the saints? If he did not need to write them
about their giving, then why did he spend two chapters talking about giving? The
answer lies in v.2, .
2
For I know
your eagerness to help, and I have been boasting about it to the Macedonians,
telling them that since last year you in Achaia were ready to give; and your
enthusiasm has stirred most of them to action. If you only read
chapter eight, would you say that the Macedonian church or the Corinthian church
was better at giving? Naturally we would conclude that the Macedonians were far
ahead of the Corinthians because Paul uses them repeatedly as a good example of
generous giving. But here ion chapter nine we see for the first time that the
eager willingness of the church in Corinth was the initial source of inspiration
for the Macedonian church.
So the overall process looks like this. About a year before, Paul had asked the church in Corinth to collect an offering for famine relief in Jerusalem. They were very eager and willing to do so. They pledged their money, but never actually collected the offering. When Paul told the story of the eagerness of the Corinthians believers to the churches in Macedonia, they were so inspired by the generosity of the Corinthian church that, as we learn from chapter 8, their extreme poverty welled up into rich generosity.
But since the Corinthians never actually collected an offering, Paul finds himself in the somewhat embarrassing position of reminding them to fulfill their pledge from the previous year. This letter to the church in Corinth served, in part, as a written reminder to finish the job and collect the offering. As if his written reminder would not have been enough, Paul also planned to send a personal reminder in the form of three brothers, (v. 3) But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you in this matter should not prove hollow, but that you may be ready, as I said you would be. Paul wanted the Corinthians to fulfill their pledge and collect the offering because he was soon coming to Corinth himself to take the money to Jerusalem. What would have happened if they failed to collect the offering? Look at v.4 again, For if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we—not to say anything about you—would be ashamed of having been so confident. If the Corinthians had not been prepared, it would have been a great embarrassment to Paul but an even greater source of shame to the Corinthians. From the book of Acts we learn that Paul did indeed show up in Corinth and he had three men from Macedonia with him. Imagine their embarrassment if they had not been prepared. The Corinthians inspired the Macedonians and the Macedonians in turn were a reminder to the Corinthians. Had the Corinthians not been ready with their offering, they would have been greatly humiliated.
This is certainly what the writer of Hebrews meant when he wrote, “Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” Do you know why the writer used the word “spur”? Because this is exactly what he meant! What does a spur do to a horse? It hurts! It pokes the horse and irritates the horse in order to get the horse moving. The Greek word which is translated as “spur” mean to irritate, exasperate, provoke and prick.—in other words, a sharp spur in the side. The churches in Corinth and Macedonia spurred one another on to love and good deeds. It wasn’t a competition to see who could collect the most, but a mutual encouragement toward a greater level of generosity. They were poking, irritating, exasperating and spurring one another.
Do you think all of this poking and irritating was painful? When we spur one another forward, sometimes there is a degree of pain involved—pain that is both acceptable and good. If these messages on giving have caused some of you a little pain, I don’t apologize for that. As you sit in your chairs each Sunday morning, occasionally you ought to say to yourself—“Ouch, that hurt!” This is what the Christian life is all about. Sometimes you put your arm around the other person and comfort them—everything is going to be alright—God is good—we bear each others burdens. But other times we need to poke and prod one another—to spur one another toward love and good deeds. Karen was able to do this for me last weekend. She lovingly suggested that something in my life wasn’t quite right. Do you, when she first said it, it felt like a spur. It felt like a little poke. It hurt a little. But she was right! She poked me on toward love and good deeds! So it is not just me as a pastor poking you, your job is to poke one another. The challenge is always to have the right balance between comforting and poking. The church in Corinth poked the churches in Macedonia, then they poked the Corinthians to get them moving again.
When we discovered our financial crunch a few weeks ago, the elders of our church gave all of you, including ourselves, a little poke. The letter that went out served as a reminder to all of us of the need to give regularly and fulfill our commitments to the ministries of our church. Have you been keeping track of the offerings in the bulletin since that letter was mailed? Your response has been nothing less than amazing! From January through July, the weekly giving averaged $1442. From August through late October, before the letter was mailed, our giving had dropped down to $1110/week. The four weeks since the letter was sent and since we have been talking about money and giving, the weekly offering has jumped to $1954!! That amounts to a 76% increase in giving over the previous three months! How many churches can say they increased their giving by 76%??!! I bet that Willow Creek never had a 76% increase in giving. I bet Saddleback never had a 76% increase in giving. I am not boasting here, but instead thanking you for responding to God’s leading. I don’t know where this money came from or if we can continue to give at these levels, but I do that God has clearly done a great work in our midst. Thank you!
Despite this great news, there may be some of you who are starting to think, “Enough already—how much longer are we gonna get hammered about giving?” Maybe you think we are going a bit overboard. Maybe you think we should have not sent out a letter or had a congregational meeting or preached four sermons on giving. After all, verse 7 says that we should give what we have decided in our heart, nit what some pastor or some church says we should give. We should not be pressured to give under compulsion. Paul said in the last chapter that he could not command anyone to give. Could it be argued that all of this emphasis on giving is nothing more than an ungodly, secular fundraising tactic that is devoid of the work of the Holy Spirit? I don’t think so, and here is why.
I took all of Paul’s principles and his methods from these two chapters and combined it into a single list. I am calling it Fundraising 101 by the Apostle Paul.
Fundraising 101 by the Apostle Paul
1. Salvation Grace— precedes giving
2. Storytelling—Corinth inspires Macedon; Macedonia inspires Corinth
3. Pledge—Corinthians pledged before they gave
4. Jesus—Supreme Example
5. Spiritual Principles
· Extreme poverty overflows into rich generosity
· Giving increases your faith
· Giving is a direct measure of your love
· You reap what you sow
· Cheerful giving
· Promise of blessing and rewards
· Thanksgiving and Praise to God
6. Humiliation & Guilt—“you would be ashamed”
7. Practical Benefits—“service to the saints”
8. Written Reminders—2 Corinthians
9. Personal Reminders—Titus and 2 brothers
10. Offering Collected—and delivered by Paul to Jerusalem
Amazingly, ALL of these methods still fit under the principles of:
· “Not reluctantly or under compulsion”
· “Not commanding you”
· “Eager willingness”
These are not pressure tactics. These principles and methods are thoroughly Biblcal example of generous giving. Does this mean that we should send out a written reminder every month because Paul sent out a written reminder? Does this mean that we should send the elders to everyone’s house as a personal reminder to give, just as Paul did? No, but all of these principles and methods are available to us and as long as we are careful and grace-oriented, we can do all of them and still not violate the principle of cheerful giving that is not forced or pressured.
So have we answered the question about tithing yet? Is Randy Alcorn a Biblical genius or a legalistic fool when he wrote that “tithing is the training wheels of giving?” I am going to give you a short answer to that question right now and a longer answer next week. The short answer is the principle of grace—that salvation grace always precedes giving. These entire two chapters in 2 Corinthians is a big story about grace. Look back at 8:1, And now brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given to the Macedonian churches. Paul was saying, let me tell you a great story about grace. Everything else that follows in these two chapters is an ever-increasing illustration of God’s grace. Grace came first, and the giving flowed out of that grace.
It’s
like the illustration from two weeks ago. If you see the grace being poured into
your life and you recognize your own spiritual poverty, then grace will flow
through you and pour out of your life in the form of generosity. However, if you
think you are wealthy, then that same grace will not be seen for what it is and
what comes out of you will be a trickle at best.
Therefore, if such boundless and precious grace is being poured into our lives, how could we ever say that 10% is enough? Can we possibly put a cap on God’s grace flowing into and out of our lives? A tithe—or 10%--becomes merely the starting point of our giving. A tithe is much like the training wheels of giving. Your tithe teaches you to give and holds you up securely at a certain level, but you can never soar while you still have training wheels. If you think 10% is the highest you can ever go, you have just put a cap on God’s grace and held yourself back from soaring.
As I said, a longer answer to this question will come next week when we talk about the secret of sowing and reaping. If I had to pick out two of the most important principles in these two chapters, they would be the example of Jesus in 8:9 and the principle of sowing in the rest of chapter nine.
Let me leave you with a final thought on the benefits of tithing. Do you remember the story of the couple in our church who suddenly started tithing when they read the letter about our church’s finances? I wrote them a brief email highlighting the benefits of their new-found habit of tithing.
Benefits of tithing
1. You develop increased trust in the Lord.
2. You hoard more heavenly treasure.
3. Your obedience will make future obedience more possible.
4. You help Grace Church to advance the Kingdom of God in the Viroqua area.
5. You understand a little better what it means to "delight yourself in the Lord"
6. Encouraging and challenging other believers toward sacrificial giving and the other 5 benefits.
If you haven’t progressed to training wheels, I would like to spur you on toward the blessings and benefits of a 10% tithe. If you have been comfortably riding around on the training wheels of your giving, then I would like to thank you for your obedience and your faith, but also spur you on toward more love and good deeds by moving beyond your tithe. A tithe is a wonderful gift. It makes us feel comfortable and is very pleasing to God, but wouldn’t you like to soar free of any restraints on your giving? Don’t you want even more delight and joy that comes from your generosity? Are you not motivated to hoard even more treasures in Heaven? If so, then consider what God would you do and join us next Sunday as we learn about the secret of sowing and reaping.
Rich Maurer
November 28, 2004