The "Generosity" Defense
The Unifying Lies of Money
Once, a “ruler” approached Jesus with a question, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus replies, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments, ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not give false testimony, Honor your father and mother.”
The man, perhaps not realizing that his statement that Jesus was “good” is true, because Jesus is God, says, “All these things I have kept since youth.”
And so Jesus, replied, “One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”
Perhaps you know what happens next, for this whole interaction is recorded in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 18. The man leaves sad, and Jesus reflects that it is incredibly difficult for the rich to inherit the Kingdom. Everyone was like, “what, then who can be saved?” and Jesus assures them that, with God, all things are possible.
Today, this is taught in American churches as “see, your relationship to money is a heart condition, but God isn’t saying you need to be poor. With God, you can become someone who owns great wealth and yet still enters into eternal life.”
Except, that’s not what Jesus means, because that’s not where the story ends.
Right after this, Peter reminds Jesus that His disciples have left everything—they have done what the rich man would not. Jesus says, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house, or wife, or brothers, or parents, or children for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times as much at this time, and in the age to come, eternal life.”1
Then Jesus heals the sight of a blind man while on His way into Jericho, and inside Jericho he meets someone we are supposed to see in contrast to the “rich young ruler”.2 His name, of course, is Zaccheus.
Jesus invites himself over to Zaccheus’ house, and there Zaccheus declares, “Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I am giving to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone, I am giving back four times as much.” And Jesus then says, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”3
Zaccheus impoverished himself. Half his wealth gone, off the top. Then, since he was a tax collector, it was very likely he had “extorted” many people. In all likelihood, he would be a pauper when he was done. And Jesus’ response? Jesus assures him he doesn’t have to give his wealth up, only change his heart condition and begin to tithe…
No. That’s what our churches today in the American south may well teach, but not Jesus. This messianic King declares that rescue (or “salvation”) has come to Zaccheus’ home.
Listen, when Jesus declared “all things are possible with God” He wasn’t saying that “even rich people can keep their wealth and enter eternal life”. He was saying, “with God, even the rich can give up their great wealth”.
And it is with that on our minds, that Jesus tells us the parable of the “Ten Minas”4
“Generosity” As Defense
Jesus’ teachings on money are radical, especially when read at face value. But rarely do we want to face Jesus’ teachings head-on, and thus we must default to certain (predictable) defenses.
In the American church, this first and strongest defense is usually “generosity”.
“I give (x) percent to the church.”
“I use this (house, car, computer, etc.) for God and His Kingdom.”
“Without this thing, I wouldn’t be able to do this other thing for God.”
I have said every single one of these. Every. Single. One.
And they are all excuses that, in light of Jesus’ teachings, are pathetic. “Pathetic” may seem like a strong word, but I mean it. Each of these defenses (and many others) hinge on some basic principles:
There is a certain percent (usually 10%) that is required of me to give, and anything beyond is “generous”.
Using a material possession for God justifies my ownership of it.
God “needs” me to own something so that He can do His will.
Now, you may disagree with these principles in theory, but I would argue that most of us live lives in which we do not disagree in practice. Yet each of these are easily debunked (which is why they are “pathetic”).
The giving of every single thing I own is still immeasurably short from what is “required” of me. My generosity should be aiming to match Christ’s own generosity, and He has held back nothing. A tithe of 100% given in love would be received with joy in Heaven, but would not be thought “above and beyond”. A life that is a “living sacrifice”5 is the most reasonable response to the Gospel of Jesus.
God will use all things, including the evil and sin of this world, for His purposes. His willingness to use my immaturity or sin does not excuse me when I have refused to give something up.
God needs nothing from me, though He desires my love and my submission for His glory and my good. He does not “need” me to own or posses anything so that His will can be done.
We would do better as a Church to think less about how much we’ve given, but instead ask the Lord what He desires us to keep, and then give away all else. Our default posture should be to give and give and give, only holding on to something when we hear clearly from the Lord.
Yet we almost exclusively do the opposite: we keep and keep and keep, only giving when we hear clearly from the Lord.
Oh, how wicked we are. An evil and crooked generation, surely. And, it seems to me, that I am the worst. My sin in this area is great, and my justifications have been long and fervent. I’ve held back and held back and held back, ever justifying myself that I was a “simple guy” and didn’t want much. Only my wife ever called out my sin, observing how I would justify and hyper-focus on this or that.
No, in the church and with friends, I appeared to be doing the opposite of serving money. My house was smaller than everyone else’s, we had one car, lived “simply”. Yet there was pride in even that, and a secret desire that in simplicity there would be financial security, and in financial security there was a form of salvation.
Oh, how wicked am I that even my “simplicity” and “generosity” were not always in service to Jesus.
And how great is God that He used those mixed offerings anyway, and has been so faithful to never give up on my wife and I, but has kept pursuing us, raising us up more and more into His likeness! And that is true for you, as well. He has not, nor will ever, give up on you. He is patient, and kind, and is pleased to love you.
Still, it is important to say once more that when the teachings of Jesus make us feel as though we need to defend ourselves or rationalize away our lack of zeal, we are most certainly in sin—or at the very least, at the precipice of it.
A Righteous Calling
I have heard Tim Mackie (of the Bible Project) define “righteousness” as “doing right by God and doing right by others”. And what does it mean to be righteous in our relationship to God? In other words, how do we treat God rightly?
In Genesis 15, Abram6 receives a vision in which God says, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them. […] So shall your offspring be.”7
This is impossible, by the way, for Abram’s wife is too old to conceive.
And yet… “Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.”8
In other words, to treat God rightly means to believe His word even when it stands in opposition to reality. This lesson is one that must take root in us in all areas of our life, and money is no exception.
Friend, we must believe God will provide all we need even if we give away all we have. If we are willing to do sacrifice all (shown by actually doing it, not just professing it), we can affirm that we have faith in our Lord who promised us “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided”.9
We treat God rightly when we truly believe His words, even when they stand in contrast to reality.
But we treat God wrongly when we hold back what is ours because we “need” it.
When Jesus says we should pray for our “daily bread”, He didn’t mean that we should store up decades worth of retirement savings. He meant, very literally, we should pray for our daily provision. But this spurns up in us feelings of defensiveness because we have been taught that it is irresponsible not to save—to store up. In fact, we have been taught that storing up for ourselves in savings and retirement accounts enables us to be generous.
That is a lie.
We do not need a savings to be generous. Rather, we need to be so convinced in the goodness of God that we drain our savings.
As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”10
I can recall only three people Jesus commends regarding their use of wealth: Zaccheus (who gave away it away), Mary (who anointed Him with a ridiculously expansive oil) and this widow. In other words, Jesus only commends the people who gave everything.
What about those who are very rich, and so give 70% or 90% of everything? Well, Jesus seems unimpressed with them, so why should I be? What sort of fool would say that he loves Jesus and is His disciple, and yet would rather be identified with the rich rather than the widow?
Me, for the record. As often as not. I have struggled with selfishness, and have not always chosen generosity. I write this with a pure conscience only because of recent repentance, not because of some years worth of righteous living.
When Jesus said he would provide everything I need if I sought Him and His Kingdom, I didn’t believe Him. I confessed I did, but you only needed to peer into my growing savings account, and you would have known the truth.
Oh, how great is the mercy of God that He is pleased to bear with us. He is patient. Slow to anger. Quick to forgive. Extending love and blessing to us who are so far from deserving. All for the glory of the Son, and the Father, and the good of His people.
A Narrow Way Forward
God is a physician, and it appears that often He will not perform surgery on patients who are not willing (though, I’m sure exceptions abound). For my wife and I, we had to go through a series of choices that required us to say “yes” before we were put in a place of having our wealth taken from us.
We had to say “yes” to a cross-country move, to starting a non-profit, and “no” to seeking other forms of financial provision. We’ve had to endure some judgmental comments and views from those we love, and to keep ourselves humble when people look at us and say, “I so wish I could have your faith”.
They can, in fact, have such faith. They often simply refuse it, though it is offered freely from our Father.
I would be foolish to indicate that, in this format, I can give some broad-brush statements about what you should do with your money. I can’t, especially as that could easily become confused with a poverty gospel.11 Yet I would be remiss if I give no helpful guidance and thoughts.
In our next article in this series, we’ll learn about trusting in God in the “Wilderness”, and how you and I are called to choose the wilderness lifestyle. There, we’ll see some basic understandings for how we are to live our life rise to the surface.
But I will end on this thought, which may also be a precursor to other things in this series.
You may not be called to quit your job or sell your home, but you are called to participate in Jesus’ economy. And that first step, whatever it will be for you, will feel like a dying of sorts. It will be scary, a risk filled decision in which if Jesus is not faithful to His promises you will experience great harm.
But Jesus is faithful. Forever and always.
For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the sky, that they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather crops into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more important than they? And which of you by worrying can add a single day to his life’s span? And why are you worried about clothing? Notice how the lilies of the field grow; they do not labor nor do they spin thread for cloth, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided to you.
So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.12
Luke 18: 29b-30 NASB
This literary section of the Gospel according to Luke begins in chapter 18 with a parable Jesus tells about a tax collector and a pharisee followed a scene where people keep children from Him, then Him rebuking them to let the children come to Him. That introduction is followed by a conversation with a man put on parallel with the pharisee, then a story of people keep a blind man from Jesus, then an interaction with another man put on parallel with the tax collector. It’s awesome, and I could never get into it all in this article.
Luke 19: 8-10 NASB
Luke 19: 11-27
See Romans 12
Who will be renamed to Abraham.
Genesis 15: 5 NASB
Genesis 15: 6 NASB
Adapted from Matthew 6: 33
Luke 21: 1-4 NASB
The belief that salvation comes through the giving up of wealth. Instead, we should understand that the giving of our wealth may be a sign that we have begun discipleship to Jesus.
Matthew 6: 25-34 NASB