Cheerful Giving

At the king’s command, a chest was made and placed outside, at the gate of the temple of the Lord. A proclamation was then issued in Judah and Jerusalem that they should bring to the Lord the tax that Moses the servant of God had required of Israel in the wilderness. All the officials and all the people brought their contributions gladly, dropping them into the chest until it was full. Whenever the chest was brought in by the Levites to the king’s officials and they saw that there was a large amount of money, the royal secretary and the officer of the chief priest would come and empty the chest and carry it back to its place. They did this regularly and collected a great amount of money.

2 Chronicles 24:8-11

Collecting money for God’s work is always a divisive and emotive issue in the Christian church even though there is considerable teaching in the both the Old and New Testaments on the topic, mirrored by the numerous attitudes and approaches to giving I have witnessed in my 25+ years as a Christian. We can’t even agree what to call it although offering has become more popular than collection as the latter is frowned upon as a demand, rather than a voluntary action, and often use as a point of criticism by secular circles. In recent memory the growth of the “prosperity theology” – a belief among some Charismatic Christians that financial blessing and physical well-being are always the will of God for them – with dubious pastors and churches calling on adherence to send money if they want to be blessed financially, with giving to the church seen as an investment in one’s own prosperity, you can catch crusades on ‘God TV’ where some pastors a doubt something akin to a ‘pounds for prayers’ approach. The root of this belief is found by a distortion of Deuteronomy 28:1-14. Yet this is not new, we read of Simon the Sorcerer in Acts 8:9-24 who tried to buy the gift of healing from Peter, perhaps he saw this as an investment for further gain himself? There are many other passages in the Bible (2 Corinthians 9:6 for instance) that can be used to serve the will and increase the bank balance of those who seek to benefit financially from doing so, yet I am sure that some of these prosperity theologians believe what they teach is true.

One of the most poignant stories is the parable of the widow’s two mites (Luke 21:1-4), where a poor old widow puts in all the money she had, whilst the rich were seen giving money from their abundance. But even with this story we are not told of the reason the widow did this, although I doubt Jesus would have said she was an adherent to prosperity theology, expecting to get more back for what she has invested. Interestingly there are heinous examples of people being made rich out of the suffering of others, for example the pyramid get rich scheme that is done in the name of Allah in Senegal. The talibé are young boys who live in ‘daaras’ (schools to teach the Koran) under the control of a marabout or teacher. The children do not pay for their studies, food, or accommodation instead the talibé are forced to beg in the streets, they are also given daily quotas by the marabout and are often treated harshly and beaten if they don’t make their quota. A marabout also has a master and has to give a percentage of his income (made from children as young as four begging) to his marabout, who in turn gives a percentage of his to his master and on up the tree to the top and a Grand Marabout or Khalifa-General, who presides over an organisation with significant properties and assets. The similarities and the differences between Muslim and Christian practices are striking, but that discussion is for another time.

But back to the point, which is essentially about the attitude of those who give. I love that verse in 2 Chronicles 24, “All the officials and all the people brought their contributions gladly, dropping them into the chest until it was full.” I can picture queuing up, eager to put their contributions into the chest, and smiling and going away with a happy heart once they have done so.  In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians we read, “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7). We can see examples in the secular world of people giving for the wrong reason, those with wealth, station, and privilege who announce to the world that they have given to some worthy cause, or the TikTok influencers who video them giving food to the hungry or a large gift to the poor. I have no respect for any of them, but it doesn’t matter what I think, God knows what our attitude is when we give to the church, to the poor, to the hungry, we can’t hide it! When we give, we should do so because we want to and give with a thankful heart. If we are doing so for any other reason we shouldn’t even bother.