LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Generosity
Whenever God has wanted to perform any of His great works and receive the cooperation of man, He has invited a certain class of men to participate in it. Not all men, but a special class. An example of this is the building of the house of God. When God instructed Moses to build the tabernacle, He told him to take an offering "of every man that will give it of his own free will from his heart" (Ex. 25:2). Such was the generosity of the people that Moses had to stop it, because there was too much to spare.
When David later gathered the materials for the temple in Jerusalem, he gathered from his own estate much gold, silver and other materials, and then invited the people to do the same: "Then the heads of the fathers' houses, and the princes of the tribes of Israel, heads of thousands and heads of hundreds with the stewards of the king's substance, offered willingly ... And the people rejoiced that they contributed willingly; for they offered willingly unto the LORD with their whole heart" (1 Chron. 29:5-6, 9).
In the days of the restoration of the temple, after the Babylonian captivity, it happened in the same way. "And all that were round about them helped them with silver and gold, with goods and cattle, and with precious things, besides all that was offered willingly ... And some of the chief of the fathers' houses ... made freewill offerings for the house of God, to rebuild it in its place" (Ezek. 1:6; 2:68).
In Moses' day, God had given laws about tithes, offerings and first fruits, because God wanted to have a generous people, merciful with their neighbor, and who put their trust in God more than in material goods. But many times the law took away the tithes and offerings of stinginess, because man is stingy by nature.
On the other hand, when God wants to do something for himself, he looks for those who truly love him. How could anything so spiritual be built with materials pulled by force from a narrow heart? How could God accept such an offering from a baleful eye, or a grasping hand?
That is why, in the New Testament, when speaking of offerings, there is always an appeal to generosity. Paul, instructing the Corinthians about an offering appeals to the "generosity promised before". The key to God-pleasing giving is a generous heart. Since there is a new heart -of flesh and not of stone- there is no room for the compulsion of the law, but the generosity of the new life. The generosity of the sowing determines the generosity of the harvest. And generosity does not have a sullen face, but a joyful one. "Not grudgingly, nor out of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver".
Many discussions have arisen and will continue to arise about the validity of the tithe in the New Testament. Many times they only hide an exacerbated love of money and a closed heart for God. But God will not fight with them. He will leave them to struggle with their stinginess, fondling their money bags, while He invites the generous of heart to undertake His great works together.