Our
Lord’s teachings as to money gifts, if obeyed,
would forever banish alllimitations on church work and all concern about
supplies. These teachingsare radical and revolutionary. So far are they
from practical acceptancethat, although perfectly explicit, they seem
more like a dead language thathas passed out of use than like a living tongue
that millions know andspeak. Yet, when these principles and precepts
of our Lord on giving arecollated and compared, they are found to contain
the materials of acomplete ethical system on the subject of money, its true
nature, value,relation
and use. Should these sublime and unique teachings be translatedinto
living, the effect not only upon benevolent work, but upon our wholespiritual
character, would be incalculable. Brevity compels us to be contentwith
a simple outline of this body of teaching, scattered through the fourGospel
narratives, but gathered up and methodically presented by Paul inthat
exhaustive discussion of Christian giving in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9.
1.
THE PRINCIPLE OF STEWARDSHIP
The
basis of Christ’s teaching about money
is the fundamental conceptionof stewardship. (Luke 12:42; 16:1-8). Not only
money, but every gift ofGod, is received in trust for His use. Man is
not an owner, but a trustee,managing another’s
goods and estates, God being the one original andinalienable Owner of
all. The two things required of stewards are that theybe
"faithful and wise," that they study to-employ God’s
gifts with fidelityand sagacity —
fidelity so that God’s entrustments be not
perverted to self indulgence;sagacity, so that they be converted into as
large gains aspossible.
This
is a perfectly plain and simple basal principle, yet it is not the acceptedfoundation
of our money-making and using. The vast majority, even ofdisciples,
practically leave God out of their thoughts when they engage infinance.
Men consider themselves owners; they "make money" by theirindustry,
economy, shrewdness, application; it is theirs to do as they willwith
it. There is little or no sense of stewardship or of its impliedobligation.
If they give, it is an act, not of duty, but of generosity; it ranks,not
under law, but under grace. Hence there is no inconsistency felt inhoarding
or spending vast sums for worldly ends and appropriating aninsignificant
fraction to benevolent purposes. Such methods and notionswould
be utterly turned upside down could men but think of themselves asstewards,
accountable to the one Master for having wasted His goods. Thegreat
day of account will bring an awful reckoning, not only to wasters, butto
hoarders; for even the unfaithful servants brought back to their lord thetalent
and the pound at last, but without profit, and the condemnation wasfor
not having used so as to increase the entrusted goods.
2.
THE PRINCIPLE OF INVESTMENT
In
our Lord’s teachings we find
this kindred principle of investment:"Thou oughtest to have put my money
to the exchangers"(Matthew 25:27).Money-changing and
investing is an old business. The "exchangers," asLuke
renders, are the bankers, the ancient Trapezitae, who received moneyon
deposit and paid interest for its use, like modern savings institutions.
The
argument of our Lord refutes the unfaithful servant on his own plea,which
his course showed to be not an excuse, but a pretext. It was truethat
he dared not risk trading on his own account; why not, without suchrisk,
get a moderate interest for his Master by lending to professionaltraders?
It was not fear but sloth that lay behind his unfaithfulness andunprofitableness.
Thus
indirectly is taught the valuable lesson that timid souls, unfitted forbold
and independent service in behalf of the kingdom, may link theirincapacity
to the capacity and sagacity of others who will make their giftsand
possessions of use to the Master and His Church. James Watt, in 1773, formed a
partnership with Matthew Boulton, ofSoho,
for the manufacture of steam engines —
Watt, to furnish brains, andBoulton, hard cash. This illustrates our Lord’s
teaching. The steward hasmoney, or it may be other gifts, that can be
made of use, but he lacks faithand foresight, practical energy and wisdom. The
Lord’s "exchangers" canshow
him how to get gain for the Master. The Church boards are God’sbankers.
They are composed of practical men, who study how and whereto
put money for the best results and largest returns, and when they arewhat
they ought to be, they multiply money many-fold in glorious results.
The
Church partly exists that the strength of one member may help theweakness
of another, and that by co-operation of all, the power of the leastand
weakest may be increased.
3.
THE SUBORDINATION OF MONEY
Another
most important principle is the subordination of money, asemphatically
taught and illustrated in the rich young ruler. (Matthew19:16-26).
This narrative, rightly regarded, presents no enigma. With all hisattractive
traits, this man was a slave. Money was not his servant, but hismaster;
and because God alone is to be supreme, our Lord had noalternative.
He must demolish this man’s idol, and when He
dealt a blow athis money, the idolatry became apparent, and the slave of
greed went awaysorrowful, clinging to his idol. It was not the man’s
having greatpossessions
that was wrong, but that his possessions had the man; theypossessed
him and controlled him. He was so far the slave of money thathe
could not and would not accept freedom by the breaking of its fetters.
His
"trust" was in riches how could it be in God? Behind all disguises ofrespectability
and refinement, God sees many a man to be an abject slave, avictim
held in bonds by love of money; but covetousness is idolatry, and noidolater
can enter the kingdom
of God. How few rich men
keep themastery
and hold money as their servant, in absolute subordination to theirown
manhood, and the master hood of the Lord!
4.
THE LAW OF RECOMPENSE
We
ascend a step higher, and consider our Lord’s
teaching as to the law ofrecompense. "Give, and it shall be given
unto you" (Luke 6:38). We aretaught that getting is in order to
giving, and consequently that giving is thereal road to getting. God is an
economist. He entrusts larger gifts to thosewho use the smaller well. Perhaps one
reason of our poverty is that we areso far slaves of parsimony. The future
may reveal that God has beenwithholding from us because we have been withholding
from Him.
It
can scarcely be said by any careful student of the New Testament thatour
Lord encourages His disciples to look or ask for earthly wealth. Yet itis
equally certain that hundreds of devout souls who have chosen voluntarypoverty
for His sake have been entrusted with immense sums for His work.
George
Muller conducted for over sixty years enterprises requiring at leastsome
hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars a year. Note also theexperiences
of William Quarrier and Hudson Taylor, and D. L. Moody andDr.
Barnardo. Such servants of God, holding all as God’s,
spending littleor nothing for self, were permitted to receive and use
millions for God, andin some cases, like Muller’s,
without any appeal to men, looking solely toGod. This great saint of Bristol found, in a life that nearly rounded
out acentury,
that it was safe to give to God’s purposes the last
penny at anymoment,
with the perfect assurance that more would come in beforeanother
need should arise. And there was never one failure for seventyyears!
5.
SUPERIOR BLESSEDNESS
Kindred
to this law of recompense is the law of superior blessedness. "It ismore
blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35). Paul quotes this as asaying
of our Lord, but it is not to be found in either of the Gospelnarratives.
Whether he meant only to indicate what is substantially ourLord’s
teaching, or was preserving some precious words of our GreatTeacher,
otherwise unrecorded, is not important. It is enough that thissaying
has the authority of Christ. Whatever the blessedness of receiving,that
of giving belongs to a higher plane. Whatever I get, and whatevergood
it brings to me, I only am benefited; but what I give brings good toothers
to the many, not the one. But, by a singular decree of God, what Ithus
surrender for myself for the sake of others comes back even to me inlarger
blessing. It is like the moisture which the spring gives out in streamsand
evaporation, returning in showers to supply the very channels whichfilled
the spring itself.
6.
COMPUTATION BY COMPARISON
We
rise a step higher in considering God’s
law of computation. How doesHe reckon gifts? Our Lord teaches us that it is
by comparison. No onenarrative is more telling on this theme than
that of the poor widow(Mark 12:41-44; Luke 21:1-4) who dropped into
the treasury hertwo mites. The Lord Jesus, standing near, watched the
offerings cast intothe treasury. There were rich givers that gave
large amounts. There wasone poor woman, a widow, who threw in two mites,
and He declared heroffering to be more than any of all the rest,
because, while they gave out ofa superfluity she gave out of a deficiency —
they of their abundance, she ofher poverty.
She
who cast her two mites into the sacred treasury, by so doing becamerich
in good works and in the praise of God. Had she kept them she hadbeen
still only the same poor widow. Are not two sparrows sold for afarthing?
And the two mites "make a farthing." He who, as theSuperintending
Providence of nature, watches the fall of a sparrow, so that"one
of them is not forgotten before God," also, as the Overseer of thetreasury,
invisibly sits and watches the gifts that are dropped into the chest,and
even the widow’s mite is not
forgotten.
He
tells us here how He estimates money gifts not by what we give, but bywhat
we keep — not by the amount of
our contributions, but by their costin self-denial. This widow’s
whole offering counted financially for but afarthing (, a quadrant, equal to four mills, or two fifths
of onecent,
as three-fourths of an English farthing). What could he much moreinsignificant?
But the two mites constituted her whole means ofsubsistence. The
others reserved what they needed or wanted forthemselves, and then
gave out of their superabundance ().
The
contrast is emphatic; she "out of her deficiency," they "out of
theirsuper-sufficiency."Not
all giving — so-called —
has rich reward. In many cases the keepinghides the giving, in the sight of God.
Self-indulgent hoarding and spendingspread a banquet; the crumbs fall from
the table, to be gathered up andlabeled "charity." But when the
one possession that is dearest, the lasttrusted resource, is surrendered to God,
then comes the vision of thetreasure laid up in heaven.
7.
UNSELFISHNESS IN GIVING
We
ascend still higher to the law of unselfishness in giving. "Do good andlend,
hoping for nothing again" (Luke 6:35). Much giving is not givingat
all, but only lending or exchanging. He who gives to another of whomhe
expects to receive as much again, is trading. He is seeking gain, and isselfish.
What he is after is not another’s profit, but his own
advantage. Toinvite
to one’s table those who will
invite him again, is simply as if akindness were done to a business
acquaintance as a basis for boldness inasking a similar favor when needed. This
is reciprocity, and may be evenmean and calculating.
True
giving has another’s good solely in view,
and hence bestows uponthose who cannot and will not repay, who are too
destitute to pay back,and too degraded, perhaps, to appreciate what is
done for them. That islike God’s
giving to the evil and unthankful. That is the giving prompted bylove.
To
ask, therefore, "Will it pay?" betrays the selfish spirit. He is the
noblest,truest
giver who thinks only of the blessing he can bring to another’s
bodyand
soul. He casts his breadseed beside all waters. He hears the cry of wantand
woe. and is concerned only to supply the want and assuage the woe.
This
sort of giving shows God-likeness, and by it we grow into theperfection
of benevolence.
8.
SANCTIFIED GIVING
Our
Lord announces also a law of sanctification. "The altar sanctifieth thegift"
— association gives dignity to an offering
(Matthew 23:19). If thecause to which we contribute is exalted it
ennobles and exalts the offeringto its own plane. No two objects can or
ought to appeal to us with equalforce unless they are equal in moral
worth and dignity, and a discerninggiver will respond most to what is
worthiest. God’s altar was to the Jewthe
central focus of all gifts; it was associated with His worship, and thewhole
calendar of fasts and feasts moved round it. The gift laid upon itacquired
a new dignity by so being deposited upon it. Some objects whichappeal
for gifts we are at liberty to set aside because they are not sacred.
We
may give or not as we judge best, for they depend on man’s
enterprisesand
schemes, which we may not altogether approve. But some causes haveDivine
sanction, and that hallows them; giving becomes an act of worshipwhen
it has to do with the altar.
9.
TRANSMUTATION
Another
law of true giving is that of transmutation."Make to yourselves friends of the
mammon of unrighteousness;that, when ye fail, they may receive you into
everlastinghabitations"
(Luke 16:9).
This,
though considered by many an obscure parable, contains one of thegreatest
hints on money gifts that our Lord ever dropped.Mammon here stands as
the equivalent for money, practically worshipped.It reminds us of the
golden calf that was made out of the ear-rings andjewels
of the crowd. Now our Lord refers to a second transmutation. Thegolden
calf may in turn be melted down and coined into Bibles, churches,books,
tracts, and even souls of men. Thus what was material and temporalbecomes
immaterial and spiritual, and eternal. Here is a man who has ahundred
dollars. He may spend it all on a banquet, or an evening party, inwhich
case the next day there is nothing to show for it. It has secured atemporary
gratification of appetite — that is all. On the
other hand, heinvests
in Bibles at ten cents each, and it buys a thousand copies of theWord
of God. These he judiciously sows as seed of the Kingdom, and thatseed
springs up a harvest, not of Bibles, but of souls. Out of theunrighteous
mammon he has made immortal friends, who, when he fails,receive
him into everlasting habitations. May this not be what is meant bythe
true riches the treasure laid up in heaven in imperishable good?
What
revelations await us in that day of transmutation! Then, whatever hasbeen
given up to God as an offering of the heart, "in righteousness," will
beseen
as transfigured. Not only the magi’s
gold, frankincense and myrrh,and the alabaster box of ointment of spikenard,
very precious, and thehouses and lands of such as Barnabas, but
fishermen’s boats and nets, theabandoned
"seat of custom," the widow’s
mites, and the cup of cold water— yes, when we had
nothing else to give, the word of counsel, the tear ofpity,
the prayer of intercession. Then shall be seen both the limitlesspossibilities
and the "transcendent riches" of consecrated poverty.
Never
will the work of missions, or any other form of service to God andman,
receive the help it ought until there is a new conscience and a newconsecration
in the matter of money. The influence of the world and theworldly
spirit is deadening to unselfish giving. It exalts self-indulgence,whether
in gross or refined form. It leads to covetous hoarding or wastefulspending.
It blinds us to the fact of obligation, and devises flimsy pretextsfor
diverting the Lord’s money to carnal
ends. The few who learn to giveon Scriptural principles learn also to love to
give. These gifts becomeabundant and systematic and self-denying. The
stream of beneficence flowsperpetually —
there is no period of drought.
Once it was necessary to proclaim to the people of God
that what they had brought "was more than enough," and to
"restrain them from bringing" (Exodus 36:6). So far as known, this is
the one and only historic instance of such excess of generosity. But should not
that always be the case? Is it not a shame and disgrace that there ever should
be a lack of "meat in God’s house"? When His work appeals for aid,
should there ever be a reluctance to respond or a doling out of a mere
pittance? Surely His unspeakable gift should make all giving to Him a
spontaneous offering of love that, like Mary’s, should bring its precious flask
of spikenard and lavish its treasures on His feet, and fill the house with the
odor of self sacrifice!