Tithing By Bruce W. Robida Part 5 of 5 Twenty-one Promises Updated 11-17-09

 

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 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. As it is written: "He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever." 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. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! 2CO 9:6-15

These verses sum up completely, the truth about Christian giving. There is nothing in these Scriptures that remotely resembles tithing.  What the apostle Paul is teaching here, are principles which we can confidently rely upon to promote the ongoing work of the church.  He begins by saying, “Remember this...” He wants us to remember these principles that he is about to share with us for a reason.  But, somehow, even though most Churches quote these same verses, they miss an opportunity to teach it correctly.  Instead, they take the safe route; the sure route, and teach the concept of tithing.  Have you ever heard the phrase, “ Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.”? Teaching God’s people to tithe is like giving him a fish.  He gives his tithe and never gives it a second thought.  In truth, he never learns to think for himself when it comes to giving.  He simply gives, week after week, as though he were a puppet.  But, if he is taught to give according to 2 Corinthians 9:6-15, he can become an active member in the body of Christ.  If he learns these principles, he will learn to  think for himself.  He will learn to give according to what is in his heart.  Doesn’t God speak to our hearts?  Will He not direct our giving according to His plans?  If a Church establishment is to be successful and prosper, is it due to man’s effort, or is it something that God has done?  If God has His hand in it, it will prosper.  Correctly teaching God’s people the way to give according to 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 will open up the hearts of those who truly want to do His will, and not only will each member prosper in their personal lives, but the Church as a whole will prosper as well.  This prosperity is not a means of getting rich, but it is a means to expand the Church of Jesus Christ. 

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The LORD is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made. PS 145:13

Let’s take a look at all of the promises that God has made in
2 Corinthians 9:6-15.

The first two things God promises is this; “...Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously ”(v.6).  The consequence for sowing sparingly, is reaping sparingly.  God doesn’t say, might also reap sparingly, He says, “...will also reap sparingly.” The consequence for sowing generously, is reaping generously.  God doesn’t say, might also reap generously, He says, “...will also reap generously.”

The point is, if we believe God, and we believe He is able to do the things He says He will do, then there should be no hesitation on the part of any believer as to his generous attitude toward giving.  If God says He will do something, then He will do it. The literal meaning of the word, Sow, is to scatter.  The literal meaning of the word, Reap, is, to harvest, and the harvest is our fruit.  If we scatter our fruit sparingly, we will harvest little fruit; if we scatter our fruit generously, we will harvest much fruit.

The third promise from God in these verses is, His love for a cheerful giver.  “Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver”(v.7).  I would have totally missed this one except that in the process of writing this paper, I read, Whose Money Is It, Anyway? by John MacArthur.  In it he says, “ The first benefit you realize when you give generously, then is love from God.  This is a unique promise in Scripture, the only place where God grants a special display of His love to believers because of their particular behavior ”(1).  There is no benefit to giving any other way but cheerfully.  When we give, it should not be out of a sense of obligation, or compulsion, neither should we give with the hope of receiving benefits and rewards.  There should be genuine love and compassion toward the recipient of your giving. God loves such a person.  If our giving is motivated by anything other than love, there will be no benefits, there will be no rewards, neither will there be this special love from God that He promises only to the cheerful giver.  Of course He will still love you, but it will not be that special love that He promises to all who cheerfully give. 

The next seven promises from God are in this one verse. “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” (v.8).  Grace is defined in Strong’s Concordance of the Bible, #5485 as, “...the divine influence upon the heart, and it’s reflection in the life; including gratitude.”  Abound is defined in Strong’s Concordance of the Bible, #4052 as, “To superabound{ in quality and quantity, be in excess, be superfluous; also {transitively}to cause to superabound or excel.” 

In the fourth promise, all of God’s grace, which is His divine influence upon your heart, abounds; or the quality and quantity of His influence exceeds that of others who are unwilling to give generously.  The heart of the generous giver receives from God greater and more influence from Him.  This divine influence will be evident in the life of the generous giver.  I believe that God uses this evidence so that others can see, and be encouraged to be generous themselves.  The one who abounds in God’s grace, also abounds in thankfulness.  He can’t help but be grateful to God for all that He has given him.  God, seeing this thankful servant with his generous heart, extends to him more and more grace causing him to abound in it.  In promises five through nine, God does this so that “...in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” These promises shouldn’t be taken lightly.  In effect, what He is saying is that in everything you do, and every time you do it, He will give you all that you need, and the quality and quantity of it will be abundantly more than even your own expectations.  In every good work, God wants you to not only succeed, but to abound in that success.  He provides all grace, all things, at all times, and all that you need so that you will abound in every good work.  He does this not so that your life might be enhanced with material wealth and possessions, although He gives you that too, but He does it so that other lives will be enhanced by what you do.  

In promises ten through fourteen, God, “...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”(v.10).  In other words, God will give the one who gives generously, all that he needs and even more than he needs, and He will expand this good work that the generous giver does.

In promises sixteen through nineteen, God says, “You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God (v.11).  God makes it clear that He will make the generous giver rich in every way.  Money is not the only thing that can make a person rich.  A person can be rich with friends, business relationships, spiritual discernment, wisdom, etc..  There are many ways that a person can be rich, and God says that He will make the generous giver rich in every way.  Again, He does this not so that your life might be enhanced with material wealth and possessions, but so that other lives will be enhanced by what you do.   God says, “...so that you can be generous on every occasion...” He wants us to be generous on every occasion.  If that is the case, He will provide us with enough so that not only will our needs be met, but so that we can help meet the needs of others.  Another reason God does this, and I think this is the primary reason He does it, is that our generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. The recipient of our generosity will thank God for it.  I have heard many times after helping someone in need, “Thank God for you.”, or “Thank God that you showed up.”  This thanksgiving to God comes from people who don’t even realize that they believe in Him. 

In promise twenty God says, “... men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else” (v.13).

Men will praise God when they find out who He is through your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity.  He doesn’t say might, or could, but He said, they “will praise God ”.  Again, I think this is the primary reason God does these things for the generous giver, so that people will thank and praise Him.

And finally, in promise twenty-one, God says, “And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you” (v.14).  Notice,  those recipients of your generosity can see the surpassing grace that God has given the generous giver.  It will be evident in his life.  Because of that, not only will they pray,   (that in itself is enough reason to be generous because how can you pray unless you believe) but they will pray for you.  Their hearts will go out to you.  You will have made a new friend, and chances are, if that new friend doesn’t belong to a Church, he might follow you to your Church.  He may become a disciple of Christ, learning himself what it means to be generous, and soon he too can abound in the grace of God.  

Whenever a preacher begins to teach on tithing, 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 is all that he should be speaking about.  Using the word, tithe, even while teaching 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 is incorrect because the word tithe literally means tenth, and giving a tenth is a direct contradiction of 2 Corinthians 9:6-15. It is easy for the preacher to revert to Old Testament, Old Covenant Scriptures to back up their position that we should give our time, money, and resources to them.  2 Corinthians 9:6-15 does speak of giving  offerings to someone else for distribution., “...and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God” (v.11).  however, that is not completely necessary.  The apostle Paul was taking up a special collection for God’s people in Jerusalem because of their extreme poverty there.  There is no evidence that this giving was to continue indefinitely, but there is evidence that it eventually would end.  That is not to say that they would not take up another cause.  Consider the following:

Then Moses summoned Bezalel and Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the LORD had given ability and who was willing to come and do the work. They received from Moses all the offerings the Israelites had brought to carry out the work of constructing the sanctuary. And the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning. So all the skilled craftsmen who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left their work and said to Moses, "The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the LORD commanded to be done."  Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: "No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary." And so the people were restrained from bringing more, because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work. EX 36:2-7

When there was more than enough to complete the work, the people were told to discontinue giving their freewill offerings.  These freewill offerings were given for a specific project.  Once the project had enough money, it was not necessary to continue giving toward it.  I believe the principle is the same today.  God’s people should be willing to give freely, their time, money, and resources, enough to complete specific projects, but no more.  Other projects could be tackled, but these must be appropriate to the work of the church.  I don’t think that God would bless those projects which promote excessive, lavish surroundings, and programs that have nothing to do with saving lives and souls.  The pastor should consider carefully, what he will do with the offerings received, and use them according to sound judgment.  No person should feel compelled to give, but especially to programs which squander away the precious resources of the people of God, and in light of  2 Corinthians 9:6-15, neither should we be taught to tithe.

(1) Whose Money Is It, Anyway? John MacArthur p.140 - Continue Reading

See Also Tithing is for Sissies - By Jared

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