Giving, 2 Cor 8-9

Themes from 2 Corinthians

Giving

2 Cor 8-9

I hope to eventually look at the principles for giving as found in 2 Corinthians. It will take us a while to get there.

Many people try to isolate what is taught about giving in this book of 2Cor from what is taught elsewhere in the scriptures.

They say that under the New Covenant grace has been straightened and old requirements have been taken away in Christ and a new law of love is all we have to concern ourselves with. As a general statement that is true. But as we examine the scriptures, and let God's words define love, love to him is keeping his commandments. And those commandments are not just the letter of the law, they teach us about things more broadly than themselves, or about things in place before the Law was given.

Our New Covenant friends do not like the doctrine of the Sabbath and like even less any talk about tithing. Both of those realities were an important life of the faithful prior to the giving of the law at Sinai. We find the Sabbath being reintroduced to the wilderness wanderers. It had been given at creation and had been in place from the seventh day in perpetuity. So too the tithe. People find this interesting, but dismiss it out of hand because it does not fit the presupposed view of giving that they have been taught--a view that seeks to deny and diminish any practical doctrine that has any old Covenant aire about it.

I want to consider the context of giving in the scriptures by looking at:

1. Antiquity: Pre-Law use of the tithe in society and the ancient scriptures

2. In the Old Covenant: Post Law

3. In the New Covenant: Incarnational and apostolic teaching

4. Biblical assumptions about giving:

Let's look at the details:

1. Antiquity: Pre-Law use of the tithe in society and the ancient scriptures

Before the giving of the Law as either civil code or ceremonial code there were moral instructions given to all men by virtue of creation and to particular groups of people by virtue of revelation.

The oldest legal library we have available to us is the library of the Assyrian King of the 7th century B.C. His name is Ashirbanapol. He is also know by a series of other names depending on what language one finds him mentioned in.

Ashirbanapol read many of the works contained in his library. Scholars aat the Brittish Museum have dated some of the works to be as old as 10,000B.C. Ashirpanipol believed that he read cuneiform texts written before the great flood. Isn't it great to have an ancient library that verifies what we find in the scriptures? We don't need to verification to believe, but it helps when doing apologetics. In this library are these texts and they mention the tithe as something found universally and unquestioned in the ancient world. Even in his time, Ashirpanipol did not comment on the tithe as odd, or unhelpful, or illegal. He assumes it to be business as usual--what leaders have always expected of their people.

But, we also have Moses writings telling us about Abraham, the Patriarch, giving a tenth or a tithe of all his plunder to the king of Salem--Melchizadek. Gen 14:20 reads: 20 and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!"And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

Melchizadek was a priest of the Most High God.

We could stop here for quite a while to show the identity of this Most High God. He is the one to whom Israel pledged themselves. When they obeyed, they pleased the Most High God. When they did not obey, He was displeased with them. We find both of these perspectives revealed in the Psalms.

• Psalm 78:35 They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God their redeemer.
• Psalm 78:56 Yet they tested and rebelled against the Most High God and did not keep his testimonies,

In the book of Daniel we have the God of Israel referered to as the Most High God at least five times. It is used in the NT as well. This shows a high degree of continuity with the way God was followed in the Old Covenant. There is continuity between the Old Testament and the New in a lot of unspoken or assumed ways.

Gen 14:20 is cited referenced in Hebrews 7:2-6: 2 and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of the city of peace--the king of Jerusalem. 

3 He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever. 

4 See how great this man was to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils! 

5 And those descendants of Levi who receive the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people, that is, from their brothers, though these also are descended from Abraham. 

6 But this man who does not have his descent from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises.

Did you catch verse 5? In the Law, the priests were given a command to take tithes from the people. This takes the tithing principle and makes it some sort of law among God's ancient people. The tithe we find in the OT, is the same tithe that we find among God's people in antiquity.

John Gill calls Abraham's tithe the first recorded. But since Gill's time, more tithes and evidence of the language have been found. They were a part of economic life in ancient Mesopotamian and Near East civilizations. I would use the language of more probable than not, but that phrase has recently fell on hard times.

2. In the Old Covenant: Post Law

If the tithes were given to the Levites, and they were in the place of an inheritance of land. This is the use of most occurrences of tithe or tenth in the Old Testament.

This makes the Law of the Tithe as one that transcends the ceremonial and civil. And, when we consider what is found near the end of the Old Economy, we find it may be part of the moral law under the commandment "You shall not steal."

Turn to Malachi Chapter Three. Let's start at verse 6 "For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. 

7 From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. But you say, 'How shall we return?' 

8 Will man rob God? Think about that? God is out of our sight; we are not out of God's. He knows everything we think and do. He knows our hearts and he knows when we try to cheat Him or rob from Him. Can people still do this today?

8b Yet you are robbing me. But you say, 'How have we robbed you? 'In your tithes and contributions. 

In Israel, after the return to the land, withholding the tithe was an act of theft. It was not from Israel, though they possessed the storehouses. To steal by withholding the tithe was an act of moral failure against God's Moral Law and therefore against God Himself. He took it personally.

9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. 

10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. 

TO provide for the place of worship and those who serve is one of the most important things to God throughout his dealings with his people. This is still true in the New Covenant.

Consider Jesus's teachings in the Gospel and the Apostles who followed.

Matthew 23:23: we find

3. In the New Covenant: Incarnational and apostolic teaching

Among Jesus words of condemnation to the Pharisees we read: Matt 23:23 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.

They tithed little itty-bitty things like how many herbs and spices they grew. They considered this as among the 230+ laws that defined righteous living. Jesus commends them for doing this--it was actually required by the law as a means for providing for the poor. What Jesus condemns was their failure to also pursue the deeper or weightier matters of the Law, like justice and mercy. They ought to have tithed. The word translated ought has the force of ethical demand behind it. If they truly loved God as God wanted to be loved, they would have done both--tithed and sought mercy and justice and faithfulness. 

The Pharisees were right where they followed the Law by tithing. Interesting. But, all the while they were right on one thing, they were dead wrong on others.

There are a number of applications that could be made about the modern church in this regard. They are content with a little bit of obedience to God, a little bit of faithfulness to feel close to God, and all the while their hearts are far from him.

They give only to get in return--a feeling of God's presence--misunderstood by a little religious experience.

Consider the timeless truth of Prov 3:9: 9 Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce;

The tithe is called by at least three names in scripture. Someone searching concordances for the tithe word group would miss an important part of the biblical teaching. The word groups are tithe, to give 10%, the actual percentage--a tenth, or what the first tithe was called--the firstfruits.

The tithe was expressed in many ways back in an economy based on farming and work. It was not a cash and credit economy like we have today.

The tenth is the percentage of the tithe--10%. It is the word we found in Gen 14:20 describing what Abraham gave to Melchidodek.

The firstfruits are the first crops to grow, the firstling to be born and in some cases the first of gifts given.

These three words give us the fullness of how the scriptures view giving. We find it in the Old, commended by the words of Christ, relevant for the early church by its inclusion in Matthew. A gospel penned before 60AD to remind aristocratic Greek-speaking Jews about the life and ministry of Jesus.

So, the doctrine of tithing is an old and deep doctrine gleaned from general revelation and special revelation, especially as it was linked with God's timeless moral Law.

4. Biblical assumptions about giving:

So, when the New Testament writes about giving, it would have generally been understood as including, but not necessarily limited to tithing. I believe we are taught to at least tithe in this age with straightened grace where the spirit of the Law is braoder than the Law itself.

2 Corinthians 8

The Cheerful Giver

6 The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 

7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 

8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. 

9 As it is written, "He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever." 

10 He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. 

11 You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. 

12 For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. 

13 By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission flowing from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, 

14 while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you. 

15Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!.

There is a spiritual side to this language that reminds us of a more important side of life: It is where the idea of firstfruits is spiritualized and we find Jesus being given as a gift for his people so that we can also give ourselves to God and to his church.

Together we are the priesthood who offer all that they are and all that they have as spiritual sacrifices on God's holy altar. We are all at the table of offering giving our spiritual service.

Rom 12:1-2 using another kind of language for giving, Paul wrote: I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 

2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Jesus wants more than your tithe--He wants all of you.