The Generous Christian

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All right, will you turn then to 2 Corinthians chapter 9. Now if I needed to be persuaded that modern translations were necessary, I would turn to just one verse, 2 Corinthians chapter 9 and verse 8.

And that comes from somebody who’s a great lover of the Authorised Version because I certainly think that it’s a great translation and anyone who despises it is foolish. It’s after all the greatest influence in our history for the last 350 years. But having said that, I’m also a believer in modern translations because it is very easy to miss the point of some of these great verses. I remember going into a missionary society where the girl who was sitting at the reception desk, the telefonist, had this verse behind her chair and she had it as a promise. Uh, in the Authorised Version I think that goes: And God is able to make all grace abound to you in all things, that having all sufficiency in all things you may abound to every good work.

And I dare say she’d chosen to have that just behind her because it starts in that lovely way that God is able to make all grace abound to us. And I suppose she had all sorts of tiresome people calling her on the telephone and all sorts of pious and pagan people, sometimes both of them tiresome, calling at her reception desk and she needed to look at that verse and remember the overflowing grace of God that could be her support. And as I did my business at the desk I looked at the verse because I had been studying this particular chapter and I wondered if the girl actually knew what it was about.

I wondered how many people who came to that reception desk had any idea what that precious promise was actually referring to, because it’s not just a general statement that God will give his grace to you in every situation in life, though that’s no doubt true. It’s right down to earth in the context of Paul talking about money matters in the church, talking about Christian generosity, talking about the need to be liberal if we’re disciples of Jesus Christ. I will come on to what that verse actually means in a moment and I shall read from a modern translation but let me tell you how I’ve got to this point when 3 weeks ago we started by studying God’s great generosity and now I’m talking about yours.

Actually we’ve had the privilege, haven’t we, on Tuesdays of looking at 3 of the greatest verses that we could possibly study. I hope you can still remember them. Just to help my own memory I put them down. James 1:5: We looked at the God who gives to all men liberally and upbraids not. And that’s still true.

God will give you wisdom if you ask him. 1 Timothy 6:17: We looked at the God who richly furnishes us with everything to enjoy. And I’m still rejoicing in that great promise of God concerning material life. And last Tuesday we looked at perhaps the greatest of them all, Ephesians 2:4, the God who is rich in mercy, the God whose property is always to have mercy. And we looked at illustrations of that in his mercy to a dead church and his mercy to a, a fairly, um, wicked financier, Zacchaeus.

And if you’ve been at a church which has been celebrating the conversion of Saint Paul during this last weekend, You’ve got there another wonderful illustration of the overflowing mercy of God.

But can we go on talking about the generosity of God right through January and February and not come onto the subject of what kind of a difference it makes to us? You see, this depends on what your picture of the Christian life is. Is our Christian life like a lake with tributaries and little streams flowing into this lake? And filling it up higher and higher and higher. Well, that’s a good picture of Christianity as far as it goes, because God has got to pour into this parched, this parched pool before there’s anything to give.

But the Christian life is also a life of passing on these overflowing waters out to others. So the mark of a person who has received the great generosity of God is that he in a measure should become a generous person.

I had not noticed it, I must confess, until I was actually preaching last week on Zacchaeus. You know the familiar end of the storey, how rather dramatically Zacchaeus stands forth in his drawing room that day when Christ had come in and he says this: Lord, behold, I give to the poor the half of my goods. And if I’ve defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold. Uh, the cynic may very well say that was just basic honesty, returning what he cheated about. Yes, it was, but there was more than that.

There was generosity as well as honesty. He said, I’m now going to give half away of all that I have. Again, the cynic may say he can well afford to do that and still be a very rich man.

One of the things that I’ve learned from investment managers in the city since I became a rector here 14 years ago is that some of our people who come on Tuesdays, whose job in life it is to preserve the savings of rich men and help them in their investments, tell me that it’s very hard to persuade many of these rich men to give.

The mark then of the change in Zacchaeus’s life is really very down-to-earth, basic honesty, giving back what he’d taken, and generosity of the half of his estate.

And I think it is fair to say that if we have received something of the generosity of God in his mercy and grace to us, it will be seen in our generosity with our time and our friendship, yes, and our money to other people.

You would be surprised how much time the apostle Paul takes on this very practical matter and his philosophy of Christian generosity is written in these 2 great chapters 8 and 9 of 2 Corinthians and I want to give in particular 3 serious answers that he gives, constructive answers, to the genuine hesitations that many Christian believers have on this matter of giving. Now may I clear my yardarm on something first of all. I am not going to put up straw men and knock them down. You know the infuriating way that unbelievers have on television of putting up a straw man of what Christians are supposed to believe and then having great joy in knocking it down and then looking at us in a very smug way as though that was rather clever. And they never really come to grips with what Christians really do say.

Some of the representatives of the Christian faith are very feeble, aren’t they, on the television?

I’m not going to put up therefore absurd excuses that people might say about giving. I’m going to put before you genuine feelings that I know I’ve had in my heart and I’m pretty sure you’ve had in yours and the feelings that Christians have had who have shared the generosity of God. Here’s the first and each of these I’m going to give Paul’s constructive and even revolutionary answer.

The first is this: I am not able to give very much. I am not able to give what I used to. I’m not able to give what I would like. Now I fully understand that feeling if it’s in your heart in these inflationary days. I’ve just been down to the Charing Cross Hospital to visit an elderly lady this morning and it cost me 14 shillings of old money there and back on the tube.

14 shillings for a sick visit. And I dare say you find that every day as I do.

Now therefore it is a reasonable thing in these days for the Christian to say, I’m very sorry, I just can’t give what I used to be, I’m not able to. The demands of my family, my house, my clothes, my travel, my rail fare, I can’t manage it.

Paul’s answer to that is in part, a donor rate, in verse 8 of 2 Corinthians 9. Will you look at it and I’m going to read it to you from a modern translation. It is to me the most telling verse on Christian giving in the whole New Testament. It revolutionised my own outlook and I hope that it will have something to say to you. God is able to make it up to you by giving you everything you need and more.

So that there will not only be enough for your own needs but plenty left over to give joyfully to others. God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, and there I make it clear that it’s material blessing, so that 1, you may have enough of everything, and the Greek word simply means sufficiency, you may have sufficient for your needs, and 2, you may provide in abundance for every good work.

Now I don’t know whether you’ve ever noticed that teaching. You see, it’s an absolutely familiar thing in some of the great Christian classics of missionary biography to say that Sensei went out to the mission field and he didn’t have enough money to do the job and he asked God if he would provide the means and God gave him a sufficiency for all his need. Some very exciting storeys like that can be read in Christian classics.

But this verse actually takes us a step further than that. It says that God is able to give us what we need and of course normally he does that through our work and labour and he’s able to give us sufficient to be generous givers.

He there proclaims his ability to keep you in such a sufficient state of life that you will have enough for your needs and your family and enough to be an abundant giver to other people. A revolutionary answer. I am not able to give what I would like but God is able to provide for you. Do you believe that? Have you spoken to God about it?

Have you proved him?

Now here comes the second feeling and this I think I have most certainly felt and I hope that it strikes an echo in your own mind.

This person says, this Christian says, I am not willing to be pressured into giving.

Now I understand this feeling very well. I’m by nature a rebel. When people come onto the television and say that everybody ought to eat that breakfast food, I make sure that’s the one breakfast food I am not going to eat, and I hope you’re like that too. I don’t want to be a sheep, I don’t want to do what everybody is doing, I don’t want to give in to the pressure. Perhaps sometimes that’s rather silly to be so perverse, but there’s so much pressure today, isn’t there?

Everyone’s mounting a campaign to get you into line.

And the church, of course, has caught that bug. And so the church treasurer sees about the church next door that’s had a stewardship campaign, and a charming man has come from an office in London, and you’ve had a tremendous spread, you see. Well, what the food costs, no one knows. And then this man has got up and he said that Mrs. Jones has put the first thing into the kitty and everybody knows that Mrs. Jones hasn’t got 2 pennies to rub together and she’s given £50 and everybody feels pretty rotten.

Or you meet an American Christian and the American Christians are far ahead of us in this matter of giving and you hear that every evangelical church, every Bible-loving church in the States takes it for granted that every member will give a tithe, one-tenth. Hedda Christen was saying to me yesterday that when she went to the States, she was very shocked to be asked for her tenth just like that. You know, it wasn’t a question of, would you be thinking of giving, but, what day of the month does it appear?

Now, are these pressures right? I want to say straight away that there’s no pussyfooting with the Apostle Paul. I don’t know what Paul would have said, you know, with that church correspondence, uh, when we went to decimalization. Do you remember the church treasurers who wrote to the church press saying what on earth was going to happen with the demise of the half crown? They were depending on the half crown, they said.

Any of you are church treasurers today, you’ll know that a half crown from every member every week won’t do anything for you at all.

Incidentally, won’t do anything for us at all on Tuesday either. I didn’t mean to put in that commercial.

Does Paul set a stereotype? Now the answer to that, very interestingly, is that he does not. Paul does not teach the tithe. That Old Testament pattern remains, of course, it has authority, but Paul does not discuss whether the tithe should be from gross income or disposable income. He doesn’t look at it in those terms.

His answer to this question, I am not willing to be pressured, is in verse 7, and a very important answer it is. Let me read it to you who haven’t got a Bible open. Each one must do as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. Now I put it to you that that’s one of the most remarkable statements in the New Testament concerning stereotypes in Christian behaviour. You see, it is much easier to say everybody should give one-tenth and indeed that’s a very challenging level but Paul actually says every Christian must make up his own mind, he must use his brain, he must see what his position is.

And he must come to the conclusion as to what he can give cheerfully and the Greek word is the word that simply is hilariously or exhilaratingly. Now if you can give hilariously and with exhilaration to your church treasurer only, um, half a crown, whatever that is in decimalization, I just can’t work it out. If you can only give that, 12.5p, well you give that. If you can give that willingly, give that. The strange thing you will discover if you’re a young Christian is that having given that willingly, you’re willing to give more the next week.

Paul doesn’t want us to give what we don’t give cheerfully. Giving is not a matter of pressure but pleasure.

So you see that Paul’s answer to that second statement is a very constructive and a very interesting one. I’m not willing to be pressured. No indeed, every man must do what he has thought for himself.

Third statement that people make and that I have certainly made in my own heart: I am not persuaded that my giving will make much difference. Now the vast majority of people who come to St. Helen’s are not rich, the vast majority, including the preacher, and therefore we often feel that our little bit won’t do much good. We even read in the New Testament that certain people have a gift for giving, and that’s not us, we say, looking at our bank account.

And therefore I have been very surprised in reading chapter 9 for myself to see the unblushing way in which the apostle Paul simply lists the results of giving and shows that giving in a real sense is an investment and not a casting away of money.

Now that is not just a gimmicky way of talking. I want to speak from my heart and say that I sincerely believe that in the goodness of God this building of Saint Helen’s is a more important centre of investment, in a sense, than the stock market. Many a person has come into this church and as a result of the work of the Spirit of God has invested their lives into the keeping of Jesus Christ. That investment leaves all other investments in the shade. That’s the most important investment that a man can ever make.

Indeed, after that, many a person following Tuesday has, perhaps with tears, perhaps with difficulty, said to the Lord, take that part of my life. Some have even come right down to the level of the pocketbook. And they have never regretted the investment that they have made into the cause of Jesus Christ. The results are remarkable of this kind of investment. We’ve only time to glance at them.

First, in verse 8, Paul says that one of the results of this investment is to give to every good work, the work of God, which will certainly not survive without money.

And even more important, we give not only to the work of God but verse 12, to the saints of God. It supplies the wants of the saints. Now let me ask you, do you suppose that Almighty God will be a debtor to those who supply the needs of his work and his people? Do you suppose so? It would be a very strange God if he did so.

Look at the second remarkable dividend from Christian giving. It comes twice in verse 11 and 12. It will produce, he says, thanksgiving to God and then even more strikingly at the end of verse 12, he will supply the wants of the saints but also it overflows in many thanksgivings to God. Isn’t that an extraordinary thought? Whoever imagined that our giving could be the cause, the fuel if you like, in the flame of the worship that many people put up to Almighty God.

The thanksgiving of that person or that Christian, those people engaged in Christian work, that missionary ascending that morning to God because their needs were met, all because we were faithful.

Even more striking, verse 13, he says, well, just you read verse 13 while you’ve got your Bible open and I’ll find it in the modern translation. I like it very much. Is yours? By the way, at home, a strong church for doctrine, well then read this: 2 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 13: Those you help will be glad, not only because of your generous gifts to themselves and to others, but they will praise God for this proof that your deeds are as good as your doctrine. Do you come from a church or an assembly or a chapel at home where the doctrine from the pulpit is good?

I hope you do. Are the deeds as good as the doctrine?

Well, the treasurer may be the only one who can tell you that.

Treasurers get a remarkable insight into Christian reality.

So do Christian bank managers, so do bank managers whether Christian or not.

My time is gone but you will see from verse 14 that these people to whom we give long for us and pray for us. In other words, our gifts to others produce the love and prayers of others for ourselves and generally speaking, as you will see from this whole passage, Paul talks of the fruit and enormous harvest that comes from those that sow in generosity and lest we should keep our eyes on ourselves as we finish, he climaxes that very practical argument by lifting his eyes up to heaven in verse 15. 15 and saying, thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift. They’re of course referring to Jesus Christ. So if the centre of Christian doctrine and truth is the gift of God to men in Christ, perhaps we may say not unfairly that the centre of Christian living is the outflow of generosity from the Christian heart to his fellow men in interest, love, prayers, time, hospitality, Yes, and in hard cash.

Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift. Thanks be to God that he can turn a Zacchaeus into a generous giver. Thanks be to God that he can give us enough for ourselves and enough to be generous givers. Let’s pray.

God loves a cheerful giver. We thank thee for that very practical insight this morning, our heavenly Father.

We thank thee that as we cheerfully and lovingly give to others of what thou hast given to us, so we can be assured that in heaven there is joy and pleasure. We thank thee for that.

We ask that the Christians who live and work in the city may be known here and in their families and through their children and through their influence as generous people. And we ask that the investment of this kind may reap a tremendous harvest in the short and in the long term. We ask it through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.