Giving

DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE PHILIPPIANS

GIVING

Phil 4:14-19

14 Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles. 15 Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only; 16 for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need. 17 Not that I am looking for a gift, but I am looking for what may be credited to your account. 18 I have received full payment and even more; I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. 19 And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

NIV

This is part of the concluding remarks specifically to the Philippians because of their giving to the ministry of Paul. This brings up an interesting thought. It is apparent Paul knew it was the church in Philippi who sent him some support, perhaps in the form of money, or other material goods. However, we are also admonished that in our giving to the poor we are not to let our right hand know what our left hand is doing. In other words, our giving, at least to the poor, should be done in secret, so no one knows we gave, or how much we gave. This would mean no reason for someone to keep a record of our giving so we can take a tax credit at the end of the year. Jesus made sure to let us know that if we announce our giving, to be honored by men, we will already have received our reward. The question which arises from this is what does giving to the needy mean. The Greek word suggests a charity to the poor or giving alms. Is that different than our tithes and offering within the church? It would seem so, as this would be an independent giving to someone who is in need, the poor, who have no source of income themselves, they rely solely on the support of others, beggars as they would be called in that time and culture, such as Lazarus who was outside the rich man’s house. Still, this modern concept of recording our tithe so we can have a receipt at the end of the year for a tax write off may still constitute having already received our reward plus being honored by men. We have witnessed all too often the larger givers in the church being honored by the pastor, or are chosen to be on the church board or in some other way given special treatment. This is not to say we should not give, for the scripture commands us to give. The issue of tithing has often been a subject of debate as it is not actually spoken of in the New Testament, as it was in the Old Testament. Yet, those who lead the church, such as men like Paul deserve to receive support, as they labor full time for the sake of the gospel. However, Paul even said on occasion that he supported himself making tents along with Priscila and Aquila so as not to be a burden on those he was ministering to. What all this seems to come down to is that there is no hard-fast rule about the financial matters in the church. Yet, the Philippians, as the church as a whole send gifts to Paul. It was not a matter of individuals, but the whole church. Then we might think it would still be appropriate to give to the church so the church as a whole could support either pastors or in giving to the needy, but this would be simply giving from the heart, rather than from a rule. This giving then also should be done so the right hand does know what the left hand is doing which would mean giving without anyone knowing who it is who is giving. In our culture, that would have to translate to a cash offering, giving, and if we what to call it, tithing. Then we would never be in danger of being honored by men, as well as we could be sure, that our God would meet all our needs according to his riches in Christ Jesus.