May 5 - What’s Wrong with False Giving? - Devotional

GracetoYou.org ^ | 2008 | John MacArthur, Grace Community Church

[metmom]

“‘When you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full’” (Matthew 6:2).

Giving to the poor literally means any act of mercy, but it came to mean more specifically the giving of money or goods to the needy. Jesus did not say “if” but “when” concerning our giving—in other words, He expects us to do so. But just as sympathy for the needy does not help them unless something is actually done toward their need, so giving money provides us no spiritual blessing unless done from the heart.

Those who, like the Pharisees, give to impress others with their piety and generosity will receive no further reward. When we give with this false motive, we receive back only what people can give; we thereby forfeit God’s blessings.

Many times, of course, the pretense people use to draw attention to or make an impression with their giving is not so obvious. They know, especially if they profess to follow Christ, that other Christians will resent ostentatiousness. So they seek to make their giving “accidentally” noticed. But any strategy designed to draw attention is still a basic form of trumpet-blowing hypocrisy, which can appear in vari-ous forms. Whenever we make a point of doing our giving publicly to be noticed, rather than doing it privately simply for God’s reward, we behave more like the hypo-crites of Jesus’ day, not like His children.

Ask Yourself

What are some of the ways that giving can be done for personal recognition, even within the decorum of outward humility? How does one guard against this need for acknowledgment? What are we forgetting when we’re tempted to crave the credit for every dollar we share with others?

From Daily Readings from the Life of Christ, Vol. 1, John MacArthur. Copyright © 2008. Used by permission of Moody Publishers, Chicago, IL 60610, www.moodypublishers.com.

[metmom]

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[mrobisr]

“What are some of the ways that giving can be done for personal recognition”

I know I am going to get smoked for this comment, but it is my personal belief, you do as you may. I do not claim my donations as tax deductions because I see it as getting earthly recognition. I am not saying it is illegal, but if you get your reward on earth then there is no reward left in heaven and that is where I want my reward. Each to his own, but I want my Lord to reward me not this temporary world.

Flame away!

[metmom]

I understand.

We claim it not for the recognition but because the government allows it and it gives us more money back to use for God’s kingdom, as opposed to allowing the government to use it for Satan’s.

If we choose to give anonymously, then the cash goes into the basket and nobody knows.

To each their own.

[dynachrome]

“I do not claim my donations as tax deductions”

I am with you on this. Is it really charity if you have to be rewarded by the gov’t?

[MurphsLaw]

Well I know I'm gonna get smoked for this; and I incriminate myself in a non- debate format...
But CS Lewis many years ago noted that our alms giving to the poor is mostly inadequate- As we really only give charitably from our excess- and not of a true sacrificing intent.
Sure enough, no trumpets should sound, and the one hand should not know what the other is doing-
But Lewis goes much deeper in noting that the rule for giving should be to "give more than we can spare.
In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc, is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own,
we are probably giving away too little.
If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us,
I should say they are too small.
There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charitable expenditure excludes them."

So who wants to be that kind of charitable Christian?

[FreshPrince]

Simply stated, give till it hurts. That’s not ez to do

[YogicCowboy]

Jesus did not say “if” but “when” concerning our giving—in other words, He expects us to do so.

---

Jesus did not say “if” but “when” concerning our fasting—in other words, He expects us to do so.

This is from the same context, using the same language.

Yet long ago I could not persuade my pastor to preach even one sermon on fasting; he rejected it as works righteousness.

[YogicCowboy]

I entered ministry in my teens; things like this were therefore on my mind. Before I left high school, I decided against claiming tithes, and I have never claimed one penny in tax deductions - ever.

The Bible says, Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.

It does not say, Give unto God what is God’s - with a nice tax incentive from Caesar.

The 1954 Johnson Amendment was, in my considered opinion, a modern kind of 30 Pieces of Silver: That evil man, Lyndon “Bane” Johnson, knew he was buying the silence of conservative, orthodox Christian pastors on social and political issues - and he was right. That is a major reason our nation is in the state it is.

I have never made my position some sort of demand upon others: I do not condemn those who take tax deductions; I also do not permit those others to demand I retract my above convictions.

[YogicCowboy]

Please see 9.

[metmom]

And yet you can hardly find a church that doesn’t use the passage in Micah to endorse tithing.

Ironic…..

[MurphsLaw]

It does not say, Give unto God what is God’s - with a nice tax incentive from Caesar.

No, but it does say “Render to Caesar the things THAT ARE Caesar’s...

Now, if Caesar says- by passing a law- Caesar thinks its wrong for the little people to render unto the government 501c taxes... then Caesar is saying that this is NOT of his need- and therefore should not, and does not, need to be rendered unto him.

Anyway- why would you want to give more money to Caesar than he asks, just so that he can put it in the pockets of Planned Unparenthood and BLM...

Think it this way- Why not then just take that 501c tax money saved, and give that away charitably as well, rather than feeling if keeping it diminishes the giving?
Win-win?