Since Wednesday of last week, there has been a constant theme that has run through my personal devotions, Sunday school, and a couple of Facebook messenger conversations – the wonder of God’s grace. Let me begin this devotional by saying that I have matured a lot in my walk with the Lord Jesus Christ, but I have a long way to go. There are areas where I still need to grow and I have faith in the abilities of God that He will craft me and mold me into the man who He has called me to be. While I am not a perfect man, I am not the man who I was even five years ago. When I was at a marketing training seminar for a non-profit organization, one of the speakers made a profound statement that has a spiritual application: if you’re not growing, you’re in the process of dying.
The Law brings about death; even the apostle Paul warned about weight of the Law that so many people seek to put themselves and others in: The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law (I Corinthians 15:56) and if that was not a strong enough, the apostle James wrote, For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all (James 2:10). So, even if one could keep the Law without offending even the finest points of it, Paul also wrote Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace (Galatians 5:4). What Paul is saying is that if we try to live according to the Law we are actually choosing to be judged according to the Law and not salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, looking to the writings and teachings of Paul, Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin (Romans). Paul even reiterated this in a letter to the early Christians at Galatia: Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified (Galatians 2:16).
During a conversation last week, the topic came up about obedience and salvation; the person I was talking with actually claimed that he did not believe that someone can be saved if they are not tithing, as tithing is required in both the Old and New Testaments. While I do believe that the giving of tithes and offering are an important part of our obedience to the Lord, I always get a little angry when the focus is placed on the tithe, being 1/10th of a Christian’s income and not on where God places the emphasis – out of the proper “heartset” of humbleness, joy, and willingly giving to the Lord. From the second book of the Old Testament, God’s desire is our giving be out of a willing heart than out of feeling duty-bound: Take ye from among you an offering unto the LORD: whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it, an offering of the LORD; gold, and silver, and brass (Exodus 35:5). Paul wrote along similar lines to the early Christians at the church in Corinth: Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver (II Corinthians 9:7). God’s plan has never changed, it is not the amount that is placed in the offering plate but it is the attitude that’s in the believer’s heart that actually matters to the Lord.
God places the importance on the attitude of the giver and not on the size of the tithes and offerings. Through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the prophet Micah wrote: Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? (Micah 6:6-8). Our obedience out of a willing and eager heart is what God truly desires. King Saul, in all his strength, power, and understanding had to learn this lesson the hard way. After being told to utterly destroy the Amalekites and not to take any prisoners or spoils, Saul captured their king and brought back tremendous wealth and justified his actions by telling Samuel that he was going to offer all the spoils to the Lord. And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offering and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams (I Samuel 15:22). The Lord would rather have our obedience out of a willing and cheerful heart than to offer anything based on disobedience or from a heart whose giving is only from adherence to the letter of the Law.
Within the life and earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus there is a story recorded in the gospel of Luke that illustrates this teaching clearly. As Jesus was at the doors of the temple in Jerusalem teaching those who had come to listen, he saw a group of men placing their tithes and offerings into the temple’s treasury. As they passed by, an old widow came in and placed two mites, basically two Roman pennies, into the same area where the men had just tossed their offerings. Luke records: And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had (Luke 21:1-4). Now the Bible does not tell us if they were Pharisees or Scribes, but it does shed light on the woman’s gift. It was not the amount of money she placed in the treasury that caused her to become a part of the Bible’s narrative, but the condition of her heart as she placed two pennies into the temple treasury. She gave out of a willing heart that simply wanted to honor the Lord. The men that were before her probably gave their tithe of 1/10th of their increase and probably gave above that (which is considered an offering), but they gave out of their abundance and out of an adherence to the Law and not out of their faith or love for the Lord. It was by the grace of God alone that her giving was seen as being of more spiritual value than the financial value of the giving of the men before her.
It really is that simple as the old woman found out; want to see the grace of God in your life? Want to see Him honor what you’re able to do for and give Him? Then whatever it is that you do or give, make sure your heart is doing it for the right reason. God would rather have you give and do willingly and out of love than to have you to do anything because you feel its required.
Last month, I began teaching a new Sunday School class at my church. Although I have never been to Bible college, I have served as a fill-in pastor for two Baptist and one United Methodist churches since I surrendered my life to Christ in 1988. About a year and a half ago, my pastor approached me with the idea and vision of starting a new Sunday School class. At the time, I did my best to give the Pastor every reason I could think of not to do the new class. It wasn’t because I didn’t know how to study the Bible or to create lessons and present them to a group of people. Between pastoring and teaching at the college level, those things come as almost a second nature. What made it different is that since 2006 I rededicated my life to the Lord.
