Ancient Faith - The Radical Generosity of Early Christians
1 Amens
2 Corinthians 9:6-15: “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 made up his mind, 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 for all your generosity, 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 Because of the proof given by this ministry, 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. 15 Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!”
INTRODUCTION
The last several weeks we have taken a break from the normal expository preaching so that we might back up, or back out a bit to see the big picture of God’s redemption. The goal in our talking about the drama of redemption is to assist each of you in seeing the plan of God from creation to new creation.
We have spoken about this great story of God’s redemptive plan so that our personal stories find their significance within this greater story, God’s story. We spoke quite a bit about mission as a centerpiece of God’s activity as He works through us to refashion a world for His glory.
Last week I spoke about our vision and mission as a church. In doing so, I’m praying that each of you who considers Kaleo home, begins to live out this vision and mission for your own life.
This week we are going to talk about generosity. More specifically, we are going to be speaking about financial generosity.
From Thanksgiving to New Years Day is typically the traditional time to talk about money, since most churches are thinking through their budget and praying over the decisions the church must make for their next year. But, since we are usually 15 minutes late for every Kaleo event, it is in keeping with our timing that we would speak about this topic 15 days past when we should have!
Now, with that said, I realize that speaking about money is not a popular thing in our culture, especially if that discussion is led by a religious organization or group. Over the last three years we have not spoken much about financial generosity because we are aware of the stigma that is attached with this topic, as well as my own discomfort in talking about finances due to my personal hang-ups and issues with televangelists and snake oil salesmen. I also have heard many say that they are pleased that we don’t continuously beat people up over the issue on a weekly basis. However, whatever my discomfort, or the discomfort of our culture in speaking about this topic, if we are to faithfully pursue Christ and His word, we have to come to grips with this issue at some point. Since last week was spent looking at the ministries and missions that God has brought to our family, it is silly for me to ignore the obvious by dismissing how we are going to accomplish these activities without dealing with a radical shift in how we view generosity in the whole of our lives.
Also, so many of our problems that we face in our personal lives are the result of an inappropriate view of generosity and money. Marriages, companies, churches and organizations are all responsible for thinking through their perception of money and how it is to be spent and used. Since most marriages and organizations don’t spend enough time coming to a conviction about their perception of money, there are numerous problems that arise from these unsettled convictions.
Additionally, the Bible has much to say about money and our attitude towards it. If we are going to be faithful to Scripture, and Scripture speaks so much about money, then it is disingenuous for us as a church to sidestep the issue because we are uncomfortable talking about it. We must look to God for His wisdom and counsel on money and how we are to examine our attitudes towards it. We don’t want to be imbalanced and unfaithful as a church, and we don’t want lives that are beset by troubles with money to be ignored because of the mishandling of teaching about financial generosity. If so much of our lives and so much of the Bible is about this subject, then we simply have to talk about it so God can work in areas of our hearts that we have attempted to keep Him from being Lord over.
In a nutshell, the Bible essentially tells us this: there can be no significant spiritual growth, unless you put your money and your attitude towards it in God’s hands. It is simply too big and too pivotal an issue for you and I to attempt to be our own Kings over. God asks for us to give Him all of our lives, including sex and money, which are the two issues in our day that most do not want Him to be sovereign over.
STUDY
There are a number of passages that speak to us about putting our money and attitudes towards it in God’s hands, but we’re going to stick with 2 Corinthians 9:6-15. The reason we picked this passage is because it speaks to us about a peculiar form of generosity. It is the mark of a Christian to be radically generous.
This passage teaches us about:
- The impact of our generosity (what are the effects of generosity?)
- The motivation for our generosity (where does it come from?)
- The measure of our generosity (how do you know if you’re generous?)
I. THE IMPACT OF OUR GENEROSITY
We see in chapter 8 that Paul is raising money for famine relief in
Paul is saying that the impact of this generosity is two-fold. Not only will there be saints that are physically fed, but in verse 13 we see that “they will glorify God…”
It’s two-fold because it not only feeds people, it causes them to praise God.
We are made as beings that are body and soul. We are both material as well as immaterial beings. We are not just a bag of chemicals. We are beings who were not yet alive until God breathed into us the breath of life. We are more than just material chemicals and therefore we have longings and hungers in us that are not met simply by material resources. We know this. If this is not true, there is ultimately no need to concern ourselves with other bags of chemicals. I would have the right to treat other human beings as nothing more than a glob of material stuff which can be disposed of or handled in any which way I see fit. The fact that we don’t live like this shows us that we have value that surpasses the number of cells we can count.
There are two ways to help people. The Church has always helped the body. Where the Church was living and acting as it was and is called, there was and is a tremendous impact upon the culture it found itself living in. In these places, if the Church left, it would have immediate and lasting negative consequences. But unlike any other institution which may help the body, the Church has the unique responsibility and ability to help both the body and the soul—the material and immaterial.
The Church is uniquely called and qualified to provide for the physical needs of man as well as the spiritual needs. It can give food and clothing, things that are intensely practical, but it can simultaneously provide meaning and purpose for feeding the body. In other words, the Church alone can diagnose, prescribe, and supply all that man needs as an integrated whole.
This is incredibly important because we are not only able to assist someone with real and necessary needs, but we can go beyond this and explain why we exist as beings. The effects on the lives of those who are being cared for are changed by meeting immediate needs which draws them to their ultimate need—Jesus Christ.
It is important that we see this as our responsibility to care for both. If people are not told the big picture—why they exist, what their place is in the universe, what the meaning is in life, what our purpose is, and how we know what is right and wrong, good and bad—then they are not being cared for fully. They are not really being fed in a profound way. Christ’s Church is able to do that, unlike any other institution.
One of the great movements that is happening in our day is occurring in
There are many good famine relief projects that have attempted to care for the poor in Latin America and have done some great work in caring for physical needs, but these people are being radically converted to Christ by the thousands and joining protestant churches that teach the Bible as true, Christ as God and only Savior, the new birth, and God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is exploding.
Why?
Two sociologists have commented that it is because ancient Christianity is incredibly empowering. The poor realize that whether you are socially high or low, we are all sinners before God. They also realize that no matter who you are socially, in Christ you are equally important to God. They see that they have power for the present, and hope for the future through Jesus to face their lives now and to come. Whole families are coming to Christ and villages are being won over to Jesus. This brings families together, economic conditions change, the way children and women are treated changes, because they are having the big issues dealt with. They are not only feeding these people, they are leading them to praise God in a way that involves the entire life. They realize that unless there is a reason to praise, they aren’t really full, since the stomach isn’t enough.
The Roman world in Paul’s time was beginning to disintegrate because it couldn’t provide for “meaning” needs. It couldn’t carry the weight of a culture that had to find a purpose for its existence beyond the entertainment or political structure that
This has been the case through New Testament and world history. Wherever the Church grew in purity, it resulted in greater generosity, which caused it to reach out to people and meet the needs of their body and soul—the material and immaterial, and only the Church of Christ can do that.
There would be nothing greater for
When the Church becomes what it ought to be, there is a magnetism and attraction to the Church that causes people to want to inquire within, and the key is radical generosity.
Twenty to thirty years after the Apostle John died, there was a letter written to explain what was going on in the spread of the Church. It was a description of the church that was immensely attractive and gives us a glimpse as to how the Church grew so rapidly and caused many to be curious about Christ. It is called:
The Epistle to Diognetus, c. AD 130
“For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity. The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life.
“They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others and yet suffer all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all others; they beget children; but they do not destroy their babies. They share their table with all, but not their bed with all. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their exemplary lives. They love all men and yet are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death and restored to life. They are poor yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things and yet abound in all; they are dishonored and yet in their very dishonor are glorified. They are evil spoken of and yet are justified; they are reviled and bless; they are insulted and repay the insult with honor; they do good yet are punished as evildoers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred. To sum it all up in one word—what the soul is to the body, that are Christians in the world.”
When you look read this letter you see four things that mark their life:
1- A Complete Absence of Racism
“Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers.”
The Christians were Jews, Africans, Greeks, and Romans, but they were Christians first, then Jews and Africans second. Christianity gives you a higher sense of identity than your homeland, and a higher loyalty than your race. It gives you the ability to critique your nation and race because your nation and race are not primary, they are secondary. Christians can appreciate other cultures, yet be critical of their own. They no longer aboslutized their nation or race as the best and this cut racism at the root.
2- A High View of Life
“they do not destroy their babies.”
Back then, you could kill your babies if they were unwanted or the wrong gender by throwing them in the dung pile out back or taking them down to the river and tossing them in it. Also, in Roman culture it was permissible for you to kill a slave without having to answer for it since they were considered walking tools, or human animals. Christians saw every life, no matter how unwanted or expendable, as absolutely valuable and of incredible worth.
3- They Had an Unusual View of Sex
“They share their table with all, but not their bed with all.”
The third reason that people looked at them so strangely was because they had such an unusual view of sex. The pagan opinion about sex was that it was nothing more than an appetite. When you’re hungry you eat. When you’re thirsty you drink. When you’re feeling amorous you have sex. This was their idea about sex, so they had various sexual practices that fed their “appetites.”
Christians came along with a radically different sex ethics and basically taught that sex was God’s appointed means to show that you belong completely, permanently and exclusively to your spouse. Sex was viewed by the Christian as a celebration, as a complete and permanent demonstration of the closeness of the commitment to one another in the bonds of love. What is so odd about this is that in
4- These Christians were Radically Generous
“They share their table with all… They are poor yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things and yet abound in all…”
These early Christians were marked by eye-popping generosity. They were radically generous and people couldn’t believe how giving they were with all things.
They changed the way they looked at their having so little. They were short of everything yet had plenty of everything. This meant they had so little because they gave everything away and yet were happy with what little they had. They were content.
How did
People would look at them and ask what happened inside of them that made them so quick to give their lives and money away.
Let me read another early description of Christians.
From the Apology of Tertullian, AD 197
“We are a body knit together as such by a common religious profession, by unity of discipline, and by the bond of a common hope. We meet together as an assembly and congregation, that, offering up prayer to God as with united force, we may wrestle with Him in our supplications. This strong exertion God delights in. We pray, too, for the emperors, for their ministers and for all in authority, for the welfare of the world, for the prevalence of peace, for the delay of the final consummation. We assemble to read our sacred writings… and with the sacred words we nourish our faith, we animate our hope, we make our confidence more steadfast; and no less by inculcations of God’s precepts we confirm good habits. In the same place also exhortations are made, rebukes and sacred censures are administered. For with a great gravity is the work of judging carried on among us, as befits those who feel assured that they are in the sight of God; and you have the most notable example of judgment to come when anyone has sinned so grievously as to require his severance from us in prayer, in the congregation and in all sacred intercourse. The tried men of our elders preside over us, obtaining that honour not by purchase but by established character. There is no buying and selling of any sort in the things of God. Though we have our treasure-chest, it is not made up of purchase-money, as of a religion that has its price. These gifts are…not spent on feasts, and drinking-bouts, and eating-houses, but to support and bury poor people, to supply the wants of boys and girls destitute of means and parents, and of old persons confined now to the house; such, too, as have suffered shipwreck; and if there happen to be any in the mines or banished to the islands or shut up in the prisons, for nothing but their fidelity to the cause of God's Church, they become the nurslings of their confession. But it is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us. See, they say, how they love one another, for they themselves are animated by mutual hatred. See, they say about us, how they are ready even to die for one another, for they themselves would sooner kill.”
Again, this is a view of radical generosity that could not be matched by the worldview or practices of pagan thought.
Sociologist Rodney Stark analyzed the survival and growth of the
". . . Christianity served as a revitalization movement that arose in response to the misery, chaos, fear, and brutality of life in the urban Greco-Roman world… Christianity revitalized life in Greco-Roman cities by providing new norms and new kinds of social relationships able to cope with many urgent problems. To cities filled with the homeless and impoverished, Christianity offered charity as well as hope. To cities filled with newcomers and strangers, Christianity offered an immediate basis for attachment. To cities filled with orphans and widows, Christianity provided a new and expanded sense of family. To cities torn by violent ethnic strife, Christianity offered a new basis for social solidarity. And to cities faced with epidemics, fire, and earthquakes, Christianity offered effective nursing services… For what they brought was not simply an urban movement, but a new culture capable of making life in Greco-Roman cities more tolerable." Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity, Princeton University Press, 1996, page 161
I want us to stop here for a moment and ask some pressing questions that must be answered truthfully by every person who claims to be a follower of Jesus Christ.
How do people look at us? Is the Gospel spreading through
If not, could it be that we don’t have the depth of motivation acting upon our hearts and minds that these early Christians did? Perhaps we simply have not really unpacked the Gospel and all that it means.
II. THE MOTIVATION FOR OUR GENEROSITY
Verse 13: “By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission flowing from your confession of the gospel of Christ”
Something happened to these people. Something different was working upon the hearts and minds of these Christians which motivated them to be generous.
Motivation is a motor that drives you. What is it that is so unique in Christianity that it drives Christians to be radically generous? There are two motives that are operating upon a Christian who understands the Gospel and change their attitude and actions concerning money and generosity—creation and redemption.
Creation- Verse 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.”
God made all things, and God has given not only life and breath, air and lungs, cells and a mind, but also all your goods. He has given you all that you need and all that you have. Even if our culture tells you that you earned it and deserve to buy this thing or that vacation, God essentially says, “What did you earn?” The air you breath was supplied by a free gift of God, the mind you use, the clothes you have, the food you ate, and the fact that you were born where you were as opposed to 1,000 years ago on a mountain in Tibet is from God’s good grace.
Everything you have is from God’s goodness towards you. And God asks you now to share it. If it’s a gift, then you really have no right to hoard it. We discipline selfishness out of our children. When you give your child a bar of chocolate and then ask for a piece, what is your response when you ask and your child says “no, it’s mine!” You’re probably thinking to yourself, “You’ve got to be kidding me!”
We view our money much like little children view their candy bar. We are given these gifts from God and when He asks us to share what He has freely given to us, we say, “No, it’s mine!”
This is as silly as someone who says to you that they will give you a 5,000 square foot home in
How about a good friend coming over to your house and telling you that they just won the quick lotto for a million dollars and they want to give you 900,000 of it and keep 100,000 for themselves. Would you say “What? How dare you try to keep that 100,000 for yourself!” No, you would be thankful if your friend bought you a coffee with that money since they didn’t have to give you anything at all.
What God has given us is His, not ours. Since it is His, whatever He asks for us to share of His good gifts, we should share without complaining or being under compulsion.
1 Corinthians 4:7: “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?”
Redemption- Verse 13: “Because of the proof given by this ministry”
The way you know if you have experienced the grace of God is if you are radically generous.
2 Corinthians 8:8-9: “I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. 9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”
Paul is saying that if you need to be commanded to give, you haven’t experienced the grace of God. A proof of our faith in Christ and what He’s done on our behalf is that we no longer have orphan ideology and hold to the values of the kingdom of darkness rather than light. Our understanding the Gospel changes us because we realize we are not orphans but children, and since we are accepted in Christ, we desire to follow Him out of loving obedience wherever He leads. We also realize that now that our identity has changed, we have been transferred into the
This is why Paul goes back to grace in 2 Corinthians 8:9. He doesn’t command, or work simply upon the will. He goes after the heart by demonstrating the greatest act of giving and generosity this world has ever known. He was rich, yet became poor, so that we might become rich. This is smart generosity that requires thought about what Christ has done, not simple check list religion that tells you to do this or that but not think about it. Paul is calling us to think about what Christ has done and apply it to our lives when it comes to giving it away in a radically generous way.
It is a way of demonstrating your great love for Christ, because only when you are truly in love do you want to give everything away. When I met my wife and our relationship grew to a point where I asked her to marry me, I wasn’t thinking about how to protect myself if she left me. I loved her, and still do, so much that I wanted her to have everything that I had. What was mine, was hers. This is love. I give everything I have to God, because He loved me first and gave me everything I have!
This isn’t some nifty cliché; it is deep and grounded affections for my King.
This is a great litmus test for you to determine whether or not you have a real and loving relationship based upon His grace to you, which causes you to respond, or whether you have some moralistic form of Christianity that says that you’ve worked really hard for everything you have—you’ve been a good person and God owes you, therefore what’s yours is yours alone.
If you say, “God, everything is yours and whatever I have I give to you because of your love and acceptance of me,” then you understand grace. If you say, “God, I deserve a raise, or a new car, or a house, or a girlfriend, or a child, or friends, because I’ve been really moral and good and you owe me for all that I’ve done,” you have a form of Christianity that isn’t rooted in grace and therefore isn’t true biblical Christianity.
III. THE MEASURE OF OUR GENEROSITY
So what is the bottom line? How do I know if I’m being generous? How much do I give?
Let me say this very, very carefully because I know that it can be totally misunderstood. The answer is found in verses 6-7: “whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 Each one must give as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
The question that should be asked is, “How much to you want to reap?” Now, I’m not advocating prosperity theology that would say, “If you do this, you can expect these percentage results,” but I am going to go as far as Paul did and say that if you desire to reap much you must sow much. In other words, if you are looking for God’s continued blessings upon your life, there is a clear scriptural correlation to how generous you are. A heart that has been gripped by the Gospel of Christ finds delight and is cheerful when giving. A heart that wants nothing and therefore gives nothing, a heart that when it does give gives begrudgingly out of guilt, has yet to unpack all that Christ has done on their behalf and may not have tasted the generosity of Jesus. We shouldn’t be reluctant, but excited, we shouldn’t be guilt-ridden, but cheerful, and we shouldn’t seek to reap little.
In the Old Testament, you were required to give at least 10% of your income as a tithe to help feed the poor along with other needs. In the New Testament, you don’t see any command to give 10%, so many have come to the conclusion that there is no need to give and therefore they choose not to.
But think about what the New Testament is saying when we are called to give according to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Are people in the New Testament more blessed or less blessed than people in the Old Testament? More!
If, when you look at financial generosity in the Bible, you say that it is ridiculous or unreasonable, then you are still operating upon a mine/my mentality. If you look at the standard of giving according to the Gospel, and your heart sees it as being financial AND a sharing of your life and all things (even if you don’t know how you’re going to get there), then you understand grace because you see all things as gifts and given to you to share. Even if you don’t understand how to get to that place, but don’t see this type of radical generosity as unreasonable, you are beginning to put the Gospel into practice and looking more and more like one of our early brothers and sisters.
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