A Biblical Culture: Generosity
A Biblical culture of generosity flows from Gospel submission and the grace it supplies.
Introduction
it is impossible to think biblically about any sector of your life in isolation. There is a way in which everything is connected to everything else. Everything you say and do in areas of your life that seem totally disconnected issues from the thoughts and desires of the same heart. Everything in your life is organized and connected by the foundational thoughts, desires, purposes, goals, interpretation, and worship of your heart. You and I are always thinking something. We are always wanting something. We are always being ruled by something. We are always disappointed by something. We are always celebrating something. We are always running after or running away from something. We are always confused by something or trying to figure out something. And the interconnectedness of it all means that nothing in our lives exists in isolation.
You can’t understand money if you don’t understand who you are, and money is one of the principal ways you demonstrate who you think you are. There is no better indicator of the identity you have assigned to yourself than the way you use money.
You can’t understand money if you don’t understand who you are, and money is one of the principal ways you demonstrate who you think you are. There is no better indicator of the identity you have assigned to yourself than the way you use money. Why does one person proudly throw money around? Why does another person use her money to buy all the cultural markers of success? Why is that neighbor of yours so proudly vocal about his charity? Why has yet another person never been able to stay out of debt? Why does that couple quietly give away such a big portion of their income? Why is your friend so gripped with money fears? Why does she struggle with envy and embarrassment whenever she is around her wealthy friends? Why does he try to hide the fact that he grew up in poverty? Why did Jesus talk about this topic more than any other? Why is money such a big deal? Why are some of us never satisfied, even though we have so much money, and why are some of us content with so little?
The answer to all these questions is identity. In a fundamental way, the drama of identity often plays out in the arena of money. You and I again and again make clear who we think we are by the way we use our money. So I want to get you to think biblically about identity so that you can live rightly when it comes to money.
A Biblical culture of generosity flows from Gospel submission and the grace it supplies.
A Biblical culture of generosity flows from Gospel submission and the grace it supplies.
A Biblical culture of generosity flows from Gospel submission and the grace it supplies.
It really was true; they had it all.
but sadly “all” sometimes is not enough.
In one single act of arrogance, defiance, and rebellion, they lost it all. There is no sadder moment in Scripture than the moment when Adam and Eve were driven out of the garden. Their world was damaged, their union with one another was damaged, their relationship with God was damaged, and the damage passed down to subsequent generations is breathtaking. I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about it, but that single act of disobedience provides volumes of insight into how we, too, get ourselves into trouble and turn God’s good things into bad things. In fact, I think there are few stories in the Bible that provide more help for understanding our money problem than the story of the fall of Adam and Eve.
But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”4
10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, cbecause I was naked, and I hid myself.”
11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
12 The man said, d“The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”
13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, e“The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14 The LORD God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all livestock
and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
and fdust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring5 and gher offspring;
hhe shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”
16 To the woman he said,
“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
iin pain you shall bring forth children.
jYour desire shall be contrary to6 your husband,
but he shall krule over you.”
17 And to Adam he said,
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
lof which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
mcursed is the ground because of you;
nin pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
ofor you are dust,
and pto dust you shall return.”
20 The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.7
21 And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
22 Then the LORD God said, q“Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand rand take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—”
23 therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden sto work the ground from which he was taken.
24 He drove out the man,
A Biblical culture of generosity flows from Gospel submission and the grace it supplies.
The biblical story is a generosity story. No words capture the essence of this story better than these: “For God so loved the world, that he gave . . .” (John 3:16). Having money in the proper place in your heart and life is not just about good budgeting and freedom from debt; the biblical standard is much higher.
You know you have money in the right place in your heart when the culture of acquisition has been replaced in your heart with a culture of generosity, where joy in giving overwhelms joy in getting.
Could it be that the primary purpose for money in your life is not that you would live but that, as God has lavishly done in your life, you would give? Could it be that we need something fundamentally deeper than a commitment to a good budget and reasonable spending? Could it be that what we really need is a brand-new understanding of the purpose for money, one driven by the gospel story? Could it be that reducing generosity to a commitment to tithe completely misses the point of money in God’s gospel economy? Could it be that true transformation of our money lifestyles will only ever begin with the gospel of Jesus Christ setting the agenda for our spending and not a few isolated money passages taken out of their wider gospel context?
Could it be that the primary purpose for money in your life is not that you would live but that, as God has lavishly done in your life, you would give? Could it be that we need something fundamentally deeper than a commitment to a good budget and reasonable spending? Could it be that what we really need is a brand-new understanding of the purpose for money, one driven by the gospel story? Could it be that reducing generosity to a commitment to tithe completely misses the point of money in God’s gospel economy? Could it be that true transformation of our money lifestyles will only ever begin with the gospel of Jesus Christ setting the agenda for our spending and not a few isolated money passages taken out of their wider gospel context?
Understanding generosity doesn’t begin with a biblical call to give; it begins with awe at how God demonstrated his generosity in gifting us with the world we live in.