Ecclesiology

Lesson IX

Giving According to His Riches

By H.J. McVety

Written: circa 1939

True Christian Giving, a Heaven-sent enablement, is based on the unchanging resources of the Possessor of Heaven and earth.

“See that ye abound in this grace also” (2 Corinthians 8:7)

2 Corinthians 8:7

(7) Therefore, as ye abound in every [thing], [in] faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and [in] all diligence, and [in] your love to us, [see] that ye abound in this grace also.

1. Christian giving is a privilege extended only to those who have first received the riches of Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 8:9).

2 Corinthians 8:9

(9) For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.

Unsaved men and women are not asked in the Scriptures to give anything of time, talent, or substance, in the Lord’s service. The exhortation to the unsaved is not to give to God, but to receive from Him the gift of God, which is eternal life through Jesus Christ the Lord. He, who in the beginning was with God, and was God, laid aside His heavenly glory, and from the riches of heaven came into the poverty of His incarnation and earthly ministry, that those who believe on Him might through His poverty become rich. Have you accepted Him as your Saviour, as your life, and as your hope of glory? If so, you have been begotten by the incorruptible seed, the Word of God, unto an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.

1 Peter 1:3-4

(3) Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

(4) To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,

If so, you are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.

Ephesians 1:3

(3) Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly [places] in Christ:

If so, Jesus Christ, through His poverty, hath made you rich, and you, as a joint heir with Him, are eligible to join in Christian giving. “Freely ye have received, freely give.”

Giving is therefore the universal privilege of all saved souls. The measure of our gifts will vary according to the measure of stewardship which God has committed to us individually in our earth pilgrimage, but the basic urge to exercise the grace of giving is the fact that each believer has received abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness.

Romans 5:17

(17) For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.

2. Christian giving is a grace (not a legal obligation) portrayed in the work of the Lord Jesus (2 Corinthians 8:9).

Our Lord Jesus Christ was not compelled by legal necessity to give Himself as a ransom for our souls. Love, not law, was the impelling force which caused Him to leave the ivory palaces and become, for our sakes, a “man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.”

“Out of the ivory palaces, into this world of woe, Only His great eternal love, made my Saviour go.”

Grace placed the desire to please God on a plane supreme above every call of the flesh. Christ said, “I came to do Thy will, O, God.” He made Himself of no reputation; He endured the cross and despised the shame—not that He might receive, but that He might give. He disregarded our lack of merit. When we had nothing to commend ourselves to His legal justice, He freely gave Himself for our sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. And so, on this principle of loving obedience to our heavenly Father, He asks us to give, not our life’s blood but ourselves, what we are, and what we have, first of all to the Lord then in His service that which is the Lord’s is directed by His Word into the fellowship of Gospel service and ministry to the saints.

Grace makes the desire to please God the source of our willingness to give.

Legalism would direct our hearts manward, to measure how much man deserves. But Calvary resulted from a higher motive. That higher motive is the pattern for Christian giving. “Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

3. Christian giving is an imparted grace (2 Corinthians 8:7), bestowed by Him who: (a) ministers bread for food, (b) multiplies your seed sown and (c) increases the fruits of your righteousness.

2 Corinthians 8:7

(7) Therefore, as ye abound in every [thing], [in] faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and [in] all diligence, and [in] your love to us, [see] that ye abound in this grace also.

Imparted grace is an unmerited enablement bestowed upon us without any cause in ourselves as to why we are thus honored. “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”

Romans 8:32

(32) He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

Our privilege as believers is to recognize that God, in sovereign grace, has chosen that the members of the body of Christ should differ one from another. That difference is never the basis of personal pride and vain glory, nor for envious and contentious comparisons among the saints. “For who maketh thee to differ from another and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it? (1 Corinthians 4:7). Therefore, Christian giving was never intended in God’s order to be a “guinea stamp” whereby saints are classified according to respect of persons into ranks of worldly honor. “Upon the less comely members God bestows more abundant honor.” Concerning the one who cast the tiny offering of two mites into the treasury the Lord said, “Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow cast in more than they all.” (Luke 21:3)

She, in obedience of faith, “of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.” She knew the riches of God’s grace, and in serene contentment cast herself without reserve upon the resources of the Possessor of heaven and earth. She recognized in loving gratitude that God had ministered to her in temporal things and in spiritual enablement for His service. May we likewise know God’s sovereign appointment for us, and realize that he who receives much is not thereby authorized to hoard it, neither is he who receives little thereby condemned to privation.

2 Corinthians 8:13-15

(13) For [I mean] not that other men be eased, and ye burdened:

(14) But by an equality, [that] now at this time your abundance [may be a supply] for their want, that their abundance also may be [a supply] for your want: that there may be equality:

(15) As it is written, He that [had gathered] much had nothing over; and he that [had gathered] little had no lack.

The sin of the Sodomites and the recurring sin of the ungodly apostates of the last days is failure to realize that possession of worldly treasure is a stewardship from God. “They did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded.”

Luke 17:28

(28) Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;

These commonplace acts of everyday life plumbed the degraded depths of blasphemy when God was not recognized in them as the One who “ministers bread for your food, and multiplies your seed sown.” To us as believers comes the exhortation, in I Corinthians 10:31:

1 Corinthians 10:31

(31) Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

Each one of us is a partaker of God’s grace in His ministry to us of these temporal things of everyday life. He thereby enables us to give in return in glad worship and thanksgiving, the firstfruits of those temporal things which God, the possessor of heaven and earth, has entrusted to our stewardship. Any person who is able to eat and drink is able to give to God. When God ceases to give to us, we can cease to give to Him, but as long as He enables us to eat, drink, buy, sell, plant, or build, our privilege is to glorify Him in Christian giving, according to the measure of enabling grace which He has imparted to us.

4. The amount of our gifts is proportioned upon the amount received from God. (2 Corinthians.8:12-14). Therefore, a Christian’s failure to give, is never excused because of lack of high-pressure appeals, and giving in response to such appeals is never recognized in God’s order as true giving.

2 Corinthians 8:12-14

(12) For if there be first a willing mind, [it is] accepted according to that a man hath, [and] not according to that he hath not.

(13) For [I mean] not that other men be eased, and ye burdened:

(14) But by an equality, [that] now at this time your abundance [may be a supply] for their want, that their abundance also may be [a supply] for your want: that there may be equality:

God makes the fact that we have received from Him, the basis of our privilege in giving as unto the Lord. Man reverses this order, and would make the dire nature of the other man’s need the basis of an appeal to give. Man’s method is like a narcotic. The oftener it is repeated the stronger must be the appeal. It has been exploited, until even in so-called places of worship, we are nauseated by high pressure appeals in connection with the Lord’s service. Begging is authorized in God’s order of Christian fellowship. But how it has been perverted! In actual Christian experiences, we usually see and hear Christian leaders begging their congregations to give, but in God’s order the individual saints, realizing that God in grace hath bestowed upon them the enablement to give, are found in 2 Corinthians 8:4 “ praying us with much intreaty that we would receive the gift.”

The time to lay by in store for the Lord’s service is when we receive from the Lord. Later, out of that which is the Lord’s, we distribute into His service as the various opportunities arise in the furtherance of the Gospel work and in Christian fellowship. In this way every believer, rich or poor, is enabled to enter into the grace of giving. The gift is acceptable in the Lord’s sight not because of its size, either large or small, but according to the spirit in which it is given.

2 Corinthians 8:12

(12) For if there be first a willing mind, [it is] accepted according to that a man hath, [and] not according to that he hath not.

2 Corinthians 9:7

(7) Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so [let him give]; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.

5. Christian giving is a believer’s sacrifice, acceptable to God (Philippians 4:18), and as such, is well-pleasing to Him (Hebrews 13:16).

Philippians 4:18

(18) But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things [which were] sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God.

Hebrews 13:16

(16) But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

In this dispensation of grace, each believer is a priest unto God in the great family of the sons of God, over which the Lord Jesus Christ is the great high Priest. An outstanding privilege of the believer-priest is access to God in the holiest place. There, in His sacred presence, we render the sacrifice of giving: (1) our own bodies , as a living sacrifice unto Him, which is our reasonable service, seeing that we are not our own, but His by redemptive purchase. (2) the fruit of our lips in praise to Him continually; (3) our substance. In His presence we purpose in our hearts to present to Him a sacrifice acceptable, an odour of a sweet smell, well-pleasing to God. (Philippians 4:18). There we commit unto Him and to His service, the firstfruits, the very best of whatever God has entrusted to our care. All too often our standard of performance is far, far below our privilege, and even below the lower standard in past dispensations. In the days of Moses, Israel brought with them into the wilderness, their flocks and herds. There they hungered for meat. Sheep and oxen thronged the camp, and yet upon none of them did they dare to lay a hand. These belonged to God. These were set aside to sacrifice in His service.. Even though Israel desired meat, sacrifices to God came before gratification of the flesh, even in hunger. Today, countless thousands of believers have spent God’s share of their earthly possessions. Today multitudes of God’s people say: “We have no gifts to offer in worship unto God. We have consumed upon our hunger everything that God has entrusted to our care.” In a self-centred world, that passes for logic. In God’s Book, it stands exposed as rank unbelief. As such, it tends to still direr poverty. Not until the widow of Zarephath honored God in the obedience of faith, according to His word through Elijah, “Make me a cake first”, did the hand of God move to supply her need with such a blessing upon the portion retained in her stewardship that the supply of oil and meal sufficed throughout the entire period of the famine. She, like countless thousands today, might have argued that her entire supply was desperately needed for personal use. But the fact remained that God had given her some supply, and she was asked to give only according to the measure in which she had received. Faith, even in the midst of such poverty, brought a feast instead of a funeral.

Grace today brings a privilege higher than law ever knew. The Philippian Church knew the joy of true priesthood and “in a great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.”(2 Corinthians 8:2). The offerings thus presented were received by the Lord as recorded in Philippians 4:18.

6. All the need of the sacrificial giver is guaranteed by God (Philippians 4:19).

Philippians 4:19

(19) But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

This wonderful statement, “My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus”, is fulfilled to every one who gives according to His riches in glory. Failure to realize that we are members of the body of Christ, nourished and cherished by Him, (Ephesians 5:29), may often bring true believers into the barren realm of bondage to the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches (Matthew 13:22). There they pierce themselves through with many sorrows (1Timothy 6:10). As they thus withhold their offerings, and fail to glorify God with the firstfruits of their substance, they can never claim the fulfilment of God’s guarantee as given in Philippians 4:19. The believers there referred to were ones who had presented their sacrifice to God, “an odour of a sweet smell, acceptable, well-pleasing to God.”

God pledged Himself to supply the need of these sacrificial givers. “He which soweth bountifully, shall reap also bountifully...” they like the poor widow, who gave out of her penury, honored God, even in the face of “deep poverty” (2 Corinthians 8:2), and to them God confirmed the sweeping declaration of 2 Corinthians 8:9 “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.” Only those who follow the Philippian saints into the sacrificial giving of Philippians 4:18 can ever enjoy with them the bounty of God’s provision assured in Philippians 4:19.

7. The cheerful giver is a special object of God’s love and care (2 Corinthians 9:13-14).

2 Corinthians 9:13-14

(13) Whiles by the experiment of this ministration they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ, and for [your] liberal distribution unto them, and unto all [men];

(14) And by their prayer for you, which long after you for the exceeding grace of God in you.

“God loveth a cheerful giver.” The Word of God defines the believer’s relationship to wealth and to the commercial system of the world. “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment, let us be therewith content” (1 Timothy 6:7-8). Covetousness is idolatry (Colossians 3:5), and never meets with God’s approval (Ephesians 5:5). Paul never asked believers to satisfy personal covetousness, either his or theirs. When he exhorted diligence in giving, he spoke from a higher level than that of personal desire. “Not that I speak in respect to want,” is his word in Philippians 4:2 . Whether God in sovereign appointment permitted Paul either “to be full” or “to be hungry” (Philippians 4:12), Paul bears the triumphant testimony, “I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13). In freedom from any reference to personal need, he teaches the believer’s responsibility to share his temporal things with those who minister spiritual things. “Let him that is taught in the Word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things” (Galatians 6:6). Paul sweeps this statement from the realm of human influences or persuasion into a personal responsibility wherein each believer faces God.

Galatians 6:7.

(7) Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

To the Corinthians he taught that failure to supply the temporal needs of those who ministered to them the Word of God was a mark of inferiority

2 Corinthians 12:13

(13) For what is it wherein ye were inferior to other churches, except [it be] that I myself was not burdensome to you? forgive me this wrong.

Their responsibility, individually, and as an assembly, was plain;

1 Corinthians 9:14

(14) Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.

Abiding principle in the distribution of our gifts is established in 1 Corinthians 9:11.

1 Corinthians 9:11

(11) If we have sown unto you spiritual things, [is it] a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?

The ministry of our temporal things is directed to those who “preach the Word”. (2 Timothy 4:2)

2 Timothy 4:2

(2) Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

God foreknew the opposition of the human heart, declaring, “The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.” Saints who do not know the Gospel cannot enter into the enjoyment of God’s love to the hilarious giver because all too often their gifts make them partakers in the evil deeds of those whose ministry is under the anathema of God. Like the Galatians they may become exceedingly religious, but the question is in order,

Galatians 4:15

(15) Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if [it had been] possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me.

God reserves His abounding joy and His exceeding grace for those whose personal ministry and further fellowship through their offerings is marked not by subjection to the demands of man, but by subjection to the gospel of Christ (2 Corinthians 9:13).

Paul faced the issue of loss of support from those who hate and reject the Gospel. He realized that God did not make him, nor any succeeding messenger of the Gospel, dependent upon the whims of human hearts. What though even saints should so fail in their responsibility to support those who minister in the Gospel that a choice saint like Epaphroditus should suffer privation to the point where “he was sick nigh unto death … to supply your lack of service unto me” (Philippians 2: 27,30), did Paul even then transfer his appeals from God to men? Not by any means. He still writes:

Philippians 4:17

(17) Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.

May God give us grace to spare God’s faithful servants like Epaphroditus and Paul, the awful tests of faith which the failures of the Philippian saints brought for a time to those whom they loved and honored in the Gospel. And may God give us, with the Apostle Paul, that implicit abandonment to His care that is expressed in Romans 8:28.

Romans 8:28

(28) And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [his] purpose.

Therein lies abundance of joy in this life, and abundance of reward in the life which is to come.

8. Christian giving is exercised on the basis of faith (not feelings) and is, therefore, settled solely by the Word of God. 2 Corinthians 8:7 and 9:5-7.

2 Corinthians 8:7

(7) Therefore, as ye abound in every [thing], [in] faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and [in] all diligence, and [in] your love to us, [see] that ye abound in this grace also.

2 Corinthians 9:5-7

(5) Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren, that they would go before unto you, and make up beforehand your bounty, whereof ye had notice before, that the same might be ready, [as a matter] of bounty, and not as [of] covetousness.

(6) But this [I say], He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.

(7) Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so [let him give]; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.

The Corinthian believers are exhorted, “See that ye abound in this grace also.” The accomplished facts of the incarnation and of our redemption by Christ Jesus are the continued urge for a continued ministry in giving. God who knows the spirit of the age has urged through His Word that we enjoy His provision for the abounding (overflowing of all bounds) of this grace, regardless of how depression and end-time apostasy should surge in with their world-conforming influences. God has made us independent of the appeal of those conditions to our feelings by basing our giving upon the changeless facts of the Gospel concerning the finished work of Jesus Christ. When these facts are clear upon our souls, giving is never a problem, but always a joy and a sought-after privilege. Faith, not feelings, stirs the believer to God-honoring exercise of the grace of giving. True exhortation to Christian giving disregards any appeal to feelings, and points the believer to the facts of the Gospel, and to God’s love and reward for the cheerful giver.

9. Christian giving is proof of the sincerity of the love of the giver to Christ and to the Gospel. 2 Corinthians 8:8

2 Corinthians 8:8

(8) I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love.

Christian giving is meant ever and always to glorify God (2 Corinthians 9:13).

2 Corinthians 9:13

(13) Whiles by the experiment of this ministration they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal distribution unto them, and unto all [men];

All too often, giving is regarded as a test of the popularity of the preacher or of the individual saint who requires fellowship through a ministry of temporal things. How careful God is to raise the exercising of this grace above any such legal entanglement, and to show that our gifts are a proof of the sincerity of our love for Christ! Only when this grace is exercised in faith does it fulfill its true purpose. Then:

(a) God is glorified by our subjection unto the Gospel of Christ (2 Corinthians 9:13);

(b) Abundance of joy floods the heart of the giver (2 Corinthians 8:2);

(c) Increased thanksgivings rise from the saints of God (2 Corinthians 9:12);

(d) Increased ability to give is bestowed upon the giver (2 Corinthians 9:6);

(e) Other believers are stirred to likewise honor God (2 Corinthians 9:1-12);

(f) The prayer ministry of saints is quickened (2 Corinthians 9:14);

(g) Souls are pointed in thanksgiving unto God who has given us His unspeakable gift (2 Corinthians 9:15).

“Freely ye have received, freely give.”