Reading Through The New Testament In 2016. Day 157. 2 Corinthians 9

Another chapter on giving, hey?

The concept of giving in the church can turn people away. I’ve heard more than one story (several in fact) of people turned away from the church because of how it handles giving. In fact, one of the main reasons Luther reformed from the Catholic church in the 1500s was because how, at the time, they handled how people gave. To confess your sins, you had to pay a certain amount to the church to be forgiven. This was a huge issue for him, and was a catalyst that started the reformation, and is why we have protestants split from Catholics today.

Then of course you have the argument that we should be giving directly to the poor instead of church organizations that will then use a portion for itself and a portion for the poor. A lot of strong atheists dislike the idea of church giving, and not only think it’s a waste of resources, but something possibly inherently evil. (Can an atheist even say something is evil? Maybe, I dunno.) They do bring up good points, and I understand the heart that comes out of it.

And maybe I shouldn’t really be talking about this, because I have an extremely heavy bias. As someone who works for Canyon Creek, I get paid solely from the tithes of the church. So of course, I think tithing is good, because that’s where my income comes from.

So to be honest, I don’t really want to be another person that takes these chapters and talks about how important tithing is. I’m sure you’re sick of that… I would be too. But I will say this. If you believe in something, don’t you normally invest in it? If you believe in say, the plight of Horombe, the gorilla that was killed because of a human error, you are going to fight for the rights of the animal. You’ll invest time, money, your heart, and you will talk about it. And that yields results. It’s proven.

So when you look at Canyon Creek, how do you invest into it? Do you talk about it? Do you give to it? Do you invest in it? Do you give your time? These are all things that will result reward. It’s pretty dang explicit in this chapter.

2 Corinthians 9:12-13 says this: “So two good things will result from this ministry of giving – the needs of the believers in Jerusalem will be met, and they will joyfully express their thanks to God. As a result of your ministry, they will give glory to God. For your generosity to them and to all believers will prove that you are obedient to the Good News of Christ.”

Isn’t that our job, to help others worship God? Isn’t that what we are trying to do? Make disciples? Guide others to give glory to God? It says in this chapter that one way to do that, is to be obedient and to give. I don’t know what that looks like for you. And I’m never going to tell anyone what that looks like. However, ask God what obedience in giving means for you.