XIV HOW MUCH IS LIBERAL?

The subject of giving has been assigned to me for this occasion. This assignment pleases me for two reasons: First, it is a popular subject. Folk like to hear it because it hits them so hard. In the second place, it is a vital question. Those who have taken the time to count the instances say that the Bible mentions money more often than it does faith, repentance, confession, and baptism all put together. “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” Whether, therefore, we base our judgment on the danger of our sinning with respect to it, or the amount of space devoted to it in the Bible, the subject of money, or giving, is a very important one. I am approaching the subject from the standpoint of this question: “How Much Is Liberal?” The reason for this approach will appear as we proceed.

I New Testament Authority

You know, as well as I, that in every instance we must go to the New Testament for our guidance in matters religious. Our people have been thoroughly taught, but not too thoroughly, that we are no longer bound by the laws given to Moses and Noah, but by 234 the law of Christ. In studying the subject of giving, therefore, we must go to the New Testament.

In First Corinthians 16:2 we read: “Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.” This Scripture teaches that we should give regularly, weekly (not weakly). The giving is to be just as regular as the eating of the Lord’s supper—upon the first day of each week. This quotation also teaches that we should give according to our prosperity. The more prosperity one has the more he is expected to give.

A third New Testament requirement is cheerfulness in giving. “God loveth a cheerful giver” (2 Cor. 9:7). Sometimes it is said that we ought to give until it hurts. It is all right to give until you can miss what you give, or until you have to do without something that you want. But you should never give until it hurts. It is all right to give until you can miss hurt you to give as God requires. He loves a cheerful giver.

Fourthly, we are taught to give purposely. The Christians at Corinth made a purpose a year in advance and were commanded to give as they had planned. “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give” (2 Cor. 9:7). They had not only purposed but they had expressed their purpose and when a Christian does that, it very nearly becomes a promise. The text does not specifically say that we should make a purpose, but it implies it; and if we purpose, we should give accordingly. In 235 reference to this question on which we are so likely to stumble we ought to do some prayerful planning, lest we make the mistake of not giving as we should. The temptation to give sparingly is so great that one can not afford to depend merely upon the impulse of the moment. Make a purpose or plan and then give according to your plan.

Finally, the New Testament commands us to give liberally. “He that giveth, let him do it liberally” (Rom. 12:8, A.R.V. or footnote in the A.V.). The word “liberal” comprehends both the attitude of the giver and also the amount of the gift. The New Testament does not specify any amount or percentage that we should give. It does not tell us to give any certain amount or percentage of our income; but it does command us to give liberally. You have often heard the statement, “We are not commanded to give a tenth.” This statement is literally true, but it may imply an error. The inference is that the New Testament assures us that we need not give as much as a tenth. Such an inference is false. The New Testament does not command us to give less than a tenth. It names no definite amount and no definite percentage.

In 2 Corinthians 9:5-7 we are not only taught to give liberally but we are encouraged to do so by the statement: “He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.” It appears to me that the New Testament thus puts us on our honor. If it had named a certain number of dollars or a certain percentage 236 of our income, we might just give that amount and claim the rest to do with as we pleased. But God has placed us on our honor, the amount of our giving to be determined by general instructions and our love of Him and those to whom we give. When an honorable man is placed on his honor, it seems that he should do even more than when he is under definite laws. Some schools have what they call “the honor system.” According to this system, the teacher may put a test on the board and leave the room. The students are on their honor. It seems to me that one would be less likely to cheat under those conditions than with some one on guard. The New Testament puts us on our honor, so to speak, with only general instructions and commands to guide our giving.

II Individual Responsibility

Each individual must answer for himself this question: “How much is liberal?” The Old Testament required a certain percentage; the New Testament requires liberality. How much is liberal? What does the Bible mean when it says, “give liberally?” Liberality would not mean the same amount in every case. Some must give more than others. This story was published some years ago in the Gospel Advocate: There was a certain rich man in a congregation who had as much money as all the other members. When money was being raised for any purpose he would propose to give as much as any other one. 237 When the congregation was trying to raise money to put a new roof on their building, he arose, according to his custom, and said, “Brethren, I will give as much as any other man in the house toward putting on this new roof.” There happened to be a rich infidel present that day, who arose and said, “Well, Mister, you and I will pay for the new roof; I will give half the cost.”

Now, if you expect me to tell you exactly how much you should give, you will be disappointed. I am not going to tell you because the Bible doesn’t tell me. If I were to undertake to tell you, I might put it too low. I would certainly be afraid to tell any one that he was giving too much. A man once asked me a question which several other preachers had been unable to answer. He said, “My wife and I make $150 per month. We give $25 of that to the church each month. I want to know if we are giving enough.” When I heard the question I knew why the other preachers had not answered. He and his wife were giving more than a tenth. They were giving 16⅔ per cent, but I was afraid to tell him whether they were giving too much or not enough, because I didn’t know. Jesus Christ watched the poor widow give away all her living, and He didn’t tell her that she was giving too much. Some of our brethren today would probably have said, “Just wait a minute, lady, we appreciate your motive and admire your liberality, but you ought not give all you have. We wouldn’t want you to starve to death or to do without the necessities of life.” But Jesus stood there and watched 238 her give away the very last thing she had and He made no effort to restrain her. So, I can’t tell any one that he is giving too much or the exact number of dollars that he should give. Each one must answer for himself.

How much is liberal? I can’t answer for you; you can’t answer for me. You must answer for yourself and your answer must be a definite one, expressible in terms of a certain number of dollars and cents. You must decide how many dollars and cents you should give in order to meet the requirement of liberality. How much have you studied the question? How much have you prayed about it and investigated the word of God in your search for an answer? How much time have you spent on the question? Are you sure that you have reached a scriptural conclusion? You must not merely decide what is liberal according to your own standard, but what is liberal according to God’s standard. For, after all, God is to be the final judge as to whether you are giving liberally. You must reach a definite conclusion as to what God will consider a liberal amount from you. I urge you to study the question of liberality. Search the Scriptures, pray God to lead you to the right answer. Because the question must be answered. It is a commandment of God in the New Testament.

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III Abram

Although the New Testament does not, and I can not, tell you definitely how much is liberal in the sight of God, we can get some light on the question by studying what God has required of his people in other dispensations. In the 14th chapter of Genesis there is an account of four kings who went to war against five other kings. The four kings won the war and among the captives was Lot, the kinsman of Abram. “And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan.” With this small band of men he won a great victory over the four kings and their powerful armies and rescued Lot and his goods and his people. After his return from this battle Abram met Melchizedek, priest of God, and gave him tithes (a tenth) of all. God wants you and me to know that Abram gave a tenth.

The book of Genesis is very brief. In a very few pages, less than the number I hold in my hand, God has given us the history of the world for a period of several thousand years. It is very brief. If man had written such a history, the volumes would have filled a shelf all the way around this room. Men have written many volumes of history concerning the United States which has been a nation for less than two hundred years. But God has condensed the history of the world, for a period of thousands of years, within 240 these few pages. Yet, he took enough of that precious space to tell us that Abram gave a tenth. If man had written an account of this war, he would have told the names of the captains in each army, how many men were killed, how many were wounded, how much the war cost, and so forth. God omitted all those things of interest, but he did take the space to tell us that Abram gave a tenth and that he prospered. He even repeated this information in the New Testament, where he says, “Now consider how great this man [Melchizedek] was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils” (Heb. 7:4). He had some reason for wanting us to know this, for He has a reason for everything He does and says. He took the space to tell us twice that Abram gave a tenth, and Abram prospered. You may draw your own conclusion from these scriptural and vital facts.

IV Jacob

Turning on over to the 28th chapter of Genesis we find another interesting story that throws some light on our question. Jacob had taken Esau’s blessing. Esau was angry. Jacob was afraid Esau would kill him. For refuge he went to Padanaram. On the way he spent the night at Bethel, and slept in the open, with a rock for a pillow. I don’t know why he chose such a hard pillow. People do some strange things. I have heard that in days gone by the Oriental people slept with their feet, instead of their heads, on 241 the pillow, because the feet did the harder work. According to that rule I think I know some people who ought to change ends with the pillow. While Jacob was sleeping with a rock for a pillow he had a strange dream. He saw a ladder reaching from earth to heaven and the angels of God going up and down (not down and up) on it. The Lord stood above it and promised to be with Jacob and to bless him. When Jacob arose early in the morning he vowed a vow saying, “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God: and this stone which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee” (Gen. 28: 20-22).

With this vow in his heart Jacob continued his journey to Padanaram, where he spent twenty-two years and became very wealthy. As he was returning to Canaan we find him praying to God as follows: “O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me, ‘Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee’: I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast showed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands ...” (Gen. 32:9-10). Please note that twenty-two years ago he had passed over this Jordan with nothing but a stick in his hand and in his heart a vow to give one 242 tenth of all his increase to God. In the meantime he has become very wealthy.

The extent of his wealth is partially indicated by an incident that followed. Jacob was afraid that Esau was still angry. (He should have known that Esau was too lazy to stay mad twenty-two years.) To find grace in the sight of Esau he sent him a present, a token of his good will. Such presents usually represent only a small fraction of one’s total possessions. Yet this is what Jacob sent Esau: “two hundred she goats, and twenty he goats, two hundred ewes, and twenty rams, thirty milk camels with their colts, forty kine, and ten bulls, twenty she asses, and ten foals” (Gen. 32:14, 15). Few farmers in this county have that much livestock, yet that represents a small fraction of what Jacob was worth and had acquired since crossing the Jordan twenty-two years before. Since that time, he had been giving one-tenth to Jehovah. Again, remember that God has taken space to tell you and me about that in this much condensed book, the book of Genesis. He evidently meant for us to get some lesson from these facts.

During a financial depression, a business man in Kansas went broke. He lost everything he had and found himself $50,000 in debt—fifty thousand dollars in the hole. A friend of his offered to give him a medical formula to be used in any way he saw fit. The man took the formula and went home. He turned to Genesis 28:22 and drew a ring around these words: “Of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.” With that vow, now 243 become his vow, he began to manufacture a medicine. You probably have some at home. It was Mentholatum. On the bottle or tube you will find the name of A. A. Hyde. When I first heard this story he had become a millionaire and was still giving one-tenth of his income to what he considered the work of the Lord.

In private conversation I told this story to some one who said, “Well, he can afford to give a tenth, because he is rich.” I replied, “Yes, but remember that he was $50,000 in debt when he began doing so.” It is easier for one to give a tenth when he is poor than when he is rich. A man who practiced giving a tenth said that when he was working for $1.00 per day it was easy to give 60 cents on Sunday; but when he began making $500 per week and had to give $50 on Sunday, it was hard to do. It is easier for a poor man to give liberally than it is for a rich man to do so. That may be one reason the Bible says it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

V Jews

Now, back to the Old Testament. You know the Jews were required to give a tenth of their income and even more. Some Bible students say the requirement was ²/₁₀ all the time and ³/₁₀ every third year. That is not entirely clear to me, but we do know that they had to give a tenth and in addition 244 to that, they had to make daily, weekly, monthly and annual sacrifices. So at the very least, they gave more than a tenth, and you know that the Jews were a prosperous people. For some reason God tells us about all these Old Testament characters who gave a tenth and prospered while doing so. They were required to give a tenth. The New Testament commands us to give liberally. Now, which is more? Of whom does God require and expect more—those who give a tenth or the ones who are told to give liberally?

Now, I could stand up here and give you many more examples of those who gave a tenth of their income and were blessed while they did so. A man in Richmond, Virginia, who had himself and a wife to support, was making only $20 per week. He purposed to give a tenth to the church. Later, he became sick and his remuneration was only $10 per week. He continued to give $2.00 per week to the church. He soon recovered, returned to work, and was promoted to a position that paid $75 per week.

My wife and I had another good friend at Richmond, Virginia, who gave $5.00 out of her $35 per month salary. One month, after meeting all necessary expense, the $5.00 that she had set apart for the church was all she had left with which to buy a new spring dress and you know how much a young lady wants a new dress in the spring. After debating the question for awhile she overcame the temptation and gave the $5.00 to the church as she had planned. The next day her employer, who was not a Christian and who knew nothing of the battle the young lady had 245 fought and won, gave her enough material to make two new dresses.

I could continue compiling such examples indefinitely. If you think a tenth is too much for one to give, ask the man who has tried it. I never knew any one to discontinue the practice of tithing after trying it for a while. Experience proves that it is a good practice. A church in Dallas, Texas, has a large sign on the wall of its building which reads as follows: “If any member will practice giving one-tenth of all he earns for one year and at the end of that time can say that he has been made poorer by doing so, we will give him $1,000 in gold.” No one has claimed that $1,000.

The church at Lily Chapel, near Portsmouth, Ohio, doubled its contributions. That meant, of course, that some of the members were even giving more than twice as much as they had been giving. One night I requested that all who had been made poorer, or who had less left to live on, as a result of increasing their contribution, raise their hands. Nobody raised a hand. Then I said, “Why don’t you double it again, then?”

VI Blessings

Some people don’t give away enough and that is the reason they don’t have enough left to pay their bills. If you are having trouble making “tongue and buckle meet,” and don’t have the necessities of life, 246 I suggest that you start giving more to the Lord’s work. Then you will have more left to live on. This may not sound like good arithmetic; but it is good Bible teaching. “He that soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he that soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.” “The liberal soul shall be made fat” (Prov. 25:11).

Jesus said, “Verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake and the gospel’s but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life” (Mark 10:29, 30). That is a wonderful promise. It does not apply to those who give for the sake of handsome returns; but to those who give for the sake of Christ. Those who give for His sake shall receive a hundredfold in this life. Do we believe the Bible? Then why don’t we give more? Many do not believe the above promise. They do not believe that all necessary things will be added to those who seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. They are afraid they will come to want if they give liberally. Instead of giving liberally and trusting God’s promises they try to provide for themselves by holding on to what they have. They should heed the words of the Bible: “There is that withholdeth more than is meet [suitable], but it tendeth to poverty” (Prov. 11:24). Christians need more faith. We need to believe that “it is more blessed to give than to receive.” I don’t 247 believe any one was ever made poorer as a result of giving, if he gave according to the Bible. To do so would be to disbelieve the word of Almighty God.

May I insist again that you give prayerful consideration to this question: “How much is liberal?” Ask yourself, “How much must I give in order for the Lord to consider me a liberal giver?” This question must be answered to the satisfaction of the Lord Almighty. When a widow can give all she has without being reproved by the Lord, do you believe that God will be pleased with less than a tenth from you? In the light of what God required of the Jews do you believe that one-tenth exceeds the demands of liberality?

If all the members of God’s church gave a tenth [which they certainly could do and still have plenty left] the contribution of the average congregation would be at least four times as much as it is at present. Think of the good work that could then be supported. We could preach the gospel to the entire world in a short time; we could take care of all the poor; we could count the elders that rule well worthy of double honor (1 Tim. 5:17).

How many Jews did it take to start a congregation and support a priest? It took only ten. Wherever there were ten Jews they could employ a priest and support him with their tithe, or tenth. The priest was required to give a tenth also. This left each in the group ⁹/₁₀ to live on and meet other obligations. How many Christians does it take to support a preacher? In this age, it takes from one hundred 248 to one thousand so-called Christians to keep one man busy in the work of the Lord. In the light of this comparison, how do you think we will stack up with the Jews on the Judgment Day? Why does a congregation of five hundred, or one thousand, members do but very little more than a congregation of one hundred members? Even if it takes one hundred Christians to support one preacher, why can’t a congregation of five hundred, or one thousand members support five, or ten full-time workers in the Lord’s vineyard? Is it not because the members of the average congregation are content to give barely enough to carry on a local program that is respectable in the eyes of the public? Such a limited conception of what is needed is not a scriptural standard of giving.

The New Testament requires liberality. The Jews had to give a tenth, and more. We must give liberally. Let us be sure that we meet this New Testament requirement. Let us prove our faith by our giving. Let us obey God and trust His promises. Let us give liberally, and watch the growth in our individual and congregational prosperity.

I want to leave just one more thought before closing. I suppose you are glad to be here, grateful for your existence on the earth. Most people are. Very few are tired of living. God blessed you when he gave you your life on this earth. I will tell you how you can get a blessing still greater—by giving your life to God. “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” If you were blessed when you received your life, you will be more blessed by giving your life in 249 obedient service to your Maker. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom. 12:1). Give your life to Jesus. Live for Him who died for you.

While we stand and sing we entreat you to accept the Lord’s gracious invitation.

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