From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

Annual financial pledge drives represent a misunderstanding of the Biblical principles of giving.

Readers have asked questions that we can summarize thus: "My church is adamant about members making an annual pledge of financial support, committing to a specific amount. Is this Biblical?" To answer this question we must, as always, look to Scripture. We find a number of pertinent elements.

One of the first things we must understand is that the New Covenant church is not living under the Old Testament law. That law required each person twenty years old and above to pay a head-tax to support the tabernacle service, and later the temple (Exodus 30:11-15, Matthew 17:24). But the issue that comes to most minds when the subject of giving is raised, is the matter of the tithe. Are New Testament believers to tithe? Good men have differed on this over the centuries, but I am among those who believe that the tithe is an Old Covenant institution and does not govern Christians today.

Is this to say that New Covenant believers have no obligation to support the local church, or other Christian ministries? Absolutely not. For New Covenant believers, the standard is in fact broader, higher, and deeper. It relates to the person and work of Christ Himself. A number of passages give us guidance.

No Presumption

There must never be presumption in the matter of anyone's ability to give:

Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit"; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that." But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. (James 4:13-16)

According to Ability - and Beyond

The Christian's giving is to be according to ability:

Then the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea (Acts 11:29).

The Lord also honors those who give "beyond ability".

Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia: that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality. For I bear witness that according to their ability, yes, and beyond their ability, they were freely willing, imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints (2 Corinthians 8:1-4).

Regularly, As the Lord Prospers

Giving is to be regular. In First Corinthians Paul associated it with the gathering of the local church on the first day of the week. Such giving is to be based on the degree to which the Lord has prospered a believer in the recent past:

Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you must do also: On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come (1 Corinthians 16:1-2).

Liberality, Not Compulsion

Giving must be done willingly and not by compulsion, and should reflect a spirit of liberality:

Now concerning the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you; for I know your willingness, about which I boast of you to the Macedonians, that Achaia was ready a year ago; and your zeal has stirred up the majority. Yet I have sent the brethren, lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this respect, that, as I said, you may be ready; lest if some Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we (not to mention you) should be ashamed of this confident boasting.

Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren to go to you ahead of time, and prepare your generous gift beforehand, which you had previously promised, that it may be ready as a matter of generosity and not as a grudging obligation. But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity [the Greek work means "compulsion"]; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.

As it is written: "He has dispersed abroad, He has given to the poor; His righteousness endures forever." Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God. For the administration of this service not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also is abounding through many thanksgivings to God, while, through the proof of this ministry, they glorify God for the obedience of your confession to the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal sharing with them and all men, and by their prayer for you, who long for you because of the exceeding grace of God in you. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! (2 Corinthians 9:1-15)

New Covenant Terms: Offerings, Contributions, Alms, Gifts

New Testament giving is never spoken of in terms of tithes, but of offerings, contributions, alms, and gifts.

Now after many years I came to bring alms and offerings to my nation (Acts 24:17). [Here Paul speaks of the gifts of the saints which he brought to Jerusalem.]

But now I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints. For it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem. It pleased them indeed, and they are their debtors. For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things. Therefore, when I have performed this and have sealed to them this fruit, I shall go by way of you to Spain. (Romans 15:25-28)

And when I come, whomever you approve by your letters I will send to bear your gift to Jerusalem. But if it is fitting that I go also, they will go with me. (1 Corinthians 16:3-4)

They desired only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I also was eager to do. (Galatians 2:10)

It is also a principle that the man who labors in the Word is worthy of compensation for his labors (1 Timothy 5:17-18).

It is noteworthy that none of the New Testament passages on giving speak of financial support of a physical infrastructure; the continual emphasis is on helping saints in need, and on supporting those who labor in the Word.

Leadership Walking By Sight?

I am not suggesting that a local church should not own a building or other physical assets, in support of Christ's two-fold purpose of evangelizing the lost and instructing the saints. But many churches have built a large physical plant involving debt financing. The principal and interest of that debt must be paid off. The physical complex must be maintained - a cost almost always underestimated during the enthusiasm of a building program. With the growth of physical infrastructure comes the growth of paid staff to support and maintain it, and to justify its existence. Often, a mountain of financial obligations grows at a pace that no one anticipated. In such circumstances, two things frequently happen.

• The leadership feels compelled to issue ever more urgent financial appeals to the faithful. In those appeals the leadership often effectively calls upon its people to "walk by faith" by making commitments that in fact presume upon God, so that the leadership can "walk by sight" of those commitments. Sadly, the appeals - whether an annual pledge drive or some other method - are often couched in intimidating, high-pressure, or guilt-producing terms, especially when a church finds itself unable to meet its financial obligations.
• Churches in desperate financial straits, or whose leadership desires to expand no matter what, often begin to water down their message in order to broaden the church's appeal, and thus broaden its financial base.

Both practices dishonor the Lord, and eventually will destroy the spiritual life and testimony of churches that engage in them. The Evangelical landscape is littered with such casualties.

I wonder if the Lord would not be far more honored, His two-fold mission far better accomplished, and His people far better served, if we had more and smaller churches that require less of that kind of investment - churches in which we can more ably walk by faith and not by sight, and avoid many contemporary pitfalls.

How Then Are We to Give?

All of this being said, let us return to the question of giving and conclude on a positive note. How, then, are New Testament Christians to give? Let me answer that question by quoting the opening words of a sermon by Charles Spurgeon titled Christ's Poverty, Our Riches, which he delivered in 1880. His text was 2 Corinthians 8:9, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you, through His poverty might be rich."

It is well to notice that believers are to be constrained to Christian duty by Gospel motives rather than by legal arguments.

It is poor work to try to stir up a Christian to perform an act of grace by an argument fetched from a heathen moralist. And it is equally poor work to try and lead a child of God to perform a service of love by an argument which is applicable only to a slave. Hence you will find that the Apostle Paul, when he wants to urge the saints in Corinth to liberality, does not tell them what they are bound to do according to the requirements of the Law of God, for they are not under the Law - he uses arguments suitable for men who have come under the blessed sovereignty of Divine grace!

It is also noteworthy that with regard to Christian liberality, there are no rules laid down in the Word of God. I remember hearing somebody say, "I would like to know exactly what I ought to give." Yes, dear friend, no doubt you would. But you are not under a system similar to that by which the Jews were obliged to pay tithes to the priests. If there were any such rule laid down in the Gospel, it would destroy the beauty of spontaneous giving and take away all the bloom from the fruit of your liberality! There is no law to tell me what I should give my father on his birthday. There is no rule laid down in any law book to decide what present a husband should give to his wife, nor what token of affection we should bestow upon others whom we love. No, the gift must be a free one, or it has lost all its sweetness.

Yet this absence of law and rule does not mean that you are, therefore, to give less than the Jews did, but rather that you shall give more because, if I rightly understand what is implied in the term, Christian liberality, it is to be according to the example of Christ Himself! Our text really gives the Christian law of liberality - "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you, through His poverty might be rich." That is to say, we should give as we love. You know how much our Lord Jesus Christ loved by knowing how much He gave. He gave Himself for us because He loved us with all the force and energy of His nature. Why did that woman break the alabaster box and pour the precious ointment upon Christ's head, when it might have been sold for much, and the money given to the poor, or when she might have kept her ointment for herself? She gave much because she loved much. I commend that rule to you - give as you love and measure your love by your gift!

Further, for this also seems to be the teaching of the text - give till you feel it - for the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ was proven by the fact that, "though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor." He gave till He felt it, gave till He knew that He was giving all that He had. And I do verily believe that the great sweetness of giving to God begins when we feel the pinch, when we have to deny ourselves in order that we may give. Then it is that there is the true spirit of Christian liberality! Our Lord Jesus Christ gets from a good many people what they would not dare to keep back from Him, and what they can readily enough part with - it is sometimes about as much as their shoestrings cost them in a year - certainly not as much as they spend upon the smallest of their many luxuries. Yet the most of them consider that they have done all that they should when such insignificant offerings have been laid at their Lord's feet! But, dear friends, I hope that it will be your rule both to give as you love, and to give till you feel it.

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