Rhythms: Giving
Matthew 6: 1-4
“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honoured by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
Previously, we looked at Luke 5 as we established that Jesus himself had rhythms in his life that enabled him to love God and people most effectively. This time, we move on to explore some specific rhythms that we can put into practice in our lives that will best enable us to love God and others.
Quite often in churches whenever the subject of giving is mentioned, people can get a bit nervous. The assumption is that it’s financial giving that’s being talked about and that the most important thing is how much you give. Now, I’m not opposed to those kinds of conversations. I happen to think the church in general needs to talk about money more rather than less. However, it is interesting to note this passage does not automatically jump to those themes. Instead, this passage focuses much more on the who and the how.
Firstly, this passage specifies in verse 2 that our giving should be to the needy. It is interesting that it doesn’t specify what that need is. I think we automatically assume that need would relate to material or financial need. It could absolutely be that. However, it could also be social need, relational need, spiritual need or many other types of need. I think the reason the type of need isn’t specified is because it will be different based on the types of circles we move in and where we find ourselves. The thing that’s up for negotiation is what you give, not whether or not we give. So, it could be that we give money. It could be that we give time. It could be that we give our home or hospitality. There are many different ways in which we can give. The point of having a rhythm is that we’re more likely to do it if we don’t have to think too much about it. If your financial giving is set up to be on a regular basis, then you don’t have to remember to do it each time. If your hosting or opening up of your home is something that’s diaried in, it’s more likely to happen. If you have some time routinely blocked out to check on that person who’s particularly lonely, it means it’s not left down to chance. Now, of course we also need to be ready to act spontaneously and in the moment as and when it’s called for. However, this is to be done as well as having more regular patterns and routines in place that are designed to make us into more giving, generous people.
So, we’re to give to the needy. That's the who in this context. We’re also told how we’re to do this. We’re told to do it in a way that’s quiet and secretive. The reason for this is that, as it says in verse 4, then our father in heaven will reward us. Do you see what’s happening here? We’re not being given a choice between being rewarded or not. We’re choosing which reward we’d rather have. Would we rather live and give in such a way that other people see what we do and heap praise on us or would we rather live in such a way that sees God reward us? This passage tells us that these two things are mutually exclusive. If we’re really loud about our giving then the praise from others will be our full reward. However, if we’re quiet, we’ll be rewarded by God. There are many who would opt for praise from people. That’s their choice. However, as followers of Jesus, we should be people who hunger after the things of God, meaning that we should be doing what we can to live in such a way that brings the rewards that Jesus speaks of here.
So, as I close, let me ask how you’re getting on with your giving? At the start of this new year, could there be a new pattern or routine you could add in to regularise your giving? As we do this, we can be paying attention to the needs around us and what we might be able to give in order to meet them. And as we’re doing all of this, we’re doing it with the rewards from God rather than the rewards of people at the forefront of our mind.
Richard Barber
